News Archive

  • 202 weeks
    Downtime & Server Move

    Hi all. Firstly, apologies for the extended period of unexpected downtime. Obviously any kind of downtime is non ideal, but unexpected is more annoying all around.

    On Friday morning (GMT) we experienced a hardware failure on our database server. To our knowledge there is no data loss of any kind. We have fairly regular backups hosted off-site, regardless. The exact cause isn't entirely clear at this time, but instead of wrestling with trying to get the hardware sorted (it was a dedicated server) we decided that this was a good opportunity to make a server move we've been planning for a long time over to Digital Ocean.

    Read More

    236 comments · 15,389 views
  • 279 weeks
    BBCode updates

    Performance improvements

    Over the last few days I've been working on improving the performance of the BBCode parser. I've managed to implement a few major optimizations, reducing the run time in common cases to around 1/4th to 1/20th compared to the older version. This has reduced total server-side render times on some of the more complicated test pages I've been using to around 50ms–70ms, which should be a noticeable improvement.

    New features

    Opacity

    Read More

    49 comments · 4,901 views
  • 301 weeks
    Recent Changelog

    We've done various unannounced changes of the past few weeks so I thought I'd group up the things we've done so you guys know what's changed.

    • Added account linking page for Patreon / Twitter
    • Added ability to cross post stories, blogs and bookshelf additions to Twitter
    • Added twitter userpage module
    • Added account deletion page
    • Reorganised user toolbar dropdown to better fit more items
    • Added session management page to see logins and active sessions on your account
    • Added new articles system and moved some existing ones into it
    • Redesigned PM page a bit to be cleaner
    • Increased font size in major places across the site to improve readability
    • New cookie consent controls for EU users and updated privacy policy
    • Recommended groups list on groups page - WIP
    • Tooltips in many locations around the site with helpful tips

    Read More

    114 comments · 6,028 views
  • 302 weeks
    Help Articles

    Something I've worked on the last couple of days is adding the ability for us to add arbitrary "articles" to the site which we can use for various things. Sort of an extension on the manual articles we've added in the past like the bbcode page, writing guide, etc.

    So far I've added 3 guides:

    I'd love to know if you guys have any idea for articles that would have helped you out when starting out or anything else that comes to mind.

    65 comments · 5,185 views
  • 331 weeks
    Additional Search Update

    Hey folks,

    Over the last few days I've added a few things to the new search system. A lot of people were unhappy with not being able to filter various things as quickly as they used to be able to. To that end, I've added a little filter dropdown to the right of the search box which effectively contains everything the old sidebar used to. It even has some niceties like quick word count filters and a highly rated filter.

    Read More

    132 comments · 5,304 views
  • 331 weeks
    December 2017 Update

    Hey guys, got a whole bunch of updates for you today.

    Tags

    This is a small but important step on our way to the tagging system I envision. The existing way we handled things like characters and genres has all been merged into a single tagging system. That won't result in much difference for you viewing and using the site but it makes it a lot easier to add new tags especially.

    We now have a couple of new tag types: series and warnings.

    The series tag is for identifying what series (franchise) your fanfiction contains. I've added a whole ton of various TV shows, movies, comics, books and games but clearly we will have to add a ton more in the coming future. Stories must also contain one of the four MLP tags which are FIM, EqG, Movie and Comic, as this is a pony fanfic site after all. Feel free to bug me on Discord if you have a requirement for a series to be added.

    Read More

    630 comments · 13,773 views
  • 332 weeks
    Math BBCode tag

    I've added [math] and [mathblock] BBCode tags, which can be used to display formatted math. We've had a few requests for this, particularly for group forum threads and blog posts. Most math-related TeX syntax is supported. (We are currently using MathJax to handle the layout.)

    The documentation from the BBCode guide is repeated below for your convenience.

    Read More

    84 comments · 4,412 views
  • 354 weeks
    Fimfiction API

    If you're not a developer you can probably ignore this post.

    It's been like 6 years, but hey, things take time. The API is currently very WIP still but it's ready for people to get working on in our development chat room.

    API documentation can be found at https://www.fimfiction.net/developers/api/v2/docs and you should join the Discord Chat and PM me to add you to the private API channel and I can help you get started. The functionality is very limited right now but I'm dedicating all my time to it at the moment and would love to have people add their input to the process.

    60 comments · 7,407 views
  • 359 weeks
    New BBCode Tags

    Hey guys,

    One of the features in this new update was reader-side paragraph formatting. This helps improve consistency for readers across the site, especially for those of us who can’t stand reading indented text on a computer screen.

    However, one thing that wasn’t accounted for was the legitimate need for specific indenting of passages and for certain blocks of text to have no paragraph formatting. Some examples would be lyrics and poetry.

    Taking this into account, we have come up with a couple of new tags that remedy this situation which are documented below (copied directly from the bbcode guide)


    [indent] Indent

    The indent tag can be used to, unsurprisingly, indent portions of your text.

    [indent]The indent tag can be used to, unsurprisingly, indent portions of your text.[/indent]

    It also support levels of indenting

    Read More

    168 comments · 6,399 views
  • 359 weeks
    Fimfiction 4.0

    It’s been a very very long time coming, but we’ve finally updated the site again. this is by far the biggest update we have ever done. There is a cavalcade of new features but the biggest changes are under the hood and affect how easy it is to extend the site and performance. A change log of everything I can remember can be found below.

    There are bound to be unforeseen bugs. If you come across anything major please let us know in the comments (or preferably in the #site-help-and-dev discord channel).

    Miscellaneous / Site Wide

    • Dropped support entirely for pre-IE11
    • Updated inline searching across the site to order much better. Eg. Typing "Ra" into the tag selector actually shows Rainbow Dash first. On shorter lists like bookshelves, we use a different algorithm that lets you type things like "ril" and it’ll prioritise a shelf called "read it Later".

    Read More

    1,363 comments · 21,451 views
Dec
29th
2017

Site Update » Night Mode · 12:22pm Dec 29th, 2017

I've been working on it for ages but only really got the impetus to finish all of it off over the last few days. In the "settings" dropdown at the top on desktop, or the bottom of the slide out bar on mobile you'll find a toggle for night mode. Enjoy!

Oh, and although I've tried to cover everything there is a 100% chance I've missed styling some things so apologies in advance for any funky pages.

Report knighty · 6,808 views ·
Comments ( 246 )

This... this is amazing, my friend.

i really like it, helps fit the reading mood.

Yes !!

I will love this.

Thanks a-plenty Knighty !

This is so amazing what a great idea for when it’s almost your bedtime. (Goes to night mode now)

Ooo, this night thing looks amazing the Luna fans are gonna love this.

You have no idea how grateful I am for this feature, I almost always read at night and this is soothing on the eyes. Thanks knighty!

Eeeeeeee!

We have a knighty mode! It reminds me of Firefox's dark theme slightly.

I read everything at night with the Luna theme. This makes things so much better!

I am never turning it off

This definitely helps for those of us who read things later at night. This is a very welcome upgrade. Even makes it easier on the eyes so massive kudos for making this happen.

4761740
The night mode will last forever!

Now I don't have to use Stylish any more! Yaaaaay.

Very nice. I'm gonna break it in

Honestly, I have to say that your beloved BlueFiction looks alot better with the darker background, maybe this should be the new main design...

OK this is cool! I read in bed at night, on my tablet and my partner gets grumpy because of the glow of the screen. This shall help quite a bit. (I read in night mode, but picking stories is always so bright)

Dude, this looks really cool! Stay awesome, bro!

Very nice. I always like to have night more on any site I use regularly - and FimFiction is practically my home page now.

yeah, this is never getting turned off.

Thanks Knighty

EDIT
BBCode boxes aren't affected. Nor the code boxes or anything in [ ] in your last couple blog posts.

Still, great work.

What can I say, but thank you very much, I love it!

Awesome! As someon who's eyes don't like bright white lights this is great! Doesn't help with the ads appearing in the middle of T and E rated stories, but still cool.

Please stop embedding ads in the text of the stories

Found a small, completely unimportant thing you had forgotten:
On this subpage here https://www.fimfiction.net/news/site-update you had forgotten to recolor the avatar border. It is still white.

I found no other places with the same error.

Edit:
The same happens when you are searching for blog posts (https://www.fimfiction.net/search/blog-posts) and for users (https://www.fimfiction.net/search/users).

Edit 2:
Also on the frontpage (https://www.fimfiction.net/) for covers in the "Continue Reading" list and for avatars in the "Recent News" list.

4761761
If you want to turn off ads look here: https://www.fimfiction.net/patreon

Edit: Changed link from this one to current one.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

My only question is, will this cause colored text, specifically white-text, to not show up 'properly' in stories?

knighty
Site Owner

4761765
Well, using white text would be a pretty horrible idea. But yes, as with all the chapter formatting colour options, if people use bad colours it can become unreadable. Difficult to do much about that.

Thank you so much, I really love it!

RQK

Holy bleeping 200 pms. I didn't even know it went into triple digits.

Oh and the night mode looks sexy af.

I find this setting preferable, it's more agreeable to my eyes.

Very nice! Thank you!

Hallelujah! Praise Knighty! I love Night Mode!

by all that's holy thankyou

Found another unimportant thing you had forgotten:
If you open the "Fullscreen" mode for writing comments (the button between "Emoticons" and "Settings") the textfield is still white.

Congratulations. You’re now an accomplice to my insomnia.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

4761767
Oh well. Just something to think about then, I guess.

thank you very much for doing this. It really helps with the sensitivity of my eyes, and now both sites that I keep open have this setting. :pinkiehappy:

4761761
In the text? Like, between paragraphs?

Ooh! Neat. I'll be using Night Mode for sure, love the way it looks. Jeez, only been a member for a week and already getting stuff in my feed from the site founder! Looks like such a nice place you've got here, too

Jesus dude, check your PMs. Looking at that hurts.

Thank you for giving us Nightmode, Knighty. Not only is it easy on the eyes, but I find it very soothing and to have a tone more conducive to relaxing. Thanks again for all the hard work, you rock :eeyup:

I love this. If I had known this could be a thing I would've asked for it ages ago.

Oh HELL to the YES, :pinkiehappy:

stream1.gifsoup.com/view/760779/carlton-dance-o.gif

I like that it's a soft blue and not just a black/grey conversion like some sites do; easier on the eyes and it's a nifty little nod at our resident Princess of the 'Night', :rainbowkiss:


Oh hey, here's a question: when the site goes to Genfiction, will original works be allowed as well as fanfiction? I kinda assumed 'yes' based on Genfiction sounding like 'general fiction', but I don't think I've ever actually asked the question.

This is one of the most amazing and beautiful things you've done since 501fiction.net!

Many thanks Knighty. It does offer a better contrast than the one I was using with the Stylish mod.

Good grief, thank you so much for this. Nice to have it directly implemented into the site now!

...I will use this to my advantage. You...

media.tumblr.com/2398246e556a82e7607e1665735b6740/tumblr_inline_mpd4866C0c1qz4rgp.gif

Sleep is overrated. Because when one wants to write the next few ten thousand word chapters...

i.lvme.me/i8411a9.jpg

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