Site Update » Minor (nah, they're totally major) Updates · 10:44pm Feb 22nd, 2016
Over the past 2 weeks I've been rewriting our entire ajax routing (or lack thereof) structure. That's not very important to anyone using the site, since in theory absolutely nothing should change for you with this update but as with any significant rewrite of code, there are bound to be bugs that were introduced. I've tested as thoroughly as I can so hopefully there will be little in the way of issues but if you get any, let us know here so we can fix them. The only change in theory should be better error reporting to you and more endpoints that are signed and therefore a bit safer/less prone to abuse.
I've also added a couple of minor fixes. For one, comment jumping should work better on stories and user pages now. There was also another issue I fixed but....it'll be a surprise because I can't even remember what it was myself!
Finally, to ease with story approvals, I've added auto approvals. If you have 2 published stories you can post stories to the post queue without moderation. This is kind of a trial system so we shall see how it works out, but it should speed things up a lot for many of you.
Edit: As we are currently testing out the automated approval system, a lot of new stories will be getting published that won't have been seen by the staff. If you see something that breaks the rules, be sure to REPORT it to staff via the report button so we can do something about it.
Sounds good, Knighty!
Cheers!
Testing, testing. One, two, three. Are these comments on?
A message from Officer Hot-Pants:
For some reason, comments don't work on Groups anymore...
3771191 I think the issue's been resolved.
Test #20Ah. There we go. I was at a loss for how to report the issue of being unable to comment or create threads anywhere.
3771191
Thank you, Choco.
D....Do you realize what you have just done?!
Auto story-approval? This will end beautifully like it should, or disastrously bad.
Either way, I look forward to it.
Oh boy, time to spam troll fics and ruin everything for everyone!
This should be interesting.
Can I say that this is a bad idea? Because imagine for a second a person who posts a story that doesn't abide by the rules of the site. Now imagine several people. While a honor-code could be applied, and other users could report these "Auto-Approved Stories," then you guys would have a massive report-influx in your hands.
Yo guys reminder that since we have automated approvals now, a lot of stuff going up won't have been seen by moderation. If you see a story going up that's totally wack, be sure to report it to us so we can do something about it.
I've noticed a minor problem, it no longer shows when I've received a new message and says my last message was over an hour ago when it was actually just minutes.
This should be fun...
Neat! Thanks, you guys.
...yeah, I'll leave someone else to do the "Brace yourself" meme far better than I ever could.
Can you please elaborate more on this?
EDIT: What did I do to get downvoted?
3771203 Yeah. I've got the same issue here. it just shows a message I got from like a few hours ago, even though I have one that's new
3771195
Magic?
3771201
You could say it's a test for how shitty masses of story writers can be. And hey, he could always take away their privileges.
3771193
Don't know. I didn't even know this problem was going on.
My only criticism is that the number of stories for the auto-approval should be closer to ten. If the idea is that somebody who's already published is probably trustworthy and knows the rules, then 2 isn't really a big enough sample size to prove that.
Other than that, a magnificent and much-needed change. Bravo.
3771202
As if that part wasn't. . .
. . . Obs-vious.
3771191
I just got my commenting to work again. I had to restart my browser.
Still can't access the Staff page though...
Trying to click the "Show all X Followers" button on a userpage with enough followers to warrant such a button returns a server error now.
I don't think that auto approval is a good idea, because even awesome writers have stories.
Sounds like real life has been a nuisance to the mods lately.
I... I'm not sure how to feel about this. In a perfect world, this is infinitely superior to the previous system (no offense meant toward the approvers—but having to wait hours for a random spot in a massive glurge of posted stories wasn't great). That being said, I can't help but feel like it's ripe for abuse... meh. I guess that's why we have the reporting system.
3771198 On the contrary, that would make my day. And that of my trigger finger too.
Is it even working?
knighty: if I have a story that already failed moderation (twice), will it be auto-approved if I submit it now? I have more than two published fics already.
3771220
Do you actually take pride in wielding the Banhammer?
3771209
If the staff has previously approved 2 or more of your fics, you'll go straight from submission to the posting queue. The basic idea is that if you've gotten past moderation twice, you PROBABLY know enough about the rules that we don't have to go rubber-stamping your fic to be posted.
Of course there's a lot of potential for abuse and mistakes in the new system, so if you see anything go up that's breaking rules, go and report that so we can do something about it.
3771222 It'll be approved automatically, but if it breaks the rules and we find out about it it'll be removed. Don't submit unless you've actually fixed the problem. This isn't a free pass to post whatever you want.
Any idea what was causing the "Request destination not found error"?
That was getting annoying, but it looks like it's fixed... Also, I love the Group Admin status you added!
3771219
We are hoping that a combination of reports and harsher punishments for clear rule violations that get auto-approved will avoid issues with abuse. If it becomes a problem we will consider raising the minimum story requirement or adding other restrictions.
In particular it should be noted that posting mature content under teen or everyone will be enforced fairly strictly.
3771220
Part of being added as a FimFiction mod is getting a brain chip that wires the 'ban' button to your pleasure center, right?
3771225
An honor system? Sounds kinda sweet. Thanks for explaining, mate!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/2/22/1094198__safe_solo_fluttershy_equestria+girls_screencap_animated_cute_rainbow+rocks_cropped_shyabetes.gif
Still, YAY! 
I'm really happy about it, things will be so much more easier. Thank you for your hard work, knighty! 
Oh, finally. Auto-approvations! I hope this doesn't cause any problems...
3771225
I have a special circumstance.
One of my stories has been approved, but I have another story on this name that I wrote on another name and had it transferred over. Would I be considered a part of this queue?
Auto Approve?
Automatic story approval is nice, though you may want to go with a number higher than two. Time will tell, I guess. Do hope you can turn this feature on/off for members, so that if someone repeatedly messes up, they can be set to have to go through moderation. That said...
I was unable to reply to a forum post using Firefox, Get an error every time. That includes after force refreshing the page (so cleared cache) and restarting Firefox. Was able to reply using Chrome without any issues.
I just checked, HTTPS for whatever reason still makes this site and only this site run like a one legged dog. Near browser freezes and page load times of 3-10 seconds. HTTP works as fine.
Windows 7/10 64
Firefox 44.0.2 and previous versions
NoScript
Privacy Badger
uBlock Origin
HTTPSEverywhere (Disabled on this site)
That is a great change though I suspect a few additional qualifiers will need to be attached to it later.
3771203 same issue over here, no new messages show up.
3771231 No. I just, personally, take perverse pleasure in banning people that like abusing the system.
3771223 I don't know if pride is the word for it. I certainly take it seriously, if that's what you're getting at.
3771234
I honestly don't know. That seems like one of the wacky code interactions that knighty'd be more aware of than I would.
That said, since autoqueue will be handling like 80% of submissions now, it'll be a lot less work to go through the regular queue, so even if you don't have 2+ staff approved fics yet, you should be able to get approved fairly quickly now anyways.
3771239
I get a similar thing on my iPad (although I can't remember the error off-hand); try logging out and in again.
Auto published fics could become a real issue if you're not careful.
Some people could post rule breaking stories. With song lyrics... or even worse, some twisted individuals could post pedophilia involving human children. I trust you don't want that.
3771254
That's what reporting is for.
3771225 Um, I think my stories have failed moderation about 50% of the time (98% of those have been my own dumb fault.) Is there still a way to submit *with* moderation for those of us like myself? And what happens to the stories in the queue? (I have two)
Huh. OOkay, this gonna be good. And by good I mean either resounding success or epic failure. In either case, it will be glorious.
On a more serious note, this is a good time and place to link an easy to peruse, concise list of what is definitely allowed on the site. Or what is definitely not allowed. Yes, I`m aware this info`s already floating around. I`m suggesting to give links right here so people could conveniently refresh their rule comprehension before they flood the site with new stories.
3771254
If you see a fic that breaks da rules
report it so we can break da fool