Devblog for June 2016

Hello!

Welcome to the first of the monthly devblogs. From here on out, we'll be trying to get one of these out at on the first of every month to let everyone know what work has been going on with the website's development. June turned out to be a busy month, and there's a lot of little improvements and one big new feature we're really excited about.

Bug Fixes

Previously users would often not see the edits they make in a roleplay, even though they were visible to other users. Edits now always display properly.
A rare Object Reference error when posting has been fixed.
Messages received should no longer randomly duplicate.
Sending a message to a profile now automatically takes you to the conversation.
Profiles without image avatars now properly toast.
Whitelists do not drop users out after a period of inactivity.
The Setting Window now displays properly on new roleplays with no posts.

QoL Improvements

Improved performance speed in channels when receiving incoming messages.
Channels now remember whether you were posting in IC or OOC mode.
The default for Roleplays is now IC. The default for chats is still OOC.
Inbox notifications will automatically clear if you post to that roleplay.
You can now toggle on/off the * and ( shortcuts in a channel's settings.
Staff badges are now active so users can always identify a staff member.
Markdown help page has been expanded to include advanced features.
Search help page has received a big update going into detail on Litphoria's search system.
Help section now includes a section on rolling dice.
Tight Spacing in the Block mode is now extra tight.
IC and OOC look visibly different. IC messages have highlighted timestamps with the Inline mode, while OOC messages are faded out in the Block mode.
Staff members now have a badge next to their name in chat, so you know for sure if they're who they claim to be.

New Feature: LFRP

One of the great things about Litphoria is that everything is persistent. When you come into a chat, you can see every message in the backlog. When you stop a roleplay or conversation, it'll wait for you to get back to it, and picking it back up is seamless.

However, this created an issue where there was no way to distinguish those who are generally open to new roleplays from those who are seeking a new roleplay right then and there. The new LFRP (Looking For Roleplay) system is meant to fix that.

Now, when you're in the mood for immediate roleplay, you can go to your profile page and click the new "Start LFRP" button, located between Edit and Delete. This will put your profile into LFRP mode.

While in LFRP mode, you get a badge on your profile, in any user lists you're active in, and next to every message you leave in a channel, providing an eye-catching way to show other users you're interested in immediate roleplay.

On the flipside, other users can run a search-- "find profiles online and lfrp" --that will list any profiles that are in LFRP mode, to help them find each other.

Of course, the feature could quickly become bogged down if users were to simply set it and forget it, so at the top of each hour, Litphoria checks to see if a user who is LFRP has used the site--browsing pages, talking or idling in a channel--in the past hour. If the answer's yes, then LFRP mode stays active. If not, it automatically switches off. Naturally, LFRP mode can also be manually switched off from your profile's page.

This new feature is still early in development, and there will be new additions to it in the near future. For example, the system could be expanded to point at one of your ads, which then might appear when you hover over the LFRP icon. There's a lot of exciting potential in this system!

Plans for Next Month

For the month July, the big focus will be on profiles. How they are created, how they are edited, the features and formatting options they have -- everything is on the table. The pages will likely be entirely redesigned, particularly the cumbersome and dilapidated areas like profile creation. The goal here is to make profiles faster, easier, more intuitive and user-friendly, while giving more, better options for those that want to really pour a lot into their profiles.

In addition to that big idea, we're going to take some of the more endorsed feedback in order to improve quality of life around the site in other areas not related to profiles. This is something we will be doing every month; balancing out larger visions we have that we think are important for the future of the site, and smaller community-driven ideas that help to round the experience on the site.

Profile Options

With next month's focus on profiles, Traits will get some overdue trimming and sprucing, improving the description or name of some while removing others. For instance, the Humanbody type will be replaced with Humanoid, Character Language will no longer be a trait, and the options for feet-type will go from the rather technical Digitigrade, Plantigrade, and Unguligrade to the more common-sense Paw, Human, and Hoove, respectively. After a lot of debate and discussion, Secondary Sexual Characteristics will be removed due to the confusion and ambiguity of its definition and the overlap with Gender Expression.

Stay tuned for a more in-depth announcement of what profile options we intend to change.

Closing thoughts

Litphoria is and will continue to be a community-driven website. Not just in that all its content is created by its users, but also in guiding the development of the site. The constant guiding design philosophy of the site is to make it the best roleplaying platform for all users, and to do that, we need to hear from users like you.

If you're interested in helping the site to improve, if you have an idea of something that could make the site better, let us know in the feedback. Even if you don't have any specific ideas, it's still worth your time to have a look at what other users are saying and to give your opinion on what development should focus on next. Each account has 100 Endorsement points, and by spending these on feedback items, you can make your voice heard on just what gets done next. It really does help to endorse things you want to see, as endorsements are the principle measure we use for gauging community interest in an idea.

Endorsements and discussion aren't the only factor that goes into development, though--there's also questions of how much work is involved in bringing a feature live, how feasible it is, how controversial it will be, etc--but each idea is read by every member of the staff, considered carefully, and given appropriate discussion, no matter how contentious. The new LFRP feature was implemented in a matter of days in part because when users are passionate about a new feature, we're passionate about making it a reality.

That's all for now!

~Lit staff

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