Updates

Website: Comment optimization, formatting upgrades, and profile changes

25-12-2024

For our latest update we have done LOTS of optimizations to the comments, added new comments-related settings, added and updated many things about BBCode and the text editor, and some more! Check the devlog or read the changelog to know more.

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Changelog

BBCode

• Added [large], [big], [small], and [tiny] tags to change text size.
  Feature request #23


• Added [background] tag for background colors.
  Feature request #48


• Added [table]/[table_h], [tr] (row), and [td] (cell) tags for tables.


• Images created with [img] now have a button overlay on hover to open it on fullscreen and read the alt text (if any).


• Images created with [img] are now blurry until they finish loading.


• Updated the text formatting help page to explain all the new tags.


• Bugfix: quotes and apostrophes can sometimes break BBCode tags.


• Bugfix: mentions and emojis are rendered inside code blocks and image descriptions.

Profiles

• Added new default avatars.




• The default avatar now comes in 6 variations depending on your user ID.


• Default avatars will also have a random background color instead of gray.




• Changing your avatar will now let you reset it to default and change its shape.


• Blocked profiles now show minimal info instead of throwing an error.




• Both the blocked and blocker see the same info on each other's profile.


• This allows you to block and report a user that has blocked you first.




• Blocking or unblocking a user will now reload the profile to show the appropriate information.

Settings

• Comment-related settings now have their own section.
  (Implemented by @Kean the eldritch creature)




• These settings have been grouped into dropdowns with "everyone", "friends", and "nobody" options instead of multiple switches for each.


• You can now choose the visibility of the comments section on your profile.




• Attempting to change your username before the cooldown passes (3 months) will now show the proper time in months and days since the last change.


• Your email in your settings will have a line underneath showing if it's verified or not. If not, clicking on "send verification mail" will re-send it.

Text editor toolbar

• Added 4 new buttons for text size: XL (large), L (big), S (small), and XS (tiny).


• Added a background color button next to the text color one.


• The image button now has a preview. If the preview is unable to load (which means the URL is invalid) it won't allow you to post the image.


• The two list buttons have been merged into one interactive list creator.

Comments

• Comment highlights are no longer uneven and adapt to the comments' shape.


• Expanded comments will not be higher than 70% of your screen. Longer comments will have a scrollbar inside.


• Moved badges to the side of usernames. If hidden, they will stay next to the display name.


• Added comment filters.




• Lets you search comments by text and author.


• Shows each matching comment individually with a tag on top showing if it's a reply or the OP of a thread. Clicking on the tag will focus the thread.




• We have done a LOT of optimizations:




• Rewrote all comments-related code into a more organized class to handle everything more efficiently.
  (Kickstarted by @Rulfam the keeper)


• Restructured the comment data sent to the client to avoid redundant user data (up to 60% lighter).


• A lot of elements that are not always needed (like comment edit interface and menus) are now generated on demand and removed afterward. This reduces the total size of the comments section HTML by 30%.


• Emoji data is no longer required to load the comments. That's 2MB less data to load!


• The comment auto-resizing process is a lot less resource-demanding now.




• Bugfix: thread main comments shortened/expanded status affects its replies too.


• Bugfix: pinned/visibility status bar has a dark background on light mode.


• Bugfix: canceling a comment edit removes the footer.


• Bugfix: some special characters are being removed from comments when posting them.


• Bugfix: interrupting the comment load shows an error for a moment.

Misc

• Updated the background of the Christmas theme.


• Added a now page to the Explore page.


• Error pages now ask the user to report the issue.


• Added temporary warning to logged-off users about being unable to report (for now).


• Added a "glitch" badge for people who got into or interacted with @Kean the eldritch creature's profile by finding a bug or a security flaw.


• Updated the beta-tester badge (altered design to remove transparency).


• Added a parallax effect to the background on desktop.


• Bugfix: avatars on the friends page don't behave the same way as everywhere else.