I did a lot of work on layout, showing useful data in the forum cards and changing the layout so that types of data will be in the expected position so your eyes aren't darting all over the place. I also updated the general layout, nudging forums to the left to make space for recent posts on the right. While there is a recent updates box on the main page, there needs to be a sense of activity on the forum page, so i feel this kind of bulletin feed is really effective at giving an at-a-glance idea of what's new, with a decent preview. next step will be moving the new topic button from the top of the forum page, into the header of each open forum, and having the new topic form open within the forum container. after that, I feel it's important to add a post edit feature and also a way to control image sizes in posts.

I've create a safety assessment to ensure compliance with the law. I would prefer to allow appropriate discussions as would happen in a public place like the park, a restaurant, etc. but UK law seems to be a bit of a mess at the moment, so I need to be more stringent. Whilst public registration is not open yet, I need to have this in place before I do open it up. I welcome all feedback, opinions, etc.

I think I've nailed down the issue with logins being expired too quickly. I've made sure the cookies are stored with a 30 day expiration after last visit. I've also stored security keys in a secure folder on the server so hopefully logins should persist even when I restart the server software. I don't know how many people found it annoying, but I am hoping that should now be done. please let me know if you have issues with it.

I've created a tag system that will form the foundation of site hierarchy. Currently the tags only rest within the topic header, but in future I will create the ability to place them into any hierarchy I wish and use that hierarchy to have things like subforums. I will also use the tag system for categorising other aspects such as franchises, fanworks, reviews, etc.

now there is an email service, currently set up to notify when you register, but is ready to be expanded for things like reply notifications. I think it's important to build on that to create email notifications of replies. Otherwise, there is no way to know without manually visiting and that's not ideal.

This may be a bit dry for some people but i want to point out the issues I’ve had implementing the email notification system. I have embarked on creating the notifications functionality four times now and come across major issues each time. It's been quite frustrating so I've done a deep dive into the different coding architectures. I'd started using razor pages as I like the clear object based system, but have been finding that I needed to use javascript more than I'd like. I can to the realisation that I need to use an MVC approach instead, which entails doing more work on the server rather than in browser. This might be meaningless to many people, but i feel it at least gives a heads up as to how things are going. It's a shift in how i have to think about what the browser does and how the server side program operates. It's a bit tricky to get my head around but i've arrived at an understanding. I believe i have a firm plan now and i understand how to create the email subscriptions and notifications. Hopefully shouldn't be too long, I am struggling with a bout of extreme fatigue right now but i hope i'll have some good energy tomorrow.

I've now built a registration system. It's not linked from the site yet as I do not have any robust spam protection set up, it's only accessible by inputting the url. If you've already been in contact with me on any other site you can ask me for the link. The system uses Discord Oauth for authentication, just in case bots find the link . The oauth is only for authentication for now, I can set up oauth login in future. Now that users are able to register, you are also able to make new topics and reply to existing ones. No need to feel hesitant, that's what I'm building this for. Feel free to share your thoughts and help guide the direction of development.

The topic and reply functionality is now implemented. (with a couple bug fixes required) Now the system is in a fit state for basic communication, so it is an appropriate time to look at adding a user registration system. I'm thinking the core of it should initially rely on oauth as basic validation. This should help to prevent bots alongside other security techniques, and should make user registration a comfortable process.

Lots of changes since last update. I've redesigned the front page and the styles for the entire site including all sections. Spending a great deal of time setting up the CSS (style sheets) has allowed me to change the basic colours on the fly and therefore have themes. Eventually, I'd like to allow users to have custom themes. I the created a secure user authentication system with proper encryption and all that. I've streamlined site architecture and built stable foundations to ensure efficiency for good performance. I've finally added the ability to submit messages to the site, hence this update. Oh and I've finally written a privacy policy.

I've created a new messages system to replace the Snitz forum software. I intent to work on this bit by bit, adding user login systems and message posting ability. I need to figure out security and spam filters first though.

To aid in connectivity and ease of access, I am thinking it would be good to make this activitypub/fediverse compatible wherever possible. I believe it is good to have a federated internet where people are free to move amongst different services as they like. I also believe it is good to be able to stay connected to your friends when doing so. fediverse would allow a user on mastodon, for example, to reply to articles and posts with their own account on their own platform, and that would be reflected here. I can use hashtags to aid categorisation. I can create top level categories, for example for #fanart and then any new message with that hashtag would be placed inside that category, thereby presenting it like a traditional forum. This would then mean that users familiar with social media can remain connected to the site and their peers by using existing apps designed to view mastodon servers or similar.