We have found the cause of today’s email alert outage and are working on a solution which will take a few hours to activate.
For precautionary reasons, we have paused the delivery of all email alerts until the situation is fully resolved. Note that password recovery, email change activation, and signup emails are not effected.
Thank you for your patience while we get this problem sorted out.
We are currently diagnosing a strange email alert issue that is affecting a sub-set of our members which started earlier today.
If you are missing significant amount of email alerts in the past few hours, please leave a blog comment with the name of your email provider. For example, if your email is joe@hotmail.com, just leave a comment with @hotmail.com. Do not leave your full email address for privacy reasons.
With your help, we can better hunt down the underlying cause.
Launched new option to set UI (User Interface) font in addition to the Reading Mode font.
Here are the current default settings:
New configurable fonts:
UPDATE: If you are unable to change font size on the reading page, please let us know your browser, browser version, and system type.
As result of all the great feedback we have resolved most if not all of the font-sizing and jagged edged problems that plagued some users and especially those with Windows XP/Vista PCs.
We have also tweaked the default font-sizing to be 1 size smaller for most displays except for HD+ (1600×900 resolution or higher) monitors/laptops and this new setting appears to be the current happy medium.
For the devoted Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Comic Sans fans or anyone that like the idea of a font buffet, keep an eye out for another update later tonight.
Viva la fonts!
UPDATE: Our developers decided sleep deprivation was not too good for quality control and thus a decision has been made to suspend all pending feature pushes until tomorrow. Devs are human too, sometimes.
We have resolved some issues with our last update and this post has been created to be the central list for problem reporting and fix announcements.
Note that browser compatibility is very difficult due to different os, screen resolution, device type, and browser vendor but we have already resolved some of the first reported problems and are working hard to knock off the rest shortly.
If you are having browsing problem and the issue is not part of the list below, remember to include your screen resolution, browser, and os version so we can better understand the underlying cause.
Pending issues with fix coming:
Resolved Issues.
[UPDATE: Please see new blog post for compatibility update with list of resolved and pending issues. ]
Search engine is now 4 character aware and users can filter through all of them one by one. Please note the browsing part with four character support is coming soon.
We have also pushed out a major revision of the site theme but also expect some growing pains as result. Please let us know of any place that is exhibiting unexpected behavior. Refinement of the new theme will slowly roll out over the next few weeks and we want your feedback.
If the changes reduced your font size to unacceptable small or large levels, you need to provide us with the browser version, device os, and screen resolution so we can upgrade the theme to be compatible with all device types. Compatibility is extremely difficult but we usually get it right after initial feedback.
For the story settings we want to clarify that the ordering of the 4 characters is irrelevant to the search engine and the upcoming browsing enhancements. All four characters are equally weighted.
Changes:
Fixed
UPDATED
Pending issues with fix coming:
Resolved Issues.
Resolved Profile editing issues from our last update.
Forum creation limit has been changed to adjust for the new forum type classification. Members can now create one forum per combination of category, language, and type. A forum creation limit is put in place to guard against spammers.
New “Contests” forum type classification introduced to help communities gather and create awards/contests for their favorite genres.
We are hardening our password policy to align with current recommended protocols. Passwords for new sign-ups and password change requests are now required to be at least 8 characters in length.
Changes:
Fixed:
For FanFiction:
The number of characters a writer can assign to each story is now 4 and up from the previous 2 limit. We have set a ceiling to emphasize the fact that writers should use this field to denote the major characters within their story allowing ease of browsing and searchability by potential readers.
A short background on how we implement the characters field to the benefit of both writers and readers. The characters field is not designed to list every single character that appears in a story but rather a tool to help readers focus in on their primary interests. If a limit is not used, a list of characters is just that, a simple list without focus as each additional minor character added devalues the importance of previous characters and rendering search/filtered results less valuable.
The limit of 4 is a middle ground value we believe should satisfy most of the writers and readers. With that said, if we discover in the future the character ceiling should be lifted, we can easily do so after this upgrade.
Please note that although this appear to be a minor update on the surface, it is part of an extremely large upgrade which we will use to piggy back on in preparation for more feature launches looming on the horizon.
Part 1: Writer admin side. Allowing writers to select, if applicable, up to 4 characters per story.
Part 2: To be released over the next few days: Reader’s ability to filter/search up to 4 characters.
In summary, we have released this feature update to writers first and the public facing side will enjoy the new changes in a few days.
We have rolled back our last update due to compatibility issues with some versions of Firefox. Everything has returned to pre-update status until we have a fix ready.
We have launched a new editor for the forum posting and profile editing screen. The new editor is not only faster to load but also gives mobile users the same type of semi-WYSIWYG forum posting option previously only available to desktop users.
Old spellchecker option has been deprecated in the new editor as it now supports browser’s built-in spellchecker which is more accurate, customizable, and comes bundled for free with all modern desktops and mobile devices.
We do expect some rough edges on the new editor so please send in your bug reports and help us flush out all the quirks.
Fixed:
For those having issue with “loading charts” within the Stats area, please clear your browser cache and reload.
