Over the past few weeks, I switched away from working on the webclient and over to modernizing the website. We originally coded the website about a decade ago and it was running a really (really) old version of node, along with many old packages, and old patterns that made the site very hard to maintain and much harder to add new features to.
I've modernized everything, while keeping the look and feel basically the same. This will allow us to add new features and functionality, fix bugs, etc. much quicker.
When I was finished and ready to deploy the updates I realized that our web server was also very (very) old and needed to be replaced with a new instance running a more modern version of the OS. That is complete and the new website is also released.
TESTING
I tested the site locally, on Firefox/Chrome and on mobile. I also implemented a test suite that runs when new code is added, to aide me in preventing future bugs.
BUGS
There will definitely be bugs. I apologize for those in advance. I did a decent amount of testing before release, but I'm sure I missed some stuff. Please use @bug in game if you notice any big issues.
Hopefully we don't have any major bugs, and if we do I can get them fixed pretty quick. I was noticing a bit of slowness when we were getting hammered by some crawlers earlier, so I need to keep an eye on that. If you notice major, persistent slowness, please let me know via xhelp.
FIXES
Aside from modernizing the code, I have also fixed a number of long standing bugs and weirdness on the website.
- The reap button has become 'remove' and should work as expected
- Password resets for website accounts work
- Password resets for MOO accounts work
- Hopefully fixed a bug where memberships were not updating automatically on the website (they were in the MOO) when a membership was renewed
- Fixed a known issue with moderators hiding posts and then the website restarting and the post not being hidden anymore
- Fixed some issues with Avatar uploading
REMOVALS
- There is no more image upload on the BGBB or elsewhere on the site (except the Avatar upload). Just use imgur or whatever.
I've gone ahead and added some of the features people request the most.
MINOR UPDATES
- Overhauled the profile page
MAJOR UPDATES (the good stuff)
On the BGBB you will now see, below the user avatar next to each post, a badge. The badge is based on how many posts a user has made (up to 1000). If the user is a MODERATOR or an ADMIN or a JUSTICE, their badge will show that.
You can also hover over or tap the badge to see how many posts someone has made on the BGBB.
In the footer of each post is an ^ glyph that will let you upvote a post. You can also remove your upvote. Next to that, you'll see how many upvotes a post has. This should let people upvote ideas, and posts, without having to post a +1 or short / not super useful approval post.
You can also edit your own posts now.
I hope to expand the functionality a bit more in the near future, but I wanted to get this running in production so any issues would be surfaced.
– S
