Development Update #14

*Media Highlight Image by artist Ranthar

NEW SITE FEATURES UP UNTIL AUGUST 9TH 

USER REGISTRATION

We have made a few changes to the account registration process:

• During signup, users can subscribe to the Slushe newsletter.
• During signup, users can give Slushe permission to feature their artwork - with credit - on the Slushe front page and Slushe social media posts. (Artists may revoke this permission at any time in their account settings.)
• After signup, users have 12 hours to verify their email address by clicking the verification link which they’ll receive via email. 

PERMISSION FOR SLUSHE TO FEATURE ARTWORK IN BLOG POSTS & SOCIAL MEDIA

We feature artwork created by artists on Slushe when we share new blog posts and social media updates but of course we ask for their permission first. To speed up this process, we have added a checkbox to the user registration form and the user profile editor. By default this checkbox is unchecked for new users and existing users. 

If you’re an existing user, but you would like to give Slushe permission to feature your artwork (with credit), then please check the feature permission checkbox in the Info section of your profile editor and save your changes. This way Slushe admins will be able to tell at a glance whether you'd like to have your artwork featured or not.

You can revoke this permission at any time by unchecking the checkbox and saving your changes. 

SLUSHE NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIPTION

• New users can sign up for the newsletter during account registration. After registering, they can manage their newsletter subscription in the Newsletters section in their profile editor. 

• Existing users who haven’t subscribed to the newsletter yet can do so by going to the Newsletters section to subscribe. There you will find a checkbox to Subscribe. Check the checkbox and save the changes. After subscribing, you will be able to manage your newsletter subscription. You can opt in / opt out for various updates, so please edit your preferences to your liking.

EMAIL VERIFICATION - 12 HOUR TIME LIMIT

After signup, new users will be notified that they need to verify their email address by clicking a verification link which they’ll receive in their email. (Please always remember to check your Spam folder as well.) If they fail to do so, their account will be removed from Slushe’s user database and their username will become available again. This is so that we can keep inactive accounts down to a minimum.

USER COMMENT UPDATES

TIMESTAMP FOR EDITED COMMENTS

We've added a timestamp (Month, Day, Year at 00:00 time) to comments that have been edited. The timestamp appears in a smaller grey font so it won't be mistaken for part of the comment. We also fixed a bug that caused edited comments to appear at the top of the comments section as if they were newly submitted comments. Edited comments now remain in their original spot. 

ADJUSTED POSITION OF ‘SEND’ AND ‘EDIT COMMENT’ BUTTONS

We moved the Send and Edit Comment buttons down so that they’re no longer hovering over the Comment text box. Previously that caused issues when users tried to submit long texts, but this should no longer be a problem now.  

ADMIN PANEL UPDATES

NEW CATEGORIES

We asked one of our programmers to update the admin panel tool we use to create new categories on Slushe. As most of you know, we distinguish between regular categories that are visible to all users and opt-in categories that are hidden unless users switch them on in their category filter settings. Previously our programmer needed to run a manual script to ensure a newly added regular category would be visible for everyone. Now this process is automated. 

FEATURED POSTS

One of our programmers implemented a shortcut tool for our admins to give Featured status to Slushe site posts. Our old way of featuring posts involved clicking a lot more buttons, so with this new tool the Featured posts section on Slushe’s homepage should grow a lot faster. :D 

GENERAL SITE FIXES

• Post views by the owner of a post are no longer added to the total views count of posts.
• Flag tool is now only accessible for logged in Slushe users. 
• Post Media shortcuts are now only visible to logged in Slushe users. 
• Post Media shortcuts no longer overlap with posts in Timeline / Blog feeds. 
• Fixed a problem that caused the video encoder to stop running. 
• Updated the site notifications that appear when there are no posts to show in a user’s Timeline & Blog feeds.
• Changed the format of the My favorite lists block in the user profile to be the same as the My favorite works block.

MEDIA HIGHLIGHT IMAGE BY ARTIST: RANTHAR

Today's Media Highlight is called Vella - The Thrust of His Spear, created by Ranthar. When you visit Ranthar's profile page, you'll find it's a feast for the eyes of lovers of fantasy inspired themes and exotic, elfin beauties. Give them a follow if you like what you see!