Site Updates - Simultaneous release 69 by Inkbunny < Journal

It's been a long while since we posted updates about site development, but you can rest assured that work has continued at a rapid pace and updates are being applied to the live site regularly.

We haven't had the time until now to collate all the data on the changes and write them up into a journal.

There's actually so much to list that we'll be splitting it up in to several journals. In this first journal we will describe all the general changes and updates to the site. It covers two major release versions, 68 and 69.

Many of these changes have been applied to the live site over the last three months, while some will not be applied until the latest site update is run, which will occur in less than 24 hours. (Edit: update done!)

Future journals will detail the extensive database optimisations that GreenReaper has been working on in the past several months, and more information about our new support for Perfect Forward Secrecy in the site's SSL cyphers.

Oh and did you know it's our 4th birthday? That also needs a journal of its own! More to come soon.

General Updates

Changed/Added: We are now using SSL encryption cyphers that support Perfect Forward Secrecy. No connection security or encryption method is perfect, but this new method gives Inkbunny an A+ rating from SSL Labs: https://t.co/ZHdiwlj1Y3

Changed: To help get the A+ rating from SSL Labs, we have changed our Strict Transport Security (HSTS) header value to 2 years. This forces all browsers connecting to our site to use HTTPS mode for any subsequent requests they make, even if someone clicks on an HTTP link to the site. This also helps prevent some forms of connection hijacking attacks.

Changed: We have obtained a new SSL certificate and updated the trusted authorities notice on our security page. (This was in response to the Heartbleed vulnerability that affected a huge number of sites worldwide, that we reported on previously).

Beta 68

Added: Search page now allows sorting search results by number of Favorites (this is now in addition to being able to sort by number of Views).

Added: You can now set/unset multiple submissions as Friends-only via the Gallery view (see the “Choose Action...” dropdown at the top of your submissions gallery view).

Added: Added Weasyl as a contact type for user profiles.

Added: Added BBCode quick links for Weasyl accounts (w! and [w] [/w]) eg: w! username (without the space) or [w]username[/w].

Added: Added BBCode quick links for deviantART accounts (da! and [da] [/da]) eg: da! username (without the space) or [da]username[/da].

Fixed: Fixed GIF animation bug that was causing some animated images to appear broken if they had a colored background.

Changed: “Customer Service – Support Tickets” link in page footer now just says “Support Tickets” and is a bit larger.

Changed: Made “Open New Support Ticket” link at top of Tickets page extra bold, as some people couldn't find that link.

Changed: Our Twitter username is now @ Inkbunny (was @ Inkbunny_news). Updated various links on the site to reflect this.

Changed: Changed all Twitter links to direct users to HTTPS version of Twitter, not just HTTP.

Added: ImageMagick update instructions added to upgrade process documentation.

Fixed: Fixed minor formatting issues on Account Settings page.

Fixed: Fixed a layout bug in gallery view when in widescreen mode.

Fixed: Internal scripts now always report their IP as coming from localhost rather than blank IP. This makes them compatible with the “inet” column type we are now using to track IPs, which doesn't like null values.

Fixed: Minor bugfix for the account auto removal feature, ensuring it resets the removal flag on the account once the process is complete. Also ran a hotfix to ensure accounts that have been auto removed by their owners before this fix have the flag reset.

Fixed: Support ticket system now won't try to send email copies of support ticket replies to deleted users.

Added: Added a suggestion to the default Error page that says clearing cache and cookies may help fix issues with logging in where it's dumping users to the error screen right after.

Fixed: Added extra sanity check to prevent users commenting on deleted journals.

Fixed: Fixed a bug that was causing image pools “last updated time” to never be updated when new submissions were added to the pool. This time is used when sorting pools by the ones with stuff added most recently.

Fixed: Various page minor HTML formatting tweaks here and there.

Added: Various updates to our internal documentation that covers site installation and upgrade processes.

Fixed: Some tweaks to the API to prevent it logging benign internal warnings when there are no search results found for a particular search query from the user.

Fixed: Lots of minor typo fixes on various pages.

Fixed: Improvements to some SQL statements to stop benign warnings in our logs about not explicitly setting column types that create temporary merge tables.

Changed: Made various changes to the database roles system in line with new requirements in the latest version of Postgres we are using.

Optimised: Check for the existence of any blocked keywords and/or artists before querying for them.

Optimised: Cache the query string of data for a particular user_id per page load.

Optimised: Remove accidental duplicate checks against keyword/artist/etc blocking filters created by another earlier optimisation.

Added: S.M.A.R.T drive status monitoring and instant live reporting to detect and warn us about impending drive failures.

Changed: Now using a parallel version of XZ for database backup compression, as it's a bit more efficient than Gzip for our purposes and a lot faster.

Fixed: A few minor code fixes to stop PHP throwing benign warnings in our internal logs such as when it tries to check for unset/non-existant keys in arrays.

Fixed: Fixed proper capitalisation and spaces in names where we display them like deviantART, Fur Affinity, LiveJournal.

Added: Username now appears in the hover text when hovering mouse over quick linked external account names.

Changed: Now using HTTPS where possible when generating links in Contact Details for user profiles.

Beta 69

Added: Allow schemes in BBCode URLs (while filtering for evil ones). This means you can now use things like mailto:fred@whatever.com or bitcoin:..., secondlife:.., drawpile:... etc in URLS you add via the BBCode link button.

Changed: We now allow external search engines/bots like Google to access all public content. Previously we limited it to Submissions only. Search engines are still forbidden from no-guests and friends-only content. Hiding user pages from search engines in particular was a significant issue for search engine performance because they are our most-linked pages and link to all other content. The boost to site traffic (and therefore the number of people finding and seeing your content) has been significant!

Added: Implemented an XML sitemap that is refreshed daily. This helps search engines traverse public information on our site. The sitemap is available at https://inkbunny.net/sitemaps/index.xml.gz

Changed: Default to “index,follow” mode for robots on every page they are permitted to access. This enables them to index more of the site.

Fixed: Correct trailing “s” plurals on Submission page where it lists Stats like “1 view”, it used to say “1 views”.

API - Fixed: NULL values were being returned for datetimes in some search results. This would cause blank date fields or fields that would list the epoch (1-1-1970) as the date.

Fixed: Nicer error handling and more meaningful error message if an invalid Pool ID is given.

Changed: Now using the shorter HTML5 doctype declaration. This saves 100 bytes per page load!

Optimised: Removed superfluous Flash version check that was being run on all pages. That saves another 100 bytes per page and stops every page loading flash just to check the version.

Changed: Upgraded to JS library “Prototype” version 1.7.2.

Fixed: Removed superfluous slashes that were showing up when generating some image SRC links.

Changed: Now using code 301 rather than 302 in HTTP->HTTPS redirect so search engines recognize https: as the canonical scheme.

A full list of changes to the site since it launched is available at http://wiki.inkbunny.net/wiki/Revisions.

Thanks

IB

Viewed:	807 times
Added:	9 years, 9 months ago 21 Jul 2014 06:29 CEST
Site News Item:	yes
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36 Comments on this Journal

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FrancisJCat

9 years, 9 months ago

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Schweet. Next, add OAuth, plox, thanks. Would love to third-party authentication from IB for my own commission services :3

NemoTVChampion

9 years, 9 months ago

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Those are nice updates :3

I must ask, would it be possible to code in an option where we could choose if we didn't want to see the number of people watching us?

GreenReaper

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ NemoTVChampion

We could do better with IDs here, but if you can block elements a title attribute of Watches Received, which would probably be span[title="Watches Received"] in whatever software you use.

NemoTVChampion

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ GreenReaper

"	GreenReaper wrote:
	We could do better with IDs here, but if you can block elements a title attribute of Watches Received, which would probably be span[title="Watches Received"] in whatever software you use.

ID's?? (sorry I'm not a real tech expert)

GreenReaper

9 years, 9 months ago

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Edited 9 years, 9 months ago by Owner

@ NemoTVChampion

Normally, individual elements of a page can be addressed by an "id" which is assigned to them and has no other meaning, but we have not done so for statistics. Instead, it is necessary to use another attribute currently applied to it which does have meaning (and which therefore might change in the future, which could break whatever you did).

It's like the difference between calling it "Apple A" and "the red Apple". The colour might change, but whether it's apple A won't. We haven't named this particular apple.

Rhumba

9 years, 9 months ago

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Edited 9 years, 9 months ago by Owner

Rhumba

Rhumba

Weasyl links don't seem to be working... yet
gj everyone

Lyserdigi

9 years, 9 months ago

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i personally, would love to see some way of favoriting journals, so i could "save" interesting little infobits from different users for later easy access, instead of trying to remember who wrote what at what time, or making several page bookmarks in my browser ^_^
anyways, your work on the site so far has been just wonderful
*salutes*

GreenReaper

9 years, 9 months ago

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Edited 9 years, 9 months ago by Owner

@ Lyserdigi

Yes, we need to make journals more like submissions in some respects (tags, for example, have also been requested).

Lyserdigi

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ GreenReaper

imho, those are not "as necessary" implementations as doing proper database updates and optimizations... those would be really nice and nifty little additions, but , imho, the work you are now doing is way more important in the long run ^_^
if however you find some free time after doing actual optimizations and stuffs that need to be done... i have a hunch it would be highly appreciated by many

GreenReaper

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ Lyserdigi

Yes. That's why the focus has been on optimizations. They are not glamorous, like a new feature, nor do they always have an individually measurable impact. But together they improve everyone's experience, and put the site on a more stable footing.

Many people tell us they'd use Inkbunny if it were busier. Looking at the history of the fandom, a big part of long-term site activity is a) how long it's been around, b) how reliable it is, and c) how fast it is. Big changes can be a negative for all three, and in some cases confuse and discourage existing users. Another big risk to stability is moving servers, so we've tried to select one which we won't have to move off of soon - and improving performance and condensing databases pushes this back, too.

That doesn't mean adding features is a bad thing - there are many things we want to add - just that it's probably not the most important thing, and we have to avoid spending limited development time fixing things which really aren't broken. There are features (such as keyword suggestions) which really were important, and optimization came after those.

Webster

9 years, 9 months ago

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Always nice to see a detailed report of updates. I enjoy reading the technical details, too. It's good to learn things, especially when someone else put in the effort to figure it out.

TenshiCat

9 years, 9 months ago

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In before a whole bunch of 69 jokes!

Lyserdigi

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ TenshiCat

"Simultaneous 69 Release" does sound like a title of a bad porn....
:D

appledashing

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ Lyserdigi

looool
yeah, everything seems to cum together

Tycloud

9 years, 9 months ago

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Lol Sanity checks. Call of Cthulthu refference joke. XD

Lorestel

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ Tycloud

I wonder how many character sheets they've rolled up in advance~ <.<

Lyserdigi

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ Lorestel

tee-hee :3

Fraddas

9 years, 9 months ago

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lots of new shiny things! (don't let Raccoons near them) what does this button do? *presses it*

Fellarts

9 years, 9 months ago

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It always makes me happy to see updates and work being done on the site. Keep up the awesome work guys.

fluffdance

9 years, 9 months ago

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I've seen a lot of mention from users of wanting IB to be more like popular social networking sites, especially in terms of being able to "reblog" an item (Submission, Journal, etc.) to boost pageviews. Sort of like everyone watching you sees what you favorite, or somesuch? Can't say I entirely understand, but the idea has been flying around.

GreenReaper

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ fluffdance

We have to be careful there about moving focus away from our core competencies. It'd probably be a better return on our time to improve our integration with other social networks through standard mechanisms than try to replicate them.

We also don't want to encourage behaviour that we don't think is particularly productive, such as those "repost to win" journals (although if it's going to happen anyway, it might be cheaper DB-wise to just have a repost button - but we'd also want to implement a "block reposts" button). If you want to boost a friend, that's fair enough - but if you +fav a work, it already counts as a recommendation in the mailing list for those who watch you - and if a user isn't willing to spend the time to say why a submission or journal is worth their watchers' time, maybe it isn't.

One "social" thing I want to do personally is implement Open Graph, which would give us Twitter Cards and better Facebook support. It shouldn't be all that difficult and it would probably improve clickthrough (albeit not for non-guest submissions, since the images aren't publicly available).

fluffdance

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ GreenReaper

Hmm, duly noted.  It's certainly not my area of expertise, but I definitely understand what you're saying.  I can't help but agree with you in regards to users spending the time to say why something is worthwhile to check out, but I'm sure there are people out there who would vehemently argue it.  People don't seem to really understand the concept of "targeted advertising," and the benefits it carries.

I'm not sure about Twitter, but Facebook seems to be adamantly anti-furry, judging by the near daily mention of people having their Facebook pages shut down for having furry content.  Given that, I'm not sure if "better Facebook integration" would really be a good thing or not.  I tend to avoid Social Media whenever possible, so again, I'm really not as informed as I perhaps should be on its benefit to furry artists.  Exposure and ease of communication go hand in hand, and I think that's really the underlying tone of what I've seen from folks regarding wanting Social Media-like aspects worked into InkBunny (and other furry art sites).

Either way, it was a thing, and I figured it was worth at least bringing up.  Thanks for clarifying your concerns!  :-)

GreenReaper

9 years, 9 months ago

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Edited 9 years, 9 months ago by Owner

@ fluffdance

I think most furry accounts on Facebook are shut down because they're not real names and/or real people. You need to make a page for fictional characters.

Flygon

9 years, 9 months ago

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Nobody's said it yet? Happy 4th! Time flies!

rautamiekka

9 years, 9 months ago

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Here's our XZ alias we use to always use very best compression XZ allows. Since we're on Ubuntu 12.04, we can't get a parallel XZ without compiling.

xz -vvz9e --lzma2=dict=64MiB,mf=bt4,nice=273

vv=as verbose as possible
z=force compress just in case it wouldn't try to compress when invoked
9=GZ-compatible flag to force best compression
e=extreme. Use extra CPU time to make tighter package
--lzma2=dict=64MiB,mf=bt4,nice=273=the algorithm parameters for tightest compression. Almost always LZMA2 compresses better than LZMA1, so we're not using LZMA1 anymore. 64MB dictionary size is absolute max for interoperability between 32-bit and 64-bit systems. Higher means higher RAM usage during compression, and the number means that much RAM used for decompressing, but makes the package undecompressable on 32-bit systems, at least when using 7-Zip; haven't tried higher on 32-bit Linux.

GreenReaper

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ rautamiekka

Yeah, we had to compile, too. It was worth it, though - with 24 hyperthread cores, it flies!

We don't look to get the maximum compression, because that's overkill for our needs - just enough to make it 1.3Gb vs. 5.4Gb in ten minutes. We tried using all sorts of options but ended up with the default. It was well-chosen! :-)

rautamiekka

9 years, 9 months ago

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@ GreenReaper

I beg to differ, but so be it.

Aydun

9 years, 9 months ago

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Pleased to see the datetime bug fixed!

smaxattax

9 years, 9 months ago

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The sort by favorites feature on searches sound handy. Like what Pixiv has for premium members.

How about in the future adding an option to filter results based on if you're watching an artist or not? A lot of times I skim through the results looking for non-highlighted usernames to try and get a peek at the work of artists I may be unfamiliar with.

Tydaze

9 years, 9 months ago

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Terrific updates! Thank you for working hard to keep always improving Inkbunny.

r3drunnerRENAMED

9 years, 9 months ago

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Really solid updates, great work guys.

(Wish I understood any of the big words involved with updates TwT)

FerretWilliams

9 years, 9 months ago

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Edited 9 years, 9 months ago by Owner

*adds Weasyl to profile* Yay! List is complete again.

"(da! and

) eg: w! username (without the space) or

username."
I do believe your example would not quite work with a dA name

whitepawrolls

9 years, 9 months ago

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Any chance of having the option to read story's on a plain page (like sofurry) vs the funky thing they have now? Its a big pain in the butt if you just want to page down read things, and I find myself either downloading it to read in something else, or see if the poster has the same thing on sofurry to read.

LauriJ

9 years, 8 months ago

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Happy 4th for you Inkbunny! That said, this site really needs to cater to photographers like me.

MaDrow

9 years, 8 months ago

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Edited 9 years, 8 months ago by Owner

Changed: We now allow external search engines/bots like Google to access all public content. Previously we limited it to Submissions only. Search engines are still forbidden from no-guests and friends-only content. Hiding user pages from search engines in particular was a significant issue for search engine performance because they are our most-linked pages and link to all other content. The boost to site traffic (and therefore the number of people finding and seeing your content) has been significant!

Somehow this make me feel less comfortable on IB...

Midnightsonicfangirl

9 years, 8 months ago

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I must ask,Is there a way to veiw a diffrent part of a PM thread,I tried typing my number that i want to veiw in he link into tahe part,My reason being that if i try to open the 1,00 message reply that i get on my phone,It shuts me out and juat send s ne to the google home pages

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