Fur Affinity has just released a new thumbnail system and promised further updates for the site over the coming week. As I've criticised FA for not providing updates, I can't very well ignore this development. So, first off, congratulations to FA for doing basic site maintenance. However, the promised updates appear little more than a coat of paint to distract from the real problems.
The current change is the new thumbnail system, which has provided bigger thumbnails, rounded corners, colour-coded borders and centering. It's hard to see what real benefit any of this has provided, considering the actual images themselves don't have rounded corners. Centering the images is not to my taste, but is hardly hurting anything either.
The increased size is the only feature with a real benefit, making it easier to see the content of the picture. However, I'm not aware of any notable demand for larger thumbnails. The new system has also strained FA, with some people reporting slower load times and no one reporting better performance. That will probably be fixed as more thumbnails are cached and the complaints of increased bandwidth usage will be dealt with with the promised ability to choose thumbnail sizes.
More serious issues are the loss of custom thumbnails and problems using AdBlock on the new thumbnail URLs (as a means of per-user blocking). Both features could be used to hide content that others might find offensive, which is needed due to FA's failure to provide tag filtering, despite requests dating from 2006.
Other promised updates are a mixed bag ranging from good (increased privacy options and a more streamlined banner system) to pointless (disabling notes). While it's good to see development happening, it's disappointing that it seems to be focussed on inconsequential features that already worked fine, instead of the bigger issues like tag filters and gallery folders.
"We're listening to feedback as it comes in, fret not!"
They might be listening, but they still aren't addressing the biggest concerns.
they also aren't listening to the masses and just doing as they please. not everyone has an IB, nor does IB have an annual US con in our area. I'd start one, but not a soul has ever heard of me. =/
you should still move here. Do EET. >.>
they also aren't listening to the masses and just doing as they please. not everyone has an IB, nor
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