Forum bugs, changes and planned improvements

Hey there!

We've soft launched the forum in a bit of a rough state as we wanted to hit the ground running (well, wobbling).

Stuff we wanna do
There's quite a few things we still want to improve, so here's a todo list of sorts!

Refine and/or jazz up the logo.
Update the design to generally be better and more on-brand, includes adding a dark mode eventually.
Allow for cropping and resizing avatars at the point of uploading it.
Add some custom smilies.
Add a view for threads that the user is subscribed to that have new unread posts.
Add icons for identifying each forum.
Clearer unread style for forums with unread posts.

Other requests (I'm not sure how possible/easy these might be):

Rework attachments to generate thumbnails, make it possible to open attachments as links.
Button to mark threads as being read.
Ability to mute threads so they don't contribute to unread states.

Known issues
Feel free to mention any bugs you notice whilst using the forum in these early days!

Posts still use old appearance in thread previews (when authoring a new reply) and private messaging.

Changelog

2026-06-02

Removed the default terms of service when creating an account. (They didn't align with our rules.)
Reworded some rules for clarification.
Increased attachment file size limit.
(Hopefully) fixed issue where users kept getting logged out, because cookies weren't being set correctly.

2026-06-03

Redesigned the header!
Redesigned the footer!
Redesigned how profile info appears next to posts!
Added pronoun and tagline fields to profiles. These show up in the new profile info design for easy reference.
Changed out the font for a slightly... rounder one.

2026-06-04

New topics can now have an icon assigned to them, which'll show up next to the topic title.
Redesigned the bit of posts that shows metadata and controls.
Added temporary favicon.
Fixed italic text not being rendered properly.
Reduced the size of some of the text in the notification centre so it's less, well, huge.
Altered layout of miniprofiles (the ones next to posts) on narrow screens so that text fills the space better.
Changed the list of online users to only appear on the homepage, cuz it's weird that phpBB populates it with totally different information depending on what page you're on.
Fixed usernames in that list rendering too dark to actually be readable.

2026-06-05

Added an unread notification style to the notification centre.
Removed the currently online style from avatars in miniprofile. I don't think this is useful enough to really bother surfacing in this way.

2026-06-07

Posts (generally) have now been redesigned to better incorporate the already redesigned miniprofiles and post metadata.
Fixed lists rendering crappily after the above bullet point.
Miniprofile backgrounds now render at a fixed height, so their relative size and position doesn't change depending on how long the post is.
Fixed inbox and notification icon order not being the same between desktop and mobile navigations.

2026-06-08

More of the threads page has been redesigned, including the headers, quick reply box, and pagination.
Legacy threads now show the default topic icon in forums and search results, instead of an empty space.
Added safe area padding to the mobile tabbar, for anyone who has the forum saved as an app (anyone? just me?)
Slightly reduced the height of the new keyboard focus style, for anyone who uses that (just me again? cool.)
Updated topic icon selection to update colours, make icons slightly smaller, and make list scrollable on smaller screens.

2026-06-12

Blocked forum from being indexed by search engines.

2026-06-15

Fixed topic icons not persisting across all pages of a thread.
Redesigned quotes and made it so that long quotes start off collapsed 'n' expandable.

2026-06-16

Added a 'subscribed threads' activity filter. This lists all threads that you're subscribed to (subscriptions happen automatically if you contribute to a thread, or you can manually subscribe using the menu at the bottom of a thread page) that also have posts you've not read yet. The activity tab on mobile has been updated to link to this too.

2026-06-17

Added the ability to spoiler text and images in posts.
Tweaked pagination design and layout.
Made some general colour adjustments.

It might be unsurpising that a social medium that mostly died out in the 2000s has themes that are coded like they're 20 years old. I'm likely (almost definitely, in fact) gonna be gradually overhauling the forum's code and appearance to be more modern and streamlined.

That is to say, don't be surprised if you pop in one day and something looks or works totally different! I know folks often aren't keen on change, but it is very needed, I ensure you.

Y'know, actually I was thinking! Having a tagging system might be nice! Specifically I mean being able to tag/link to other forum users?

THIS is a certified deercowsheepie classic....

If this is a good place to put suggestions I'd like to see a dark mode!

--
Kobalt,

Pear Extraordinaire

I've just pushed one of the bigger features I personally wanted to add: thread icons! All new threads now get assigned an icon that the original poster can pick from, and that gets displayed alongside the thread title in a bunch of spots.

The initial bunch of icons are all just repurposed emoji, but they're hopefully at least on topic. Getting more artistic depictions of them might be a thing for later. I suppose new topic icon suggestions might be a thing for later too.

Note that these only apply to new threads. Old ones will remain iconless unless the original poster goes back and edits the first post to add one.

KobaltSilverstar wrote:

If this is a good place to put suggestions I'd like to see a dark mode!

Dark mode is definitely planned. I just need to update the styling of everything else first!

bloatware wrote:

I've just pushed one of the bigger features I personally wanted to add: thread icons! All new threads now get assigned an icon that the original poster can pick from, and that gets displayed alongside the thread title in a bunch of spots.

The initial bunch of icons are all just repurposed emoji, but they're hopefully at least on topic. Getting more artistic depictions of them might be a thing for later. I suppose new topic icon suggestions might be a thing for later too.

Adore the new icons, I think they're really cute, it's fun to have ones all our own!! Taps into tha theme in a fun way!!

THIS is a certified deercowsheepie classic....

Oh! A slight suggestion! I didnt really notice it because I normally just use the "unread/new posts" feature but when you're on the index/main page, it's hard to see when categories/forum have new stuff!

The circle's outline turns red from what I've been told (thank you to pas for pointing it out!) but I'm actually partially colorblind (red/green deficient) so such a thin margin kinda makes it hard to see a color change at all! Maybe we could have that circle entirely fill with color when there's something new? If it were a bit bigger visually I could distinguish it a fair bit better!

THIS is a certified deercowsheepie classic....

Hah, don’t worry, changing those is on my todo list as well!

Sorry if anyone had issues or errors accessing the forum for the last 40 minutes or so. I was running some security updates that I thought would take <5 minutes but ended up taking quite a bit longer. (Also my 'down for maintenance' page didn't work. Huff.)

Everything outta be good again now

So I made the (rather elementary) snafu of updating my laptop to the new macOS developer betas and it's broken the dev environment I have for the forum. And only the one for the forum. So that's not fun. Luckily I have another laptop I can potentially use, but it's gonna be inconvenient and I might slow down on changing stuff.

Anyway, I added more topic icons to choose from when making a new thread. Enjoy!

If I may raise my hand and make a suggestion! I dunno how easy it would be to implement, but a mark-as-read button for threads might be nice if it wouldn't be too much of a headache!

Screen for a face, playin' the bass

FatThoughtKittyBot wrote:

If I may raise my hand and make a suggestion! I dunno how easy it would be to implement, but a mark-as-read button for threads might be nice if it wouldn't be too much of a headache!

I know the software supports doing it for the entire website, I'll have to do some digging if it's possible for individual threads, though viewing the thread is usually enough to mark it as read (I think?)

we'd appreciate some way to mute the unread badge for some topics and threads! right now, for instance, the arcade section is always lit up because we don't look at, say, the ffxiv thread. further, though probably less feasible, a visual distinction between 'unread (new post in extant thread)' and 'unread (new thread)' would be really useful.

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Would it be possible to get spoiler tags/spoiler text? I've seen it on other phpBB boards so it should be doable.

Teacyn (they/them/balloon),

Materia (they/them/balloon),

Rhalani (they/them/balloon),

Chlori (she/her/balloon),

Cynthia (she/her/balloon), and

Rex (it/him/balloon).

Insert fancy signature here.

Can the file size limits be updated? It's 2026. It's hard to post art in proper full res unless I re-save it as a JPEG >: disk space is cheap!

(Okay I mean disk space is no longer cheap due to fucking AI slop but it WAS cheap)

Forfeit all snacks to the dragon

pont wrote:

we'd appreciate some way to mute the unread badge for some topics and threads! right now, for instance, the arcade section is always lit up because we don't look at, say, the ffxiv thread. further, though probably less feasible, a visual distinction between 'unread (new post in extant thread)' and 'unread (new thread)' would be really useful.

I might be limited by what phpBB can do, there. I'll have a dig around what's possible.

Balloon Bundle wrote:

Would it be possible to get spoiler tags/spoiler text? I've seen it on other phpBB boards so it should be doable.

I'll look into it! As per a prior post, I accidentally busted my dev environment so I'm a little hesitant to add new stuff until I have the means to test it properly.

AwholeLotOfDerg wrote:

Can the file size limits be updated? It's 2026. It's hard to post art in proper full res unless I re-save it as a JPEG >: disk space is cheap!

(Okay I mean disk space is no longer cheap due to fucking AI slop but it WAS cheap)

I think the attachment limit of 2 MB is fairly decent? My main incentive for not wanting to increasing it is cuz phpBB is stupid software and doesn't know how to make thumbnails, so any embedded image is always at fuckin' full size, regardless of how tiny it gets shrunk down to.

I wanna overhaul how attachments work at some point because they're kinda shitty all the way down, at the mo. I might increase it then.

bloatware wrote:

AwholeLotOfDerg wrote:
Can the file size limits be updated? It's 2026. It's hard to post art in proper full res unless I re-save it as a JPEG >: disk space is cheap!

(Okay I mean disk space is no longer cheap due to fucking AI slop but it WAS cheap)
I think the attachment limit of 2 MB is fairly decent? My main incentive for not wanting to increasing it is cuz phpBB is stupid software and doesn't know how to make thumbnails, so any embedded image is always at fuckin' full size, regardless of how tiny it gets shrunk down to.

I wanna overhaul how attachments work at some point because they're kinda shitty all the way down, at the mo. I might increase it then.

Chiming in as well! Please keep in mind this is a small community forum and Bloat singlehandedly manages our backend/webdev, given they're doing this out of love for the community what they're willing to provide is what we should be rolling with. Until they've got attachments figured out Its possible that you might have images that're just too big. In that case, I've posted a handy tutorial on offsite image hosting over in the Gallery Subforums which should help with that a bit!

THIS is a certified deercowsheepie classic....

Ahh. I didn't realize it was ol' PHPBB under the hood ;-;

If server resources are a constraint. I could probably throw Bloat access to a Proxmox box at my workshop. Gigabit (business class) fiber link and terabytes of disk space to chew on. Could alleviate that problem

Forfeit all snacks to the dragon

I'd like to see maybe alternate skins we could use for the forum, maybe get some icons for each subforum.

As it stands, the white is a bit harsh on my eyes and I feel like I have to really read the names of the subforums to know what I'm looking at, whereas as it glance I'm not really able to surmise immediately what's in store. But that might be a case of "I have to be here long enough for the muscle memory to develop".

A dark mode would be welcome

A temporary fix might be to try "DarkReader" as well. I use that a ton for reading long technical posts etc

Forfeit all snacks to the dragon