The Library Update

Howdy, folks! It's been a while, hasn't? The last major update to Fimfiction was... gosh, I'm not even sure! We've been making incremental updates here and there, like adding support for Sequels, improving the way we send you email updates, and probably some third thing. However, today we're finally unveiling a pretty huge update to Fimfiction, one that's been in the works for a while, and one we've been teasing for quite some time. Welcome to the Library!

Bookshelves

Probably the first thing you'll notice upon logging in today is that your Favorites and Read it Later lists have been merged into the Library button on our navigation bar. Never fear - all of your stories are still here, they've simply been added to a Bookshelf of the same name.

A Bookshelf is sort of like a playlist for stories. To start you off, we've given you three default Bookshelves: Favorites, which will contain all of your Favorites from before the update; Read it Later, which contains all of the stories from your Read it Later list; and re-introducing Tracking! These default Bookshelves provide all of the same functionality from before the Library update, but give you much more control over how you organize and present the stories you love. Note that you can change the options on these default Bookshelves if you like; they're just there to give you some ideas.

To show you how powerful Bookshelves really are, let's walk through the creation of your first Bookshelf! As soon as you enter the Library, you'll see a New Bookshelf button, off to the right.

Once you click this button, you'll be presented with a list of options for your new Bookshelf. Not to worry, it's really quite simple to understand. I want to create a Bookshelf for stories that I like, but not quite enough to call them my "Favorite." That shouldn't be too hard. Here's what it looks like when it's all done:

The first thing I've done is given my Bookshelf the name "Cool Stories." Fitting, right? Just below that, I've added a quick description of the Bookshelf. This is visible to anybody that can see the Bookshelf, and is entirely optional. Next, we have three different privacy settings for your Bookshelf. These work just like the privacy settings for videos on YouTube.

Private - Only you can see this Bookshelf. For your eyes only!

Public - Anybody can see this Bookshelf, and you can even display it on your profile!

Unlisted - Only you and anybody with the link will be able to view this Bookshelf. It won't show up in searches or on your profile.

This is a great time to note that you can share ANY Bookshelf that isn't labelled as Private with anybody! Simply copy the URL from your browser, paste it to a friend, and voila! They can now view everything on your Bookshelf, as well as any of your Bookshelves marked as Public.

Moving on, we have two additional options for your Bookshelf. Enabling "Quick Add" will add a tab above any story that will allow you to quickly add it to that Bookshelf. Your default Bookshelves already have this option enabled, and you can turn it off at any time. You can see the Quick Add bar here:

Clicking on the ellipses (...) next to the Quick Add icons will allow you to select from any Bookshelf in your Library, including ones not on the Quick Add bar. You can add things to as many Bookshelves as you want at a time, so go nuts!

The final option for your Bookshelf is "Track unread chapters." This functions the way your Favorites did before the update. With this option enabled, you will receive a notification every time a story in this Bookshelf receives a chapter update! In this Bookshelf, I've decided that I'll just check for updates whenever I feel like it, because I'll be adding a lot of stories to this one and I'd rather not get spammed! You've probably also noticed that you can select from a multitude of icons and colors to help you quickly identify each Bookshelf. Feel free to come up with a combination that you feel best suits the flavor of your Bookshelf!

After you're done creating your Bookshelf, just click the Save button at the bottom, and it will appear in your Library for use across the entire site. knighty has been working on this feature for quite some time, and we're very excited to finally get it into your hands. We hope that you come up with some exciting Bookshelves to share with us and the community!

The Feed... and Group Threads

Your Feed has received a visual update, with some brand new filtering options at the top to help you sort through all your stuff much more quickly! In addition to these new filters, here's a big change we're happy to announce. Group threads will now show up in your Feed! While we initially removed this feature for performance concerns, we've always wanted to bring it back, and after some hard work on the back end, we're pleased to bring this feature back.

Chapter Selection

There is now a chapter selection bar above every story while you're reading it. This bar allows you to quickly jump between chapters to your heart's content, see which chapters you've already read, and even how many words are in each chapter. This same selection box is also present at the very bottom of every chapter; no need to scroll all the way back up when you're ready for the next part of the story!

Group Blacklisting

Here's a long-requested feature that we're glad to finally reveal. It is now possible to select which Groups that your Story is in that you would like to display on the Story's page. By default, all Groups are shown to the right of your Story, but this behavior can be changed on the Story's edit page. In order to select which Groups appear next to your story, simply click on the link highlighted below, to the right of your Story:

You'll then be presented with the following screen. Here you can select which Groups will be Featured next to your Story, and which will not be displayed. Note that this does NOT remove your Story from any of these Groups. Instead, only readers of that Group will be aware that your Story is listed in their Group.

Followers

We now display your followers, and people you are following, on a brand new page. You can now find both of these pages either on your profile or from the drop down list underneath your user name on the nav bar, here:

Don't worry - none of your followers are gone, and you haven't stopped following anybody. We've just made it much easier and prettier to sort through all of your followers! Take a look!

Story Cards

We've added a neat little feature to stories, called Story Cards. Just hover over any story's Card on the front page, click the tab that appears at the top right corner, and the Card will flip over to reveal some handy shortcuts! You can add the Story to one of your Bookshelves, add it to any Group you're a member of, or even download the story in .ePub format! These appear in quite a few places on the site, including the front page, Groups, and a few others.

User Panel Headers

The User Panel has received a nice update, and is now displayed on your Following/Followers pages. You can even select a color for your User Panel on the Avatar page, where you normally set your avatar. You can select from 3 different colors chosen based on your Avatar, or you can select the color black, if none of them suit you.

Story Statistics

"Come on, Poultron!" I hear you wail at the top of your lungs. "What about the stats!? I LITERALLY cannot get enough stats!" Alright alright. I'll give you what you want. Just head on over to any story's page and you can now view a spiffy graph of the story's views and ratings, as well as some other bonus stats. Just hit the button highlighted below to see them!

We've also updated our dedicated Statistics page so that it looks fancier and has even more stats. Check it out!

Misc. Changes

There's much more in this update than just what's on the surface. Some things have been shuffled around, some things have improved, bugs have been fixed, but most importantly your Fimfiction experience should feel a lot better now. Don't forget to thank knighty and Xaqueseg for their continued incredible work on our codebase, and the entire moderation team for keeping things running in the background! Below, you'll find a list of some of the additional changes that we couldn't touch on above.

• .ePubs have had their support slightly improved; cover images should now work, and bbcode is now stripped from the story so that they should now display properly on more devices. In the future, full bbcode formatting support will return.

• You can now choose which Groups appear on a Story's page, instead of every Group the Story has been added to appearing by default.

• The Browse page's filter menu has received a visual overhaul! You can access the Browse page at the top left of any page on the site.

• Most menus on the site have received a visual update, and are now more consistent in their appearance.

• Site posts are now tagged based on their content, so you can browse only Interviews, for example.

• When you make a chapter, you will now automatically start editing it, instead of having to hit the Edit button first

• There is now an indicator on the Story Panel when a story has a lot of Heat. Heat is a custom algorithm that takes into account a number of factors to determine which stories are currently popular on the site.

• Emails should be less buggy if you've blacklisted our sending addresses, and you should be better informed now when this is the case.

• Unpublished Stories should not longer be visible in Groups.

• You can now add a Sequel by inputting the story's URL, as well as the ID of the story.

Conclusion

Well, that was one doozy of an update! So, what are you planning on doing first? Change up your Featured Groups? Change your User Panel color? Maybe you're planning on making an awesome Bookshelf? Tell us what your favorite feature of the Library Update was in the comments below, and be sure to share your awesome Bookshelves with everybody! We can't wait to see them.

For additional information on the update and help answering questions on it, check here.