Here is the latest state of Ponyhoof and the new Facebook.com design that is rolling out soon. I apologize for being quiet and not posting any updates about this which led to several people reaching out for details, so here is a rundown.

Wait, what is happening?

In case you are unaware or ‘lucky’ not seeing any new design, Facebook is rolling out an all-new design for desktop.

Not only the design is changed, but all the internal coding have changed as well which means any software/extension that integrates with Facebook.com is going to be broken in some way.

What is the current state of Ponyhoof on this new design?

Ponyhoof technically still works, and there have been several tweaks such as supporting dark mode and avoiding totally unusable experiences such as black text on a dark background, but yes, the ponies appear to be missing and that’s no good. 😡

(Brief note: Using dark mode + pastel colored pony backgrounds don’t match 😛, if you use dark mode, then I chose to let the dark background ‘win’ over the pony’s color)

Although the button to open Ponyhoof Options is missing on the logout menu, it’s still possible to access it by clicking the Ponyhoof icon at the top-right of your browser, though some of the options such as notification sounds are broken on the new design as well.

Will Ponyhoof be updated to work on this new design?

Ideally yes, I would love to, I haven’t quit the fandom 😉 and still catch up watching the cursed Pony Life weekly (pls send help). So what’s holding up the fix?

First of all, from the very beginning, apart from one server administrator, practically all of Ponyhoof’s development/coding is done by one stallion, so the project’s bus factor is a risky 1.

Handing off the software to another person is risky as it would be hard to find someone that actually wants to deal with Facebook’s intricacies. Also there’s the possibility of the extension being hijacked by an ad company.

This was announced last year but I guess it’s not well known, I’m working for Facebook (yes, the company) starting last year and it’s easy to see why there’s a potential conflict of interest. There is no explicit instructions that I *must* stop development, nor is there any confirmation that it’s fine to proceed, so Ponyhoof is in this weird limbo state.

Finally, let’s be frank, now that I’m working a full-time job doing software work, I don’t want to stare at *more* of that after work.

That’s the summary of what’s happening with Ponyhoof and my life, if you have any other questions, then feel free to comment at the original post.





(top banner: https://www.deviantart.com/molecularkogwheel/art/This-Is-Not-Fine-729351563)