Tay

Thread Review: Fuwa'd Slumdog Millionaire. Pros: Feels, "Salt", and Fuwa Cons: Lolis, Freedom, Happiness Overall: 8/10 - Would read again.

... So what you're saying is that we should delete all backups and run auto-update without a preliminary test, right? Because that's what I'm hearing. *prepares to click The Red Button*

< 3 Fiddle. Thanks for giving us a starting place. ...sooo?

Oh, neglected to mention that we did end up getting a second server to host/power our analytics software. This will open up a lot more server resources to site projects and new tools!

Hi everybody, Thanks for your patience as I've been away from the site for a few days. I've got a lot of small updates to share with you, and to avoid the wrath of the entire community the mods, I will put all of them together in one post instead of clogging up the recent topics box. FuwaDirectory Update: The /index.php?/topic/7975-the-fuwadirectory/">FuwaDirectory has been cleaned up a bit. It's not quite 100% done, but we're getting there. Coding Updates: Nayleen has been doing a lot of work lately, and we all owe him a toast of good health and fortune. The database and behind-the-scenes work is substantial, and on top of that there aren't many people out there who could manage the server as well as he does. We put out a call for coders to help out and got a lot of volunteers, so hopefully we can get that rolling soon and free Nay up to work his arcane magicks on site features. LC Coordinator: For those who haven't heard, Nohman has agreed to be our community LC Coordinator. That means he has the unfortunate obligation to work with me and coordinate site updates. Poor guy : P. But, seriously, this is a huge help to me and like so many others, Nohman is bringing some incredible skills to the table and we're lucky to have him help out. LC Liaison: Eclipsed is taking over a new job (which, sadly, has not yet received a cool title): watching LC discussions and working with me to keep the whole community appraised of important stuff. AKA: making sure site work is being related to the community so we're mostly on the same page. Super-Beato: Beato has stepped up and taken charge of coordinating the front site redesign. In short, this is a really good thing. Emi continues as our design genius, Nayleen is working on the code, I'm working on text assets (and coordinating with others on and off Fuwa to get guides written for the front site, as well), Rooke is editing the assets, and several people have started helping by reading-through and commenting on assets. Thank you, everyone! Ren: Just wanted to thank Ren for his help as LC Speaker of the House (that job has since been phased out) and all of his support. On a personal note, you were a great friend to me last month, and really helped me out. Thank you : ). Stray Cat & Player Mentors Program: Stray Cat is one of those people who has pretty much always stepped up to help in any way he can. He's willing to help me sort out the Player Mentor program. All I can say is, "Thank you, and god help us..." Board Mods: I'd like to thank all of our board moderators (past and present) for their help on the site. We're continuing to tinker with various forums moderating schema, but the BMs have been a huge help. Thank you so much for your time and efforts : ). Rose & Recognition: Rose has been doing an amazing job highlighting cool threads around Fuwa and cool VN projects around the VN-verse. Ironically, working on the recognition team is a fairly thankless job. I want to let him know that his work has been widely used and appreciated, and I hope everyone will drop him a "thank you" for his time. FuwaChat: We tried moving the FuwaChat to the forums index to increase its appeal. Chaos ensued. The leaders of this movement have since been rounded up and summarily shot. Carry on. VNTL-Moon: Continues to grow in popularity! I'm seeing it linked-to more and more often as time goes by. : D Last Week's VNTS Post: Sorry for not being around to write it. I will probably miss ~4 weeks a year, but in the future I'll try to give you forewarning. Reviews: We're in the middle of fairly extensive brainstorming and re-structuring of the reviews hub and how the team will work going forward. We're fortunate to be receiving a lot of game reviews keys, so it's a good time to re-evaluate the program. I'd like to offer a quick apology to Ryechu for not giving some of his recent reviews the attention they deserved. We're going to work on improving that, going forward. Think Tank Rangers: We've added a new Ranger! Welcome, Palas, to the crew! Rooke, Tiago and Palas have been very helpful in brainstorming the Reviews board and some broader strategy about how to handle VNs on the new front site. That's it for now, but expect more updates (including more concrete details) soon. I'm working through my PMs and emails this morning/afternoon during breaks, tomorrow's Fuwa work will mostly revolve around VNTS, and then this weekend I should be getting back to my to-do list (finishing metrics for nohman, getting Stray Cat a readable (read: not insane) tracking document, working through all the reviews brainstorming, and talking to Nay about the volunteer coders as well as the new supersecretthingy). - Tay PS: Please /index.php?/topic/10373-best-wishes-for-krill/">leave Krill a get-well message! The forums banner message will be taken down in a day or two.

Not sure if the pain I'm feeling is coming from losing Birthdays, or letting Rooke get away with a cheeky victory PM in which he basically bathed in the blood of the birthday widget. Regardless, if it's making a difference for blog authors, then it's worth it. Thanks for the topic, Decay.

The buttons are just hidden b/c I can't figure out what's wrong with the padding and header dimensions.

RE: Clarity -- it also has problems with the notifications buttons.... I don't think it's worth renewing this one. I think we can let it go. Yes, I did switch the defaults. That was part of a larger switch, however, where FuwaFabulous is now the default forums theme. ... the day of Gravity Green has passed... (Nobody needs to mourn just yet, though: there will be a formal memorial service once we finally upgrade to IPB 4)

Yeah, I'm not super-crazy about the white space, either (that's why I took down the theme the first time).

Hey everybody, Just wanted to make you aware that I've restored a deleted forums theme (formerly "Fuwa 2015"), but it's been re-designed for simplicity and it's now called "Clarity". Give it a try and let me know what you think. Feedback would be extremely helpful. - Tay PS: I'll be in-and-out for the next few days, so if you don't hear back from me on PM or email, don't take it personally. I'll be back-back on Tuesday, but I'll probably pop in-and-out briefly before then.

RE: Combining both dev blogs: turns out the software doesn't let you filter >1 blog (meaning you can have a sidebar dedicated to one and only one blog, a la Rose and his team's recognition blog, but I can't set a sidebar block to pull from two blogs and only two blogs). RE: Birthdays -- it does look really bad for regular users. Dang. Turned it off again. All those staff boards/LC/project/coordination boards really make my list longer than an average guest, so I hadn't seen the ugliness. RE: Tweaking/Simplyfying -- I think Decay's right: simplifying the sidebar is a good idea. I tried scaling back the dev blog blocks to 2 entries each. What do we think about it as it now sits? My take: Right now people aren't posting much on those blogs, so it's do-able, but hopefully we'll be able to get more posts on there and we'll need to address usability. I think Recent topics and Community Blogs could get 1-2 more entries (5-6 per list) and still look good. As far as simplifying the "Recognition" section goes, it's Rose's call. If he wants to try scaling it down to only showing 1 post, we can try it, but it's his call to make.

PS: I'm actually afk and on mobile so I apologize for short messages. Devs aren't using the recruiting blog as they should atm, so I'd be okay temporarily merging them on the forums sidebar. PPS: Birthdays... that's... like... one of the very few things we've had since the very beginning of the reboot. Seeing them there and posting on people's profiles/the birthday thread feels like it's coded in Fuwa's DNA... Not trying to be a stickler (tho it's fun to dramatize the struggle), so I suppose I'm willing to maybe start considering the remote possibility of tentatively considering removing that block. PPPS: But, c'mon, all you long-timers. Doesn't this feel wrong?

nope nope nope nope nope nope nope *rummages around for a spare trench* I may have found the hill on which I shall die, but defend it I shall to the last man.

Check out our interview with Pudding321 about this project! [FuwaZette] Interview: Purin Productions and “Vision of Aurora Borealis”

(I'm stepping out so I can get some studying done, but if you sent in a donation be sure to check your email address for an automated email, and let me know (by email or by PM) that you contributed so I can get you the "goodies" permissions). Thanks, again, for everyone who is able to contribute right now, and for everybody who gives their time to make this such a fun community.

I genuinely believe/trust the incentive program to Windows 10, and from what I'm seeing VNs should have no problem running on W10 if they were able to run on W7 or W8. What we should really be worried about is the loss of our beloved OneDrive smart files in Windows 8/8.1. I'm still mad about that.

Than you LinovaA, and to everyone who is willing to chip in, but please don't feel bad or apologize for "only" giving $X. Giving anything is extremely generous, and I promise to put the money to good use. (And by good use I suppose I mean keeping Fuwa up and providing a blogging platform on which Zaka can occasionally ramble)

As a small 'thank you' for community donations (see this post for details), we're opening up a special "badge" on the forums software. It can be changed up to once a month (for holidays, seasons, or the everlasting war between Purple and Pink for #1 most fabulous color), and this thread is meant to be the place for hashing that decision out. June 2015 - First Badge (Ever): Currently we're using this glorious placeholder: , but that doesn't mean we can't change it! Entries are open for anyone who wants to submit a badge mockup (width should be 93px, height should be between 20-25ish). If need be we can vote on a winner. Past Votes: N/A

That was crazy-generous, Lewy. That's pretty much 2.5 years of goodies and a whole (whole) lot of gratitude : ). Also, guilt. You didn't need to send that much.

Don't stress, Ren. You've been super-generous in the past, and if something comes up I know where to find you : ).

Also, thank you *so much* to everyone who has donated. It means a lot and it's definitely going to lessen my wallet's tears each month. That said, please don't feel obligated to contribute big sums (double digits or more), especially on a regular basis -- there's a reason why I set the standard as $2.75ish a month: many of you already give a lot to the site, and my goal isn't to run the site on donations. Ultimately I hope we can even do away with donations and live comfortably off the millions we bring in from affiliates.

I can confirm with absolute, 100% confidence (yea, even knowledge) that 10k PMs is definitely possible to hit. And it may or may not have been hit more than once. By, um, a friend. Yeah, that's right, a friend. And yeah, 200 is probably a little low. We'll start with 300 and fiddle as we go.

On the LC (just yesterday, I think) Flutterz actually put together a comprehensive guide on how to game the system and make off like a bandit with Fuwa funds. You just need to bide your time until we start raking in the millions and millions of FuwaDollars. Yes, you should be able to do both of these. At least that's what PayPal is telling me. To pay via card through paypal: click the donate link, and then look for the text "Don't have a PayPal account? Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Continue" text on the left-hand side. To use your PayPal balance, log into PayPal and then click the donate link, and you should see the balance transfer option. (Paypal has pretty crappy customer service, but I'm looking into this for you. Even if it doesn't work out, I appreciate the willingness : )) I don't think that's possible, unfortunately. ... That said, if somebody designs a sufficiently awesome badge to tempt Nayleen into looking into the issue, well... anything's possible at that point. Where the money goes: Immediate next hosting bill > hosting rainy day fund > software licenses > 2nd hosting rainy day fund > Opulent LC Relocation Packages > Batman PC Gaming Club That's absolutely fine. I appreciate the willingness : ). This program isn't meant to pay for the whole site, just offset some of the final cost. Nobody should feel obligated to contribute/feel bad for passing on it.

Hey everybody, Update + Donation System This post is a follow-up to the spring funding plan I posted ~2 months ago (link). It's pretty late, so to prevent myself from being overly verbose, I'll write this thread in bullet points: The google ads were not very effective and, despite a lot of effort, only made the site look trashy. They've since been taken down on all our various sites (forums, blog, reviews hub, etc.) The affiliate links, on the other hand, have been performing well and if we can continue to expand the way we're using them on the upcoming front site, I think we'll make serious strides towards self-sustainability During the move I emphasized several times that I'm dedicated and determined to keep Fuwanovel alive for the long-haul and budget accordingly. That hasn't changed. I have, however, reconsidered the popular suggestion from back in March to open the site up to user donations. This is uncomfortable territory for everyone, I realize, so I will continue to do my best to be open with you As of today, a donation system has gone online to help cover some of the cost of hosting. I divided it up into small, recurring donations (a few dollars a month), or custom one-time donations of any amount. Recurring monthly donations are especially useful to us, as it allows for some long-term (albeit loose) financial planning, but any and all donations are very, very much appreciated. I wanted to offer some "goodies" as a thanks for those who do chip in (they aren't meant as a reward or incentive, necessarily, just a token of gratitude), so you can read about those below I realize that not everyone is in a position to contribute to the development fund. That's absolutely okay. A lot of thought and discussion went into making sure these "goodies" weren't granting some users exclusive site features while denying them to others. Forums “goodies” for monthly donations/comparable single donations: You can now give twice as much rep per day (twice as many “Likes”) PM allowance increased to 200 300 You can now customize your profile page! When enough people sign up we’ll make a user “badge” (think the “Board Mod” or “Global Mod” images in the user sidebar) which can be re-designed as often as once per month to maximize festive-ness and/or fabulousness After 6 continuous months of support, you will be contacted by a member of The Order and vetted. Should you prove worthy, you will be inducted into The Great Secret. Which doesn’t exist. Just ask Flutterz. He’ll tell you. Totally doesn’t exist... well, that's a strong word. "Probably" doesn't exist is better. Or "maybe". Hm. "It could exist." We'll leave it at that. Donated funds go first towards hosting and a hosting “rainy day” fund, then towards expenses like forums software renewal (or forums themes renewal), and then other site development per our site financial plan. Feedback is welcome, as always. EDIT: Thank you *so much* to everyone who has donated. It means a lot and it's definitely going to lessen my wallet's tears each month. That said, please don't feel obligated to contribute big sums (double digits or more), especially on a regular basis -- there's a reason why I set the standard as $2.75ish a month: many of you already give a lot to the site, and my goal isn't to run the site on donations. Ultimately I hope we can even do away with donations and live comfortably off the millions we bring in from affiliates.