Announcements
Things! Stuff!
See the patch notes here.NOTE: If the website is hanging for you, it may be because your browser has not yet adjusted to the switch to HTTPS. Clearing your cache/cookies and/or updating your bookmarks might help. I'm currently investigating other possible issues relating to this.
Spooktacular October Site Update
I have just finished the largest update this website has seen in nearly a decade. Let's walk through the changes.
Big-picture changes
* TFN now runs on PHP 8.5. Prior to this update, this website was running PHP 4 code (deprecated in 2008) on a PHP 5 server (deprecated 2018). Updating to PHP 8.5 allowed for a broad security update, patching some holes you could have previously driven a tank through.
* The front page is now back online. Did you know TFN used to have a blog/fanfiction/editorial section? I had to kill it a long time ago because some error was causing insane amounts of network traffic, but I've brought it back, perhaps against my better judgment.
* Cron jobs are re-enabled. This means that we should be getting daily karma/shrines again and the poll should cycle every few days, among other maintenance functions. You guys remember shrines?
* Ajax is re-enabled. This can make some aspects o the site update without requiring a refresh. You can go to your Ajax settings in your profile to pick what you want to turn on. Note that this doesn't poll the server constantly, so you won't get see everything new immediately.
* The board now universally uses UTF-8 encoding. This means that certain symbols, like emoji, should render reliably. ❤
Feature updates
* There is now a distinct mobile layout. I don't know if any of you fine folks use your phones to view this website, but if you do, it should now be formatted appropriately (i.e. more word wrap). This did look kind of weird to me but it is at least a little more readable.
* You can now log in on multiple devices. Or, at least, I think you can.
* You can now subscribe to topics. Subscribing is like tagging, except you will receive an e-mail alert when at least one person posts on that topic. You may automatically subscribe to topics you create or post in by checking or unchecking a box on the post form, or by going to Display Settings in your user page and checking the global boxes (note that these might be checked by default). You can also edit your subscriptions from the Tracked Topics page in your user page, or by clicking the Tag/Subscribe buttons on an individual topic.
* The search function is now more usable. You can quote exact phrases, exclude terms with a prepended - (e.g. "final fantasy -tactics"), and sort results by best match.
* For multi-page topics, there is now a big "next page" bar on the bottom. This is just a small quality of life change so you don't have to search for the page number to go to the next page. There's no analogous back button bar, however.
* There's a new favicon. I've updated the old .ico favicon to an .svg, which should be better-adapted for various browser themes. I've maintained the weird fever dream design, since at this point I assume everyone is used to it.
* Various other bug fixes. Doubtless many undetected bugs still remain, however, and some really old posts may have elements incompatible with the update, so those might not render well.
Let me know if you notice anything broken.
YARA 2026: This time, we're going to the moon!
Well, not us, but NASA.
New Year, Old Website, 2026 edition
GameCobra made a New Years post in TFN Social but I gotta put one on this board too, because of tradition.
YARA 2025: Three squares makes a triangle
Fun fact: this is the third reinstatement anniversary for TFN where the last 1-2 digits of the year were a perfect square (2009, 2016, 2025). Shocking!
Dr. Ogor's highly anticipated 2025 New Years post (February edition)
I know the 3-4 of you who are still here were shocked - nay, appalled - when I didn't put up my usual New Year post for the first time in... I didn't check, and I'm too lazy to click the "board list" button to do so now, but probably a decade or so. I was preparing to defend my dissertation in early January and after graduating I shut off my brain for a month, so I didn't get around to posting this. Until now!
Happy New Year, people who still use this website for some reason!
YARA 2024: What is dead may never die
I thought I had used that one already but it looks like maybe I didn't.
Bah gawd that's 2024's music!!
It's the presidential election WITH A STEEL CHAIR!