In which James talks about recent changes to the site, copy/pastes a change-log, and talks about upcoming coding-related things on the horizon.

Hi all, It's that time again! About time for another report from your friendly neighbourhood Seneschal with the latest ins and outs related to the site.

Deployed Code Changes

Below is a list of most of the code check-ins done to the site since my last report. This isn't an exhaustive list, and does not contain code changes that have not yet been deployed to the main website. To summarise, here's the TLDR:

1. The Fiction Competition Archetype. Selecting this archetype when submitting a competition will enable some additional tools and features on its administration interface:

   1. Automatic word-counting for any submitted fiction entry (supports a variety of formats such as doc, docx, pdf, txt, and google docs). A competition organizer can override these word counts if necessary (e.g. if the word count erroneously includes headers, id lines, etc.)
   2. Ability to have the site retrieve and calculate word and post counts for a Run-On hosted on Discourse. Comes with the option to exclude the first post in the thread, in case it only contains rules or a list of participants
   3. Upon closure of a competition, the calculated and/or entered word counts are sent to the VOICE staff for approval. Once approved, they are automatically entered for Clusters of Ice.

2. Various tweaks to make various parts of the site (notably the front-page and the Character Sheet Builder interface) much more friendly on small screens and mobile phones. Sildrin has been the driving force behind most of these.

3. Various miscellaneous fixes and tweaks

James Entar:
      Fix walloftext report styling
      Fix a bug where PvE submissions were not considered valid participation criteria for GamingCompetitions with PvP formula grading
      Rework competition approval interface
      Disengage SA lockdown
      Fix a bug that prevented removing competition co-organizers
      Implement Fiction Competition Archetype
      Fix navbar clipping on mobiles (thanks Sildrin)
      Fix accessory selector breaking on nonexistent combinations
      Add option to ignore the first post when counting words/posts from a Discourse thread
      Make news page more mobile friendly; Start on making CS editor more mobile-friendly
      Attempt to fix Wiki navbar embed; fix typo in comp e-mail
      Don't require word counts for DQ'ed entries
      More wiki navbar fixes
      Don't block CS builder on mobile phones, show a warning instead
      Various small fixes
      Update Fictional Year formula
      Add Cluster Broadcast to TG-dbb0t
      change fictional year rollover to January 1st
      Mobile CS editor; fix CS save button wording
      Add filtering options to SA metrics and ACC Ranking page
      Add Mortis list to Kallisto
      Allow rendering competition submissions formatted in Markdown
      Weapon selector wording tweaks
      Some tweaks to the CoJ tools
      Don't try to display character sheets for deleted dossiers
      Add link to INQ wiki to INQ entry e-mail

Kalen Aquillarum:
      Add link from assessment page to member dossier

On the Horizon

This section provides some sneak previews of upcoming site changes and the larger things on the Seneschal Office's todo-list in various stages of completion.

1. Possessions (status: Waiting on data and specification)
   We're still at the point where we're waiting for the data compilation process to complete. In the meantime, discussions pertaining to how slotting and equipping will work for either individual members and NPCs (load-outs) and units (OOBs) are nearing completion. (Take a look at Pravus' report for a sneak peek of a draft of one of the documents) Once fully done and locked down, it'll be the SCL office's turn again to start implementing things.

2. Competitions Overhaul (status: In Progress)
   An effort to expand the number of competition archetypes available, and to give each archetype a specifically tailored administration interface. The Fiction-specific competition archetype has been implemented and deployed. Next steps will be adding features to the Container Competition archetype to allow organizers to 'import' participants based on participants in sub-competitions, as well as calculate overall container scores based on individual participants performances in the sub-competition. This will include a variety of scoring formulae to choose from. Finally, I'm considering adding an archetype that allows creating bracket-based competitions through the site, similar to the way ACC ladders work. Please indicate in the comments if you would be interested in this.

3. TG-o-Matic and Gaming Submission Overhaul (status: Investigating options)
   This project involves the implementation of a Telegram-based Gaming matchmaking bot, as well as augmenting the gaming submission flow in such a way that it will become possible for each participant in a PvP or PvE/PvO submission to specify the competition they want the submission to count towards, as opposed to specifying a single competition for the entire submission. We've started investigation options on how to best implement this.

4. Random Bugfixes and Things That Come Up™
   A wild Dark Council member appeared. It uses Feature Request! [FIGHT][ITEM][PKMN][RUN]

Ask the Seneschal

Due to an overwhelming amount of questions, no Ask the Seneschal this report. ;)

Closing/TLDR

Again, lots of fixes and additions to the site, and even more interesting things to come. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to either e-mail me or throw in a comment.

James L. Entar
Seneschal of the Brotherhood