Don't wanna sign up just yet? We'll annoy you here instead:

RSS

Wildbase

UI Alpha 7

Woo, here we go:

✨ Stuff you probably care about

  • Feed UI Refresh We redesigned the feed interface to make it cleaner and easier to navigate.
  • View Thread UI You can now view threads in their own page, and copy/paste links to howls anywhere you'd like!
  • Basic Channel Support Channels are now part of Packbase. You can view and browse existing channels, though channel creation isn't available yet. This foundation sets us up for full channel functionality in upcoming releases. Due to critical changes with how we handle howls, all posts now belong to #all, including howls within packs. Pack leaders will be soon be able to change this default channel.
  • Basic Inbox Support Your inbox now actually loads with full API support! Some interactions don't yet generate a notification

🔧 Stuff you probably don't

  • Updated feed component styling for better readability
  • Added channel data structures and routing
  • Improved loading states across feed interactions
  • Fixed minor spacing inconsistencies in the navigation
  • Enhanced mobile responsiveness for the new feed layout
  • Improved request/response type checks on API
  • Added an experimental Plugin SDK on UI, within window.packbase. Event emitters are also implemented across selected UI components
  • Improved automatic API documentation generation, currently over at shrew-api:docs
  • If a previous search query wasn't cleared out from the input box, hovering over the search icon will pre-load the result
  • UI now shows a loading state while session fetching occurs
  • Initial load now skips some data fetching if the last update time has not changed
  • Text sizing dropped slightly
  • Added subtle inner shadow to hover effects to adhere to ✱style guide
  • Developer playtool accessible regardless of user staff status - no documentation will be provided to those outside of ✱base

More channel features, including the ability to create your own channels, are coming soon.

🫡 The thing that you should actually care about

I've been working on this a ton and not really doing much else, so I'll be taking a mini break for the next week or two :3

If I see breaking bugs I'll fix them of course, but new features will be a little slow (or just straight up not added) until I'm fully back! I have a ton of stuff I wanna get out to you all, but i gotta catch a breather first. I'll guarantee you one thing: Channel support and DMs next update. DMs are (FINALLY) ready~

If you're bored at any time, feel free to spam #feedback with literally any issue you come across, no matter how small or if you think we'd "already know" - the more the merrier.

That being said; If you're a developer who has experience (professional or hobby) with Typescript Front-end/Back-end, React (Vite), and/or Dart, please LMK!!! We're looking for dev help!!!!! Currently its only me on the main front-end/back-end, and one person on the mobile app (Dart). Any help of any kind is appreciated! If interested, contact at rek@packbase.app or DM. Thank you!!

HTML/CSS sections are here ✨

After a very long wait, it's here! Kind of...!! You can now have a full dedicated section on your profile that renders your own html/css code!

Limits

HTML and CSS you input needs to be filtered to parts we have whitelisted. If too many parts get stripped out, you'll get an error and won't be able to save the code. Additionally, to avoid abuse, we may get flagged upon this depending on the severity of changes.

Some "external" assets, i.e. images, may be proxied and then cached to avoid tracking.

Javascript is not allowed.

While we allow full site editing (i.e. * {}), misuse of this will have your Packbase access revoked until public release. Too many users misusing this may have this feature permanently removed for everyone.

Anyone attempting to hunt for exploits to misuse will have their Packbase access revoked until public release. Please report bugs and potential exploits to us!

Multiple themes

You can save multiple themes to use anytime you'd like! In the future (when full pages are added), you'll be able to use this exact feature to reuse code (or "components") in pages!

Adblock may need to be disabled

Being able to create and modify custom code may require your adblock or "trackers" to have whitelisted Packbase. We use Posthog to track errors related to it as well as access while testing still occurs.

Going forward, any feature we deem extremely sensitive or at risk of suffocating our servers will be behind "experiments" which will only contain a percentage of users.

This requirement is only for a short amount of time. You do not need to permanently disable it for Packbase and it will enter general availability after a while.

Preliminary support for Realtime

You might notice on the bottom-left that Packbase connects to DMs! Realtime connections are functional, but we're wanting to test presence and stress before fully adding in chats. Nothing except empty heartbeats are sent.

If you'd like to be apart of a small group to stress test & spam in chats before they're released, shoot a message in our Discord! You'll be able to suggest modifications and features first-hand and your name in credits :sparkles:

Thats all~ byeeeee~

UI Alpha 5 - Invite Festival

We've been working a bit hard on the next update, and we're excited to announce that it's ready now. Like, right now! A lot of the changes are under the hood, but there are some new features and improvements that we think you'll like.

Also, we're having an invite festival! For the next week, you can generate as many invites as you want, and you'll get a special badge for each friend that joins. The more friends you invite, the fancier the badge~. These badges are permanent, and you can switch between them whenever you want - even after the event!

The new stuff

  • Unlockables: Earn special badges by successfully inviting friends to the platform, with even fancier badges the more friends you invite~

  • Pack Creation & Management: We've added ways for you to see how your community is growing with a members list.

  • User Profile Enhancements: We've revamped the Markdown renderer across the board, and added the bases for full HTML/CSS support coming in a few weeks!

🔧 The background stuff

  • Data Loading Optimization: Our new internal BulkPostLoader efficiently loads multiple posts at once, dramatically reducing API calls and making your feed load at lightning speed!

  • Security Enhancements: We've upgraded our infrastructure to better accommodate the growing user base, ensuring that Packbase remains secure and reliable even as we scale.

  • Responsive Design Updates: Packbase now looks and feels amazing on screens of all sizes! We've improved the mobile interface with touch-friendly controls, though full mobile support is not provided for our alpha.

  • Invitation System Refinement: Bringing friends into Packbase is even smoother with our updated invite code generation and redemption workflow.

🐛 The fly-swatter stuff

  • Faster Loading: Profiles and feeds now load faster and much more reliably with improved caching that prevents unnecessary re-rendering. Majority of features that pull data from our servers now refresh in the background.

  • Post Creation: Creating posts is now more reliable with improved validation and better media attachment handling. Uploading images without text is now also possible!

  • Authentication Flow: We've fixed several edge cases in the login and registration process, particularly around invitation code validation, making onboarding new users much smoother.

  • React Component Rendering: Several technical fixes to component mounting/unmounting and state management mean fewer glitches and a more stable platform.

📝 Documentation & Policy Updates

  • Terms of Service Update: Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy now use clearer language around data collection, retention periods, and user rights. We want you to understand exactly how we protect your data!

  • Content Guidelines: We've updated our content policies with specific guidelines for standard accounts and Afterdark accounts, making it easier to understand what's permitted. Please note that it's not yet possible to create an "AD" account.

🔬 Under-the-Hood Improvements

For our technically-minded users, we've made some impressive improvements to our codebase:

  • State Management: We've completely refactored our application state management for better performance. We've also completed work on supporting job queues for background tasks, ensuring all tasks complete without a hitch!

  • Lazy Loading: All major page components now implement lazy loading, resulting in significantly improved initial load times.

  • Error Handling: Enhanced error reporting and user feedback throughout the application means you'll always know what's happening.

  • TypeScript Improvements: More comprehensive type definitions across the codebase mean better development experience for our team and fewer runtime errors for you.

What's Coming Next?

This massive update represents a major step forward for Packbase, but we're just getting started! Our team is already hard at work on the next round of improvements, including a dedicated mobile app that's coming some time in the future.

We'd love to hear your feedback on these changes! Jump into the community discussion or reach out to us directly with your thoughts, suggestions, and any issues you encounter.

We're looking for front or back-end developers!

If you're interested in helping us build the future of Packbase, we're looking for developers to join our team :3 (We work with React Vite, TS, Bun, and not opposed to adding more to - or replacing - the stack).

If you're interested, please reach out to us on Discord! We'd love to have you on board!

Saying goodbye to NextJS

We've decided to move away from NextJS for the Packbase website. We're now using what we know best: Vite (react)! This allows us to focus more on creating a great experience for you, the user, and less on fighting with a framework that doesn't quite fit our needs.

We've also cleaned up the server and codebase a little bit, so you might notice some things loading faster or looking better. We hope you enjoy the new changes!

(Oh, and if you fancy yourself something to break, try heading to https://packbase.app/settings/template and trying to make the editor render and execute Javascript and let us know if you do!)

Improvements

  • Moved to Vite (react) from NextJS
  • Fixed some issues with the feed loading animation cropping out
  • Fixed the pill on the pack selector not turning white on dark mode
  • Changed the limit of comment preview on the feed to 6 (clicking into the post will show all comments)
  • Fixed the enter key not submitting comments on the feed

Mobile turned back on

We've turned mobile back on for the Packbase website. You can now use the site on your phone or tablet without seeing a big 'ol notice telling you to use a desktop!

Please keep in mind that we're not supporting the website on mobile devices yet, and that an official native version (and SDKs for third-party apps) are in the works and will be released soon! If you're a developer and want to help us out, please reach out to us on Discord, we'd love to have you on board! The SDK Packbase's site uses is already open-source.

Invite code restrictions temporarily lifted

We've temporarily lifted the restrictions on invite codes for Packbase. This means that you can generate up to 10 invites without needing to be super active! This is to help us test the invite system and make sure it's working as intended.

This will be turned off randomly, so if you want to generate invites, now is the time to do it!