Week 7 - New Design, Dark Mode, Subreddit Ban and more

[2023-11-21]

Hello everyone!

1. New Design

As you probably already know, when I published the Chatfic Lab, it wasn't a completely finished product yet. My focus was releasing the core features without issues, fixing critical bugs and enhancing the overall experience.

As a result, Chatfic Lab's UI wasn't the best and had some issues with both readability and the user experience. Today, I introduce a new design, including both a dark mode and a light mode. The new design is heavily inspired by the "material 3" design system, but also a heavily modified version of it.

2. Dark Mode

As just mentioned, the new design has a dark mode too. This applies to the story player as well. Starting today, both the iMessage and WhatsApp themes have their dark theme counterparts available.

I hope you'll enjoy this new experience, and that this UI will enhance your experience on the Chatfic Lab for the better.

Dark mode / light mode is selected automatically based on the device's preference. If your computer or phone is in dark mode, Chatfic Lab will load in dark mode.

3. Early Access Feature

I'm working on a Dark Mode / Light Mode switch and it is working quite well despite some minor performance issues. If you are in the Glass of Wine Tier (10$), you can use this feature now.

If not,  you will need to wait for a few days until the performance issues of the new switch are fixed and the feature is ready for public release.

4. Subreddit Ban

Our subreddit where summarized versions of these announcements are published ( r/chatficlab ) is banned by Reddit moderators (appealed, waiting). This wasn't an unexpected thing since Reddit often struggles with enforcing its own content policies or fighting against spam. So they put poorly designed algorithms in place and wrongfully ban many small to medium-sized subreddits every day. This is why I created a Discord channel a few weeks ago.

https://discord.gg/BDWN429QPC 

I know that Discord's unique design is not for everyone. And it is not a drop-in replacement for Reddit. This is why I'll take a look at other alternatives as well. I am open to any suggestions regarding this as well. So if you have any idea, feel free to comment here or reach out to me directly.