Hello everyone!
I’m back with another update on SpeakBits that includes a couple of large items that I have received feedback on and seen asked about for other alternatives.
RSS/JSON Feeds
RSS feeds are now available for all of the relevant feeds that would work for RSS readers. These include lists for moderators to receive join requests and queues for items that need moderation actions. The list of available feeds and usage instructions are available on the RSS Feeds page.
There is also a matching JSON feed for those that might not want to receive XML that provides the same information available on the JSON Feeds page. You can think of these as a simpler API that focuses on content feeds.
API Docs
The SpeakBits API has now been fully documented with Swagger. This page lists all current API endpoints that make the site function and will include all future endpoints as it is a living document created by the comments in code. For those that don’t know Swagger, the API endpoints can be interacted with directly on the page.
The docs are accessible here.
API Keys
API keys can be generated in the settings page. These can be used to authenticate to the RSS feeds and API endpoints that need it for situations where receiving an OAuth token is not ideal. At this time, there is only one per user allowed.
Other Improvements
- Notifications now only show the newest notifications in the navbar that a user hasn’t previously been notified over. A notification page is available to find all previous notifications and the notification drawer includes a link to it.
- More customization options in the settings page
- Change default feed that opens when visiting the base SpeakBits url or first opening the app.
- Change the default sort for all groups
- Change the default sort for comments
- Change the max card columns available on desktop. Default is 1 that matches mobile.
- Pinch-to-zoom and drag-to-pan when clicking and opening images. On desktop, this would be done with the scroll wheel and click-and-drag.
- A new WYSIWYG editor is available that only shows markdown if the markdown button is pressed. This was spurred on by some feedback from one of the users here on just a markdown editor feeling archaic and I could see how one would feel that. I figure having the best of both worlds is a better scenario for all users.
- Image galleries can be interacted with in the feed when using the Card density to view all images in the gallery instead of having to open the post to do that.
Planned Features
The following is a list of ideas of what I’m thinking of working on next. This is not ordered in any way and changes priorities based on feedback:
Posts
- Poll posts
Groups
- Wiki pages
- User and self tags
- Banners
Moderation
- AutoModerator
- Post scheduling
- Combined moderation view for all groups under a single mod
Users
- Allow users to create collections of groups that they can name and re-visit as if it was its own group.
- This is already partially supported by adding multiple group names together in the url, e.g. https://www.speakbits.com/group/technology+news+fashion+sports
Sortition Moderation
- Add group bans to the sortition process
- Add locked content to the sortition process
Future
As always, I would love to receive feedback and feature requests from anyone reading this post! A lot of the changes and new features to the site have come from users who have taken the time to do just that. I’d love to make SpeakBits as useful as possible for everyone, so please keep it coming!