Hello fellow Dreamers,

As some of you might remember, EcchiDreams had a number of updates around the end of April and the beginning of May. However, due to my ill health, I was unable to make an announcement on the number of changes that had happened. Firstly, I want to thank absolutely everyone who came out in support of me during my run of bad health and encouraged me to get better, these messages warmed my heart and I am happy to say I am much better today. Although there are some long term (and potentially lifelong) secondary things that were picked up on during my hospital visit, these are not life threatening, and are absolutely manageable; as the saying goes - "I'll live." This is why this announcement is a little delayed compared to previous ones; but that just means I have a few more things to talk about. This is a fairly large announcement, but quite a lot of it is stuffed with pictures, so thanks in advance for reading.

Before I begin, I want correct two common misconceptions:

• EcchiDreams is not just a roleplaying community; it's actually a lot more than that. Roleplaying is one of the many things that we focus on, of course, but it's not the only thing it is. We welcome both roleplayers and non-roleplayers, the latter of which take part on the forums, or just come for the generally friendly atmosphere. I'm not happy about the harassment that they've been getting from (the extreme minority of) people who do roleplay, essentially telling them to get off this website because they don't belong here. One even went as far as to tell the original creator of the website that she shouldn't be here because it was just for roleplaying.
• EcchiDreams isn't solely about sex, nor does the name imply that. Ecchi doesn't mean sex; it means perverted. Yes, that might be sexual, but not necessarily. Roleplayers that do not want to roleplay sex and only sex are just as welcome here as those that do. EcchiDreams is not a sex website, and we've never, ever - not ever - said that it was. We say it's an adult website. By category alone, any adult is allowed to join. There are a number of non-sexual topics here as well, and I encourage you to have a look around and get a deeper understanding of what our site is about. 

If you are getting messages like "You shouldn't be on this site" and so on, please feel free to quote the above and link to this article... and laugh it off. In no particular order.

This announcement will cover:

1. Important URL Changes
2. Profile Improvements
   1. Expandable Profile Covers
   2. Reputation Activity
   3. Premium Feature: Video in Profiles
   4. Premium Feature: Customisable Background in Profiles
   5. Roleplayer Preferences and Private Roleplay Status in Profiles
3. Better/Improved Emoji's
4. EcchiMeta
5. Ease of Use Updates
6. Staff Wanted!
7. Dreamer Protips
8. Complete Your Profile
9. Choose Your Own Forum Index Layout
10.  GDPR Compliance
11. Terms of Service Clarifications
12. Coming Soon: EcchiCredit Lottery
13. Semi-Technical: Bug Fixes
    1. Known Bugs that Exist

Important URL Changes

There have been two major URL changes in regards to the Private Roleplayer's Bulletin Board and the Roleplayer Preferences areas of EcchiDreams; you will need to update any links you have going to your postings in these areas to reflect the new URLs. I have updated the guides to reflect this, but if you find a link that hasn't been fixed, please report it to us and we'll issue you some EcchiCredits for your troubles. The two new URLs are as follows:

• Private Roleplayers Bulletin - https://ecchidreams.com/roleplayer-services/private-roleplayers-bulletin/
• Roleplayer Preferences - https://ecchidreams.com/roleplayer-services/preferences/

The reason why I have changed this is because it was erroneously under the 'Dashboard' URL which it shouldn't have been, this was only highlighted on the dashboard updates (see Ease of Use for more details), as it was in the Roleplay Dashboard which has been merged with the Community Dashboard.

Profile Improvements

There have been some minor changes to the profiles on EcchiDreams that you should probably be made aware of, although I have alluded to it in some statues already.  

Expandable Profile Covers

For desktop users: if you click on a person's profile cover, you can enlarge it to see the full picture; as demonstrated below. This will work on mobiles, if you're in Desktop Mode and your screen resolution supports it; due to the animations and the limited nature of mobile processors and graphics processors, it might be laggy. However, on the desktops we've tried it on, it's fluid and fast. It's not really anything to scream from the mountaintop over, but it's a neat little feature that came with our recent update to IPS 4.3. This is compatible with most, if not, all desktop resolutions too (tested on 1080p and 4K displays).

Reputation Activity

Reputation Activity is a good way of keeping track of the total amount of reputation given and received. It is accessible in your profile, as well as other Dreamers profiles. Under "Community Reputation" click "See Reputation Activity" and the profile interface will change to show you your or their reputation activity; it's pretty simple and straightforward, which is the best way to keep things. 

Premium Feature: Video in Profiles

As you can see with the above screenshots, in their profiles, premium members will have a new button next to "Edit Profile" called "Profile Video", where they can embed either a YouTube video, their Twitch Stream, or a Vimeo video. The following URLs are accepted with "UniqueID" being the Unique ID of the video; for example for YouTube a Unique ID can look like this '_Qe9O90cD80'. 

• https://www.youtube.com/embed/UniqueID 
  • https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/UniqueID
• http://player.twitch.tv/?UniqueID 
• https://player.vimeo.com/video/UniqueID

It will then embed the video above the "Community Reputation" and, if you have any, your most liked content ribbon. 

Premium Feature: Customisable Background in Profiles

Similarly to the Video in Profile above, this is another feature for premium members. This allows you to customise your profile background. Halfway through writing this announcement we got this feature fixed, by making the profiles which have a custom background have a slightly transparent appearance, somewhat like EcchiDreams during the beginnings of my Administration here, where we had a very "Glass" like theme.

Roleplayer Preferences and Private Roleplay Status in Profiles

Thanks to one of the many suggestions written by @Aurafox1, as part of our Ease of Use updates there is now a location within the Edit Profile where you can attach your Roleplayer Preferences directly to your profile, where a link will then appear. If others have filled out this information, it will appear on their profiles, where, if you're logged in at least, it will be visible when you visit their profiles. It is a great idea that allows people to easily find your link.  

Better/Improved Emoji's

Remember when clicking on that little smiley face in the text editor would take 10 to 20 seconds to load the Emoji's...? Or up to 30 seconds on a bad day? Then, in the last update, where we reduced this to 4-6 seconds?

Quote

Take for example the Emoticons (Emoji) when making a post; when you click on that smiley face in the text editor, it used to take 10-20 seconds for it to load when hardly anyone else was on the site, 30 seconds to a minute on a busy day. This was untenable, and no doubt others had noticed this too. But since the update, it took between 4 to 6 seconds. It's not perfect - yet, but that's a massive improvement.

Well, I'm happy to report that the time it takes to load them today at least was... Drum roll please... 0.76 seconds. Furthermore, you can skip the whole button entirely and just opt to call up the emoji you want by pressing ":", minus the quotes, which changes and updates depending on what you type in; and yes, you can click/tap on them to auto complete it and insert the Emoji. Tap? Oh yes; this works on both desktop and mobiles, as seen below:

Desktop:

Mobiles:

EcchiMeta

*shameless self plugging time*
EcchiMeta is a new club to discuss everything relating to EcchiDreams. It was already privately in the works (under a different name) when @Whoreo suggested it, but he's got the credit of the title. I believe there was going to be a discussion that talked about the statistical odds of the 'Small Mystery Box' in the EcchiStore, which is now available to everyone. EcchiMeta is also now where the Suggestions, Comments and Feedback topic is. 

Ease of Use Updates

There have been a number of changes across the site as per the suggestions brought up by @Aurafox1, who was a major help in identifying the problems that he had when he first joined the site, and that we think a number of people might have had too. We absolutely want to help make it easy to browse, use, and to understand. So we listened, and we've made quite a number of changes. 

Dashboard

The Dashboard is a Navigational Helper that puts the most common links to the most common areas of EcchiDreams on to a desktop/mobile friendly page with icons, similar to a desktop or app screen. It's designed to be an almost foolproof navigational tool, which was created in response to the navigational nightmare that EcchiDreams can be, was released on the 24th January 2016 (two years ago), and had never been updated ever since then. It used to be separated into two categories: the Community Dashboard and the Roleplayers Dashboard.

I am happy to announce that this has been overhauled greatly, and that the community and roleplayer dashboards have been merged into one. There are also a number of new icons that reflect some of the new features EcchiDreams has to offer. Oh, and the broken links have been repaired.

Homepage

These were relatively small tweaks in the grand scheme of things, really. Things like including links to the forum index and club roleplays under personal, the welcome header, and moving our picks down to make room for forum topic lists, with links in the block headers as well to ease the navigational pains. A lot of people don't realise that there is more to EcchiDreams than what it appears. We've also added the latest images uploaded to the gallery block too.

Staff Wanted!

We are currently looking for staff (as of writing), and if you're a pretty well established member of the community then you can apply below. It is of course completely voluntary, so if you're not big on having more responsibilities and no pay, then this is not for you. But I want to explain the process and will attempt to do so, as we don't often ask for new staff. 

What happens after you fill in the form is:

• The current staff look at it, discuss where the strengths and weakness would lie, and how we can apply that to the team.
• We set it aside; and will do the same for the next one and the next one and so on.
• On the first of July, we (the current staff) will then discuss and vote.
  • The ones that make it will then have to read through the Staff Policy Agreement; a set of rules that apply just to the staff members in addition to the Terms of Service (that extra responsibility I mentioned earlier).
    • If they agree, they'll go on to a staff meeting where we can teach them about the tools they will have, and to essentially train in how to use them, and so hopefully they'll get a feel of how we work as a team, and how to work independently if no other staff member is online. 
    • After that they become a provisional staff member for six months, before becoming a full staff member.
  • The ones that are 'rejected' (to lack a better word) will be informed. Please don't be offended if you are rejected. Chances are you'll be considered later, or if we run an application process again you'll be informed in advance. 

Lastly, and there's no better way of saying this, but there is a chance that some applications will be rejected almost immediately. Silly applications, or ones that aren't filled out seriously, or even ones where the current staff believe that this is definitely not for you, or if you have previous experience with us that ended... shall I say... in a less than stellar manner. 

Dreamer Protips

We have introduced Dreamer Protips, which can be viewed at the top of the homepage and the bottom of the sidebar of the club directory. We're looking at introducing it in other places, perhaps at a later date. We, at the time of writing, are currently asking the veterans in the community (or even someone with an interesting protip to bring up) to post up their ideas in return for EcchiCredits (if your suggestion is used) over in EcchiMeta. It doesn't have to be roleplay pro-tips, but quick, brief tidbits; for example, something that you didn't know about the site, that you found out through exploration and discovery or what have you, and you think it's of value to other Dreamers, or people who are new, then by all means - share it.  

A Protip that has been suggested by a member of the community will have a small 'flag' and a star within it that you can hover over with your mouse, to pull up a 'Hover Card' of their profile. Furthermore, you can click or tap on it to open up their profile.

Complete Your Profile

Complete Your Profile is not a brand new feature; it's something we've had for a month or so now, but it's been reworked slightly into six easy steps. The idea of this feature is to say after registration; "Hey! There's a few more steps to complete that you might want to fill out!". After all, no one wants to fill out a long complex form when they're registering. To register, you have to complete a sheer basic form that includes what username you want, password, and date of birth, unless you use Facebook/Google Connect, or Steam Login (also new). 

The steps are:

1. Date of Birth:- Mandatory. All Dreamers must be over 18, if you're discovered to be under 18 you will be banned instantly with no chance of appeal, as per Section 8 Paragraph 1 of the Terms of Service. Be sure to fill out this information carefully. 
2. Upload an Avatar:- Avatars are personalised images that appear next to each post that you make on the forum. You can use an avatar image to make your posts stand out more from other members that have posted in a topic.  
3. Upload a Profile Cover:- Make your profile your own, and customise it with a profile cover.
4. Your Roleplayer Preferences:- You will need to create a Roleplayer Preferences form; you can then attach the URL here. This will then appear in your profile allowing people to easily find your Roleplayer Preferences sheet! 
5. Complete a Signature:- This appears at the bottom of your posts in the forums. Consider putting in a link to your Roleplayer Preferences or something, as every time you post on the forums, this will appear: free advertising for your Roleplayer Preferences!
6. Complete "About Me":- Give something for visitors of your profile to read. You can even embed your favorite music from YouTube in here if you want, and link to your Preferences, Clubs, and other such areas. It is your space to write about you.

You can skip the whole thing; or skip steps 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 individually, if you so choose. 

Choose Your Own Forum Index Layout

This is just a quick one, but we've introduced a new mode when it comes to displaying the forum index: there's the traditional "table" mode, and a new "grid" mode. At this moment in time we have no intention of forcing the decision one way or the other. At the top of the forum index next to "Start New Topic" there are two buttons; one is four lines (this represents table mode), and one with four squares (which represents the grid mode). See the underlined green section for the button location to get an idea of what each mode looks like below. 

Table mode:

Grid mode:

 GDPR Compliance

EcchiDreams was pretty much compliant with this new directive before it even became a thing; go figure. But, my personal and political opinions aside, we're implementing more measures to make us even more compliant to the new GDPR monstrosity. Our Privacy Policy already outlines the cookies we use, and cookies are sent securely. You have no doubt gotten many emails saying "you've no doubt gotten many emails about this already from other websites...". Yeah... we're not doing that, and from conversations I've had with the ICO about this, we're not required to, because we've always asked for your consent for this. Here are the ways we are compliant: 

• You can change the frequency of emails you get from EcchiDreams. If you're getting way too many emails from EcchiDreams you can tone this down via your Notification settings; you can opt to receive them on a daily or weekly digest. You can even fine tune what goes into the email, or what you get notified for, as well as sign up for, and opt out of, community news and information easily. You can learn more about this here. 
• We've updated our privacy policy to include more information about third party cookies. 
• It is already against Staff Policy (and always has been) to tell Dreamers about another Dreamer's account, email address, and/or other personal information not publicly available on the forums from that Dreamer themselves.
• Dreamers who are not validated (those that have not confirmed their email address) are automatically deleted after three days. 
• Being signed up to the newsletter has been turned from Opt-Out (tick box on registration) to Opt-In. Not that we send out these emails often. 
• And so on...

We might have more information on this at a later date, but until then we are taking steps to ensure compliance, which means you're probably going to see a consent cookie bar soon... Which is something I've been trying to resist for the last few years; but I promised to keep my opinions, political or otherwise, quiet in this announcement. 

Terms of Service Clarifications

We have made some clarifications and modifications to the Terms of Service; specifically in regards to Section 8, Section (, Section 11, and Section 21. We have also greatly updated Section 18. Please familiarise yourself with these sections, if you've not done so already. 

Coming Soon: EcchiCredit Lottery

We will be introducing an EcchiCredit Lottery in the next few months. This will allow you to gamble away small amounts of your EcchiCredits in the hopes of winning a larger amount of EcchiCredits. There will be a reward for matching 3 balls, 4 balls and 5 balls (and of course the Jackpot). Currently it's in development (Testing Phase), and we've found a few problems that we're trying to iron out. We hope to bring this system out by August/September. You can pick your own numbers (6 balls) or do what's called a "Lucky Dip". 

As par the course it'll be called, perhaps no surprise to anyone: EcchiLotto. 

Yes I know; our Marketing Department is absolutely genius. I wonder how they come up with all these innovative names? We should double their funding from zero. 

Semi-Technical: Bug Fixes

This is a new section that I will add to the end of the update announcements if there is anything worth mentioning. It's a list of bugs that have either been fixed, or that we know about and have been "worked around", waiting for a fix (see known bugs that still exist).

• Fixed: There was a search bug that was found when searching for keywords in the Roleplay Preferences area, that would cause any link you click on to say that it didn't exist. 
• Fixed: There was a security flaw, which on rare occasions, sent out emails that were leaking the URL of the Administrator Control Panel for the forums; this prompted a major security alert when a Dreamer tried to log into it with their username and password - which obviously won't work. Nothing was breached, and the ACP was moved. With no help from the dreamer who tried to log in with their credentials, we were able to track down exactly what happened, and why, and reported it to IPS, as the flaw originated from them. We're going to take further action on protecting the ACP Folder from unauthorised access, but obviously those actions are are classified. Obviously. 
• Fixed: The Roleplayer Preferences Link on the forums index and on the footer, for some inexplicable reason, went to my personal Roleplayer Preferences location. Why? I have no idea. I have a feeling my browsers Autocomplete Form was responsible, but I've been unable to reproduce it. Instead it's just been fixed. 
• Fixed: The Roleplayer Preferences Link on the Homepage in the Welcome Header was fixed, as it went to the old one.
• Fixed: For some inexplicable reason (again), there was a hilarious limit set on EcchiTexts: 10 per day, 60 per minute...  If the maths doesn't follow for you, don't worry; it didn't follow for us either. We were very confused. This just goes to prove that some bugs, even outside of games, are funny.
• Fixed: A bug in the EcchiText Security feature that scans for malicious code prevented certain EcchiTexts from being sent out. This system was broken during the server move, and was subsequently repaired. 
• Fixed: The profile field of Roleplayer Preferences appeared on the Registration Page; which it shouldn't have done, for obvious reasons. This has been removed, and is editable after registration when it should be.

Known Bugs that Still Exist

There was an exploit identified by @Casey, who tested it with @Sunstone in a small scale test, regarding reactions and EcchiCredits. As a result, the EcchiCredits for Reactions has been removed until further notice, as the developer of the system has gone AWOL and we're not sure where he is. What happened was if you gave someone a "Love" reaction for example, the person who got it would get a hundred EcchiCredits. That's fine. That's how it should be. However, if you took that love react back (removed it), they'd retain that one hundred EcchiCredits. That's not quite how it's supposed to work. What's worse is if you gave then a love react again on the same post, they'd get another one hundred EcchiCredits, totalling it up to two hundred. That's definitely not how it's supposed to work. Take that back, and give it to them again - three hundred total. And so on and so forth. 

This is not good, so the system has been disabled for now. Instead we've doubled the amount of points you get for posting, and soon (although not yet at the time of writing) this will apply to the Clubs too. 

Source: つくし - Tsukushi Akihito

I picked this because it had a very spring feel to it. I love the colours and it uses quite a wide range of them too. When I was picking out images, @Neptune commented on how cute it was; so I decided to go for it. I believe it's based on, or from "Made in Abyss" and it's drawn by Tsukushi Akihito, whose work you can view more of through the above link.