Hey everyone,

First off, a Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates, happy holidays to everyone, and happy almost-new-year!

Tim and I are very happy with the year devRant has had, and thinking back, there are a lot of 2017 highlights to recap. Here are just a few of the ones that come to mind (this list is not exhaustive and I'm definitley forgetting stuff!):

- We introduced the devRant supporter program (devRant++)! (https://devrant.com/rants/638594/...). Thank you so much to everyone who has embraced devRant++! This program has helped us significantly and it's made it possible for us to mantain our current infrustructure and not have to cut down on servers/sacrifice app performance and stability.
- We added avatar pets (https://devrant.com/rants/455860/...)
- We finally got the domain devrant.com thanks to @wiardvanrij (https://devrant.com/rants/938509/...)
- The first international devRant meetup (Dutch) with organized by @linuxxx and was a huge success (https://devrant.com/rants/937319/... + https://devrant.com/rants/935713/...)
- We reached 50,000 downloads on Android (https://devrant.com/rants/728421/...)
- We introduced notif tabs (https://devrant.com/rants/1037456/...), which make it easy to filter your in-app notifications by type
- @AlexDeLarge became the first devRant user to hit 50,000++ (https://devrant.com/rants/885432/...), and @linuxxx became the first to hit 75,000++
- We made an April Fools joke that got a lot of people mad at us and hopefully got some laughs too (https://devrant.com/rants/506740/...)
- We launched devDucks!! (https://devducks.com)
- We got rid of the drawer menu in our mobile apps and switched to a tab layout
- We added the ability to subscribe to any user's rants (https://devrant.com/rants/538170/...)
- Introduced the post type selector (https://devrant.com/rants/850978/...) (which will be used for filtering - more details below)
- Started a bug/feature tracker GitHub repo (https://github.com/devRant/devRant)
- We did our first ever live stream (https://youtube.com/watch/...)
- Added an awesome all-black theme (devRant++) (https://devrant.com/rants/850978/...)
- We created an "active discussions" screen within the app so you can easily find rants with booming discussions!
- Thanks to the suggestion of many community members, we added "scroll to bottom" functionality to rants with long comment threads to make those rants more usable
- We improved our app stability and set our personal record for uptime, and we also cut request times in half with some database cluster upgrades
- Awesome new community projects: https://devrant.com/projects (more will be added to the list soon, sorry for the delay!)
- A new landing page for web (https://devrant.com), that was the first phase of our web overhaul coming soon (see below)

Even after all of this stuff, Tim and I both know there is a ton of work to do going forward and we want to continue to make devRant as good as it can be. We rely on your feedback to make that happen and we encourage everyone to keep submitting and discussing ideas in the bug/feature tracker (https://github.com/devRant/devRant).

We only have a little bit of the roadmap right now, but here's some things 2018 will bring:

- A brand new devRant web app: we've heard the feedback loud and clear. This is our top priority right now, and we're happy to say the completely redesigned/overhauled devRant web experience is almost done and will be released in early 2018. We think everyone will really like it.

- Functionality to filter rants by type: this feature was always planned since we introduced notif types, and it will soon be implemented. The notif type filter will allow you to select the types of rants you want to see for any of the sorting methods.

- App stability and usability: we want to dedicate a little time to making sure we don't forget to fix some long-standing bugs with our iOS/Android apps. This includes UI issues, push notification problems on Android, any many other small but annoying problems. We know the stability and usability of devRant is very important to the community, so it's important for us to give it the attention it deserves.

- Improved profiles/avatars: we can't reveal a ton here yet, but we've got some pretty cool ideas that we think everyone will enjoy.

- Private messaging: we think a PM system can add a lot to the app and make it much more intuitive to reach out to people privately. However, Tim and I believe in only launching carefully developed features, so rest assured that a lot of thought will be going into the system to maximize privacy, provide settings that make it easy to turn off, and provide security features that make it very difficult for abuse to take place. We're also open to any ideas here, so just let us know what you might be thinking.

There will be many more additions, but those are just a few we have in mind right now.

We've had a great year, and we really can't thank every member of the devRant community enough. We've always gotten amazingly positive feedback from the community, and we really do appreciate it. One of the most awesome things is when some compliments the kindness of the devRant community itself, which we hear a lot. It really is such a welcoming community and we love seeing devs of all kind and geographic locations welcomed with open arms.

2018 will be an important year for devRant as we continue to grow and we will need to continue the momentum. We think the ideas we have right now and the ones that will come from community feedback going forward will allow us to make this a big year and continue to improve the devRant community.

Thanks everyone, and thanks for your amazing contributions to the devRant community!

Looking forward to 2018,
- David and Tim

Wan't your own personal devBanner?
Now you can have one!

We're building a powerful banner generator over here: https://devrant.com/collabs/...
The first version is up and running, still basic tho.

You can generate your own by calling this URL:
https://devrant.nuernberger.kim/api...

You'll have to replace "Kimmax" with your devrant name and the value after subtext with the extra text.

A cool domain is already on it's way!

We'll be working on a frontend and a ton of extra features to make this banner even more awesome.
If you got any nice ideas add them to the issue tracker here: https://github.com/cozyplanes/...

Have fun!

//
// devRant unofficial UWP update (v2.0.0-beta)
//

After several concepts, about 11 months of development (keep in mind that I released 20 updates for v1 in the meantime, so it wasn't a continous 11 months long development process) and a short closed beta phase, v2 is now available for everyone (as public beta)! :)

I tried to improve the app in every aspect, from finally responsive and good looking UI on Desktop version to backend performance improvements, which means that I almost coded it from scratch.
There are also of course a few new features (like "go to bottom" in rants), and more to come.

It's a very huge update, and unfortunately to move forward, improve the UI (add Fluent Design) and make it at the same level of new UWP apps, I was forced to drop the supported for these old Windows 10 builds:
- Threshold 1 (10240)
- Threshold 2 (10586)

Too many incompatiblity issues with the new UI, and for 1 person with a lot of other commitments outside this project (made for free, just for passion), it's impossible to work at 3 parallel versions of the same app.
I already done something like that during these 11 months (every single of the 20 updates for v1 needed to be implemented a second time for v2).

During the closed beta tests, thanks to the awesome testers who helped me way too much than I ever wished, I found out that there are already incompatiblity issues with Anniversary Update, which means that I will support two versions:
1) One for Creators Update and newer builds.
2) One for Anniversary Update (same features, but missing Fluent Design since it doesn't work on that OS version, and almost completly rewritten XAML styles).

For this reason v2 public beta is out now for Creators Update (and newer) as regular update, and will be out in a near future (can't say when) also for the Anniversary Update.
The users with older OS versions (problem which on PC could be solved in 1-2 days, just download updates) can download only the v1.5.9 (which probably won't be supported with new updates anymore, except for particular critcal bug fixes).

So if you have Windows 10 on PC and want to use v2 today, just be sure you have Creators Update or Fall Creators Update.
If you have Windows 10 PC with Anniversary Update, update it, or if you don't want to do that, wait a few weeks/months for the update with support for your build.
If you have an older version on PC, update it, or enjoy v1.5.9.
If you have Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update, update it (if it's possible for your device), or just wait a few weeks/months for the update with support for your build.
If you have Windows 10 Mobile, and because of Microsoft stupid policy, you can't update to Anniversary Update, enjoy v1.5.9, or try the "unofficial" method (registry hack) to update to a newer build.

I hope it's enough clear why not everyone can receive the update today, or at all. :P

Now I would like to thank a few people who made this possible.
As always, @dfox who is always available for help me with API implementations.
@thmnmlist, who helped me a lot during this period with really great UI suggestions (just check out his twitter, it's a really good person, friend, designer and artist: https://twitter.com/thmnmlist).
And of course everyone of the closed beta testers, that reported bugs and precious suggestions (some of them already implemented, others will arrive soon).

The order is random:
@Raamakrishnan
@Telescuffle
@Qaldim
@thmnmlist
@nikola1402
@aayusharyan
@cozyplanes
@Vivaed
@Byte
@RTRMS
@tylerleonhardt
@Seshpengiun
@MEGADROID
@nottoobright

Changelog of v2.0.0-beta:
- New UI with Fluent Design and huge improvements for Desktop;
- Added native support for Fall Creators Update (Build 16299);
- Changed minimum supported version to Creators Update (Build 15063), support for Anniversary Update (Build 14393) will arrive soon;
- Added mouse support for Pull-To-Refresh;
- Added ability to change your username and email;
- Added ability to filter (by 'Day', 'Week', 'Month' and 'All') the top Rants;
- Added ability to open rant links in-app;
- Added ability to zoom GIFs (just tap on them in the Rant View);
- Added 'go to bottom' button in the Rant View (if more than 3 comments);
- Added new theme ('Total Black');
- ...complete changelog in-app and on my website (can't post it here because of the 5000 characters limit)...

What will arrive in future updates:
- 'Active Discussions' screen so you can easily find rants that have recent comments/discussions;
- Support for 'Collabs';
- Push Notifications (it was postponed and announced too many times...);
- More themes and themes options;
- and more...

If you still didn't download devRant unofficial UWP, do it now: https://microsoft.com/store/apps/...
If you find some bugs or you have feature suggestion, post it on the Issue Tracker on GitHub (thanks in advance for your help!): https://github.com/JakubSteplowski/...

I hope you will enjoy it! ;)

Due to popular demand (and we being unable to produce a smooth performance out of JavaFX), we decided to switch to Electron for devRantFX collab. It is now called devRantron!

Relevant collab: https://devrant.io/collabs/420025/

Under the hood we are using the following techs:

- React (ReactJS, Redux, React-Router)
- Jest
- ES6 and Webpack
- MaterializeCSS

If you have knowledge about React-native or VueJS, you should be able to understand the code (eventually). If you want to contribute let me know! I will add you to our slack group :)

Update on the devRantFX:

Github: https://github.com/tahnik/devRantFX

We have made some initial sketch and have been working on it. If you have a better idea, please feel free to let us know :)

Relevant collab: https://devrant.io/collabs/420025/

//
// devRant unofficial UWP update (v2.0.0-beta7)
//

After "Active Discussions" (implemented in v2.0.0-beta5), it was time to implement the last missing app section, "Collabs".
This is the biggest update since the start of the public beta, over 100 changes (new features, improvements, fixes).

Changelog (v2.0.0-beta7):
- Support for Collabs
- Notifs Tabs
- & more... read the entire changelog here: https://jakubsteplowski.com/en/...

Microsoft Store: https://microsoft.com/store/apps/...

I'm really happy to announce that the unofficial UWP client has now 100% of the features available on the official Android and iOS apps (if we don't count Push Notifs 😝 but they will arrive soon too).
It took several months of hard work, but I made it... it's here, it reached the level I wanted to reach since the beginning of this project (May 2016) (if we don't count Push Notifs).

I did it a lot of times, but I think they deserve it everytime, I would like to thank all the people who made this possible, all the active users, who opened issues, suggested features, or just used my app and had fun, posted positives (and negatives, motherfuckers, just kidding, maybe) reviews on Microsoft Store etc.
The entire community who made me want to do this project.
You're amazing guys!

Of course this is not the end of this project, I want to bring the app out of the beta and support it until I will be able to do it, releasing updates almost simultaneously with @dfox and @trogus.

Planned to be done:
- Support for Anniversary Update
- Push Notifs
- Custom Themes
- Close the 15+ issues (features requests, fixes) on the issue tracker on GitHub
- Ranti by @Alice: Your devRant Assistant <- I really hope it will become a thing :)
- Your future suggestions -> post them here: https://github.com/JakubSteplowski/...

Thanks for the attention,
Good ranting!

!rant

Hey guys! We have started working on the cross platform desktop app for devRant for a while.

Here's the Collab link: https://devrant.io/collabs/420025/
Here's the GitHub link: https://github.com/tahnik/devRantFX

Here's more information about what we are using for developing the project:
1. Java 8
2. JavaFX
3. IntelliJ IDEA
4. Gradle
5. JUnit
6. Travis CI
7. JavaRant API (created by LucaScorpion)
8. Slack

Right now we have 4 collaborators: allanx2000, sirwindfield, LucaScorpion and me.
If you are interested in the project, you can always let me know and I will do something about it.

This is a continuation of a Collab, please check it out before answering this:
(https://devrant.com/collabs/...)

I am thinking about making a crowdfunding campaign - should I? I am a terrible person when it comes to recruiting people and getting people to actually become interested in such thing. I hate using my voice also in order to create some promotional video also.

I know that some of you are interested in such thing, but how many of you would actually contribute to such project with your time, coding skill or money?
I am looking into to buy some SuperMicro stuff (would probably cost me around $4000) in order to get started but I am very unsure.

Calling all bored js devs...

So I just noticed that rantBlock is the most ++'ed collab on devRant! This was totally unexpected since it was just another proof of concept of a random idea I had while bored.

The problem is I do not have time in the next few months to develop it further. I would love to see it ported to uBlock and officially released on the chrome/mozilla/microsoft stores so I am posting an open invitation for devRanters to take it over.

Realistically though while the collab is popular on devRant the repo was not cloned enough times to even show - it only had one watcher and 7 stars so I am not sure if it will get much usage once released, but I promise to download it.

Even with that in mind it's a pretty fun side project if your into ad blocking (ad how it works) and browser extensions for the holidays and you have a community of devs to get feedback from.

Leave a comment if you would like to see it properly published or would like to contribute and you guys can network from there.

Collab: https://devrant.com/collabs/...

Repo:
https://github.com/kurtr/rantBlock

Peace.

To access the collabs from website, you can go to this URL: https://www.devrant.io/collabs

I feel like a hacker now :P

https://devrant.com/collabs/2644989

Finished more devrant documentation along with Skayo

[New Collab]

Well it may be the only learning collab, I didn't read everything. But I started a Entity Component System library to learn some stuff like metaprogramming : https://devrant.io/collabs/826092/...

And I'll be really happy if some people could give me some advices / suggestions about generic C++ libraries and this code :D

I love you <3

Made a proof of concept combination of React + Highland.js + Recompose: https://codepen.io/hedgepig/pen/...

It's scrappy now, but the idea is a streaming alternative to redux/mobx whatever. This nice thing is one can treat events as a function over time, meaning one can map, pipe, reduce (scan), zip etc.

Going to try it on a side project (potentially Hive Sim: https://devrant.io/collabs/975778) and see how it goes.

Fellow ranters, I need advice !

Discord / Gitter

Gitter has an IRC gateway. While that's cool, for some reason both Vue JS and React are on Discord.

Our project/collab:
https://devrant.io/collabs/858391/...

It's tempting.

Side project <3 well let's dream a little with this one.

I want to 'finish' my ECS library https://devrant.io/collabs/826092/...

And after that I want to make a cross platform window manager, and after that again a cross platform package manager, and with that a little gui library using blend2D which take full control of my window manager.

And well I'd like to make a server and a client for matrix too :D

OH, I need to find a job... Fuck