TheLazylonewolf on March 28, 2021

Disqus replaced with wpDiscuz

The Disqus plugin hasn’t been automatically syncing with Cat Nine’s WordPress comments so I’ve disabled it for now and used this as an opportunity to try wpDiscuz. So far, I like it better since wpDiscuz actually uses WordPress’ native commenting system while adding some great features.

Pros

  • It’s not a third-party website so it should load the comments faster.
  • I learned a bit of SQL so I have more control over the comments. Now I can fix or modify multiple comments. Don’t worry, I won’t abuse this power!
  • I’m planning to pay for some add-ons for it in the future. The most notable is the Emoticons add-on for the built-in emoji palette… and custom stickers! I’ll definitely add the Discord emojis as stickers later if I get it.
  • Guests can now comment without an account, although they’ll still need a name, email, and click on the reCAPTCHA. Logged-in users won’t need nor see the reCAPTCHA. Might change this to the invisible reCAPTCHA if I get that add-on.
  • Badges depending on your role, particularly for patrons. I can style them too for additional bling, though I’ll reserve that for higher tiers.
  • I’ve finished setting stuff up so you can log-in with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Patreon, WordPress, and Disqus (only available in the comment form). Or you can just register if you don’t want to use any of these or want to set your own username.
    • Be warned, using any of the log-ins mentioned might use that account’s profile pic. Just installed a plugin that allows you to upload a profile pic. Hope it works!
    • You can also sync your FB, Twitter, and Google account to your account in your profile page.
  • Users and guests can add a link to their website when commenting.
  • Possibly more features if I get the add-on bundle. I’ll likely use these two:
    • Points/reputation system for frequent and/or highly upvoted commenters, which award badges.
    • Embed stuff from Twitter, Youtube, and etc.

Cons

  • Your profile pic might be missing if you didn’t have an account here in Cat Nine, or if you didn’t have an email associated with Gravatar when you commented. I might be able to fix them upon request or if you log-in here.
  • I’ve disabled uploading media since my webhost has limited space. The only way you can post images is by posting the image’s URL.
  • Have to agree/check the Terms and Privacy policy checkbox before commenting, but you’ll never see it again afterward.
  • Lacks some features compared to Disqus until I get the add-on for it.

Because of APO (mentioned below), you might have to refresh the page after logging in to see that you’re actually logged-in. To make it more obvious you’re logged-in, I’ve activated the admin bar again for logged-in users. If you can’t see the admin bar, you’re not logged-in or have to refresh the page.

screenshot showing admin and navigation bar

Admin bar, for reference

You might need to resubscribe to notifications

I moved from HTTP to HTTPS so I had to reconfigure some stuff in the website, particularly the notifications. You can just subscribe again if the pop-up shows up, but now you can also do it manually yourself through your browser’s Site settings.

Screenshot showing Chrome's site settings

Chrome’s site settings

Faster speeds with Automatic Platform Optimization by Cloudflare

It apparently makes WordPress sites faster so I’m trying it out for a month. Hopefully, it speeds things for you guys and worth the $5/month. Thanks for helping out by voting on the poll below!

[poll removed, thanks for voting!]

4 Comments
TheLazylonewolf on March 6, 2021

More website stuff. Back to work on the comic after this.

  • I know I said I’d change the Aside artwork posts to Image format gradually, but I’ve changed and added the appropriate links to all of them.
    • All (three 😆) of the NSFW artwork I’ve done have been uploaded to and have pixiv links now. 😉
  • Changed the blog posts displayed on the homepage/recent posts from 20 to 10 to make loading a little faster.
  • I can now change the image sizes for Image posts. If it’s thumbnail-sized, it’s likely it will take you to the appropriate link instead of opening a larger version of the image.
  • I use Font Awesome for the icons, but the icon kit is loaded after everything else on the page are loaded and there’s a 10k pageviews/month limit. So, I changed from using externally loaded kits to .svg so it’s faster. But because of that, I have to credit them and link to their license properly so I made a new Credits page. I’ve only changed the icons in the top navigation menu for now and had to adjust the CSS for them.
  • Added pixiv icon to the top navigation menu.

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Bonus artwork of Myan as Vault Boy/Girl from Fallout

Vault Catgirl Myan and new Image Format

by TheLazylonewolf on March 5, 2021
Posted In: Lazylonewolf's Art, Cat Nine, Fan Art, News and Announcements
└ Tags: art, bonus art, fan art, chibi, colored, Myan, Myan (catgirl), Fallout
Source HD WIP HD+WIP Pixiv

Vault Catgirl Myan here to test the new Image post-format! This is both an announcement and test post so only HD + WIP is the real link.

I’ll use this from now on to replace the Aside format that I’ve been using for posting my artwork, and I’ll slowly change my older artwork posts to this new format as well. Posting art is going to be a touch faster, easier, and cleaner with this new format since I don’t have to do everything inside WordPress’ text editor.

  • Actually uses the post’s title instead of me having to type/copy-paste it. It should also automatically link to the post itself, I’m testing if the link works with this post (it works!).
  • Now actually uses the post’s Featured Image/thumbnail and outputs it inside the post. Clicking on the image also opens itself for full view. Unfortunately, the lightbox plugin that I use doesn’t seem to be working on this. I’ve already asked Simple Lightbox’s developers for help with this, but if they can’t, oh well. Lastly, I can assign a different URL for the image to link to instead of itself if I want.
  • Categories and tags just below the title, instead of at the bottom.
  • Buttons! I just have to copy-paste the URL instead of fiddling around in the text editor and having to assign classes/ids to them. These five links are what I think I’ll use the most, and use these too for comic posts later. Pixiv’s only going to be for public NSFW posts so, remember this: blue buttons = free horny.

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cat-nine -
The Scratching Post

I ask for witty and I get this :myanLaugh:

With this new Chat post-format, I might use this for announcements or feature interesting/funny screenshots from our Discord “The Scratching Post”.

Don’t expect me to include most images in here to avoid copyright complaints and those sorts of things. Nsfw images too for obvious reasons. :tammyBlush~1:

by TheLazylonewolf on March 4, 2021
Posted In: News and Announcements
└ Tags: discord, website changes
0 Comments
TheLazylonewolf on March 3, 2021

Supporters page updated

A fresh coat of paint and cleaner CSS for the “new” Supporters page (ex-Patrons and Ko-fi enablers page). I renamed it to Supporters so it’ll fit the new navigation menu if you were curious.

It’s definitely not the most useful nor frequently visited page, but hey, I and this whole friggin site wouldn’t be alive without these guys so thank you once again!

If more supporters show up (wink wink) or if I want to update that page automatically, I’ll probably have to learn SQL or some real PHP since I’ve been making do with modifying .php files at most. Welp, I’ll leave that to future me.

Sticky nav menu?

Speaking about that new nav menu, Mod BlueDavrial has suggested the nav menu should stick to the screen while it scrolls down. I figured most webpages that aren’t comic pages will be rarely visited, so I didn’t make it sticky. I was also worried about it being annoying, but most of us are used to sticky nav menus and when I tried myself here in cat-nine.net I didn’t find it too annoying. Kinda dumb having two fixed bars on my side though. What do you guys think? I’m leaning toward keeping it static rather than sticky.

screenshot showing admin and navigation bar

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TheLazylonewolf on March 2, 2021

Just remembered to do this so… my Tapas has just been deleted. Goodbye, or rather 안녕 (annyeong)! Oh, fun fact, there’s a bit of a joke with “annyeonghaseyo” (“hello” in English), and Filipino’s “ano nang yari sayo” (“what happened to you” in English) since they sound kinda similar. 😆

If I make a mirror again I might use WEBTOON or MangaDex next time, but I’d rather have all Cat Nine comics in here anyway, and the original intention for posting in Tapas is to have a more mobile-friendly version way to read Cat Nine. While the horizontal strip + scrolling isn’t exactly ideal for mobiles, I think cat-nine.net’s currently good enough with all the responsive changes I’ve been doing.

If you’re asking why I dislike mirrors/hosting somewhere else, well:

  • Some of the most-well known webcomics don’t have mirrors.
  • I don’t like the term “webtoon”. It’s “webcomic”!
  • I prefer owning my own stuff in general. That includes hosting comics in my own website. More responsibilities for me yes, but I can customize a lot of things (fun for me), or learn how to do it myself if I don’t know. Fair enough for people who don’t have the time, skill, nor money to deal with web design and maintenance.
  • Converting to vertical strip from horizontal is time-consuming and not all the panels/pages are going to convert well.
  • From my experience in Tapas, they usually use CDNs that lossy optimize images that I upload to lower their size, but it also hugely affects quality. It’s understandable for mobile-users and/or slow internet, but it’s a bit annoying having my artwork be downgraded like that without any choice. Aside from that, I usually can’t download the images I’ve uploaded, at least at the original quality I’ve uploaded them in. Not that it matters that much since I have the original source files, but still, it kinda fails as a mirror if I can’t access my own images for emergencies. They also disable right-clicking to save images, which just annoys me a lot for some reason.

0 Comments
TheLazylonewolf on March 2, 2021

More site updates

Sorry, I was still actually in a web development mood! How many new/changed things can you count?

I’ve been working on that new top navigation all day, I hope it works properly in most devices. The ones with dropdown menus (e.g. Gallery) are hoverable menus, so mobile users might accidentally open that up instead. I haven’t completely figured what to do about that yet, but I have an inkling.

And now, a brand new Status post-format test. I’ll try not to abuse this newfound power, but no promises! Instead of the complete garbage dump that is Twitter, you’ll only get to see one man’s trash, mine. 😉 While working on this thing, I totally didn’t panic when I crashed the whole Cat Nine site when I uploaded a file in the wrong folder, whoops. I’m just glad this thing’s working now.

As for using this Status format, I’ll try to keep it at 1 or 2 posts a day at most. I’ll likely use this for random thoughts/rants, actual status updates (like if I’m streaming), and maybe sketches. I’ll only share or use the notifications for important status updates and drawings to not annoy you all!

New Comicad Banner

Comicad Website Banner

Finally made this banner for my Comicad profile. You know, I’m thinking about writing a review about Comicad since it’s been a year since I’ve used it. Spoiler alert: it’s pretty good as it is but it’s not quite as big and functional as the old Project Wonderful. It’s slowly getting there though and I appreciate that the developer has listened to most of my suggestions.

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