site news
Sunday June 15, 2008 11:30 PM
One behind the scenes update, and one you may have already noticed.
Behind the scenes: Protection against sending duplicate identical private messages has been added. You should no longer end up mistakenly sending a private message to someone more than once.
Possibly already noticed: Your friends page now lists the names of the people you have added as friends who have logged in within the last two weeks.
Sunday April 27, 2008 11:30 AM
Added paging to your friends page. you're no longer limited to looking at the last twenty kills made by people on your list of friends.
Added some pretty unintrusive advertisements to the footer of all pages (on the 21st of April, actually). Please alert me if there are any issues as a result of them.
Sunday April 6, 2008 1:30 PM
Added compatibility with XVideos.com to the video roundup page. Also fixed an issue with Pornhub videos on that page that caused them to not display.
Friday March 25, 2008 12:30 AM
Here's a fun little feature: We've added a video roundup page that takes the links to videos posted by members and turns them into ready-to-play embedded videos.
The video roundup page is currently compatible with RedTube, Pornhub and Video Heat Online (VHO). We'll add compatibility as sites make embedded videos available.
Friday March 21, 2008 3:00 PM
Let me lead off this news update with the biggest announcement: kittenhate.com mobile for browsing KH on your favourite mobile device!
kittenhate.com mobile is not exactly near completion, but a bunch of basic functionality is now available. Logging in only allows you to view full-size images in the gallery, but later on we'll add the ability to log kills, read and write private messages, and so forth. A side benefit to this layout is that it's infinitely safer to view in situations in which you should not be visiting a site of this kind...
Some other small improvements here and there:
- A list of newest members is back on the front page.
- Added a sitemap to Microsoft's Live Search, and a mobile sitemap to Yahoo! and Google (all with the goal of better search engine visibility).
- Fixed a bug with the graphical calendar date selector on the Add/Edit A Kill pages.
- Updated the header image to add the subtitle, "real amateur sex blogs". I don't think we can be any clearer about what the site is about at this point.
Sunday March 9, 2008 1:30 PM
If you're a returning visitor or member, you'll immediately know that the site has received a significant facelift.
Taking a look through the Google Analytics made it pretty obvious that the front page of the site was too busy. The only items actually receiving clicks were the "Recent Sex Blog Entries" and "Featured Members" links. I also felt the front page did a poor job explaining what the site was all about.
Thus, the front page has been redesigned with these new priorities in mind: Explain the site's purpose. Encourage new members to join. Celebrate our existing members in a place of prominence. So that's what we've done.
Google Analytics also indicated that visitors to the website using a screen resolution of 800x600 or lower added up to just 8.51% of total page hits. This allowed for the decision to widen the page and make better use of horizontal space for site content.
Site functionality has been kept the same in 90% of cases, with only minor tweaks (mostly to private messaging) planned for the future. Enjoy the revamped site, and as always, let me know if something makes you unhappy - I'll do my best to correct it.
Sunday January 27, 2008 11:30 AM
In response to some issues reported with the instant messaging system, I've attempted to make the feature more resilient and ensure that messages do get through. To this extent, I've enabled the net_down_func function of the My-Bic AJAX component used to retry sending the message up to five times, with a total timeout of 5000 ms.
I've also slightly rewritten the messaging code to take note of the status value returned by the "send message" function. If the value returned does not indicate success, a retry occurs.
I've also changed some of the page titles on the Statistics pages in order to get better search engine prominence by Google and other search engines. If anyone has any ideas on how the site can raise its profile online, let me know.
Sunday December 4, 2007 7:30 PM
Some feedback has come back my way about the instant messaging functionality. In response, I've added a fade effect to new messages: Upon arrival, messages have a yellow background which over the span of 60 seconds fades to white.
What does everyone else think of the messaging change?
Sunday December 2, 2007 7:40 PM
A couple major improvements to the site:
- Added a visual calendar on the Add/Edit A Kill pages. Click the calendar icon to automatically set the date fields.
- The View Message page now supports instant messaging. If you and another member are conversing, just stay on the View Message page and their new messages will automatically appear below the notice that explains the new functionality.
- Working on the mobile device-friendly version of the site has begun. It's not really that far along yet.
Monday November 19, 2007 11:30 PM
I had to increase the amount of space in the right sidebar dedicated to the Who's Online display area. That made me happy.
A short to-do list for improvements:
- Add a visual calendar on the Add/Edit A Kill pages. We shouldn't have to look at the calendar in my Windows taskbar to figure out a date.
- The Add A Friend text is slightly broken, always thinking the friend already exists in your list.
- Add paging to the Friends kills page.
Sunday November 4, 2007 10:30 PM
Things seem to be rolling along nicely at your favourite neighbourhood sex blog. At 3,200 members and climbing, I'm starting to wonder where we might do some advertising to broaden our member base. If you've got a thought, let me know.
In terms of features, I've today added a simple little feature that turns hyperlinks people paste in their kills into clickable links that open a new window. Let me know if anything is out of whack!
Saturday July 28, 2007 6:30 PM
It appears that our server move went off without a hitch! We've now changed homes from DreamHost to HostGator Web Hosting.
HostGator should prove to be infinitely more speedy and reliable than our previous host, who, to their credit, were wonderful for the amount that I paid for their services (very little).
There may be a few glitches here and there on the website which may have eluded me - please private message or e-mail me at info@kittenhate.com with the info and I'll get right on them.
Again, thanks to everyone for their patience.
Sunday June 18, 2007 12:00 AM
A few more incremental improvements to the site this week:
- Paging has been enabled on the Private Message Centre page. You're no longer limited to viewing only the most recent 100 messages in your inbox.
- The counter at the top of the page that tells you how many private messages are in your inbox is now correct when reporting a number larger than 100.
- The times for kills were being reported erroneously on individual profile pages (by 8 hours). Please let me know if they continue to be off.
Tuesday June 5, 2007 7:00 PM
Not too many interesting things going on with the site currently - just some improvements behind the scenes.
- The Who's Online? section of the page should now load up immediately, instead of after a short delay. The downside to this is that its contents will be slightly less accurate, but still valid within a 60-second timespan.
- The HTML title bar content has been swapped around. Of all things, I doubt anyone noticed this - but it should lead to better visibility in search engines.
Sunday May 20, 2007 9:35 AM
In celebration of the long weekend we're having up in Canada, I've made a number of improvements to the site:
- The photo folders you own now show up on your profile page (example). Please remember to only upload amateur photos that you own yourself.
- Added a list of the top five most popular searches to the Search page. This should help members and visitors get started using that site feature.
- You can now use the Search page to quickly find a particular member of the site. Just type in their username and you'll be redirected to their profile page.
- Added an Friends list RSS feed. As long as you've got a cookie set for Kittenhate.com (log in and set the Stay Logged In option to Yes), you can view the latest kills made by people on your Friends list through your favourite RSS feed reader.
- Cleaned up the layout of the RSS feed for individual members. I'm much happier now with the formatting.
Sunday April 29, 2007 7:44 PM
Two quick fixes:
- Added a mouseover event to the Manage Friends page. Hovering over a friend's name should now provide you with some of their profile details.
- You can now filter the photo folders that appear in the Gallery by the gender of the folder owner.
- Photo folders that are set to the permissions level "Specific members only" now appear in the Gallery with the added tag, "Private Folder". This means that the folder owner has specifically allowed you to be able to see the contents of the folder.
Saturday April 28, 2007 12:00 PM
Haven't had a chance to make the major updates to the site listed in the last news item, but a couple of fixes have gone in.
- In the Internet Explorer browser (versions 5.5, 6 and 7), setting a photo folder to "Specific members only" on the Folder Actions page was not working correctly because the Add Member button was not scripted properly. This should work fine now.
- Upgraded the Gallery interface slightly - now you can access the Folder Options drop-down without having to navigate inside the folder.
- Erroneous multiple listings of the same photo folder in the Gallery have been fixed.
- The Most Recent Sex Activities section on the index page of the website has had the time of the kill added. Hopefully this will make the site look more "lively" - as in things are going on right now.
- Eliminated multiples of the same messages appearing when viewing the Messaging History between yourself and another member.
- Rewrote some of the index page to try to better explain the website at a glance (see the new "What is Kittenhate.com?" section in the top-left corner).
- If a member tries to add multiple photos at once when they currently have no folders in existence, multiple new default photo folders were created. This has been fixed.
- The multiple photo upload page now has 10 slots for files (up from 5).
- Redo the layout of the View Profile page. Maybe use icons to identify the various actions on the page (add friend, send private message).
- Add the mouseover to provide information on members on the Manage Friends page.
- Google Webmaster Central has an area in which it shows what are the top keywords on Kittenhate.com, according to the Googlebot. The top five are currently: solo, thinking, bed, kittenhate, kills. Clearly, this needs fixing.
Sunday April 22, 2007 12:25 PM
This is the new page to check for information on what's going on with Kittenhate.com - and more importantly - what's coming up.
Let me rewind things a little bit to discuss why, after 5 years, we've somewhat suddenly undergone a layout change. Actually, it's a fairly simple thing to summarize: We were stagnating. Registrations were down. Viewership was
down. Even I lost interest in making code improvements. It was a bad state of affairs.
Now, there's little cause to worry that Kittenhate will go "mainstream" in the foreseeable future. In fact, Kittenhate is rather purposefully not a site for everyone. We're a site that will appeal most heavily to the
literati - the small percentage of Web users who read and imagine, instead of have the images presented for them on the screen. I can accept that. I'd never want to change that - this lets us attract and retain members
of higher quality than the average sex site. It's actually one of our strengths.
On the other hand, I did consider a number of things detrimental to the site's popularity: Chiefly, the layout and featureset. Many people who didn't visit the site by word of mouth would hit the front page by whatever search
term or random URL, look at it uncomprehendingly and critically, and surf off elsewhere. What could you expect, really? Personally, I'm a backend developer by trade - not a layout guru. I was all about function over being
pretty, but I knew that this hurt the site's potential. Being in university at the time, I just didn't have the time to help matters much.
Did it really hurt the site? Well, the statistics backed up my gut feelings: According to Google Analytics, the "bounce rate" for the front page was fully 21.5%. Compare that to the new layout's bounce rate of 15.8% (and declining). While I also admit to missing the very simple click-and-you're-there interface of Kittenhate 1.0, proof is proof.
So other than the layout shakeup, what did we get out of the change? Let me put together a list:
- The Search page now has a completely different purpose: Put in a few keywords like daddy, orgy or webcam to get back a list of kitten kills mentioning those terms.
- The Statistics page has gotten a layout change, but mostly keeps the same lists intact. Results can be narrowed down far more precisely: By gender, country and age or any mix therein.
- The all-new Gallery! Create public or private folders to store your content through your Main Menu. Private folders default to being seen only by yourself, plus whoever you choose to add to the "Allowed" list. Now you can add a bunch of photos that you'd like only a few fellow members to see.
- The Edit A Kill now allows you to change the date of the record.
- Improved the Private Messages (Inbox) page interface. The page itself should load noticeably faster due to a new indexing of messages.
- Viewing a private message from another member now also displays your entire conversation history for that person. No more forgetting what the last thing you said to someone was.
- Improved visibity for the Featured Members of the day. Now you're front and centre on the front page of the site, so make that profile photo a good one! (FAQ entry for how to be selected is pending.)
- Small improvements to the interface of the Manage Friends page should let you add and delete members you designate as your friend more easily (and en masse).
- A selection from the Today's Kills page now appears on the front page of the website. (FAQ entry on how kills are selected is pending.)
- If a kill happened less than 24 hours ago, the interval between then and the present time is shown in minutes and hours, instead of in an absolute date format: No need for any mental arithmetic.
- The indication that you have a new private message waiting now appears in real time (< 60 seconds) due to use of AJAX on the site.
- Who's Online is now much more accurate and interactive, due to use of AJAX technologies.
- Basic contact details, as well as a link to send a private message to a member, are displayed when holding your mouse cursor over that member's name in most areas of the website.
- Logging out will make you disappear from Who's Online immediately.
Obviously, we've still got a bunch to do. Pending updates:
- Add a live chat interface via a very lightweight instant messenger application that's built into our web pages.
- Hotlinking the photo galleries belonging to a member to their profile page.
- Completely rewrite the damn FAQ page.
- Add a RSS feed for the Friends page. Instead of subscribing to the Today's Kills RSS feed or an individual member, get a feed of the members you like to watch the most.
Again, thanks for visiting the site and stay tuned to this area for updates on the site's progress. And just wait until we start the advertising campaign...
