May 2025

Hello Patreon friends! Just dropping by to share updates on Serializd.

The tl;dr is... there's lots of behind-the-scenes stuff.

Primarily, there's been a lot of focus on making sure everything is running smoothly. For the longest time, Serializd suffered from performance issues and frequent outages. I'm happy to report that currently Serializd is the fastest it has ever been, and the odds of an outage are significantly lower than they were before! This has happened for 2 reasons:

1. Lots of maintenance work over the last couple of months

2. Patrons like yourself! Your support has allowed Serializd to be hosted on better servers ❤️

There's also been a lot of focus on fixing bugs. This happens with every new update, but for the last month this is the main thing I've been working on and thinking about. There's new bugs reported every day, and I try to get as many fixed as soon as possible. This is a never-ending task though - there will always be bugs, and they will always be fixed.

The same goes for the UI. Serializd will always have to update its UI to keep up with new features and user feedback. In the last app update, the Show pages on the app (as well as the website) were re-done. That was a noticeable change, but in reality there's always smaller changes that are made on a regular basis.

And speaking on UI - the website needs a LOT of UI changes. I'm sure you all have noticed that the website does not get as many updates as the app. This is because it has always been low on my list of priorities. There are 10x more people on the app than on desktop on any given day, and as a 1-dev project, there simply isn't enough time to focus on both. However, this will be changing. I've already started to make changes to desktop, and my goal is to bring it up to par with the app this year. Huge thank you to all the people who exclusively use the website and constantly remind me to update it! I appreciate your patience 🙏

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Serializd is also entering a phase where the core set of features is finally "done". After 5 years of constantly being unhappy with what Serializd had to offer, I'm finally at a place where I can say its a complete TV tracking app.

Just to be clear - this doesn't mean that there won't be new features! I've got lots of stuff planned, and there will still be frequent feature releases, but I'm at a place now where I can focus on improving and growing Serializd, instead of just adding new ways to track TV every month.

In practicality, this means I will be focusing more of my effort to bug fixes, UI, the website, and finding ways to grow the community.

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There's one last thing I want to touch on: Ads. For years, I've been adamantly against putting Ads on Serializd. However, as the app grows, costs get higher every month. Even though your support through Patreon helps a lot (Serializd would truly have shut down if I didn't get support), the gap between the monthly Patreon donations and the actual costs of running Serializd is still very high (and continues to get larger, especially in this economy).

At this point, I am in the process of figuring out Ads on Serializd. There's some things to keep in mind though,

1. If you are a supporter on Patreon, you will not see ads. Nothing will change for you with this.

2. Any ads I decide to display on Serializd will be displays in a thoughtful manner. I do not want to degrade the experience of using the app and the website. If any ads are found to be disruptive, they will be moved.

This is all still very early stages, but I wanted Patrons to know what I'm thinking before I make any changes.

I need to stress that this is truly a last resort for me. It turns out running an app is expensive as hell, and the two options are either to paywall features, or run ads. Both are awful options, but I'd rather show a small ad banner on the app than lock features (such as changing posters) behind a subscription 🤷‍♂️

I'm happy to answer any questions or concerns about this!

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Lastly, a preview of new features in the coming months (I don't have concrete timelines for any of these, but they're all being worked on!)

• Translations - Making the app available in multiple languages, and having the option to translate reviews to other languages.

• Linking socials on your profiles - Display your Letterboxd, Backloggd, BlueSky etc on your Serializd profile

• "Custom" banners on profiles - I have "custom" in quotes because I can't let people upload their own banners just yet, but I will have options for banners that are not on TMDB!

• Revamped stats for Shows - Adding new insights for individual shows, and changing up the UI for that page

There's of course little changes that will happen along the way too - many of which are suggested on the #suggestions channel on the Serializd Discord!

That's all I've got for today! Let me know your thoughts :)