Joe Murray

Site Update v1.5.0 - Badges II

Hello again! It's Saturday night...again! Why yes, I do work strange hours.

More badges and bug fixes this time. Here's the new badges!

Not pictured... some of these are animated!

I'm currently planning at least one more round of new badges. And of course the option to disable badges is ...

Site Update v1.4.1 - Timezones & Milestones

Hello again! It's Saturday night, so I'm gonna keep this short.

This is a mostly prep work for some more badges, but also a bugfix update for some milestones and timezones issues. I hate timezones! Especially in a site with lots of old legacy data containing dates that have no time or zone info attached.

This should be a big improvement in that regard. I've spent way too much time the last few days thinking I'd fixed everything and then finding one more bug and having ...

Site Update v1.4.0 - Badges I & 18 Years!

Hello again, backloggers!

There's been a lot going on! I'll try to run down things quickly here.

• Backloggery's 18th Anniversary is tomorrow, Aug 14! Try4ce, Lyndis, and I will be celebrating with a marathon stream this Saturday, Aug 16 starting at 1PM ET. The return of the Backlog Bash gameshow will also happen that day at 7PM ET! I hope to see you there!

• Badges! I've been working overtime to get them ready in time for the s...

  2025-08-13 17:42:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Site Update v1.3.4 - Site Emotes

Hey backloggers!

Got another quick, unscheduled update for you! Many site veterans continue to be confounded by the way platforms work on the new site. In an effort to get less emails about adding Switch 2 to the platform list, I'm pushing out this little update to embiggen the text on the +Game page informing users they can add platforms to their profile under Settings -> Platforms.

But since we're here anyway, you can have a few other additions that are already ready and w...

Site Update v1.3.1-3 - Some fixes before the weekend

Several bug fixes and usability improvements.

• Fixed various issues with Like notifications

• Fixed a issue that allowed liking the same post multiple times in some circumstances

• Notification bell status is now immediately reset when Mark All As Read is pressed

• Clicking the notification bell now takes to you the notifications tab if you're already viewing the Multitap

• All popovers should now close automatically when naviga...

  2025-05-16 18:58:39 +0000 UTC View Post

Site Update v1.3.0 - Likes & Misc

Heya backloggers!

As mentioned in the last post, I've splitting up the previously planned update into smaller chunks to hopefully break my mental log-jam. This time the main addition is the new Likes system but there's several other small goodies people have been requesting below.

Enjoy! And thanks once again for all your patience and support. 💖

Next up... badges!

Patch Notes v1.3.0

New Features

• Posts on the multitap can no...

  2025-05-12 19:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post

Quick Update and a Cat

Hey Backloggers!

Just wanted to touch base again as I know it's been longer than expected since the last update.

I thought the Likes+Badges update would go relatively quickly, but unfortunately I've ended up having to rewrite a good chunk of the multitap code to get everything working to my satisfaction. Replies, for example, will now be written in their own popover instead of being awkwardly jammed under the post being replied to. The UI has been rearranged a bit to better mak...

Checking In and Badges Brainstorming

Heya Backloggers!

Things have been a bit hectic lately so I figured I was due to give you all a little update.

Linux

I'm in the middle of transitioning from Windows 11 to Linux Mint because... I sure don't like the direction Windows seems to be going. And I've found I actually like Linux quite a bit. What's that have to do with the Backloggery? Well, moving my web dev workflow to Linux is a great excuse to finally learn Docker. I'll spare you the tech details, but it'll m...

Site Update v1.2.3 - New Achievement Icons & Fixes

I'm back with another batch of bugfixes. But the real story this time is an innocent question on Discord snowballing to a complete redo of the achievement icons, which you can see below. The main idea was to have a clearer progression for the icons.

Patch Notes v1.2.3

Improvements

• Updated achievement icons based on feedback

• Updated the pre...

  2025-01-15 19:36:16 +0000 UTC View Post

Patron's Choice #2 Result - Badges Win!

Happy Holidays, Backloggers!

Badges have handily won the latest Patron's Choice poll. As a reminder, that means the next major site update will be:

Badges and emoji return! If you're new, badges are kinda like temporary achievements with fun icons that are displayed alongside your username. For example, you might earn a badge for beating 3 games in a row without buying a new one. Emoji will include all site icons, like priorities and badges as well as returning ones li...

2024-12-20 18:28:22 +0000 UTC View Post

Patron's Choice #2 - The Poll

Option descriptions are here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/117633304

Thanks for your support! ☃️

Patron's Choice #2 - Badges VS The World

Happy Holidays, Backloggers!

It's time once again for you to choice the next major update to the site. While that's happening, I'll be spending the rest of this month focusing on bug fixes and usability improvements.

How Patron's Choice Works:

• I'll post five options for new features for the site, based on user feedback and my own plans. For now, these will focus on any remaining features people want back from the old site and improvements to existing...

  2024-12-09 22:13:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Site Update v1.2.2 - Bug Fixes

Sorry the add game bugfix took a bit. Horrible timing for holiday travel and airport delays. 😬

Patch Notes v1.2.2

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the default Ownership setting could break the Add Games page.

• Fixed an text overflow issue with some headers on small screens.

Site Update v1.2.1 - Bug Fixes

Just a quick round a fixes before we head into turkey week!

Patch Notes v1.2.1

Improvements

• Allow collapsing of expanded game notes

Bug Fixes

• Fixed possible text overflow on expanded game notes

• Enabled games icons while viewing lists

• Fixed filtering by None in several categories

• Fixed filtering achievements by multiple options

Site Update v1.2.0 - Icons, Sizes, and Filters

Before we hope into this update, two bits of housekeeping:

• You can now gift Patreon memberships here, if you feel so moved. 🎁

• If you're subscribed through the Patreon Apple app, things are going to get more expensive soon. You might want to switch over to using the website to avoid the Apple tax. Details 2024-11-15 22:39:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Game Presentation Poll Results and Plans

Hey gang! I'm back with the final poll results.

As you can see, Option #1 won the poll by a large margin and the rest came out pretty much even. If you missed it, you can see all the options here.

There's one problem with #1, when a game has a long note, it's huge! Because of that...

Patron Poll - Game Presentation: Round 2

You can find details about the options here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/game-round-2-113631324

Cheers!

Game Presentation: Round 2

Life is slowly getting back to normal here and I'm back with the 2nd, and perhaps final, game presentation poll!

This time the preview layouts show several games for each option and use various combinations of icons to give a more realistic sense of what each layout would be like in action. I've also laid out each option side-by-side in the first image so you can easily see how much height they use.

The subsequent images show each option by itself, which might make viewing details...

Quick Check-in

TLDR: a more detailed follow-up poll to finalize a game presentation design is coming once I get enough sleep to function again.

Hey Backloggers!

I just wanted to touch base real quick since the follow-up to the Game Presentation poll is taking longer than expected.

My plan is to get the new code logic in place for the icons and implement several design variations of the two most popular poll options with tweaks based on your feedback. This will let you see the designs as...

Patron Poll: Game Presentation Drafts

Please see this post for option descriptions.

If you don't like any of the options, pick #5 (and ideally post your suggestions in the comments).

Please keep feedback/brainstorming to the other post, but feel free to discuss the poll itself here if needed.

Game Presentation Drafts (See next post for poll)

More info with less clicking, that's the takeaway of a lot of the feedback I've gotten about the remake since launch. So it's no surprise that Game Presentation won the first Patron Poll. I promised to give you all a chance to be part of this redesign so here we go!

Icons For Everything

The first step to achieve that is bringing back icons for fields like region and ownership. Instead...

Site Update v1.1.1 - More Library Options

Polish update time! This one is more of a hodge-podge of small new features, tweaks, and fixes. Enjoy!

Patch Notes v1.1.1

New Features

• Added a Library Option to adjust page size

• Added a Library Option to control whether articles (a/an/the) are factored in when sorting by title
  

Improvements

17th Anniversary stream is starting now!

We're celebrating our site's 17th anniversary with 12 hours of friends, food, and fun! I hope you'll come and join in.

https://twitch.tv/backloggery

Thanks everyone for 17 great years! Here's to many more. 🍻

Patron's Choice #1 Results & Bonus Poll: Pixels

Patron's Choice #1 Results 

It was a knock-down drag-out fight with Badges, but the winner of the first Patron's Choice Poll is:

• Game Presentation and Filtering
  This option will add a row of icons to games that will surface things like star ratings, region, and reviews. It'll also let you filter your library by them. Definitely one we'll ...

  2024-07-29 22:31:32 +0000 UTC View Post

Backloggery 17th Anniversary Marathon & Patron's Choice Poll Ends Soon

• Where: https://twitch.tv/backloggery 

• When: Saturday, August 3 at Noon-Midnight ET *

• Who: Drumble, Try4ce, Lyndis, and Xavean
  

Long time backloggers might recall that we used to do annual site fundraiser a...

Site Update v1.1.0 - Data Export & Policy Update

'Hoy Backloggers!

I'm back with the first new feature update for the new site, the long-promised data export function. Served up with a side dish of polish and bug fixes. Enjoy!

Please note, the Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy have all been entirely rewritten. My main intent here is to ensure the site is properly covered and compliant with the ever increasing number of privacy laws pop...

Patron's Choice Poll #1 - What's Next?

Hey there, Backloggers!

I was hoping to the Data Export update out today, but I've hit a few snags. Hopefully next week!

In lieu of that, I thought I'd go ahead and start the first Patron's Choice Poll since I've been sitting on it for a few weeks now. It'll also be nice to have something to point to when one of the more common requests come in.

This poll will let the community pick the next major update I work on after the Data Export update goes live. This time, the option...