#because we are working on a deadline with a beta launch beginning of june

[beehop]

dreading work tomorrow in a way i haven't since i quite my old toxic af job nearly two years ago and it kinda sucks. this new project they put my team on just...sucks ass...and all i keep thinking is "this isn't the job i was hired to do". which is barely even true because i wasn't even hired for this specific job my company got acquired. but the job stayed the same up until now!! this isn't super coherent i'm just like...ugh. and tomorrow is only wednesday.

[pillowfort-social]

Community Update: July 2019

Hey everyone! It’s time for your monthly community update where we let you know what Staff have been doing behind the scenes, happenings within the community, and a preview of what’s in store for the platform.

Since June 2019 we have…

Added Likes/Reblog Notifications.

Added Community Rules/Info Widget.

Added Post Edit History.

Added an Admin Portal for Customer Service.

Added a loading spinner on Community Discussion Page.

Fixed bugs with image uploading and blacklisting. Full change log can be read here.

Community Stats

As of July 2019, Pillowfort currently has over 48,260 registered users and 6,600 communities.

Public Release Update

Our team recently sat down to discuss our long-term planning for the remainder of the year. This past spring was full of changes and extraordinary growth. After reviewing what our team has accomplished and what remains in our pipeline, we have decided to go into the next phase of our open beta: we will soon be rolling out the ability for existing users to generate free registration codes to give out to your friends! The introduction of the invite-registration system will let our community grow at a steady pace and help us test our server capacity in a controlled manner. Those who don’t want to wait for an invite code will still have the option to purchase a registration key with a one-time $5 payment.

Now, while our initial plan was to have our premium features suite built and the site fully open to the public by the end of 2019, unfortunately it will take longer to accomplish this than initially anticipated. We would also like to release several requested features, improve our current moderation system, improve mobile functionality, and build more tools for our customer service team to ensure all inquiries can be handled efficiently before exiting beta and opening unrestricted free registrations. We do apologize that we were unable to meet the 2019 deadline, but it’s very important to us to ensure our platform is the best it can be before releasing it publicly. We believe that the upcoming invitation system will allow our user community to grow and stay active while we are working on the full public release. Our new deadline for the full release is the first quarter of 2020.

While we are still building the premium features suite we will be relying solely on user donations to keep Pillowfort.social online and to compensate our team working on the platform. We will make another announcement with more details about the invitation system as we get closer to the launch. Be sure you are following us to be the first to know when we are ready to release the next phase of our open beta.

Likes/Reblog Notification Update

We heard your feedback about the notification alerts/dashboard, and we will introduce an option soon for you to only receive sidebar alerts for new replies (though you will still be able to optionally view notifications for likes/reblogs in the dashboard itself). Thanks for your feedback, as we really do want to make your experience on Pillowfort as agreeable as possible. :)

Artist Spotlight

Thank you to all of the artists & creatives who submitted your art and photography for the Pillowfort log-in page! We are working on a full revamp of our log-in page that will feature our selection of artists’ works, and hope to have that done within the coming month.

Moderation Update

We have had a number of inquiries regarding our volunteer moderator system. Thank you for your continued interest in becoming a volunteer moderator! Our team is currently working on fleshing out the volunteer moderator system and will have another update to share Autumn 2019.

Pillowfort101 Update

Our latest installment to our tutorial series, Pillowfort101, is now available! In this tutorial we introduce you to your blog. This is an excellent introduction on how to get started on Pillowfort. Be sure to check it out here.

Follow Us on Social Media

Interact with Pillowfort Staff, ask questions, plus learn about upcoming features and more on social media.

Pillowfort: Staff Facebook: Pillowfortsocial Twitter: @pillowfort_soc Tumblr: pillowfort-social

Coming Soon

Here’s a look at some of the exciting features we have planned to be released during the next couple months:

Likes & Reblogs Notification Filter.

Invitation System for Free Registrations.

Improved moderation tools for Community Mods.

New Landing Page.

Various improvements to site UI & functionality.

Increased marketing to grow the Pillowfort Community.

Coming in 2019

Here’s a look at some of the larger scale improvements we are planning for the later half of 2019:

Site-wide UI Re-Design.

Improved general functionality & usability of the website.

Volunteer Moderator System.

Release of premium features suite.

Privacy settings for Communities such as approval-only membership, the ability to make content only visible to existing members, and more!

A Special Thanks

Thank you for your continued encouragement, well wishes, and outpouring support as we are working towards the roll out the invitation system for existing users. Our staff takes all feedback seriously because we are very passionate about making Pillowfort a safe, user-friendly community for creators & users alike.  

July was a challenging month for our developer team as there were several critical bugs found during QA of the Likes/Reblog notification system which slightly delayed the release of several improvements & features. Now that the update is released, our team is back on schedule.

We are planning for August to be a more robust month filled with even more exciting features and improvements.

As a reminder: Pillowfort’s livelihood depends on the support we receive from our users to help us continue to pay our servers to keep the lights on and to compensate our team working on Pillowfort while we develop our long-term business plan.  Our platform has been entirely user-funded since the beginning. We do not receive any funding from investors or venture capitalist funding because we are committed to keeping our user experience a priority and not beholden to outside interests.

Best, Pillowfort Staff

[konnl]

Forecasting

Okay! So, April was an exciting month. We had a book signing and then the Calgary Comic Expo which was a four-day fandom convention. I sold a short story and revealed the cover to the short Mental Damnation story that will be out with Constellate Publishing. On top of all of that, the new novel, The White Hand, has been going through formatting and I finally got the proof in my hand – woohoo! That’s a busy month. None of it would have been possible if I wasn’t forecasting the whirlwind of activity.

Welcome to Another Edition of Unprocessed Thoughts

There have been many projects since winter has come to an end. The increase of work is typical with the design and web world. After about five years of doing freelance work, I have become wiser at forecasting workloads and adjusting accordingly.

For April, I have gotten no writing done. That’s right, nothing. I still had flash fiction coming out and short stories being announced. This was because of forecasting and being able to backlog some writing in preparation for the busy season with graphic design and web development. It worked out. Sure, the design work was crazy, days were long, and deadlines were near, but it was far more manageable than having to do all the writing on top of it.

Planning works wonders. Taking action during down periods works wonders. If I hadn’t, I don’t think anything would have been completed in time. That includes web design projects, short stories, and the new novel. Its easier to schedule the blog for a couple of months and do a bunch of writing over a few days rather than trying to squeeze it in between back-to-back meetings, emails, and phone calls.

Calgary Comic Expo

Enough about forecasting. Let’s chat about the Calgary Comic Expo. I organized a couple of panels like with other years and manned the booth all weekend with some new adjustments to how I handle sales and presentation. It was a success. This was the best expo to date and am humbled by the amount of people who have enjoyed the stories and came back for more. Wow. That is one way to become supercharged with purpose when writing.

View this post on Instagram

Day 1 of the @calgaryexpo! In The Big Four at booth 6104. Drop by and CONSUME Damnation! #mentalDamnation #seedMeNovel #YEGmanNovel #author #conLife #writer #bookstagram #authorsOfInstagram #writersOfInstagram #writerLife #expoLife

A post shared by Konn Lavery (@_konnartist) on Apr 25, 2019 at 12:19pm PDT

The Love of Writing

I am beyond excited to launch The White Hand in June and continue to expand on writing. More exciting things are planned with the Rutherford Manor universe. Not much to share now, but trust me, all good things.

The slasher novel is going through a third wave of beta readers for one more set of feedback. It has expanded drastically from the 50,000 words of the original draft up to 65,000. As I have mentioned before, this one I am holding onto. No rush to get this one out since The White Hand is the primary focus.

View this post on Instagram

Hey everyone! My quiet online activity is due to some exciting news. I have been working tirelessly on finishing up a new writing project. It's been kept under wraps for a while and I am thrilled to announce the fourth and final novel in the Mental Damnation series! Mental Damnation IV: Steamy After reviewing the previous three books, I finally understood how the series should end. Check out the synopsis below: SYNOPSIS After the tragic events at the Ruins of Mortals Run, Krista and her allies continue to search for a way out of Dreadweave Pass. Krista meets Darkwing's long lost brother and develops complicated feelings for him. How did Darkwing not tell her that he had such a studly brother? Through a series of intertwined relations and circles of emotions, Krista finds herself caught in a complex triangle of love, trying to escape from her mental hell! Release date TBA. So excited to share this with you guys. #blessed #eroticaNovel #mentalDamnation #authorLife #darkFantasy #horror #authorsofinstagram #bookstagram #writersofinstagram #readOn #erotica

A post shared by Konn Lavery (@_konnartist) on Apr 1, 2019 at 11:20am PDT

Then there is the Mental Damnation series. I made that cruel April fool’s joke on the 1st of April. I must apologize (sort of) for the joke. Steamy is not the fourth novel. I did however refresh myself on the series by re-reading the three books and reviewing all of the plot notes to date. Why? To finish of the series of course. No confirmed launch time yet, it is still in the early plotting phase.

Think of it this way; the story progression had been frozen since the original manuscript back in 2006. Lots of the plot has been altered since then with the release of Reality in 2012, Dream and Fusion in 2014, and the rereleases in 2017-2018 but the story arc up to the end of Purity remained the same.

The ending of Mental Damnation has always been in mind, but now it is about bridging the gap between where Purity ended and where the series ends. It’ll be quite the challenge, and small steps are necessary. Hence the forecasting at the beginning of the year and brushing up on the lore was vital to start book four.

Beer Note: Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale

This month I had Hitachino Nest’s Red Rice Ale. A Japanese beer that has a 7% alcohol level with a rich amber flavor. It is pretty clean and light too which makes it easy to sip on. If you enjoy amber beers this puts a fun spin on it with the cleanliness.