We started the year with some major improvements to our bookmark search, making it possible to sort and filter bookmarks by word count, and deployed several batches of fixes to strengthen site security and improve performance. These release notes collect all changes made to AO3 in January.

Shoutout to first-time contributors Juliette Curran, KooShnoo, Mae Light, and sanchal ghosh! Thank you for your work.

Credits

• Coders: Brian Austin, Cubostar, FlyingFalcon, irrationalpie, Juliette Curran, kiyazz, KooShnoo, Mae Light, sanchal ghosh, Sarken, Shakelush
• Code reviewers: anmazz, Bilka, Brian Austin, james_, KooShnoo, lydia-theda, ömer faruk, Sarken
• Testers: ana, Bilka, Brian Austin, choux, killiane, Lute, lydia-theda, marcus8448, ömer faruk, slavalamp, wichard, Yuca

Details

Release 0.9.453

On January 21, we deployed some major improvements to our bookmark search, including the ability to filter and sort bookmarks by word count!

• [AO3-6301] – Series blurbs would list all fandom tags from the works included in that series, even if a work was still saved as an unpublished draft. Now series blurbs only display fandoms from posted works.
• [AO3-6303] – Series blurbs would also always list fandoms from works that were restricted to logged-in users. We now make sure that if a fandom in a series comes from a restricted work, it’s not listed when a guest is browsing series blurbs.
• [AO3-6304] – Relatedly, series blurbs would always show up in bookmark listings for a certain tag even if that fandom’s work in the series was restricted to logged-in users. That’s also fixed now!
• [AO3-6471] – We have added word count information to bookmarks! You can now search, filter, and sort bookmarks by the length of the bookmarked work or series. If a series contains restricted works and you’re not logged in, a series’ word count will reflect only the works that are accessible to you.
• [AO3-7119] – We tweaked the way search queries work when searching bookmarks, so input is parsed more accurately and a “1k” and a “2k” tag won’t be interpreted as the same tag anymore (for example).

Release 0.9.454

A small grab bag of fixes was released on January 26.

• [AO3-7264] – We employ certain measures to prevent spam on AO3, such as limiting how many times an action can be performed by a user in a certain time frame. We have now added an option to restrict new accounts more severely than older accounts when it comes to leaving and editing comments.
• [AO3-7238], [AO3-7262] – We added extra information to the details our spam-checking provider uses to determine if a comment is spam or not.
• [AO3-7045], [AO3-7060], [AO3-7248] – Some database clean-up and dependency updates.

Release 0.9.455

On January 28, we deployed some of the necessary changes to enable two-step verification for AO3 admin accounts.

• [AO3-6918] – These changes prepare the login interface for 2FA enforcement to ensure the greatest possible security for admin accounts.
• [AO3-7249] – Site admins, such as members of the Policy and Abuse committee, frequently need to look up a user’s past usernames and email addresses. To speed up searches while we work on long-term performance improvements, we moved this information to separate tables.

Release 0.9.456

A collection of navigation and display fixes was deployed on January 30.

• [AO3-6869] – On devices running iOS, footnotes on the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form were misaligned. Now everything looks tidy again.
• [AO3-7028] – In one of our public site skins, some pagination links had become unclickable. If you’ve been using the Low Vision Default skin, now you can page through a user’s works in collections again!
• [AO3-7213] – On narrow screens, the “Suggest a Language” button on the Work Languages page was slipping behind the list of languages and couldn’t be clicked. That’s also fixed.
• [AO3-7247] – Fixed the broken link to the Fannish Next of Kin FAQ on the Technical Support & Feedback form.
• [AO3-7251], [AO3-7266] – Some code clean-up.