As is the case with any new thing, there are always tweaks and changes because I am a hopeless perfectionist and technology always has shenanigans. Below are some more updates that have recently been pushed to the new FENNEC app. Enjoy!
The space to type in the Chat tab has been modified to be slightly wider vertically by default, and also to dynamically expand as you write, so you can see more of your writing if you have a lengthy input. Basically it mimicks the way Substack chat functions, and this makes it easier to have longer responses put into FENNEC, especially on mobile.
Login has been fixed and replicates what original FENNEC had, which was the 6 digit code mechanism. Without getting too complicated, the original magic link method (click on link —> go to app) was doomed because of very stupid email client prefetch behaviors that I could do nothing about, which is why some of you were getting the link expired error despite clicking on it in time. That is fixed now!
When you add a Favorite now it also imports your existing custom tags as options, whereas before it only gave you the default (Librarian, Quiz, etc.) plus the option to create a custom tag. This should make tagging much easier and more fluid.
The “Online” status column in the Members tab has been removed. It was unreliable and so not useful. I thought it would give it a 1995 AOL messenger kind of feel but I’ve decided to remove it.
The Bible tab has had some significant changes. You can now click on a bible verse and it will be highlighted, whereas before you had to find a hyperlinked verse in the Chat in order to actually select a verse. Now you can just select it in the reader. The highlight color has also been changed for Dark Mode, to match Light Mode’s light yellow and pop out, so it looks much better. As a result, you can now comment on individual verses directly in your Bible. These are saved as Favorites also, but you can manage your Bible notes specifically in the Bible tab. Furthermore, there is a new section underneath the place where you add the note. This section is the “Previous Notes” section, which enumerates your previous notes just like the Favorites tab — only it is Bible notes specifically and it is only the ones for that particular verse. You can delete these notes just like you do Favorites, by clicking the “x” by the date, which they are organized by default by.
There is now a “copy” icon at the bottom of all notes (Bible or Favorites) where you can immediately copy the content of the note (your comment, FENNEC’s response, whatever) and paste it somewhere else. This does not copy the tags or the date, only the content and formatting of the note.
The date for your Favorites is now locked in at the top right corner of the note, whereas before if you had multiple custom tags it would push it out of alignment to the left.
Refreshing your screen or coming back later to your conversation (like the next day) does not break the auto-detecting tag mechanism of adding Favorites. In other words, there is a mechanism that is supposed to know (in general) where you are in the flow, so that when you go to add a response as a Favorite, it pre-selects Discussion, Quiz or Librarian as a tag. If you refreshed the chat or came back later (after a day or two), your Favorited message (if you happened to save any of them in the recent record) were not remembered as Favorites, and also if you wanted to add a message as a Favorite, it would not auto-populate the classifier tag. If you continued the chat from that point, in your current session, then this would work fine. But it was the remembering behavior that was the problem, and now that should be fixed. The only exception, because of the way browser sessions work, is that if you return after a day or two — the auto-tagging mechanism on previously loaded messages breaks, and you will have to manually select the primary tag (Librarian, Discussion, etc.) if you want to save it. Your progress and position is saved, it’s just this auto-tagging detector that doesn’t work in this particular situation, which is not that big of a deal. Favorites are remembered regardless now, and a refresh doesn’t affect auto-tagging on previous messages so long as everything is all in the same browser session. The tab’s session cache is the issue, but in most cases that’s not going to be a big deal nor is it that big of a problem.
I hope these tweaks help you enjoy FENNEC even more and that you will share the fun with your friends. Refresh your current app (refresh in browser or slide down in mobile) to get the latest updates. To access FENNEC, simply click below:
Love the idea of the “copy” feature. I have been making documents of all of my notes and keeping them filed on my device. I may not even have to do that anymore with all of the tweaks you have made with “Favorites” but I haven’t tried that feature yet. Thanks for making things even more user friendly.
There have been times when I would have loved to have immediately accessed the fox, but at this moment,can’t remember what it was.