OfficerClinton

Hello everyone,

I hope you're having a fantastic springtime and looking forward to the summer!
 
It's been a long time since we've posted a website roundup update, but there's a few changes we're really excited to let you know about. Some of these changes you may have already seen, some will definitely be new.
 
File Tagging System Rollout
We've started Phase 1 of our file tagging system rollout. This update went live today and additionally we've spent some time tagging the first few pages of Vehicle Models to introduce you to it.
 

A look at some files with new tags, different tag types are distinctively coloured.
 
One of the reasons we have not used the built-in tagging system that comes with the software we are using is because it lacks a lot of features a community our size needs. The new home-grown solution combines the tagging solution that comes with our software natively, but extends it with many features:
The ability for our moderation staff to manage tags Tag "categories" with distinctive features, for example; Vehicle Brands, Vehicle Year, System Tags Ability for us to easily see tag use Ability for members to easily navigate tags Ability for authors to find the tags they want to apply easily, and with tag categories, ensure they're picking the correct tags. System and gated tags. For example, the tags fivem and lml will be automatically applied to files and cannot be applied manually. Certain tags can also be gated as author-only, or site-staff only for future expansion. We have started the system today with some vehicle-specific tags (Vehicle Brand, Vehicle Year and Vehicle Country). More tags and tag categories will come as we move into the other phases of this new tagging system.
If you've got any feedback on what tags and tag categories we could further add, feel free to leave feedback on this post.

Here's a small list of what we're working on for future updates:
Community and reputation based tagging (users can tag old files to help tag files which are never going to be updated) A new part of the site where you can see all tags on a certain page, and sort by their uses. Automatic tagging based on image analysis and OCR. A page where anyone can recommend tags (and perhaps tag categories) which can be voted on. Making it easier to tag files, by not allowing arbitary input into the tag box.
 
Using the new downloads tag page to find tags that have files you're interested in.
 
 




Authors, you can get started today tagging your files, just hit the 'Add Tag' button next to your file title.
Tagging is always optional, but helps users find your file in the sea of uploads.
  thorium_9XtQr4UChBbmgLFCyZI0AGJu1.mp4  
A short video showing how to tag files.

AI alt-text and Image Precheck
We now automatically generate an alt-text for all images uploaded. You can see these on image attachments on the forum, as well as file screenshots. These will help discovery both via LCPDFR.com site search (these tags are now inserted into our search index) and Google as well as aid to make the site a bit more accessible.
Along with this, images are now checked via our Image Precheck system for compliance with our Community Guidelines. Images which may not be in compliance with our Community Guidelines may be held for approval or rejected. We hope this keeps the community safer.
 
Speed & Performance
We fixed two major causes of latency for logged in users over the past few weeks. Both of these were caused by bad database queries.
We've shaved off around ~4s worst case of viewing the LCPDFR.com homepage, and around ~1.5s worst case of latency per file listing.
Thank you to the ULSS Discord Server for bringing this to my attention (specifically @SuperPyroManiac).
 
Other Fixes & Changes
Introduced WebAuthn 2FA support. While this is going to be used mostly internally for securing administrative accounts, this option is also available to all users. Show a warning when using colors in the website editor, reminding users of the different themes. LSPDFR Sync no longer shows deactivated members' characters. Fixed an issue with recording and displaying file checksums on the post-download page. Fixed file embeds from rendering an entire page on error. Fixed an issue IPS refuses to fix, correctly lazyloaded content between paginations. Added a game filter to user download special pages. Fixed an issue with file comments/reviews being removed from the search index. Guest views now correctly increment content view counts. ...And numerous other backend changes that would be too expansive to list.  
Cyan.

Been a while, huh?
 
You know, when we first started making LSPDFR, the whole process was pretty much one big roller-coaster that didn't have any brakes:  there were the obvious highs when we'd finally add in something cool, but the low points were pretty hard as well - the amount of work that went into simply researching how things worked really took its toll as well.  And, of course, while this was all going on there just simply wasn't any stopping, we were a couple of (somewhat) real people who essentially lived in Los Santos for just about all of 2015, spending month after month pushing forward and trying to come up with things that everyone here would like to see.
 
So, of course, the grind and the pace of everything simply just wasn't sustainable and after 0.3, it's no secret that while the numbers and everything for our site are still on the up, month after month, things did slow down quite substantially for the actual mod itself.  But, we can tell you, this wasn't all bad news - it's afforded us the opportunity to take a step back and really look at the mod and figure out where we want to go next with it.  While our approach before was all about cramming as much new stuff as we could into a couple of months of development, we've now been able to look back at many of the original ideas and concepts that we had for LSPDFR and build on them.  Of course, with that being said, there's still a lot of new stuff crammed into 0.4!
 

 
With 0.4, we've taken the time to fix a couple of those "how the hell didn't they add this yet" moments :)
 
Aside from the cool little additions like this, though, the major theme of 0.4 is Character.  Ever since seeing the character system for GTA Online, it was always our goal to implement something similar in LSPDFR.  There's just something that much more personal and immersive about playing a game with your own character, and the possibilities that it offers are staggering too.  And yes, while mods like EUP are fantastic (and awesomely compatible with 0.4!), they still feel somewhat separate or distant.  With 0.4, this separation is gone.
 

 

 
No, these shots aren't taken from GTA Online.  This is our own, fully-featured, LSPDFR Character Creator.
 
Of course, we'll talk more about the new Character features in LSPDFR 0.4 later.  The Character Creator menu shown above is obviously only one part of what's new in this regard, although hopefully it emphasizes the effort that we've gone to.  Thanks to some of the new additions like this, much of 0.4 actually looks and feels like an entirely new mod altogether.
 

 
Officer Ronson and his clones obviously couldn't make it to the flashlight party. 
 
Stay tuned!  We'll be sharing more about 0.4 soon.