THE JAB ARCHIVES
A running list of updates and improvements to The Jab Archives.
A Display toolbar now sits at the top of every forum page. Pick from five colour schemes — Soft Dark, Sepia, Slate, Paper and Night — including a proper light theme, and step the text size up or down until it’s comfortable to read. Everything updates the moment you click, with no page reload.
Your choice is remembered in your browser and only changes what you see — it doesn’t affect anyone else’s view. If your device is set to light mode, the forum now starts on Paper automatically. The new themes were checked for readable contrast throughout, including for red–green colour blindness.
A Mark all read button now sits in the same toolbar, so you can clear every New label at once instead of opening threads you aren’t interested in just to make them go away. Inside a single area it clears only that area, so you can catch up on one section and leave the rest flagged for later.
Every post now has a Reply button. Using it quotes the post you’re answering and tags your reply as a response to it, so conversations stay easy to follow — replies sit indented under what they’re answering, and each one links back to the post it came from. Indenting stops after a couple of levels so long back-and-forths stay readable on a phone.
You can also edit your own posts now, threads and replies alike. Edited posts show a small “edited” note so nothing changes silently behind anyone’s back.
You can now attach images straight to a forum post — JPG, PNG, GIF or WebP, up to four per post. No image host, no links, just pick the files. Handy if you want feedback on a work in progress, or want to show what you make before applying for an artist gallery.
Attachments unlock once you’ve made a post or your account is a few days old, which keeps drive-by spam out without getting in a real newcomer’s way.
Threads with posts you haven’t read yet are highlighted and marked New, and everything you’ve already caught up on fades back. The forum front page shows a count of unread threads per area, so you can tell where the activity is without opening anything. It’s tracked per account, so it follows you between devices.
You can now like a forum post. It’s a quick way to say “good post” without writing a reply, and the author gets a notification. Both sides count towards your badges — the person who wrote it and the person who appreciated it.
Profile badges have been expanded well beyond uploads and followers. There are now badges for forum posts, threads started, discussions that draw replies, likes given and received, bookmarks saved and artists followed — so being a regular reader who joins in counts for something, not just posting art.
Your top badges also appear next to your name on forum posts. Everything is worked out from what you’ve actually done, so nothing needs claiming and existing members already have whatever they’ve earned.
Your saved posts now appear in a My Bookmarks section on your own profile, alongside the existing Bookmarks page. They stay private — only you can see what you’ve saved.
Posts now show a bookmark count next to the like count, so artists can see how many people saved a piece. It’s only ever a number: who bookmarked something is never shown to anyone.
The forum panel on the homepage now lists the latest threads with their area, author and reply count, so you can see what’s being talked about without leaving the front page. The Library panel was tightened up at the same time.
There’s a brand new forum, built right into the site — no separate account, no second login. It uses your existing TJA profile, avatar and display name. Discussion is organised into areas and sub-areas (Community, Artwork, Site) so topics stay tidy, and posts support the same BBCode formatting as the Library: bold, italics, quotes, spoilers, links and images. Moderators can pin, lock and remove threads, and anything can be reported for review.
Artists can now run a poll from Manage Gallery → Polls. Add up to ten options and decide how it works: let people pick one option or several, open it to your followers or to all members, show results straight away or keep them hidden until someone votes (or until the poll closes), and allow or lock changes of mind. Optionally set a closing date, or close it yourself whenever you like.
Your poll appears on your profile and at the top of your gallery pages, it’s listed on the new Polls page, and your followers get a notification when it opens. Poll creators can see who voted for what — voters are told this up front, before they vote.
A dedicated space for stories, separate from the art gallery. Authors can post multi-chapter stories with a full editor (rich text or BBCode), custom title images, and content warnings. Readers get font/theme/spacing customization, reading progress that's saved automatically, bookmarks, chapter comments, and even a one-click EPUB download to read offline. Built-in guides walk both readers and writers through everything.
Artists can now organize their pages into proper web comics with chapters, a cover, and a dedicated reader. Find them under the Comics tab.
Your notifications are now split into an Image Posts page and an Activity page (journals, comments, follows, likes, messages, and more), each with its own unread count. You can dismiss individual notifications or clear a whole category at once. You'll also now get notified when someone starts following your gallery.
Browsing a gallery post? Use your left/right arrow keys to jump to the previous or next image.
The artist spotlight on the homepage now rotates through a better, fresher mix of creators instead of favoring the same few.
Fixed a couple of navigation quirks affecting some mobile browsers, including the top menu occasionally not responding to taps.
Resolved an issue that was causing image uploads to fail for some users.
The previous forum has been retired and kept as a read-only archive. Every old thread and post is still there to browse and link to — new posting and registration now happen on the new forum above.