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Changelog

The latest updates to the Crucial Tracks app.

  • Added My Profile Page link to new dashboard - was in user menu, but wanted to make it more prominent.
  • Added 2 new badge types to earn: 'Streaks' and '# of Posts in a Date Range'.
    • Streaks are set to 7, 14, 30, 60, 100, 200, and 365 days for now. Once you earn a badge it's yours to keep. Your profile page will show your longest streak badge. Beat the streak and earn the next level!
    • # of Posts in a Date Range - this will help me do badges like NovembEAR, which is for posting every day during November. More challenges to come in the future!
  • Built a REST API - my plan is to build a native iOS app with this, but it can be used for other purposes as well.
  • Apple Music users - under the user menu, there is a new option: Listening History. See your last 50 tracks from Apple Music and start a new entry using one of those songs.
  • Added Badges and Challenges. Earn profile badges for participating! Badges are currently awarded for 10, 30, 60, 100, 150, 200, 365 posts. More opportunities coming soon.
  • Decades Challenge: answer all of the prompts starting with 'A song from the 1950s (60s/70s/80s/etc.)...' and earn the Decades badge.
  • Core Challenge: answer all of the prompts matching questions from the Crucial Tracks interview and earn the Core badge. See the Prompt Explorer to track your progress.
  • Added links to the Mastodon and Bluesky posts when you share to these services. The links are visible on Public Tracks, your profile, and the entry pages linked off of your profile.
  • New dashboard design! Added some color, a bit more focus on the prompt, and re-worked some widgets to make them more of a quick glance.
  • The dashboard prompt widget has customizable themes for the background color. See the Settings > Appearance page for options. Gradients and solid colors!
  • Bandcamp URLs now grab and save the album artwork to use around the site. Future Bandcamp entries will have an updated embed (no artwork shown) and the song embed will show up in place of the Apple Music contents..
  • Moved the site to have top navigation to give the main part of the page more space... more design improvements coming to pages soon! (Dashboard was the first major re-design.)
  • Updated the Create Entry page, moving some form fields to a sidebar to better take advantage of the extra space.
  • Welcome emails for new users! (embarrassed this wasn't a thing before...)
  • Initial release of the Prompt Explorer - work to complete all prompts and see how other community members respond to specific prompts.
  • Theme support for public profiles - 3 light and 3 dark themes to start
  • Improved page load speed for Public Tracks page
  • Manual entries now support Bandcamp track URLs and YouTube URLsto add some snazzy fun to your posts.
  • Added song check when creating an entry, to let you know if you've posted about that song before.
  • Surprise Me! If you want an extra challenge, click Surprise Me when creating an entry and the site will randomly pick a Crucial Track song from another user. A cool way to discover and think about new music!
  • Added basic daily, scheduled reminders
  • Enhanced scheduled reminders - choose send time & site skips the reminder if you've already posted for the day.
  • Added playlist artwork to Community Tracks pages (going forward)
  • Added badges for 100, 150, 200 posts
  • Crucial Connections - with every public post, see other users who listen to the same artist or have written about the same song.
  • JSON Export - export all of your posts in JSON format. Available on your My Entries page
  • Merch store - visit our merch store to support the site! (https://merch.crucialtracks.org)
  • Sharing to Bluesky and Mastodon - configure to automatically share new entries to these sites.
  • Add (optional) additional, custom text when you share to Mastodon and Bluesky. 
  • Added support for passing an Apple Music song via URL to start an entry with that song on Crucial Tracks. More info here.
  • Improved the selected song UI.
  • Added RSS feed to Public Tracks page
  • Community Tracks - a weekly curated playlist from the Crucial Tracks community
  • Added profile badges for the first 100 users and posts created (10/30/60)
  • Add to Homescreen + Add to Dock - on Apple devices you can now add Crucial Tracks to your dock and/or homescreen. 
  • Added user time zone support
  • Added markdown toolbar for entry content
  • Added community links to the dashboard: Public Tracks and Community Playlists
  • Improved prompt scheduling and added a Last 10 Prompts view
  • Utilize past prompts when creating entries for days in the past - the prompts from the last two weeks are available. (Select older days on the calendar widget or select a past day on the Create Entry page, then click Use Daily Prompt button)
  • Improved styling for some HTML elements
  • Added webring functionality to public profile pages
  • Added JSON feeds for profiles and Public Tracks. Complete with a song details extension that breaks out the details into fields – great for automation.
  • Added support for Song.link links for every shared song. Get to other streaming services easily!
  • Initial 1.0 release
  • User profiles and authentication
  • Entry creation and management
  • Apple Music search
  • A view of all public posts - Public Tracks - find new music and people to follow!
  • Added a profile setting to default new entries to Public
  • Added an onboarding message for new users
  • Added a rotating daily prompt feature to help you write each day
  • Added a 'Use Daily Prompt' button to the new entry page
  • Bug fixes and mobile layout improvements
  • Better content support in RSS feed (markdown converted to HTML)
  • Individual URLs for public entries (a popular request!)
  • Added 40+ prompts
  • Support content 
  • Add your songs to an Apple Music playlist (instructions here)
  • Added user preference for date format (MDY or DMY)
  • Added user preference for RSS title prefix - you can change the 'Crucial Track for' text to whatever you want. (Rest of title will be the date, in the format you selected for the site.)
  • Add user preference to share Apple Music playlist URL - adds the playlist link to your public profile page, to the bottom of each RSS feed item, and on the Public Tracks page.
  • Added better prompt management - site now tracks when prompts were shown so all prompts are used before one is re-used.