Happy New Year!

January 2024 has been a big month for TARDIS Guide!

I have been spreading the word some more about the site (I was originally waiting for my new logo before promoting the site, but decided to just go for it) and we have gone from 185 members to a huge 800! Thank you so much to all my new members and new patrons.

Big updates

I launched a Discord server! Come and join us!

The Time-Space Randomiser has been soft launched (as in, launched without a fanfare) as it’s not completely finished, but go and have a play!

I totally replaced the social share images – these are a lot nicer now, and easier for me to manage.

I have some more BIG updates coming soon, but for now I’ve done these smaller updates:

Some small updates

The members page now shows a cute monster avatar for those that have not yet uploaded one. Upload an avatar please, it’s more fun!

The server was getting hammered when I posted links on Reddit so I upgraded it.

There is a new setting to choose if you’d like to receive our email newsletter, which is coming soon!

Achievements have been disabled while I optimise and improve them. Don’t worry, you’ll get all the achievements retroactively when it comes back!

I’ve changed how ratings are displayed – they no longer show the weighted, adjusted rank on the listing page because it was confusing people. I do still use the weighted rank to order them though. This has also caused some confusion – it seems I cannot win – so I’m working on a visual explanation for this!

Added some optimisations which should drastically improve page speed.

Added the ability to customise the site & the homepage a bit, way more options coming soon.

Tweaked profile pages to show recent activity and “my next story”.

Surfaced more data about the stories that we store – production code, number of UK viewers, Appreciation Index, runtime.

Content updates

I continue to add more content – more books, the BBC New Series audios, and more!

A big thank you to our patrons – please consider joining them to help fund the hosting and development of the site ❤️

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December was a bit of a quiet one for updates on the site, as I am nearing being happy with the site and finally spreading the word about it outside my followers on Mastodon!

I was hoping to have my new logo this month but it’s been delayed a bit.

We now gather information about stories from Letterboxd! This is another source of reviews, some stories have thousands of reviews from there so we’ve increased the number of reviews on the site by quite a bit!

I added the first two guides on the site – simple ones to start with! A guide to Christmas Doctor Who, and the British Airways 60 Years of Doctor Who Selection. Way more to come, including guides written by others, watch this space!

I also added a major new Stats page – 2023 Revisited. This contains details about all the Whoniverse stories released in 2023! More to come as I expand this to include other years.

I added the ability to see future, unreleased stories! This should allow me to add them earlier and then update them after release quicker. Let’s see if I stick to that.

I worked on the most missing aspect of the site – books! I’ve added lots more books (with each story in a multi-story book having its own Story page), and whilst there are more to add, it’s getting close to being complete!

I fixed some bugs with the Fediverse implementation – it’s now much better, and there are more updates to come.

I battled some spam signups, that was fun. Not.

The Members page has seen an update so people jump to the top of the list any time they do an action on the site – not just when they log in. This helps if people save the login in their browser.

That’s it so far! Thank you to my latest Patrons!

This month we had new Doctor Who on TV!!! So exciting!

We also had a boost to the number of members this month as somebody posted a link on Reddit.. welcome new members!

Here’s what I’ve been working on this month:

I’ve added all the Minisodes to the site – full transcripts for some of them, more to follow!

Big new feature – users can now post links to their blog posts, reviews, and podcasts which will show up on the story page! I want to build a big network of Doctor Who sites, so go ahead and add your links now!

I also added lots more updates to the “Community” section of the story pages, linking off to other sites for reviews.

Account Verification is now easier to apply for, click the link on your profile menu!

Logged-in users can suggest edits against stories!

A new stat on the stats page shows the number of stories for each companion!

I’ve changed Locations to be hierarchical so you can easily drill down into them when filtering stories!

We had The Whoniverse added to iPlayer this month! Amazing! This brings back an easy way for UK viewers to see loads of shows, which I’ve linked up against the stories now. I’m also linking to the Confidential and Unleashed behind-the-scenes for each story.

Tropes can be pretty spoilerish, so they are now hidden until you click them, for stories you have not yet completed.

Fixed a bug 🐞 that was showing ratings incorrectly – oops!

Classic stories now show details for each episode in the serial.

And at the start of December I finished the “Stories by Category” page! How am I writing this in November? Timey Wimey!

That’s it! Phew!

December will be a relatively quiet month for updates, as I have a few trips and Christmas to contend with – contact me with any questions, suggestions, or comments!

I have been thinking long and hard about how to incorporate people’s reviews of stories – I considered allowing people to write reviews on the site but it doesn’t sit that well with me. It would be adding centralisation, and isn’t in the true spirit of the web!

So I’ve started building something better – verified members can now add links to their own website, blog, or podcast episode against each story on my site!

This will eventually create an index of all writings and discussions on episodes by the show’s greatest fans, and they won’t be limited by how I build this site.

So go ahead and sign up, get verified, and submit your links on each story page!

There may be a delay while I moderate them. And I have many future features planned such as listing all of a person’s links on their profile, and lists of links per website as well. Watch this space!

Another big milestone this month, as I switch focus from adding content to adding features!

❤️❤️➕📚

I’ve added loads more books – 588 to be precise! That’s all the Target, Virgin, BBC Past Doctors, BBC Eighth Doctor, and BBC New Series Adventures, plus more including Puffin Classic crossovers.

I don’t think I’ve got every fiction Doctor Who book on the site yet, there are still more yet to be added, but I’ve made a huge dent. Let me know if there are any missing that you need me to add!

Members Page

I’ve added a new Members Page, which allows you to filter and sort members, as well as follow them directly from the list. The follow feature allows you to see their updates straight on your homepage, and more integration with this coming soon!

Big Quotes update

I’ve added loads more quotes, and started adding images for them too now, which makes them much more engaging.

New Share Buttons

I’ve added Share Buttons to all stories, which allow you to easily share with your friends!

New Features in progres

I’ve made some good progress on both the Randomiser and the Compare Stories features, which I’m hoping will release in November! These should both make the site more useful and encourage people to share with friends.

That’s it for now – more to come soon! Next month is a huge month for Doctor Who fans as it comes back on our screens, so I’m hoping to make some big progress and publicise the site!

I’ve been on holiday for most of September, but I still managed to sneak in a few updates to the site, including one big milestone…

❤️❤️➕🎧

I’ve finally finished adding every Big Finish Audio ever to the site! You can now browse them all, mark which ones you own or have completed, and rate stories!

Of course there are new releases added all the time, which I add as soon as I can, so it is ever-growing. And I still need to listen to them all so I can properly analyse the content and add tropes and other details. But It’s a huge milestone!!

New Rating Algorithm

I wasn’t happy with how stories were sorting when you chose “sort by Highest rated”. Stories with around 10 perfect score votes would show higher than stories with hundreds of votes but not quite perfect. I’ve added a new algorithm to fix this, so the number of votes is now taken into consideration!

New Onboarding Screen

I’ve added a new “welcome” onboarding screen for new users, just to explain a little about the site. It’s not perfect and I’ll iterate on it more, but it is a good start!

Reviews from other sites

My site is small and I don’t have a lot of users yet, so how do I get so many reviews? I source them from other websites, and now I’ve added a couple more – GoodReads and Trakt.tv!

Minisodes: work in progress

I’m currently adding the minisodes – think Comic Relief, or DVD exclusive extras. I’m writing my own transcripts of them which means they take a while, but it’s a lot of fun.

That’s it! Here’s to a more productive October, as I get closer and closer to the show coming back, when I will be doing some promotion for the site! ✨

It’s been another big month for content & features on the site – I’m fast approaching finishing adding every Doctor Who story ever!!

Content Updates

Recap of things I’ve previously posted here: After a request from a user I prioritised adding all of Unbound and The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield audios – done! Plus I added Jago & Litefoot & The Lost Stories

I then stopped posting each update as they were fairly minor (and actually I forgot to post about Short Trips) but here they are:

I added all of the Short Trips including rarities & Subscriber Short Trips. These are really great short audio book stories, narrated by a familiar actor. Check them out!

Added all of The Companion Chronicles. More audio books, narrated by Companion actors. Then a detour into some of the Worlds of Doctor Who as I added every story of Cyberman and Dalek Empire. I also added all the Audio Novels and Gallifrey, then I added lots of smaller, lesser-known series like Vienna, Graceless, The Robots. I added all of UNIT and Counter-Measures (old and new), if you like that kind of action-adventure!

I added every TV episode of K9! Love that little guy. The TV series, not so much.

Books! I added all of the Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures books! (With a big help from beqowl who put together a spreadsheet for me).

DVDs and BluRays! I added them all!

Feature Updates

I added a way to support development of the site which will be a blog post of its own. I also added Trakt.TV Integration so we have way more ratings on TV episodes!

The Tools page was added, along with my first tool – Bulk Complete Stories! This is great for people joining the site who have seen loads of Who and don’t want to wear their clicking fingers out. I’m going to integrate it into a new “welcome flow” soon.

A new feature for DVD and BluRay fans – you can now select which ones you own, and the page Stories I Own will gather together the stories contained in there. Great if you’re hunting for an episode to watch from on of your box sets (and it will soon integrate well with the Randomiser and Compare tools…)

I also started adding entries for every individual episode of Classic Who serials. This allows me to show the missing episodes on a story. I will soon also integrate a full description of the plot of every episode, but that comes later!

Profile pages have had a lovely visual refresh, and you can now share your stories lists with other people easily – great for showing people your favourite episodes or the ones you haven’t seen yet! This will integrate with the Compare tool soon!

I added some content to the Roadmap page, although this is outdated now as I’ve already thought of loads more features!

There were lots of other small updates which I either posted about on Mastodon on my Developer account (follow me there for develpment updates!) or didn’t, because I forgot!

Wow that’s a lot of updates!

What’s next?

I’m going to try and do as many updates as I can before I go on a 2 week break in September. After that, it’s a big sprint to get everything done before the 60th Anniversary 😆

See you in Time and Space!