GTPlanet Update Log: Feature Announcements and Site Changes

[Jordan]

UPDATE: As of December 13, 2021, the search engine has been patched and is now publicly available once again. Thank you for your patience!

Search has been temporarily disabled on the GTPlanet Forums due to the "Log4Shell" zero-day vulnerability discovered yesterday in a utility used by our search engine.

[Update: CISA issues Log4j vulnerabilities scanner] Log4j zero-day "Log4Shell" arrives just in time to ruin your weekend

A zero-day vulnerability with a CVSS score of 10.0 has been discovered in Apache's hugely popular Log4j utility.

blog.malwarebytes.com

‘The Internet Is on Fire’

A vulnerability in the Log4j logging framework has security teams scrambling to put in a fix.

www.wired.com

This is one of the most serious and wide-reaching security issues affecting Internet infrastructure discovered in recent memory. Services from major tech companies including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft have all been revealed as vulnerable to this exploit.

As for GTPlanet, our web application firewall rules were updated quickly by our security service, and I applied recommended settings changes as soon as I was notified yesterday. Although we have several layers of defense in place, the affected software remains vulnerable. Due to the extreme severity of this issue and at the recommendation of security researchers, I have temporarily disabled the search function out of an abundance of caution until the affected software is officially patched. Because this is such a high-profile issue, I expect the patch will be released in the coming hours or days.

For now, you can continue to use the full-site search engine available at gtplanet.net/search.

 

[Jordan]

As you might have noticed, GTPlanet's seasonal Christmas decorations are up! ☃️

To help the community spread extra cheer, the 🔥 reaction has been temporarily replaced with a 🎄. Give it a try!

Thank you all for helping to make 2022 a record-breaking year for GTPlanet.

Here's to a happy holiday season and a healthy and safe 2023!

 

[Jordan]

Random fart sounds have been added to the poo reaction.

 

[Jordan]

A new software update has just been installed for the GTPlanet Forums.

Although most of the changes are “under the hood”, it brings some new public features and changes to be aware of.

Autocomplete Search Results

(Note: this new feature is pending while the search database is rebuilt over the next 24 hours.)

Searches will now be completed as you type, offering suggestions and previews of the content you will see in the results. This works across the different search fields, and the autocomplete results will match any filters you have set (for example, searching within specific threads or forums).

Direct Message Search Improvements

(Note: this new feature is pending while the search database is rebuilt over the next 24 hours.)

"Conversations" or "private messages" will now be referred to as "direct messages".

The direct message search feature, which allows you to search all of the private messages you have exchanged with other users, has been significantly improved and fully integrated into the primary search system. You can now search direct messages from the main search tab and use Advanced Search filters. You can also restrict searches to specific direct message threads.

WebP Image Support

You can now upload WebP images directly into forum posts. All new images uploaded to the forum will be automatically converted to the WebP file format.

WebP offers significant compression advantages over PNG and JPEG, resulting in 25-35% smaller file sizes. This helps optimize server storage, reduces bandwidth consumption, and further reduces page loading times (especially for mobile users).

The WebP image format is supported by over 95% of global web browsers in use today, but it is not universally supported (see a browser compatibility chart). If you are using an unsupported browser, you will need to upgrade to view images posted in the GTPlanet Forums moving forward.

Forum Post Embedding

GTPlanet Forum posts can now be "embedded" on other websites or in other posts, similar to embedding options available from YouTube and other social media platforms.

To embed a post, simply paste its URL onto its own line. It will be embedded with a preview like so:

Post in thread 'The GTPlanet Podcast Thread'

Monday at 11:10 AM

Much To Shout About In Update 1.61?



Andrew and Chaz get talking about the latest update to come to Gran Turismo 7, and discuss the interesting - for differing reasons - trio of cars, and usual fixtures seemingly fading from importance in these regular updates.

00:00 Introduction
02:09 Nissan Qashqai Tekna e-Power
08:14 Honda N-One RS
12:27 NISMO R34 GT-R Z-Tune
17:13 Still No New Tracks...
24:15 Sophy Boycotts High Speed Ring's Banking
25:54 No Extra Menu Books?
30:59 Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Updates

• ChazDraycott

As always, you can grab a specific post's URL by clicking on its timestamp or its "share" icon. The share panel has been updated to include both the direct URL and an HTML snippet needed to embed the post on another website.

More Changes

• New "split-score" graphs are available for files hosted in the GTPlanet Downloads library. This shows a graph of how review scores are distributed for a given file.
• The code which generates media library files has been improved and optimized. This should result in faster loading media library pages.
• You can now directly manage your Premium subscription payment options in your GTPlanet account settings, making it easier to update your payment method or cancel your subscription.

Despite the relatively few new user-facing features, this was a significant technical update to modernize the infrastructure and help us prepare for the next major upgrade. The amount of changes below the surface will likely cause things to break in unexpected ways.

As always, please be sure to share any questions you may have or report anything you find broken here in the Site Support forum.