New Features on IFDB

This is a summary of recent additions and changes to the site. The list isn't comprehensive - we report only the more visible and significant changes, so you might notice some minor changes from time to time that aren't reported here.

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6 September 2023

New this week: The team has been hard at work on improvements to IFDB.

Search by days: published:30d- searches for games published within the last 30 days. published:90d-30d searches for games published within the last 90 days, but more than 30 days ago.

Renamed “Downloads” to “External Links”: IFDB doesn’t store files, so we hope that by renaming this section, it will make it clearer what we do.

Made it easier to ask the moderation team to delete games: Now you can click “Delete This Page” on any game. We’ll ask you to give a reason why the game should be deleted, and IFDB will send an email to our team for review. (Our team is all volunteers, so please be patient!)

11 July 2023

Security Updates:

In a recent update to IFDB, we’ve added a Content Security Policy, designed to provide broad defenses against XSS attacks. https://github.com/iftechfoundation/ifdb/pull/242

The change required updates to almost every part of IFDB, and so it wouldn’t be totally shocking if we broke something while rolling it out.

If you see a new issue, we invite you to reply on the intfiction.org forum, or to file a bug in our suggestion tracker at https://github.com/iftechfoundation/ifdb-suggestion-tracker/issues.

18 February 2023

The 2022 IFDB Awards have now concluded: The 2022 IFDB Awards are now closed. Results are available here. Feedback can directed to this forum post. Thanks to all those who participated!

The 2022 IFDB Awards are in!:

Overall Categories

Outstanding Game of the Year - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Game of the Year 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Debut of 2022 - Player’s Choice - an IFDB Poll

Outstanding Debut of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Game over 2 hours in 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding Short Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Short Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Underappreciated Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Tie:

Outstanding Underappreciated Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Most Sequel-worthy game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Most Sequel-worthy Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Feelies of 2022 - Player’s Choice
Tie:

Outstanding Feelies of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Trailblazer Award of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Trailblazer Award of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Worldbuilding of 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding Use of Interactivity in 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Use of Interactivity in 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Retro Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Retro Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Language Based Polls

Outstanding German Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding Spanish Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding French Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding French Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Genre Polls

Outstanding Fantasy Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding Horror Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding Humor Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Humor Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice
Tie:

Outstanding Mystery Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Mystery Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice
Tie:

Outstanding Science Fiction Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding Slice of Life Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding Surreal Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Surreal Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

System-based polls

Outstanding Inform 7 Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Inform 7 Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Inform 6 Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Inform 6 Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice
Tie

Outstanding Adventuron Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding Twine Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Twine Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Choicescript Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice
TIe:

Outstanding Choicescript Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Adrift Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice
Tie:

Outstanding Adrift Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Game in a Custom System in 2022 - Player’s Choice and Author’s Choice

Outstanding Game in an Uncommon System in 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Game in an Uncommon System in 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding PunyInform Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding PunyInform Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

Outstanding Ink Game of 2022 - Player’s Choice

Outstanding Ink Game of 2022 - Author’s Choice

31 January 2023

The 2022 IFDB Awards are open!: The 2022 IFDB Awards are open from Feb 1 to Feb 17! The rules for the competition can be found here, and a list of all categories can be found here.

Categories for the 2022 IFDB Awards:

Overall Polls:

Outstanding Game of the Year - Player's Choice

Outstanding Game of the Year 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Debut of 2022 - Player's Choice - an IFDB Poll

Outstanding Debut of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Game over 2 hours in 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Game over 2 hours in 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Short Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Short Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Underappreciated Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Underappreciated Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Most Sequel-worthy game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Most Sequel-worthy Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Feelies of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Feelies of 2022 - Author's Choice

Trailblazer Award of 2022 - Player's Choice

Trailblazer Award of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Worldbuilding of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Worldbuilding of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Use of Interactivity in 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Use of Interactivity in 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Retro Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Retro Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Language-based Polls:

Outstanding German Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding German game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Spanish Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Spanish Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding French Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding French Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Genre Polls:

Outstanding Fantasy Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Fantasy Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Horror Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Horror Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Humor Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Humor Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Mystery Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Mystery Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Science Fiction Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Science Fiction Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Slice of Life Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Slice of Life Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Surreal Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Surreal Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

System-based Polls:

Outstanding Inform 7 Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Inform 7 Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Inform 6 Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Inform 6 Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Adventuron Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Adventuron Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Twine Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Twine Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Choicescript Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Choicescript Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Adrift Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Adrift Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Game in a Custom System in 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Game in a Custom System in 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Game in an Uncommon System in 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Game in an Uncommon System in 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding PunyInform Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding PunyInform Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Outstanding Ink Game of 2022 - Player's Choice

Outstanding Ink Game of 2022 - Author's Choice

Rules for the 2022 IFDB Awards:

The IFDB Awards is an annual competition designed to award excellence in creating interactive fiction.

It is held from February 1st to the first weekend after February 15th each year on the Interactive Fiction Database, and take the form of polls.
-The Player’s Choice competition is a set of open polls that anyone can participate in.
-The Author’s Choice competition is a set of closed polls that only published authors can participate in.
Votes in the Player’s Choice competition are public. Votes in the Author’s Choice competition are public but anonymized.

Eligibility to vote in the Author’s Choice competition is determined by having a game linked to your IFDB profile (this can be found by editing a game page and use the ‘Link to Author’s Profile’ feature. Authors added incorrectly to a game will not be permitted to vote (for instance, if someone associates a random game they didn’t make to their account).

Rules for discussion and voting
-Voting must be in good faith and be based on personal experience with the games involved.
-Campaigning or organizing voting is not allowed if it breaks the above rule.
-Discussion of games on merit is allowed and encouraged.
-There is no hard limit on how many votes a person can cast in each poll for different games. A player voting for so many games that it makes voting difficult for others (such as voting for every game from the whole year) may have their votes removed, but only after warning.
-Author cannot vote for their own games. Such votes will be removed so that the running tallies are correct. Authors can post about their own games (for instance on intfiction) as long as doesn’t encourage people to break the rules (such as telling people to vote for your game even if they haven’t played it).

Code of conduct

-Voters must abide by the IFDB Code of Conduct. Harassment of other voters (including on other platforms) and creating multiple accounts for one person are prohibited.

Moderation -Votes that are cast incorrectly (for instance, voting for a Twine game in a Choicescript poll) or fraudulently (for instance, using sockpuppet accounts) may be removed.

Eligibility -For most polls, games are eligible if they are listed on IFDB and have a publication date during 2022.
-For system- or genre-specific polls, games additionally must have the appropriate system or genre listed on their IFDB page under the specified field.
-Each poll will have a link to an IFDB search listing eligible games.
-Any IFDB user can edit game pages to confirm eligibility. However, malicious editing (such as adding every genre to a game or adding incorrect systems to a game) will be reverted or removed.
-Any game author can opt out of the competition. Adding a note to the game page during the competition may be helpful to let others know not to vote for it, but opting out should be officially done by messaging the organizer (me, for now).
-The organizer’s games are eligible for the player’s choice awards, but not the author’s choice awards.

Results -Results will be clearly visible throughout the poll. However, there will be a grace period of up to 3 days at the end to allow checking of votes before the official announcements, which will be made on Intfiction and IFDB.
-Polls with very low traffic will not have a winner awarded. This is left up to organizer discretion, but low traffic may include less than 5 votes for the winning game or less than ten votes total cast.

Future of Awards

One of the main purposes of these new awards is to be community-owned and regular. They need to keep working even if I don’t keep working.

The awards begin on February 1st of each year. If Feb 1st passes without the current organizer having created the polls, anyone can create the polls themselves.

The community can propose new changes to awards or new organizers via public discussion. A public yes/no poll on intfiction with more than 50% voting yes can be used to add new organizers. Current organizers can also add in other organizers or successors, subject to a public veto.

24 January 2023

New this week: Improvements to IFDB Polls: The team has been hard at work on improvements to IFDB.

Locked Polls: When editing a poll you've created, you can now "lock" the poll, preventing anyone from adding, removing, or editing votes.

Anonymous Polls: When creating a poll, you can now choose to make the poll "public" or "anonymous." In public polls, everyone can see who voted for each item in the poll. In anonymous polls, you can only view the number of votes for each poll item. (IFDB administrators can see who voted for what.)

1 February 2022

New this week: The team has been hard at work on improvements to IFDB.

Exclude editorial reviews from member reviews: In a few places, we were miscounting off-site ("editorial") reviews as "member reviews." (If you see the number of reviews has decreased, that's almost certainly why.)

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