Topic: e621.cc - e621 web viewer for mobile and desktop

Posted under e621 Tools and Applications

Hi folks. I made a neat little project that has been pretty useful for me, so I thought I'd share.

e621.cc

e621.cc is a website that displays e621 posts.

Each post's media fits to the page, providing a viewing experience focused on the content.
The site has a horizontal layout and a vertical layout, which means it's perfect for both mobile and desktop.

It's based on e621.anthro.fr, which is what I used for the longest time. I had frustrations with that site, though:
it felt lacking in options, the horizontal scroll was buggy, and there was no video playback support for iPhone.

So, I created e621.cc to address those issues and add some nifty features.

highlights

  • Privacy first: none of your data is stored server-side.
  • No ads.
  • Options such as image quality, global tags, and image lazy loading.
  • Post navigation with the arrow keys.
  • (Did I mention the vertical layout? It's pretty sweet.)
  • Easy exploration of pools/tags.

For more info, check out the about page.

links

fin

And that's all!

It's a pretty simple little website, but I hope that some people find it useful.
It's still in "alpha" (I developed it in 2 days), but I've been using it for a bit and it's been pretty reliable.

Let me know what you think or if you've got any suggestions. Thanks. :)

Updated

version 2022.10.28.1

I just deployed a fancy new update, and I figured I ought to version the site.
So, here I am! I'll follow YYYY.0M.0D.PATCH for the versioning scheme.

changes

  • Fixed a formatting issue for some links in post descriptions.
  • Added an even lower setting for the quality option: preview.
    • This is a great choice for those who enjoy 144p images, masochists, and those with a bad internet connection.
  • Added -flash to the default global tags.
  • Added a redirect for e621-style URLs.
    • If you want to move a search from e621.net to e621.cc, simply change .net to .cc!
  • Added the site version and some other tech info to the site header.

As a reminder, do feel free to join our Discord server if you'd like to chat or give feedback! :)

Updated

version 2022.10.28.3

Well, that was quick. Only a couple minutes after I posted the version above,
I noticed a huge issue related to the rendering of post descriptions.

Here's a fun fact: prior to this version, if this post was loaded on the page,
all the posts thereafter would either display incorrectly or disappear completely. Fun!

changes

  • Fixed a very bad formatting issue for some links in post descriptions.

(If you're wondering where 2022.10.28.2 went, it vanished. Poof!)
(.. Just kidding. The truth is that .2 introduced a bug that I, within minutes, squashed.)
(I didn't feel that .3 warranted a new post, though, so I elected to edit this one.)

Updated

I'm sorry, I'm sure you put a lot of time and effort into this, and it does look aesthetically pleasing, but I don't I think I can ever get used to the scroll wheel scrolling the page horizontally. I don't know, it just feels off.

sgtabbeyrubber said:
I'm sorry, I'm sure you put a lot of time and effort into this, and it does look aesthetically pleasing, but I don't I think I can ever get used to the scroll wheel scrolling the page horizontally. I don't know, it just feels off.

That's fine! It's not for everyone. That's why there's an option to disable it. :P The toggle button for that functionality is first in the list of options; just look near the middle of the header. (Maybe I should redesign the options to make them more obvious?)

If you're curious: horizontal scroll is enabled by default to emulate e621.anthro.fr's behavior. (Except, e621.anthro.fr doesn't let you disable it at all.) The hope is that if a regular user of e621.anthro.fr gives e621.cc a shot, they should feel right at home. If I were designing the site without that precedent, I'd leave horizontal scroll disabled initially because it does override default browser functionality and, naturally, many people won't like that. But, your changes to the options persist between sessions, so once you disable horizontal scroll, it'll be gone for good.

Neat site, cool how you developed it so quick. This is just a nice way to view art in general, it flows very smoothly. Less overwhelming.

Edit: Just added margins personally for horizontal scrolling, for some reason the images not taking up the whole monitor is easier on my eyes when scrolling.

#chunks {
  padding: 5% 0 5% 0;
}

Updated

zoobmamoop9 said:
Neat site, cool how you developed it so quick. This is just a nice way to view art in general, it flows very smoothly. Less overwhelming.

Thanks! I'm glad that you find it useful.

zoobmamoop9 said:
Just added margins personally for horizontal scrolling, for some reason the images not taking up the whole monitor is easier on my eyes when scrolling.

#chunks {
  padding: 5% 0 5% 0;
}

That's great! I tried to write the site with very straightforward code so that it'd be easy to add styles and make personal adjustments like that.

version 2022.11.10.1

Howdy! I've got some nice little polishes for you folks today.

changes

  • Improved post description formatting.
    • Section tags are now parsed and shown neatly.
    • Supertext, subtext, and underlined text are now properly rendered.
  • Added a few e621 mascots to the about page.
    • Adjust your browser window's width to see 'em all!

That's all. Happy browsing!

Updated

version 2022.11.11.1

What a lovely date to have an update! Lots of 1's and 2's, huh?

changes

  • Fixed a post description formatting issue that could occur with this post.
  • Changed default tag behavior.
    • Now, to search with no tags, just press the search button.
    • Previously, you had to specify at least one tag to override the default rating:s.
    • Opening the site anew will still apply rating:s to the search.
  • Made the search button text lowercase to fit the site's aesthetic.

Even though it was made a little more bearable, I'm debating whether to keep the site's default rating:s behavior at all.
It was done so that people won't potentially be smacked with a big ol' penis upon opening the site, but it is an annoyance if you just want to get straight to your usual e621 browsing session.
If you have any opinions on this, please do let me know.

Updated

version 2022.11.15.1

Well, today, I decided to check on the site just for the heck of it, and saw that it
up n' decided to exhibit some styling issues that I had never seen before and that
were now present in previous versions of the site. No idea how that happened.

Anyway, I fixed some of them. There remains the mystery of why each image
has a bit of extra space to the right of it for no good reason, but that'll
be a mystery for the gang to solve another day.

changes

  • Fixed scroll bars showing in places that they don't need to.
  • Fixed possibly incorrect video/image width and height depending on quality/WebM support.
  • Removed (probably) useless styling in image tags.

Also, you might've noticed that the site's been a bit slower to load recently.
That's because it's been under unusually high load, averaging about 1 request
per second, or 89 thousand a day. The solution would be to upgrade the server,
but that costs $$$ that I'm not sure a silly project like this warrants. If there's
enough interest, though, I'll consider it. Let me know if that's something you
think would be useful to you.

Anywho, hope you're all having a lovely day. Bye now.

Updated

version 2022.11.20.3

Howdy folks! Another day, another e621.cc update.

changes

  • CSS and JS are now bundled into one file to avoid multiple, unnecessary requests to the server.
  • HTML, CSS, and JS are now minified to save a few precious kilobytes of transfer.
  • Fixed some invalid HTML.
  • Improved post separator styling in the vertical view.
  • Fixed unnecessary blank space appearing after post media.

Also, you should notice that the site's a bit quicker to load.
That's partially because of the JS/CSS/HTML minification, but also because
it turns out that most (almost all) of the requests that were putting the server
under load were coming from Google, who was indexing the site's every page,
including every tag. Yes: every single 621 tag. As you might imagine, that's
a lot of requests. A swift edit to the site's robots.txt nipped that issue.

Anyway, that's all.

Updated

version 2022.11.22.2

Hello! Small update for y'all today.
This'll likely be the last update for a while because the site is approaching
a pretty stable state, so naturally there's less that needs to be to changed/fixed.

changes

  • Removed the rating:safe only option as the global tags option provides the same functionality.
    • This was done mostly to reduce visual clutter.
  • Cleaned up the labels and descriptions of the options.
  • Fixed DText link parsing issue.

Ok. Have a nice day. :)

Updated

version 2022.12.18.1

Howdy. Been a while, eh? Got some fixes and neat features today.

changes

  • Added a redirect that takes individual e621 post URLs and turns them into a query.
    • Now, even if you're currently viewing a specific post, moving a search from e621.net to e621.cc is as simple as changing .net to .cc!
  • Fixed a description rendering issue that caused this post to break the site's layout.
  • Added an error page that'll display status information when e621's API is having issues.

Alrighty, that's all from me. Hope you're all enjoying the season!

version 2023.01.23.1

Hi all. Today, I've got some neat changes that are sure to make your viewing experience a bit more pleasant.

changes

  • Added a new option for the vertical layout: minimal.
    • It hides the tag list and description for each post to reduce vertical clutter and make the spacing between posts more consistent.
    • Hiding the tags also prevents inadvertently swiping through the tag list instead of scrolling the page when browsing on mobile.
  • Moved pool info above the post description.
    • Hopefully, you'll now be less likely to miss whether a post is part of a pool since it won't be obscured by ultra-long post descriptions.
  • The "view on e621.net" and "go to source file" links are now on the same line in the vertical layout. (Again, to reduce vertical clutter.)

Got feedback? Let me know at our Discord. :)

Updated

version 2023.02.18.1

Heyo! Quick update for y'all.

changes

  • Detail information has been added to the e621 API error page.
    • This should hopefully make encountering errors less frustrating as you'll now have an idea of what went wrong.
  • The tag list link in the sidebar has been updated.

As always, remember to join our Discord if you haven't already! :D

version 2023.04.01.1

Hi all, happy April Fools' Day! I've got a relatively small but pretty useful update for y'all.

changes

  • In the vertical layout, post text is now shown below the corresponding post media.
    • Previously, the post text was displayed above the post media. While this layout matched the flow of usual social media sites, such as Reddit and Instagram, it was opposite that of e621.net.
    • This new layout should hopefully be more familiar to e621.net users. Anecdotally, I think the new layout is more readable and more comfortable.
  • For those who prefer the previous vertical post layout, a new option, text first, has been introduced.
    • This toggle will flip between displaying the post text above or below the post media.

If you have any feedback, come discuss over at our Discord! :)

Updated

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