We're back with a year-end update from our head developer and site admin, Such Flush! The post is also available for questions/discussion on our subreddit
Dear Shibes,
Such Flush here looking back on another year with Poker Shibes and looking ahead to where we are going!
You may recall my last official update State of the Shibe, March 2017 Edition.
It is my duty to apologize in that I failed to deliver on the promise of more regular updates throughout the year. I had anticipated at least 1 or 2 more of these State of the Shibe posts this year. Historically, we've only done 1-2 of these a year, but I am committed to producing at least 4 State of the Shibe posts in 2018. That's my New Year's Resolution for 2018. What's yours?
It is also my duty to report on the overall state of things that were looking good last time:
* Infrastructure - Still on the "New" infrastructure as reported in the last update, but even more of it has been automated and moved in
* Mavens software upgrade offering Razz, Stud, HORSE and other mixed games - We've kept up with updates as they come as well, reporting and squashing bugs upstream as needed
* User survey undertaken - We have implemented several policies and ideas based on the results of this survey
* New Sunday Tournaments - There was a pretty decently contested official Sundays season where people won special edition PokerShibes clay poker chips (status: shipped)[/li][/list]
By the Numbers, since the last update:
* Support: Over 400 closed tickets since 2017 May 1
* Poker Room: Completed at least 10 sets of changes tracked by a work ticket (there were surely more adjustments untracked)
* Operations: Responded to 6 emergency fires such as "Site is Down" with another 6 tickets of planned updates
* Development: Closed just over 20 tickets for software and infrastructure improvements
In the last year we have completed the following things you might not necessarily be aware of:
* Investigated numerous suspicious user accounts and banned some bad doges
* Repaired our Bitcoin Deposit handler infrastructure
* Handled all official support cases via
support@shibes.poker* Most support cases being handled or at least responded to within 24 hours (if not, it was probably my fault and I am sorry)
* Fixed some more small bugs in the frontend website as a result of support cases
* Updated the Rewards Levels - Shibe now takes half as much rake to achieve as it did before
* Expanded the use of our infrastructure as code and automation around our infrastructure and services
* Expanded the use and functionality of our new backend software
The last one is a big deal and is one of the major reasons for this posting.
For at least the last 6 months we have been tracking all tournament results and hand results live, which old Shibes will remember is a huge change from our previous backend software. With the old software we were only able to run updates for rewards at best every 24 hours. Unfortunately, we were unable to use the old backend software with the new infrastructure, so rewards, according to the frontend website, have not been updated in about 9 months either. Today, we are announcing that the new backend software is officially ready for production integration and we are releasing the first integrations of the frontend website with the new backend this week.
What this means for you, the valued PokerShibes player who has participated somehow in the last year:
* Rewards level display in profile page will be mostly live (there's still a bit of caching/delay involved, nerds feel free to ask for more specific details)
* Player rakeback via RocketFuel generated will be applied to new rewards system and Moon Points awarded
* PokerShibes Clay Chips will be on sale in the Moon Points store
* Deposit bonuses will be processed, awarded, and reported on the profile page
* Affiliate rewards will be processed, awarded, and reported on the profile page
Merry Christmas (belated) and Happy New Year!
In 2018 you can expect to see many changes in the poker room here at PokerShibes, including, but not limited to:
* New New Sunday Tournaments and another Official Season with prizes
* More Mixed Tables and Tournaments
* Special Prize Tournaments and Tables
* User-specified temporary table creation
With Excitement,
Such Flush