8kun Bread Launcher Release Notes (v1b to v2e)

The 8kun captcha is now cookie-based, meaning that it is no longer possible to post without the Kraker Local Proxy Server (note: a CORS unblocking extension may work if it is implemented correctly). You will need the latest version of Kraker (version 4d) and your browser must be configured to proxy through the Socks5 port. See here for setup instructions. On the plus side, it is now possible to post as moderator (board owner/volunteer).

Once you have Kraker running and your browser is configured to proxy through it then you will need to do one little thing. Open "_settings.txt" (your Kraker settings file) and add one of these lines exactly as shown:

[? sys.8kun.top SHD:$~https://sys.8kun.top] or [? sys.8kun.top SHD:$~!vpx::|*https://sys.8kun.top]

You can use either option depending on whether you wish to enable certificate authentication which is important to guard against a man-in-the-middle attack (the "!vpx" part in the second option enables authentication). This distinction will be important the next time the site security certificate expires (which happens every three months). Board moderators should enable authentication but the choice is yours.

Reload the settings file using the Kraker Control Panel to configure the "shadow port". When your browser attempts to access the posting server at sys.8kun.top, Kraker will intercept the request and do some fiddling with the response headers. You don't need to know the details but it is what needs to be done due to browser restrictions regarding cookies.

Use the link at the top of this page to open the new 8kun captcha. Your browser will complain that the security certificate is invalid. This is fine. It's the way a non-transparent proxy works (the shadow port creates an interface which is similar to the corporate proxy in an office environment). Just instruct the browser to accept the certificate (your browser should remember this from now on). You will be able to post after completing the captcha.

Note that the Bread Launcher is not configured to handle the per-post captcha (which you may encounter if the site comes under attack).

For board moderators:

Log in as you would normally. Everything will work as it always did. Check the box marked [Board Moderator] at the top of the page if you wish to post as moderator. This will also enable a new button on each post (situated right next to the Quick Reply button). The options are simple. You can edit or delete a post and/or ban a user IP address. More powerful features are not supported because I don't need the headache.

New catalog feature:

To open the catalog view, just enter the name of the board and press "Go". The catalog view is basically the same as a thread view. Click a link to open a thread. That's about it. I may or may not consider additional options. It's fine for my purposes.

About NoScript:

I have issues with NoScript on Firefox because it attaches Javascript to HTML page elements. It severely breaks the Bread Launcher, causing a tab to suddenly become unresponsive. This appears to be due to some security restriction on the part of Firefox but I can't say for sure that the same problem doesn't occur with other browsers. I've stopped using NoScript. uMatrix is much better because it doesn't rely on invasive Javascript to do its dirty work. You should try it out. I don't have any advice if your ad blocker is causing issues except to tell you to ditch it.

About Alleycat Player:

Occassionally, it may happen that a YouTube video won't play. If this happens then close the tab and try opening the video again. It should work after two or three tries. This issue will be rectified in the next version of the Launcher.

Release notes for v2d (November 13, 2021) -- source

• Important New Feature: Any Slice that is in a thread that is auto-updating will also be auto-updated. This allows you to follow a conversation or track the reponses to an important post in real time. Great feature for bakers.
• The Post Office will now display the new post number after posting. The input fields will no longer be cleared by default. There is a checkbox at the lower right to enable auto-clear. Also, the number of posts is increased from 5 to 6.
• Added an event handler to block double-clicks on the status bar. This allows for the rapid reactivation of the menu bar (useful in the Post Office).
• Corrected the flawed truncation of long titles in the status bar. The new CSS will now truncate long titles correctly when the browser is resized.
• I found another strange behaviour on Chrome-based browsers. Zooming is blocked if a new tab is opened without a URL. The fix is to open the tab with the URL "about:blank". This behaviour is totally unexpected. As I stated before, I use Firefox so funky Chrome issues often get missed.
• Setting the proxy to "None" was causing an exception (internal Javascript crash). Sorry about that but who uses "None" anyway?

Release notes for v2c (October 20, 2021) -- source

• Ooops. I just noticed that the page width setting wasn't working. Been like that for a while but it's fixed now.
• Changed the media server from "images.128ducks.com" to "media.128ducks.com". The changeover occurred early Wednesday, October 20.
• The Post Office feature is now fully implemented. It includes the ability to create new threads and to manage 5 posts per instance.
• It is now possible to copy the text from the status bar without causing the menu bar to open.
• I can't get the XMLHttpRequest module to give progress reports for file uploads. It does not work correctly on any browser. I searched the net for a possible solution but it appears that the module is just funky. It does not function correctly on the default 8kun client either.

Release notes for v2b (October 13, 2021) -- source

• Fixed wrong button appearance on Pale Moon and Waterfox. I used an outline rather than a border around the buttons in the status bar. The outline was being drawn square instead of rounded.
• Fixed three issues on Chrome-based browsers (Google, Brave, Opera and others): 1) slow countdown timer, 2) missing bread titles, 3) images appearing on the right when they should be on the left
• Removed the dark border around the text area in the Quick Reply box. I missed this because I have a userContent CSS on my Firefox that does that. The fix is to specify "outline:none" in the CSS for the <textarea> element.
• I am working on the Post Office feature. Give me a week or so.
• Lastly, please don't hesitate to report issues with the Launcher, especially if you are not on Firefox or Windows. I can't fix issues that I don't know about and I can't spend the time to test on every browser. This is my hobby, not a profession. I also cannot test for Linux compatibility though that shouldn't really be necessary.

Release notes for v2a (October 9, 2021) -- source

• This is a major upgrade. The Bread Launcher now supports auto-updating and posting. At present, only one image or file is allowed in a post (Quick Reply). The text input is unlimited but constrained to a small window. A more complete post editor will come soon (I will be calling it the Post Office). Instructions are below.
• The Youtube embed links stopped working because YT doesn't like the blank "referer" HTTP header so I removed the "no-referrer" meta setting.

Release notes for v1e (September 15, 2021) -- source

• This version is being released due to the media server issues on the 8kun site. Media are currently being delivered from "images.128ducks.com". I will update when the situation changes.
• Added support for BitChute/Twitter/Rumble/Vimeo embeds. For now, the images come from my GitHub Pages web server.
• The Youtube player has been updated due to changes in the Youtube API. For this reason, the player will no longer work without the Kraker Local Proxy Server.
• Added a new flag to the Kraker Control Panel. This flag is undocumented.

Release notes for v1d (March 11, 2021) -- source

• A bunch of small fixes that aren't worth enumerating.
• Added a control panel for the new Socks5 Proxy Server.

Release notes for v1c (December 13, 2020) -- source

• Fixed the identifiers for "Board Owner" and "8kun Administrator".
• Fixed browser security violation caused by opening a web page in a daughter tab.
• Added option to adjust the displayed post time. The browser is supposed to display the time for the local time zone but, for some reason, this has never worked for me. The value is expressed in hours. Fractional and negative values are permitted. For example, I am using -5 to adjust to Eastern Time.
• Added option to select either the HTML or the JSON format for downloading from the 8kun server. HTML is the default option since JSON has been unreliable (missing or truncated). It doesn't make any difference as far as functionality goes since the app converts HTML to JSON anyway. However, some recent fuckery on /qresearch/ has caused the HTML format to break while the JSON was working fine. That's why I decided to include the new option.
• Adjusted the cache retention policy. Expiry is based on memory usage (capped at 6 megabytes) and the time of most recent access rather than the time of creation.
• I have been having issues with mp4 and webm videos. Since I only use Firefox, the problem has not been verified to exist on other browsers. The problem is that the video will stop playing partway through due to the 8kun server apparently dropping the connection prematurely. This happens ONLY on 8kun so it is not necessarily a browser issue. Downloading is not affected. The problem is resolved by routing the video through the Kraker Local Proxy Server (if you have it, of course).
• PLEASE NOTE: You can help improve this app by sending me feedback. While I will continue developing the app for the foreseeable future, I am only in a position to consider features that I personally want. Without feedback, YOUR needs cannot be addressed. Send feedback.

Release notes for v1b (October 5, 2020) -- source

• Fixed some performance issues and a potential crash issue. Working fine with Google Chrome, Brave, Opera and Firefox (recommended). Waterfox, a fork of Firefox, still does not work even though I fixed some code that it complained about.
• In general, web browsers do not like what this app is doing. That is unfortunate since I am doing what the browser makers have always wanted. I am using the browser as a development platform but I keep getting hammered by stupid design choices (their choices, not mine, since I follow the standards which they often do not).
• Fixed a problem with extracting image links. This affects webm videos and some boards.
• Added the ability to globally track reply links that have been visited and replies that have been seen. I'm not going to explain how it all works. Just watch for the colour codings and you'll understand as you go along. It works pretty good but I would like to have an ability to automatically track long or convoluted reply chains. In my experience, this might not be important. Reply chains have a tendency to degenerate into a series of pointless one-liners which are probably not worth reading anyway (amirite?).
• Tweaked the CSS to improve the look and feel. If you don't like my colour choices then fix the damn CSS yourself.
• Modified the retention strategy for thread caching. The retention period is now 4 hours (up from 2) but only a maximum of 15 threads will be cached at one time. This strategy may or may not be ideal for you but the point (obviously) is to limit the memory usage.