Hello everyone, hope you're all doing well. Here's another monthly update on GOL that was first posted on Patreon.

App/Item DB

- GOL game pages now add our Steam Curator ID to Steam links, so that if we have given it a recommendation or suggested against it, this will show on the Steam page when you go to it. Example: click the Steam link on this page.

- Lots of bugs fixed for the GOL App DB thanks to testing from Scaine. Further progress towards rolling it out properly! You can currently easily see some of the work behind it on the "Apps" tag at the bottom of articles, the Free Games page and the Crowdfunding Page amongst other things powered by it.

Security

We had some researchers look over GOL code, and they found some areas we could improve - so we did because user security and privacy is vitally important to us.

• The password reset function for accounts was boosted. It's now rate limited on the database, rate limited on the session too and it has a captcha to prevent bots. This means bots and annoying people cannot do tons of requests to it.


• Additionally, to prevent bots and people attempting to find accounts by email, it won't say if an account exists only that if one does they will get an email. It's a small wording change but one that helps prevent such behaviour.


• On top of that, when resetting a password there's now an additional unique code people need to enter in manually from the emails - which should prevent referrer leaks from the clicked link.


• We've added the "noopener" and "noreferrer" bits to our social media footer links, to prevent any new tabs they open from taking any details, like with a password reset link. For background info on that (it's a browser security issue - because browsers suck) see here.

Note: to be perfectly clear on this - no actual break-ins have been found, it was just people testing for potential problems for us to help us harden the GOL code. Our actual login and session security is already high.

PC Info

For the PC info section, a small tweak was done to the VR question to make one answer clearer for people not planning to get one, plus add a Not Listed option for all the other random sets that come out from smaller places.

- Added Fedora Silverblue as an option based on requests, along with its fancy logo.

Steam Play Reports

Work has continued, slowly, on building up our own SteamPlay Proton reports system to compliment all our other sections like news, the forum and so on. Everyone we've showed it to so far has really liked the idea, since it gives you a percentage rating system.

There's still plenty more to be done on it, but it's coming along. Eventually you will see a search bar for it on SteamProton.com.

You can follow progress with fancy checkboxes on the GOL GitLab. Everything we do is open source of course. Recently we hooked up pagination of reports, the rating system is now properly based on unique user reports to prevent lots from individuals counting falsely and work continues to bring it up.

Misc

- Helped the developer of APICO test and actually fix their Linux build on Steam, try the demo now!

- Helped the developer of Ayo the Clown test and fix their Linux build on Steam, coming "soon".

- Advised Boneloaf on sorting their Steam launch configuration for Gang Beasts. It now launches properly from Steam.

Unity is such a PITA when it comes to videos and only supporting three codecs on Linux with their built in player, as it trips up a lot of developers. I seem to advise developers on this issue multiple times a week...

- The Steam Tracker now uses colour blind friendly colours.

New articles live since last update (as of the original post date of this on Patreon): ~118.

Just a note: we will be away on December 24-27 to take a few days break over the holidays, so expect no articles, livestreams or other content on those days. Same again on December 31 and likely January 1 too. We hardly ever take time off but it has to be done to prevent burnout, and just have some me time.

Last edited by Liam Dawe on 22 December 2020 at 7:08 pm UTC