News

Since beta access opened up on Discord we've been heads down shipping the changes you've been testing and reporting back on. Here's what's landed over the last month.

Image uploads got easier

Adding photos to your items is now just a drag away. You can drop image files straight onto the upload area in the item images modal instead of hunting for a file picker. We've also fixed an issue where uploaded images could end up rotated the wrong way depending on how they came off your phone or camera.

One drag-and-drop to rule them all

Reordering things in the beta used to feel a little different depending on where you were doing it. Projects in the sidebar, statistics on your profile and rows in the reorder modals all had their own drag-and-drop behaviour, with their own quirks.

That's now been unified. Whether you're reordering projects, statistics or items within a project, dragging and dropping should feel consistent everywhere, including dropping projects onto each other in the sidebar to nest them.

Under the hood

A few smaller things worth mentioning:

• Added security headers across the site to keep your data safer in transit
• Fixed a handful of ordering bugs that could cause items or sections to shuffle unexpectedly after saving
• General bug fixes and stability improvements as we keep working through the beta feedback

This month of bug fixes means more beta features, including project sections, are on their way and will have their own announcements very soon. As always, the best place to follow along or report something broken is Discord.

When we talked about new features on the horizon beta access was starting out gradually, offered to just a small group within our Discord community. We're excited to announce that access is now available to everyone in the Discord community.

Open to everyone in Discord

Beta access to the next Pile of Potential is now open to the whole Discord community and it's here to stay. No more time limited invites.

What's in the beta?

• A redesigned experience, with cleaner layouts, more breathing room and more polish throughout
• Unit images, so you can attach photos directly to individual items in your projects
• Custom statistics, letting you define your own stats alongside the existing types
• Updated project pages, including a new visual layout switcher
• Refreshed profile pages, giving you a proper space to show off your collection

How to get in

Log in to your Pile of Potential account, join us on Discord if you haven't already, then head to the patch-notes channel and accept the invite. You can toggle beta features on or off at any time from your account settings.

If something's broken, feels off, or you've got thoughts on where it should go next, Discord is the place to tell us. See you there!

Early on in the process of updating Pile of Potential to support the new features we revealed in new features on the horizon, when the new look was barely more than a blank canvas, it felt like something was missing.

It turned out the answer was something Pile of Potential has always been missing: a footer!

So the footer was added first. Before the new layouts, before the updated project pages, before much of anything else. It's been patiently waiting ever since for the day it would ship to everyone. That day is today.

What's in it?

The footer has helpful links to jump straight into editing your projects, view your public profile and get to your account settings. It also includes the two most recent news posts from right here on the news page, so you can always catch up on what's new without having to go looking for it.

Let's not forget the helpful links to Discord, the legal bits and when we're ready, a link to the upcoming beta.

What else is coming?

The footer arriving for everyone is a small sign that the redesign is steadily making its way out into the world. The rest of the changes we teased in new features on the horizon won't be far behind.

If you'd like to follow along as things take shape, come and join the community on our Discord (it's where early previews and beta access will be announced first!)

You may have already spotted a few things quietly shifting around the site. We've been busy behind the scenes and we're excited to pull back the curtain a little on what's been in the works.

Coming soon

A redesigned experience

The most visible change coming is a significant visual redesign. We've been rethinking how Pile of Potential looks and feels from the ground up. We've gone back to basics to better support future planned features with cleaner layouts, more breathing room and a more polished experience throughout. Some of the groundwork is already in place if you know where to look!

Unit images

Soon you'll be able to attach images directly to individual items in your projects. Whether it's a reference photo, a work-in-progress shot, or a finished miniature you're proud of, you'll finally be able to show off your hard work.

Custom statistics

Statistics are getting a major upgrade. Alongside the existing stat types you'll be able to define your own, tracking exactly what matters to your hobby, including your custom columns.

Updated project pages

Project pages are getting a refresh too. Cleaner layouts and improved navigation make it easier to browse a collection at a glance, whether it's your own or someone else's. A new layout switcher lets you flip to a visual view, putting your unit images front and centre.

Profile pages

We've also updated public profile pages, giving you a space to share your collection and showcase your projects with the wider community.

Try it first

These features are being rolled out very gradually to a small group of users on our Discord before a wider beta release. If you'd like early access and the chance to shape how things come together, come and join us there.

For everyone else, general availability for is expected in the coming weeks. Watch this space!

What a way to start the new year! Last night, The Hobby Room gave their viewers a sneak peek of some of the new features we've been working on during their New Year's Eve stream.

It was great to see the upcoming changes shown off in the wild. If you missed it, keep an eye on The Hobby Room's channel, we're sure it won't be the last you see of it.

We've been working hard behind the scenes on a number of significant improvements and new features. We're not ready to reveal everything just yet, but we're getting very close to opening up a beta programme to the community.

If you want to be among the first to know when beta access opens, join our Discord and watch this space!

We're very excited to announce the latest public release of Pile of Potential! This version includes a series of significant architecture improvements and delivers the most-requested feature: Custom Columns! 🎉

What's new?

Custom Columns

Our most requested feature is now live!

Including being able to create columns with any name, users can choose from two new column types; Date columns and Text columns, or the existing "Yes/No", "Number" and "Decimal" types.

We're looking forward to see what columns you create!

Updated Project Settings UI

The Project Settings UI has been refreshed and updated to support custom columns.

Users can change their projects names and visibility as before, while also adding both preset and custom columns to their projects.

Misc Changes

There have also been an assortment of UI and system changes:

• Project and Category names are no longer forced to be uppercase
• Tooltips have been moved above their hover elements
• Issues with draggable elements have been resolved and drag icons replaced
• Various data validation improvements

Database Changes

In order to deploy the latest changes and prepare for future releases there have been sweeping changes to the Pile of Potential database. The previous database had reached a design cul-de-sac, making future improvements exceedingly difficult.

We've taken steps to add a translation layer for the old database, eliminating design limitations and ensuring data integrity while we modernise the database further.

If you have any issues, questions or notice anything not quite behaving as expected, we've love to hear from you on Discord!

What's next?

Check out our roadmap to see where we're headed next.

While introducing custom columns is exciting, we realise that project statistics have been left behind. Deviating from our roadmap being entirely community focused, we've added our own request to prioritise improving statistics.

Join our Discord, follow us on X and watch this space!

We're very excited to announce the release of Pile of Potential v1.1.0! 🎉

This version marks the re-release of Pile of Potential following a change of ownership to The Hobby Room, featuring a complete backend rebuild focused on a seamless migration, enhanced security and foundations for upcoming features.

Although the backend has undergone major change, care has been taken to ensure minimal initial impact to the user experience. As such, screens, UI and all URLs have been left unchanged (including profiles, projects and other functionality) meaning bookmarks and external references will continue to work as before.

What's new?

While efforts have been made to maintain equivalent functionality, a handful of quality of life changes have been made based on existing user suggestions and team frustrations, including:

• Removed nested scroll behaviour, improving mobile friendliness
• Increased login lifetime

We've also improved validation and resolved a series of vulnerabilities and bugs. In order to facilitate this, some features (including search) will exhibit minor functionality changes that dramatically improve security and performance.

The site and its data has also been migrated to scalable infrastructure, protected and optimised by an external web application firewall and content delivery network. We expect access to your Piles of Potential will be reliable, secure and even faster!

What's next?

As the initial migration of the previous Pile of Potential database is complete, work to alter the database has commenced to better align it with our roadmap, currently comprised entirely of features previously requested by the community.

Watch this space for news and feature releases in the coming weeks!