Splot updates

What we are improving

A running log of performance, cleanup, UI, and UX improvements as we make the site faster and easier to use.

April 29, 2026

Sticky feed card spacing

Refined the homepage feed card so it reads as an intentional companion panel instead of crowding the artwork grid.

  • Added real desktop spacing between the curated grid and the feed card.
  • Made the feed card sticky on desktop while keeping the mobile layout stacked.
  • Constrained the card width so the grid keeps enough room to breathe.
April 29, 2026

Homepage spacing and chat cleanup

Polished a couple of end-of-night details so the homepage feels cleaner while we plan a better native community chat.

  • Added more breathing room between the homepage grid area and neighboring cards.
  • Hid the unfinished bottom-right chat launcher until the account-based public chat is ready.
  • Kept the change lightweight so it does not add extra front-end work.
April 29, 2026

Homepage curated-grid expansion

Refined the homepage browsing pool so the curated section has enough depth to feel alive instead of ending too quickly.

  • Kept the homepage limited to admin-featured Splot posts.
  • Removed an extra availability filter that was shrinking the live curated pool too far.
  • Refreshed the rotation cache so new curated changes appear cleanly after release.
April 29, 2026

Homepage browsing depth

Made the homepage feel less abrupt while keeping the first visit fast and focused on curated Splot artwork.

  • Doubled the first curated grid load so visitors see more work before reaching the footer.
  • Expanded the curated pool to include both Splot feature markers used by admins.
  • Added a polished full-feed call to action for visitors who want to keep browsing.
April 29, 2026

Curated homepage rotation

Made the homepage feel more alive while keeping the displayed work inside the admin-curated Splot collection.

  • Rotates the order of featured NFT cards from the curated sale pool.
  • Keeps the homepage focused on selected artwork instead of opening it to every post.
  • Uses a light cached shuffle so freshness does not come at the cost of slower browsing.
April 29, 2026

Navigation simplification

Simplified the header while upcoming competition experiences are being reworked behind the scenes.

  • Temporarily hid Competitions from the public header navigation.
  • Kept the underlying page available so the experience can return when ready.
  • Shipped the change as a versioned Splot release for reliable cache refreshes.
April 29, 2026

Contact form resilience

Hardened the Contact page form embed so it keeps rendering cleanly while we continue removing unused form-related weight.

  • Normalized copied smart quotes before the form embed renders.
  • Protected the Contact page from showing raw embed text during future cleanup.
  • Shipped the hardening as a clear versioned Splot update.
April 29, 2026

Global asset trim

Removed a second layer of unused front-end assets that production was loading on pages where visitors are not shopping or submitting forms.

  • Stopped unused form assets from loading on public pages that do not need forms.
  • Removed product-vendor and checkout-field-editor styles from simple browsing pages.
  • Kept Marketplace, Checkout, and Contact on the assets required for those flows.
April 29, 2026

Non-commerce asset trim

Continued the performance cleanup by keeping shopping scripts and styles off pages where visitors are browsing rather than buying.

  • Removed store-front assets from the homepage and simple static pages.
  • Expanded the lean static cleanup to About and Contact while preserving form compatibility.
  • Kept checkout, marketplace, product, credit, mint, and drop routes on the full commerce stack.
April 29, 2026

Lean static page asset pass

Started trimming scripts and styles from simple informational pages so they do not carry commerce, carousel, or grid behavior they never use.

  • Removed forced countdown loading from pages without countdown timers.
  • Stopped static pages from loading store, grid, carousel, modal, and submit assets.
  • Removed checkout debug payloads from public checkout HTML.
April 29, 2026

Updates page layout polish

Gave the Updates page a calmer reading layout so the intro card and changelog cards have more breathing room.

  • Added a larger desktop gap between the left intro card and the update list.
  • Made the intro card sticky on desktop so it stays anchored while reading updates.
  • Kept the layout stacked on smaller screens for easier mobile browsing.
April 29, 2026

Homepage action icon polish

Refined the homepage quick-action cards so their right-side buttons feel more native to Splot.

  • Replaced the plain arrow glyphs with the Splot icon.
  • Bundled the icon with the Splot release so the homepage does not depend on a media-library path.
  • Bumped the Splot release version for reliable cache refreshes.
April 29, 2026

Footer and checkout polish

Cleaned up a couple of details that were adding friction or maintenance work without improving the buying experience.

  • Made the footer copyright year update automatically.
  • Stopped requiring street address for Pagado NFT purchases that do not ship physical merch.
  • Kept the stricter address requirement in place for merch and non-Pagado checkout flows.
April 28, 2026

Grid image optimization groundwork

Prepared the site to serve lighter 640px grid images on homepage and marketplace cards instead of leaning on oversized original uploads.

  • Added a dedicated splot_grid image size for card layouts.
  • Updated card thumbnail templates to prefer grid-sized media when available.
  • Built a safe admin thumbnail regenerator and diagnostic tool for production media.
  • Confirmed production needs PHP GD or Imagick enabled before thumbnails can be generated.
April 28, 2026

Homepage and marketplace performance pass

Reduced the amount of work required before the first page view becomes usable, especially on the homepage and marketplace.

  • Reduced the homepage’s initial post query to keep the first response lighter.
  • Removed the heavy homepage slider in favor of a simpler custom feature strip.
  • Stopped extra homepage and marketplace scripts from loading where they are not needed.
  • Kept public route checks healthy after each production upload.
April 28, 2026

Cleaner production deployment flow

Shifted optimization work into versioned release packages so production changes can be uploaded, tested, and rolled forward more predictably.

  • Moved performance changes into versioned release packages instead of editing production directly.
  • Versioned Splot releases so CSS and JavaScript cache busting stays reliable.
  • Created separate diagnostic packages for media checks rather than bundling everything together.
April 27, 2026

Cleaner marketplace and homepage markup

Reduced repeated decorative Millix icon image tags across high-traffic homepage and marketplace views. The icon now renders through shared CSS, which keeps the same visual treatment while reducing DOM and image noise.

  • Homepage image tags reduced from 386 to 12 in local testing.
  • Marketplace image tags reduced from roughly 386 to 2 in local testing.
  • Marketplace links now stay on the current site instead of hard-coding production URLs.
April 27, 2026

Local cleanup baseline

Removed local cache, log, and backup debris from the development restore so optimization work starts from a cleaner baseline.

  • Removed temporary upload cache and store log folders locally.
  • Documented active modules and major media-size hotspots.
  • Confirmed key public routes still return healthy responses after cleanup.