News

Advance Downtime Notice

11/9/2021

I know, I know. I'm sorry, I also don't like downtimes, but we kind of need to do this one.

This weekend, we will be having a pre-planned downtime in order to switch web hosts. We've spent the past couple of weeks discussing internally the need to get the fuck out of the UK as quickly as possible before more batshit internet laws go through and make running Cherp a living hell, and the past couple of days interviewing potential hosts to ensure they're comfortable hosting our content. We've settled on one that we hope will do the trick and be kind to us in the near future.

What will this mean for you?

At 3:00 PM EST on Saturday (11/13/21) we will be taking the site down for realistically around an hour or two - no ETA but it shouldn't take too long. This is to ensure we can get the most recent version of the database with all your stuff intact off the current computer and onto the new one. Then, we will be putting the site back up.

There is a high chance you will not be able to access the site initially once it is back up due to DNS propagation. What this means is, basically, the internet at large needs to catch up to the fact that we've switched IP Addresses, and your computer needs to let the old IP address leave its cache so it will go "okay, time to double check what cherp.chat's IP address is... oh! it's different now". If you are connecting to the old computer, you will see a page telling you basically this; check back in an hour, DNS needs to propagate. If you are connecting to the new computer, well, then you'll connect fine! Unfortunately, this is just one of the inconveniences about the modern internet that we have to live with. We expect DNS propagation to finish for 99.9%+ of users within about 24 hours maximum.

Hopefully this will be the last downtime for a while! Believe me, I hear you all loud and clear about being mad about it. I am also mad about it 😭😭😭

Thank you!
-TT

The site is back up! You will have to log out and then log back in because [computer noises, something something sessions, cache, redis, etc.] - you'll know if you need to because your unread counter will say "Undefined unread".

As for the post mortem - basically, a freak one in a billion hardware occurrence (think like "lightning strike hit a power transformer and blew a fuse" or "cosmic ray flipped a bit at just the wrong spot") turbo fucked the VM and we needed to rebuild everything from scratch. Thankfully, we had a relatively recent backup (the 13th at 1:05 AM GMT), and were able to restore from that rather than having a full system wipe, which... I don't even know what I'd do if we had to do a full system wipe tbh.

That being said, the site should be back up and stable now - blessedly, there doesn't appear to be any long term damage to the hardware or software. We'll be doing what we can hardware-side to try and mitigate against this happening again, but, hopefully, this should never happen again to begin with.

Our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience. We hope you have a pleasant evening, and for those observing Yom Kippur, I hope you have an easy fast!

3.4.5 Launch

September 11th, 2021

3.4.5 Fixes.

Misc

• General bugfixes.
• Performed some optimizations regarding tag parents redirecting to themselves - should make prompt submission and directory loading slightly faster, or just easier on the server.

Moderation

• Added several moderation tools you do not get to see that make our lives easier and will allow us to respond to reports faster.

Verification

• Verification is back! We've managed to find a trustworthy third party willing to operate verification for us. Please remember to wear an appropriate level of clothing when submitting your verification status.
• Verification statuses have been added - while your verification has been submitted and not processed by our verifier, your account will be marked as Pending, so you know you haven't been rejected. If your account goes from Pending to Not Verified, there was something wrong with your submission, and you should resubmit.

Prep for 3.4.5

September 11th, 2021

Hello, everyone! We will be having a patch later today (9/11/21, 6:30 PM EST) for some maintenance issues and bugfixes. Here's your heads up!

3.4.4 Launch

August 8th, 2021

3.4.4 Fixes. This one also ended up needing a rebuild. Also - if you keep multiple tabs/chats open a time, try to not have them all on the <<Live>> page. Makes it easier on the server. We'll be trying some more performance upgrades soon.

Misc

• General bugfixes.
• Modified our React imports to stop unnecessary libraries from being bundled and sent to users. If a page is outright busted/blank because of this, report it to us.

Chats

• Increased the timer for automatically getting new messages in a chat (30 seconds -> 2 minutes). This should hopefully take some pressure off of the server.

3.4.3 Launch

August 6th, 2021

3.4.3 Fixes. This one also ended up needing a rebuild.

Misc

• Re-enabled strikethroughs.
• Fixed strange black text appearing in sidebars/the rules page due to a CSS oversight.

Slash Commands

• Fixed dice rolling.

Chats

• Fixed chat list pagination links leading to the wrong place.

Directory

• Fix answered text for group prompts.
• You can no longer answer a group prompt more than once.

Verification

• Temporarily disabled verification. Please see #site-news in the Discord for more information.

3.4.2 Launch

July 31st, 2021

3.4.2 Fixes. This one ended up needing a rebuild.

Verification

• Updated example image.

Directory

• Moved bubble-toggle to the left sidebar.
• Fixed bug w/ bubble tag css.

3.4.1 Launch

July 31st, 2021

3.4.1 Fixes. Expect some more fixes later that don't need us to put the site down- this one needs a rebuild, the others probably won't. Rolling dice is a little busted right now, but we're looking into it.

Because we can put announcements up without needing to rebuild stuff, we won't be having (Hotfix) entries- we'll just put mini-updates into 3.4.x/etc as they come.

Verification

• Fixed some text on the verification screen.
• Put a link to the verify page on your user page - it was supposed to be there but we forgot to commit it 😭

Directory

• Added a per-device toggle for Bubble/color Tags.
• Made some minor tweaks to the colors, borders, and drop shadows of the bubble-style tags.
• Fixed Looking For tags having the wrong links associated with them.

Welcome to patch day, where I make repeated announcements as things go wrong.

If your verification photo was over two megabytes in size it probably failed to upload thanks to a malformed PHP setting. Unfortunately you will probably need to re-upload a new photo (since if you refreshed the page then the password changed).

There will be another quick downtime later tonight for some hotfixes! That being said, if you Really Despise the current tag view then while we work on a toggle back to old view you can download a Stylus theme for it here:

https://einin.gay/cherp/QoLFixes_Cherp.html

Please note that this is a test announcement, disregard this. Thank you!

Regarding group chats - we are aware that the "ending a chat ends it for everyone" is not desirable behavior. It currently functions that way due to a limitation in the way the database is structured. We will be working quickly to attempt to rectify that behavior so that it doesn't cause too many undue pain points. Thank you!

3.4 Launch

July 31st, 2021

Anything prefixed with (Hotfix) was something we added after 3.3 without making an announcement and is being lumped in here for archival purposes.

Misc

• Modified our announcement system. We no longer have to shut the site down to push new announcements.
• Tentatively fixed log-out bugs.
• Made dotted borders on pop-out boxes solid.
• Modified our pagination. You can now 'uncondense' pagination by clicking the ellipses in either direction of your currently selected page.
• When the server returns an error, that error is now logged into a box that appears in the right sidebar of pages that can have errors returned to them.
• Added a FAQ page, under Site Use.

Chats

• The 'Updated' messages when you updated a character or the chat info both triggered regardless of which part you were updating. Now, only the actually modified part has the feedback message.
• Group chats exist now. Ending a group chat ends it for everybody. Deleting a group chat should remove you from the chat, but not end it for everybody.

Directory

• Made dropdown toggle buttons more obvious, in addition to centering dropdown items on mobile and adding a minimum width to each dropdown item.
• Group prompts, which lead to group chats, can now be made.
• Modified tag CSS. They should stand out from a prompt's background a little more now.
• Prompts now show their ID in their respective browser tabs.
• Modified directory queries, so that it doesn't stall and slow the site with large blacklists. On the test site, the latest 10,000 prompts have the DummyTag1 tag. Even if you blacklist DummyTag1, you'll still get your directory loaded in about a few seconds.

Slash Commands

• '/test' pops 'Hello World!' into your chat. Useless to anyone except devs, unless you want to verify that the server is processing your messages.
• '/verify' pops either 'Not all users are verified!' or 'All members of this chat are now verified 18+!' into your chat, depending on which is true.

Policy updates

26th May 2021

Hello Cherp,
At this point, we have edited the tagging guidelines and finalized the verbiage of the new rule and added these on to the site. In addition, we have removed the Loli/Shota and Underage tick boxes from the new prompt screen and advanced search. With consideration to the idea of characters’ backgrounds though, we have added a new tag which is ‘CSA’. Per the addition to the tagging guidelines, the use for the CSA warning tag is as follows:
While actively roleplaying elements of CSA (i.e. any content where a character under the age of 18 is engaged, consensually or otherwise, in any form of sexual activity - fully expanded on in rule 18 of the site) is prohibited, elements of this are permitted in a character's backstory and are only allowed to be discussed as past events and not in graphic detail. In this situation, use the CSA tag to aid in blacklisting and filtering. Please note that misuse of the CSA tag to rp content falling under the above definition is a reportable offense and is an immediate, no questions asked permanent ban.
With that said, onto the topic that was to be determined since the shutdown happened: What will happen with existing content?
All prompts utilizing the Loli/Shota and Underage tags have been drafted. You will be expected to either adjust the prompt so that all characters involved are eighteen or older before posting it again or you can simply delete the prompt if you do not wish to rework it and the delete button is available to you. If you have no interest in reworking it but the delete button isn’t available, just leave it drafted until it is. (Reminder: The delete button becomes available a full 5 days after the prompt was initially posted.) If your prompt uses either of these tags to indicate background elements, please adjust your prompt to the CSA tag before re-publishing it.
As for chats, we are giving all existing chats with the now banned content a one week grace period. In this week it will be up to you and your partner to decide if you wish to adjust the terms of the rp or cut it loose and simply end and delete the chat. If you adjust the RP, we would ask that you please move it to a new chat via connect code and, with the permission of your partner, save your log for the original chat. We will be going through and purging all content at the end of the grace period that we are aware of with underage elements as a safety measure so that it is not lingering on the site.
Thank you for your time and cooperation in this endeavor.

Sincerely,
Cherp Moderation

3.3 Launch

20th May 2021

Anything prefixed with (Hotfix) was something we added after 3.2 without making an announcement and is being lumped in here for archival purposes.

Profiles

• (Hotfix) Fixed a bug which detached profiles from prompts when a tag was wrangled.

Chats

• (Hotfix) Added a profile select to the Chat Info page, to simplify adding profiles.
• Fixed a bug causing chats generated from connect codes not allowing you to attach character profiles.

Directory

• (Hotfix) Made the Directory and Profile dropdowns bigger on Desktop and Mobile.
• Updated the Type checkboxes in the Advanced Search screen.
• New accounts now automatically have all checkbox warning tags added to their blacklists.

Minor Rules Update

4th May 2021

Hello, everyone! In response to user feedback, we are updating two of the rules - rule 1 and rule 17. The gist is twofold: One: We were having repeated issues with prompts that had individuals basically saying "I have an OC, you'll find out more about them when you connect", which we discussed with the mod team and some users and agreed is not kosher. If you have an OC, you have to tell us about them in the actual prompt, so that people cannot slip self-inserts past us. Two: In response to user feedback and some very compelling arguments, we have decided to ban the usage of vtubers from the site, as it skirts too close to RPing real people for our comfort. Our apologies to the three people who RP vtubers.

Thank you!

-The Administration

3.2 Launch

11th April 2021

Hello, and welcome to April! Anything prefixed with (Hotfix) was something we added after 3.1 without making an announcement and is being lumped in here for archival purposes.

Additionally, as we ascend in donation tiers, we have begun the planning on the "Subscriber Perks" tier (which we have now reached, thank you all!). As mentioned on the Tumblr and Discord,, so you have approximately until "whenever we finish with that" to hop on the Early Adopter train if that's something you're interested in.

Misc

• Changes to login and registration to prevent CSRF-related errors.
• Character profiles exist now.
• Added a report button to prompts and messages in chats. Hit report, type in your report text (500 or less characters), and then hit submit.
• Tentatively fixed account deletions.
• Also, as to comply with data disposal requirements, your messages are now wiped entirely from the database when you delete your account. This is being applied retroactively- if you notice an ended chat is missing the other participant's messages, this is likely intentional behavior.

Profiles

• Your character profiles are listed at http://cherp.chat/profile/mine . They have a Name, a Description, and the Tag Fields typically found under the 'Your Character'/'Playing' section of prompts.
• Character profiles are created through http://cherp.chat/profile/new . There is no profile creation timer.
• You can attach a profile to a prompt at prompt creation or in the edit a prompt screen. When doing so, you can click the 'V' button to see a dropdown list of your profiles- or you can just input the ID of a given character directly, saving you load time.
• Setting a profile to Locked makes its information only visible through the info pages of chats it's attached to. Other people can't see a link to a Locked profile if you attach it to a prompt. The default option when making a new profile is Locked.
• Setting a profile to 'Draft' will keep it attached to chats / prompts behind the scenes, but other people won't see that. If you want to use a character as a just a collection of tag presets, without bothering with a name or description, set it to Draft.

Chats

• The Edit button's styling has been modified.
• Each message now has an Eyedrop button next to its timestamp (or the Edit button, if it exists). Hitting this automatically sets your current post's color to the color of the message you clicked 'Eyedrop' on.
• There's a new 'grace period' feature. If you accidentally responded to a prompt, you have 5 minutes to delete the chat and have it delete for the other user as well. This grace period no longer applies after 5 minutes have passed, either user has posted a new message in the chat, or the prompt owner has read the chat.
• Image embeds have been disabled. This does not affect clickable links to images- it only changes auto-load images into links.
• Fixed a bug with code blocks having no width limitation and stretching out horizontally.
• There's now an 'answered' tab which allows you to see chats you're waiting for replies from.
• The 'unread' tab now also shows ended chats you haven't clicked on to dismiss the unread from them. Ended chats have already counted towards your unread until you click on them, so this is just making the chat list match that behavior. Hopefully, this should solve some of the ghost-unread bug reports people have sent in.
• Added an edit button to the bottom right of chat entries in your chat list. This takes you to the Chat Info page directly.

Directory

• The sidebar directory links have been put into a dropdown.
• A 'Profile' dropdown has been added beneath the new 'Directory' dropdown menu.

3.1 Launch

17th January 2021

Happy new years. Anything prefixed with (Hotfix) was something we added after 3.0.1 without making an announcement and is being lumped in here for archival purposes.

Misc

• Donation Goals are now updated.
• A few typos have been corrected.
• Error logging has been added to a few problem areas (answering a prompt, mainly). If you see an error message, getting a report, following the template, on ourwould be useful.

Ads

• Ads replace the confirmation box/text with a real link after hitting 'yes'. This should make them work with browsers that treat Cherp ad redirects as pop-ups.
• Ads no longer bug out when the destination link is too long.

Chats

• (Hotfix) You should now properly get notifications for ended chats.
• You should now properly get notifications for deleted chats, except for ones deleted because of user-account deletion.
• You should now be able to send messages in Balsamiq.
• Edits now retain even after an edit has already been made on the same page. Additionally, cancelling an edit now retains what was in the box before you hit edit.
• Triangle chat indicators are back, in addition to and on top of the existing right borders.

Directory

• Searching from within an existing search should now properly work.
• An advanced search link has been added to every directory page's sidebar. This takes you to the Advanced Search page, which allows you to search multiple tags at once and will have further functionality in the future.
• An L-Search (literal search) button has been added to the sidebar search. When you click this, you'll be taken to the Tag you put into the search without the server automatically replacing it with the appropriate synonym. This is useless for ordinary day to day Cherp use.
• The My Prompts page now has a visual representation of the post/bump/draft two hour cooldown. If you've recently bumped or posted a prompt (within the last two hours), the page now disables the bump button until two hours have passed. You do not need to be on the page for the timer to pass.

3.0.1 Launch

23rd November 2020

The launch was a little rough, but the site should be in mostly working order now. Anything prefixed with (Hotfix) was something we added after 3.0 without making an announcement and is being lumped in here for archival purposes.

Misc

• Fixed some broken/overlooked links. Chat deletion or ending now correctly sends you to chats/all, the formatting links in chats sends you to use/formatting, the rules link in prompt creation sends you to use/rules, and the rules link in prompt editing sends you to use/rules. If you see any still broken links, bring them to our attention.
• (Hotfix) We (tentatively) fixed browsers injecting 'www.' into your url when you manually type the link into the url bar.
• Removed Herobrine
• Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience.

Ads

• Ads now open the redirect link in a new tab.
• Ad revenue no longer counts towards the donation bar. That was a bug/oversight.
• An ad should no longer take up both possible ad slots for it.

Chats

• A checkbox can now determine the ooc-status of a message, assuming a message is also otherwise editable/postable. When you post a message, clicking the checkbox assures that it's sent as an OOC message. Putting '((' at the start of a message overwrites whatever the OOC checkbox says, though, and always sets the message to OOC.
• You will recieve a notification of a new message when your partner leaves or deletes the chat. Note: This does not apply for account deletions.
• You can properly send messages in Londrina now.
• A potential fix for message sending errors relating to CSRF tokens was implemented.

Directory

• (Hotfix) Prompts now ask you for confirmation to delete them.

3.0 Launch

16th November 2020

Cherp 3.0 has been officially launched- with it come a changes. Insolent is no longer involved with the project- instead, Hex and I (Keys) now compose the Dev Team. In addition to finishing up stuff Insolent had introduced in the Sept 22nd News post, we've made some bugfixes/changes of our own.

Thank you for your patience.

Misc changes

• Site is now in 'dark mode'. You'll notice that a lot of the white space has been replaced with dark blue.
• The logo and favicon have both been changed, to separate us from Cherubplay.
• The Donate page now points to the right account.
• We now have a Site Use pages. This holds the Terms of Service, Code of Conduct, Rules, Tagging Guideline(s), and an Advertisements Guide.

Chats

• Chats now have a color indicator on their right to show you their status: grey for answered, green for unanswered, blue for unread, and red for ended.
• Ending or deleting a chat now asks you for confirmation before processing.
• Characters have been moved to the left
• Advertisements added
• Pagination is now condensed. Your chat list now also has pagination, too.
• We now have a Live page in addition to numbered pages. The Live page grabs the 25 most recent posts in a chat and updates with new posts, but the numbered pages don't.
• Colors are now retained between devices, so long as you've submitted a post with that color.

Directory

• Fixed extensive blacklists resulting in empty directories if the first 'page' had no passing prompts.
• Fixed maturity blacklisting. You can now blacklist maturities and prompts tagged with those will not show up.
• Search has been moved to the left
• You can now search from the edit a prompt page, as well as most others.
• Advertisements added
• Tags with parents now also add their parents' parents(and on, and on).
• Aliased tags now properly chain to the last synonym in a chain.
• Attempting to access a deleted or drafted prompt now gives you a notice
• Searching for a tag now replaces that tag with its synonym in the search. This doesn't redirect you, but you'll get the results that you would have gotten if you'd typed in the right tag
• A prompt now retains write-in warnings and write-in misc tags when you go to edit it.

Site Back Online + Updates

22nd September 2020

The site is now back online. Any users involved in Teh Incident, or who we found breaking rules in the deep clean, have been banned. You may find some chats deleted or ended - this is not a bug.

In addition, we've deployed some updates.

Users can now delete their account.

• Deleting accounts is NOT reversible.
• All chats except group chats will be expunged, as well as the messages in them. The other user will not be able to access the chat anymore.
• All prompts on the account will be deleted.
• All character profiles on the account will be deleted.
• Your data will be present in our backups for up to 30 days following deletion. We will not manually restore it for you, and it will be accessed only for the sake of rule/law enforcement.

Internal monitoring tools have been updated, and more information is stored on users for security purposes now.

• We now keep an IP history of users instead of just their current IP.
• Message edit histories are now kept in perpetuity.

• Last visit time is now stored to help us match timelines on reports where needed.

• Possibly fixed a bug where pagination would pull all messages after the end of a page on the normal timer.

• Prompts can now be deleted if they're old enough to be bumpable.

• Fixed an issue where prompts were bumpable after 3 days instead of 5 sometimes.

• Mods can now directly start chats with users to hand out warnings.

• Mods can now ban users for variable lengths of time.

• Mods can now unban users if they feel like it.

• The "you are banned" page now tells you when your ban will expire.

• Added audit logging tools for admins to keep track of who does what to prevent any potential abuse of mod tools.

Additionally, the grace period for the "prompts must have substance" rule has now ended. To facilitate this, and incidentally, make sure I didn't accidentally introduce too many bugs, all prompts have been drafted. Use this opportunity to give them a once-over, delete the ones you don't want anymore, and spruce up the ones you do.