We’ve started updating group pages. They now look more consistent with event pages and we’ve improved the readability of impact stats (we’ll be reworking the bottom half of group pages next).
Bug fixes
Some translations were coming through as code. None of us are robots, so we’ve reintroduced human languages for people not using the site in English.
This month’s bug-hunter award goes to @Estelle_Vercez1 for finding some bugs in the event-creation process. We’ve fixed some of these and will get to the rest soon.
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We continued to update group pages, this time focusing on the events section. Your group’s upcoming and past events are now easier to browse and look more consistent with the rest of the new design.
Impact stats
We’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes to improve how certain interactive parts of the site work. The result of this means that adding new repairs to an event will now automatically update that event’s environmental stats instantly without having to refresh the page.
Bug fixes
Good news for you repair detectives: when adding items to events, you can now record as many sources of repair information as you like for each item. Happy sleuthing!
We cleaned out a few bugs clogging up some parts the site with errors. Things should flow more smoothly now.
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We’ve updated the way your group’s device stats appear on your group page. This should make your stats clearer and more screenshot-friendly if you like to share them elsewhere (check it out)
Localisation
Product categories are now translatable and we’ve already added French translations (thanks again to @Florine_Paquay for your help here). If you’d like to see product categories in your language too, get in touch!
Bug fixes
The navigation menu on Talk hid the Wiki icon when viewed on mobile. Knowledge should be accessible to everyone no matter the device being used, so we’ve brought it back!
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We’ve redesigned page that shows the groups you follow, the groups nearest to you and a list of all the groups on the site. It should now be easier to use and it’s much quicker to search for groups in the ‘All groups’ tab thanks to @Edward_Hibbert’s tech wizardry Take a look for yourself
New Features
You can now unfollow groups (for example, if you move away and no longer want to receive notifications about events in the area)
If you’re a network coordinators, you can now make people hosts of their groups (thanks for the feature request @Manu_RepairTogether )
Bug fixes
We fixed a link on the dashboard that promised guidance on running repair events, but only led to a disappointment and a 404 error page. The new link is the real deal.
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We’ve added a new section to the site: the Data Workbench. The Data Workbench is home to microtask activities—quests—that let anyone analyse the repair data we all record. Each quest helps us learn more about why products break and how they could be made easier to fix.
While some experience with repair is often helpful, you don’t need to be an expert to get involved. Head to the Data Workbench to discover the latest activity!
Wiki
We’ve changed the navigation tabs on the repair wiki to make getting around more intuitive.
Bug fixes
We fixed an issue that broke some calendar feeds (thanks again for reporting this @panda)
We removed a bug with a sense of irony that hid certain data when searching the Fixometer
We removed a more humourless bug that prevented events being created if they lacked a postal address
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We’ve updated the Fixometer. When searching the database of repair attempts, you can now also see unpowered items. We’ve also polished up the search filters.
Localisation
We’re working on adding translation to the Wiki. If you’re interested in translating any of the Wiki into another language, get in touch!
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We’ve released the first part of the redesigned dashboard to make it easier to get to groups you follow, learn more about the site and see the latest Talk conversations. We’ll release some extra additions to this page soon…
Localisation
We’re continuing to work on adding translation to the Wiki. If you’d like to help make wiki content available in your language, let me know
Bug fixes
The event page forgot how to count volunteers and presented unhelpful warnings. We’ve taken it through its 1, 2, 3s and numeracy has been restored. Thanks @Florine_Paquay for the report!
The Fixometer got greedy and refused to let people download repair data so we reminded it that the repair data is open to all. The data export now works again. Thanks for the report @Angel!
When adding a new unpowered item, there was a missing tooltip for the item type field. To save everyone from having to guess what item type means, we’ve added a tooltip
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Repeat events have arrived! Due to popular demand, we’ve added a ‘duplicate event’ function, to allow hosts to create repeat events more easily. Learn how this works here.
We’ve also added a new ‘item type’ field to certain categories of electrical devices (e.g. small kitchen item) when you’re adding repair data to an event. This is to help improve the quality of repair data we all record.
Bug fixes
We reassured the event page that it doesn’t need to take Special Relativity too literally. Events are now displayed in order of date and time again.
The wiki is still grappling with learning new languages (aren’t we all?). But we fixed a couple of visual bugs, which should make the process a bit easier now.
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A number of event organisers have asked for an easier way to contact everyone who RSVPs to an event. So we’ve added event conversations. Now, when you create a new event (and it has been approved by a network coordinator), we’ll automatically create a private message here on Talk for that event.
The conversation will include the person who creates the event and anyone who RSVPs will be added automatically.
The subject line of the event conversation will be the name you gave to your event. The first message will be the event description.
Event conversations are private message threads on Talk and work in the same way. That means, by default, everyone included in a message will receive an email notification every time someone posts in the conversation. If you’d like to change your personal settings, you can do this in your email preferences.
You can find the conversation for your events in your Talk inbox or on the page for that event:
It’s been a while since I posted about what we’ve been working on behind the scenes. But work hasn’t stopped! Here’s a summary of the most important updates we’ve made to Restarters since June…
Updated environmental stats
After a 6-month project to find new environmental data, we updated the environmental calculations used to measure the impact of your events. This was a huge piece of work and has big implications for your group and event stats! In short, we…
Updated all existing environmental data for powered devices
Added environmental data data for 10 categories for the first time (including for unpowered items)
Added 7 new product categories
Changed the way we estimate the impact of repairing miscellaneous items
Recalculated the impact stats for every event and group
When creating a new event, you can now press a button to set the event location to your group’s location (instead of typing it out manually)
When listing an online event, you can now add a link (e.g. to a registration page or Zoom call) and no longer need a physical address. This link will appear on your event page
General improvements
We now show you a more useful and comprehensive selection of groups in your area on the dashboard and on the groups nearby page
Group hosts: you can now see your events awaiting moderation
When signing up to Restarters, you are now returned to where you were before (e.g. the Workbench or Talk)
Localisation
We updated translations for French (BE) and Dutch (BE) - thanks to @Florine_Paquay and @Rosalie_Heens for your help!
Features for networks
Networks can now choose whether or not they want to approve events before they appear live
We’ve developed a prototype dashboard for network coordinators to monitor the number of events and groups in their network over time
Bug fixes
If you RSVP to an event, you will now be able to edit that event’s devices again
We exterminated a veritable ecosystem of 34 other bugs, big and small
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If you’re a group host, you can send everyone in your group a private message from your inbox right here on Talk. Simply create a new private message and in the ‘to’ field, start typing the name of your group - press it when it pops up.
These messages work like ‘reply-all’ email and be sent to all everyone who follows the group. Anyone in the group can reply and everyone can see each response.
Note that by default, everyone included in a message will receive an email notification every time someone posts in the conversation. If you’d like to change your personal settings, you can do this in your email preferences.
You can learn more how this works here:
Site updates
We’ve updated two important bits of software that power most of Restarters.
Bug fixes
The login door to the wiki wasn’t opening for some people. We’ve changed the locks so everyone should now have access again. (Thanks for reporting this @Dave and @Adam)
It’s now easier to edit the end time of events on Chrome (thanks for reporting this @Jonathan_Vigne)
We fixed an issue affecting which events were displayed in the ‘upcoming events’ or ‘your events’ sections
As always, a huge thanks to @Edward_Hibbert and @neil, the dev engines behind the scenes!
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We’ve made a new landing page for Restarters to help people understand what the site is for before signing up.
We’ve added environmental impact stats to the Fixometer data export
As a group host, you can now delete your own group’s events (in case you accidentally create duplicates, for example)
Localisation
We made most notification emails translatable, so if you would like notifications in your language, get in touch!
Bug fixes
Stats in the Fixometer’s table headings didn’t match the search filters. So we removed the figures (and added the correct ones to the downloadable export)
The footer of email notifications will now stop displaying random code (as reported by @Janet)
We fixed the height of the navigation menu on Talk on mobile (as reported by @Panda)
We fixed the position of the login button on Talk (as reported by @Panda)
The groups page wasn’t working for some users. We’ve made a temporary fix. If you find the groups page isn’t working for you either, try changing your profile location to somewhere nearby.
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We’ve changed how unapproved events appear in the system. If your group has already been approved (which is almost all of you), events you create will now immediately appear to everyone on the site without needing to be approved themselves. If your group hasn’t yet been approved by an admin or network coordinator, events you create will remain hidden until approved.
We’ve added a banner to the Wiki, which we can use to post messages (especially useful to encourage people who found the wiki through a search engine to contribute to it, for example)
We’ve changed the site’s favicon (the little image that appears in the tab of your browser) so it’s more visible for people using dark-themed browsers. Thanks for the suggestion @Monique
Localisation
Timezones have arrived! This is a big one. Every group now has a time zone set and we display the time zone of your events wherever the time is displayed on the site. If you’re a group host or a network coordinator, you can check and update your group’s time zone in the edit group page.
We updated translations for French (BE)
Backend improvements
We improved & expanded our automated testing (to help catch bugs before they are introduced)
We improved our disaster recovery infrastructure, which should make the site more resilient if things go wrong.
Bug fixes
Fixed some visual problems on Talk
Fixed an issue experienced by some hosts who were unable to message their group
Fixed a bug preventing some people from logging into the Wiki
Fixed some issues related to the introduction of time zones
Item categories weren’t translated in some places. They are now.
Parts of the dashboard and events pages disappeared for some people. We brought them back.
Help us maintain & improve this site
We’re working hard to make Restarters․net a useful tool and welcoming home for everyone involved in community repair. If you haven’t already, please consider making a donation to help fund this work. Until the 29th of April, all donations will be doubled by The Big Give, so there’s never been a better time to support us! Thank you > You can donate here
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Time really flies by…! Here are the highlights of what we’ve been up to behind the scenes since I last updated this topic
May to October 2022
New features
We finished adding support for timezones! Now everyone will know exactly when your events start and end, no matter where you are in the world. Read all about it here.
We upgraded the Wiki with a visual editor, which lets you edit pages without having to know any code! Why not give it a try? (we’re looking for help with our page on coffee makers, for example )
You can now record items for an event as soon as the event is created. This lets you add items in advance if you ask visitors/participants to pre-register for your events.
You can now upload photos of items when adding them to your event
Localisation
The main menu on Talk can now appear in French (if that’s the language you’ve chosen)
If you’re a group host, you can now view & edit your group’s time zone
The main landing page is now available in French
Networks
We’re delighted to welcome a new network to the site: Repair Café Hauts-de-France! They’re a network of around 120 groups in northern France
Network coordinators can now remove people from groups in their network
Added arrows to the group actions and event actions menu buttons
Backend improvements
We improved our disaster recovery infrastructure, which will allow us to get the site back up and running in case of, well, disaster.
We’ve improved our API for connecting to other sites and our documentation for it
We’ve expanded our automated testing systems to monitor whether things are working smoothly (and catch bugs)
Bug fixes
We’ve fixed 29 bugs, great and small… for a full list, see our technical release notes at the link below.
Finally, if you’d like much more detail and to follow the changes we make to this site without waiting for me to write them up , you can now do so directly on Github:
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We’ve continued working on Restarters over the last few months. Here are the most important changes…
November 2022 to January 2023
Introducing data downloads
If you are a group host or network coordinator, you can now download your repair data! This option is available for individual events as well as for groups as a whole. See how it works here:
Features for networks
We’ve added some new capabilities to the API used by networks. It can now fetch more information about groups and API users can now filter by date when retrieving events
Small improvements
We added an ‘item’ column to the item log on event pages (to make it easier to see what was brought to the event at a glance). Thanks for the suggestion @Florine_Paquay!
The first message in event conversations is now much clearer
Sharing a wiki page on social media will now look better, featuring an image
Back end upgrades
We’ve complete a huge piece of work to upgrade some of the back end technology on which the site is built (Laravel and PHP). This will help us stay up to date with security patches and more.
We added more automated testing to catch bugs before they’re released into the system
Bug fixes
Adding or editing items brought to events sometimes deleted certain fields. We’d like more detail, not less, so we fixed this.
Some items were recorded as being many hundreds of years old. It’s probably safe to assume that Renaissance mice would require a zooarchaeologist rather than a repairer (at least, probably), so we’ve capped the age limit to 500 years.
Long titles in tabs no longer break the layout in the ‘Device breakdown’ section on group pages
Number of repairers at events is now displayed consistently in different parts of the site
Re-ordered lists of past events by most recent first. Thanks for flagging this @Florine_Paquay
Fixed mislabelled iFrame impact visualisation
The email field on the reset password page no longer appears deactivated. Thanks for reporting this @Alex_Horn
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Time for another update on what we’ve been improving behind the scenes! Here are the highlights from the last few months…
February to April 2023
Key Highlights
We’ve updated how we calculate the number of hours volunteered at your events to make it more accurate. Find the full details here.
Anyone with an account can now create a group on Restarters (you don’t need to have the ‘host’ role to do it any more, as this caused too much confusion.)
Features for networks
We’re delighted to welcome a new network to Restarters: Repair Café Aotearoa New Zealand
We set up network for Repair Café Aotearoa New Zealand and welcomed lots of groups to the platform. Welcome everybody!
We added a calendar feed for networks - this means you can show your network’s events on an external calendar (like Google Agenda) and embed that in your own website.
Network coordinators can now edit repair data for groups in their network
Small improvements
We’ve changed how volunteers are referred to in the system. We no longer call all volunteers ‘repairers’, we call them ‘volunteers’ instead. We’ve also updated the icon on event pages. This should make it more obvious that we value all volunteers whether or not they fix stuff.
We improved how group descriptions appear on your group page
The number of your groups and events that appear on your dashboard should now not exceed 5
The age of devices where no age has been entered is now displayed as ‘-’ (not ‘0’)
Back end upgrades
We added some more automated testing to catch more bugs
We set up an OpenAPI coverage tool to help ensure we’re documenting our API fully
Bug fixes
‘Hours of TV watched’ corrected to ‘Days of TV watched non-stop’ on environmental impact visualisations (Thanks Lea for spotting that!)
Events now show the group’s logo again
Corrected the order in which events appear on the Dashboard to include the soonest events not the events furthest in the future.
Allowed for the use of “obsolete” time zones (that had prevented someone from creating a new group in Australia)
We now sync username changes on Talk back to the rest of the site
Fixed a design bug for collapsible sections on the wiki
Fixed a design bug that hid certain headings when editing pages on the wiki
Redirected empty /en pages on the wiki to the pages with content
As always, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes making tweaks and improvements to Restarters. Here are the key things we’ve been up to over the last few months…
May to July 2023
Introducing smarter item entry
Tired of finding the right category for the items you enter? No longer! Instead of scrolling through a long list of categories to find the right one, the system will now automatically select a category for you when you enter an item. This should speed up data entry and help avoid miscategorising items, making your impact stats more accurate. More details here:
We created a network for Cambridgeshire Repair Café Network and have begun to welcome members to Restarters. Welcome all!
We added some network-specific fields for groups, giving network coordinators more granular information about their groups
For network coordinators from Cambridgeshire and RCANZ, we added links to your analytics dashboards to your network pages for easy reference
Localisation
We’ve renamed ‘New Zealand’ to ‘Aotearoa New Zealand’ in the English version of Restarters to recognise that the islands were Māori first
Country names are now translatable so that they can appear in the appropriate language when using Restarters in another language
Minor improvements
We removed the “number of volunteers does not match the attendance record” error message, as it was causing confusion (thanks for flagging this @Sandy_Skelton)
Recording the brand and model of items is optional, but this wasn’t obvious. So we added ‘(if known)’ to the placeholder text in these fields when adding repair data
We removed the ‘useful URL’ field to reduce clutter when entering repair data as no one was using it anyway
Back end upgrades
We’ve improved our disaster recovery process for the repair Wiki
We introduced more automated testing to catch bugs before they’re released
We upgraded the underlying code for creating & editing events to make this quicker
The API saw some minor updates - we’ve already been in touch with those of you who will be affected
Bug fixes
We fixed broken search filters in the ‘all groups’ section (thanks for reporting this @Brigitte_Sistig)
Entering a manual weight for items is always optional when that item has a category, despite the help text sometimes suggesting otherwise. We corrected this help text to clarify when a manually entered weight is required for an environmental impact calculation.
We fixed the ‘updated at’ value for events returned via the API
Network coordinators can once again create events for groups they host that aren’t in their network (thanks for reporting this @Julie_Evans)
Fixed a bug sometimes prevented emails from being sent (thanks for flagging this @Shelini_Kotecha)
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Redesign
Bug fixes
for finding some bugs in the event-creation process. We’ve fixed some of these and will get to the rest soon.Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests
Impact stats
Localisation
New Features
)
Introducing the Workbench
Wiki
)
We’re still working on making this a bit smoother, but you can 
Introducing event conversations
General improvements
Localisation
Features for networks
Site updates
Backend improvements
Introducing data downloads
Small improvements
Bug fixes
Help us keep improving this site: 
Introducing smarter item entry