So, here it is! IF2! No, I didn't think it would be this soon either. Everything just started getting finished real fast, and before long I realised I didn't have much left to do, and here we are!

Well, I say done, it's not really done. It does nearly everything important that IF1 did. You'll see some links that don't appear to do anything, they will do what they are intended to do in future, but I figured it was best to get a usable copy up and then add to it over time. I'll be starting uni (college) soon, so don't expect much other than bugfixes for a month or so.

Speaking of bugs. Report them, please! If you see any errors up the top of the screen or anything that looks out of whack, tell me. Spelling mistakes included (it's hard to spellcheque code), and especially if you spot any comment spam. I've left spam protection for now, but if you start to see any please let me know, because when it's started it'll get bad quick.

Other than that, I hope you enjoy!

For a start, there's no documentation yet. If anything seems confusing tell me. Other things aren't documented but are easy to work out if you pay attention (conditional highlighting for example).

Changes from pluses/minuses and A*s: Me and other users deliberated long about this. I eventually decided on a five-star system. It won't be used to rank anything much, it's just there for feedback at a glance. When logged-in people leave comments they'll be asked to rate on any number of criteria they like out of a list that you'll notice when you click the link below the text box. If you think the criteria are terrible and should be changed, feel free to suggest, I'm not calling them a conceptual masterpiece. They will be displayed along with your comment, so there will be accountability. As with all quantifications, take them with a pinch of salt, they can be gamed.

OMGs replace A*s. The system is a tad involved, but basically every user has a number (determined by their level) of 'slots'. When they OMG a piece they will be asked to put it in a slot, displacing the piece that was in it before (moving it to 'inactive', but it still appears on their 'omgs' page). Pieces in a user's slot have an 'active' OMG. The more active OMG's a piece has, the further it is up on the OMG rankings. This means the list is kept fresh, rather than the A* list that was so static it was more of a league table than anything useful for discovering new pieces.

Levels and points: Points mean prizes replace vottage. You can see your approximate points on your userpage. Levels are something I'm pretty happy with. They're countries, complete with flags. I once heard a reporter say something like "Patriotism is endearing from a country with a population of several thousand, passable from a country of several million, and insufferable from a country of hundreds of millions". The levels system on IF reflects this, with the lowest levels being the most populous countries, working up through decreasing population. The ordering may change at my whim, so don't fret if all the levels suddenly mix around. Points are calculated using neo's secret formula, and may go down as well as up.

Pluses, minuses, and A*s from IF1: have been factored into the points and levels here. They also appear on your userpages and as the top comment on all IF1 pieces

Categories: You'll see these whenever you create a piece or series. They're in a tree format, but are organised in the way I thought best rather than any definite taxonomy. People will be skeptical, I predict, but I think this system should prove best from a piece-discovery point of view, in that it strikes the balance between specificity and the vagueness required for good discoveries

Userpages: This is another of my favourite ideas. You might be getting the picture that I'm making things difficult rather than easy. I derive this from the idea of gameplay, it's the difficulty that makes things fun and it's what a lot of communities are built on. Anyway, userpages for IF1 users are preset with their previous userpage and their IF1 stats, as well as some stats in a box. The actual info on the userpage is built by answering preset 'questions'. You can't look up questions, only discover them on other people's userpages. I think this is pretty fun, and should be more useful for building up a profile than just writing down any old thing.

Notifications: Still partly a work in progress, but currently the little notifications block on your left (if you're signed in) will show up new pieces from your friends, new comments on your pieces, new replies to your comments, and probably some other things I forgot!

You can also comment series

• Tags are not here.
• Ordering pieces, I don't think I did this yet. If you require this, send me a message and I'll do it for you.
• Notification emails.
• Comment spam mitigation.
• Comment deletion.
• Comment reporting.
• Viewing who OMG'd your pieces.
• Terms and conditions / Rules.
• Forum upgrade.
• Category view.
• LOTS OF OTHER THINGS. This site isn't just called 2.NULL to avoid jumping on the web 2.0 bandwagon, it's also because there are still lots of things I plan to add!