April 2026 Blog Entry

blog/2026-05-01-april-update/index.md

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+---
+slug: april-2026-updates
+title: April 2026 Updates
+date: 2026-05-01
+authors: [bpepple]
+tags: [release, features, performance, security]
+---
+
+Here's a summary of everything that landed in Metron since the beginning of April 2026.
+
+<!-- truncate -->
+
+# April 2026 News
+
+## Monthly Statistics
+
+During April the [Metron Project](https://metron.cloud/) added the following to its database:
+
+- Users: **TODO**
+- Issues: **TODO**
+- Creators: **TODO**
+- Characters: **TODO**
+
+Thanks to everyone that contributed!
+
+## New Features
+
+### Community Governance Polls
+
+Registered users can now participate in site governance through the new **Polls** app. Site admins can create time-bounded polls and users can cast a single vote per poll during the active window. Once the poll closes, results are visible to everyone. A link to active polls appears in the main navigation bar.
+
+### UK Publisher and GBP Currency Support
+
+Publishers based in the United Kingdom can now be added to the database, and issue cover prices can be recorded in **GBP** alongside the existing USD support. The issue detail API response now includes a `price_currency` field so API consumers can distinguish between currencies without parsing the price string.
+
+### Publisher Filter for Reading List API
+
+The Reading List API endpoint now accepts a `publisher` query parameter, matching the filtering already available in the web interface. This makes it easier to fetch reading lists scoped to a specific publisher programmatically.
+
+## Performance Improvements
+
+### Indexes on Hot API Query Paths
+
+Additional database indexes were added to the Issue and Series models based on an analysis of the most frequently executed API queries. Combined with making the `unaccent` function immutable, these indexes give PostgreSQL more opportunities to avoid full-table scans on the busiest code paths. ([Jonas Stendahl](https://github.com/jonasStendahl))
+
+### GIN Trigram Indexes for Search and Autocomplete
+
+All unaccent `icontains` searches — used for the Arc, Character, Creator, Imprint, Publisher, Team, and Universe autocomplete fields — previously relied on standard B-tree indexes that PostgreSQL could not use for partial-string matching. These have been replaced with **GIN trigram indexes** on the unaccented name column, allowing PostgreSQL to use index scans instead of sequential scans for every search and autocomplete lookup. ([Brian Pepple](https://github.com/bpepple))
+
+### HTTP/2 and Gzip Compression
+
+The nginx proxy now serves all responses over **HTTP/2** and compresses them with **gzip**, reducing both page load latency and bandwidth consumption for all users. ([Jonas Stendahl](https://github.com/jonasStendahl))
+
+## Security and Infrastructure
+
+The bulk of the infrastructure work in April was a full server migration from **Ubuntu** to **CentOS**, moving all services into **Podman** containers managed by Quadlet systemd unit files. This migration brought with it a number of security and reliability improvements described below.
+
+### Anubis Bot-Protection Proxy
+
+Browser traffic now passes through [Anubis](https://anubis.techaro.lol/), a proof-of-work challenge proxy that sits between nginx and the application. Visitors solve a lightweight in-browser challenge on their first request; subsequent requests are passed through automatically using a signed cookie backed by persistent BBolt storage. The `/api/` path is fully exempted so API consumers are unaffected, and HTMX partial requests are allowed through once the initial challenge has been passed.
+
+Alongside Anubis, a set of targeted nginx deny rules blocks common bad actors: PHP exploit scanners, bots spoofing Chrome with fake version strings, Facebook and Apple crawlers, and clients sending requests with no User-Agent header at all.
+
+### fail2ban Integration
+
+[fail2ban](https://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban) jails now automatically ban IPs that generate excessive **401**, **403**, **404**, **429**, or **499** responses, as well as IPs that send requests with no User-Agent. Bans are enforced via the firewalld drop zone so they take effect at the network layer before nginx processes the connection.
+
+### Migration to Podman
+
+The production deployment has been migrated from a bare-metal installation to **[Podman](https://podman.io/)** with Quadlet systemd unit files. Each service (nginx, gunicorn, Anubis, PostgreSQL, Redis) is now managed as a native systemd service, improving process supervision and startup ordering.
+
+As part of this migration, **[Jonas Stendahl](https://github.com/jonasStendahl)** joined the project as a system administrator and contributed to the infrastructure work.
+
+### PostgreSQL Backups to DigitalOcean Spaces
+
+Automated off-droplet database backups are now shipped to **DigitalOcean Spaces** on a nightly schedule, providing an off-site recovery point independent of the primary VPS.
+
+### S3 Reliability Improvements
+
+The S3 client used for cover image storage received several reliability fixes: configurable socket timeouts and TCP keepalive settings to handle intermittent connectivity issues, an increase in retry attempts to 3, and a short-circuit that skips the S3 download in `pre_save_cover_hash` when the image field has not changed.
+
+## Developer Experience
+
+### GitHub Actions CI
+
+A GitHub Actions workflow now runs on every push and pull request, executing the full **ruff** linter and **pytest** test suite in parallel. This gives contributors fast feedback without needing to set up a local environment.
+
+## OpenCollective
+
+A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to our [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/metron)! Your support makes a real difference in keeping the Metron Project running and growing.
+
+### What Your Contributions Support
+
+Funds from Open Collective go directly toward:
+
+- **Server hosting costs** - Keeping the Metron website and API available
+- **Domain registration** - Annual domain name renewals
+- **Future capacity increases** - Scaling resources as the database and user base grows
+
+All expenses are transparent and publicly viewable on our [Open Collective page](https://opencollective.com/metron), so you can see exactly where every dollar goes.
+
+### Support the Project
+
+If you'd like to help keep the lights on and support continued development, contributions of any size are appreciated and help ensure Metron remains a free resource for the comic book community.
+
+Anyway, that's everything for this month! Take care.