Cookiemonsters

Imported from the pre-Redmine CookieMonsters TODO during the 2026-08-29 migration.

Original priority: P1 — Community experience and polish

• Make a member-focused signed-in Home / dashboard while keeping the current general homepage for visitors:
  • when signed out, keep a polished public/general CookieMonsters landing page similar to the current homepage: welcoming, game-neutral, useful for explaining the community and encouraging registration/login without exposing private community activity;
  • when signed in, / / Home should become a living member dashboard rather than the same marketing page with a few buttons removed;
  • the signed-in Home should combine the most useful community modules in one soft overview, including upcoming Calendar events, birthdays, recent Gallery/Screenshot images, and a useful slice of the member's News Feed/activity;
  • keep the modules compact and scannable with clear links such as View calendar, View Gallery, Open News Feed rather than trying to render every full feature on Home;
  • personalize the signed-in dashboard using permissions and preferences: community-only events only for eligible communities, game-event highlights for My Games, SFW/NSFW filters, blocks, Gallery permissions and feed preferences all apply before content is shown;
  • design Home so it feels like “what is happening in CookieMonsters right now?” rather than another settings/admin surface;
  • most CookieMonsters social/community content should be for authenticated members; public visitors may see the general landing/about/rules/login/register experience, but Members data, News Feed, Calendar details, birthdays, personal Gallery/Screenshots, forums/communities, Show Room social content and similar member activity should require an authenticated session unless a future feature is deliberately marked public;
  • do not rely on navigation hiding alone: protect member-only pages/data/media server-side so a copied URL or API call while signed out does not expose private/community information;
  • keep public SEO/landing content deliberately separate from authenticated member data so we can grow the public homepage without weakening member privacy.

CM-TODO-ID:05da02ed8ad370456287

Future notes, acceptance criteria and status changes belong in this Redmine issue.