Updates

What has changed on Writer's Grove, newest first.

Editing a public chapter works again, and the calendar tells the truth

Version 1.0.77 · September 14, 2026

Release 1.0.77.

Saving any change to a chapter that was already public was refused with "public date must be in the future", because the edit page sent the chapter's own date back with the save. The date field on the edit page now starts empty and the hint names the current date; leave it empty and the date stands, type a later date to move the chapter, or tick "Make it public now instead" on a chapter that is still waiting. A draft put out from the edit page with a date waits for that date, and one put out with no date is public at once.
A chapter pushed back into the future after followers had already been told about it is announced again when the new date arrives. A chapter put back into draft loses its date, so putting it out again dates and announces it afresh.
The Release Calendar said "Yours to read now" against every upcoming chapter for anyone whose plan is a number of chapters ahead, however far ahead the chapter was. It now makes the same decision as the chapter page, so it says a chapter is yours only when you can actually open it, and otherwise shows the date your plan gives you.
An account that had not chosen a username could still reach the Account tab and other pages, where every save failed with "invalid username format". Any signed-in account without a username is now taken to the claim page first, whatever it was trying to open.
Signed out, the row of tabs under the main menu left an empty strip on a phone. It is gone.
The New Subscribers chart on the author Stats tab counted every checkout that was ever opened, including ones abandoned at the payment page. It now counts only subscriptions that are active.
Every date and time on the site is now shown in your own time zone: when a chapter opens for you, when a comment was posted, when your archive was made, when a subscription ends, when you followed someone, and the rest. The book page also gives the time of day beside an upcoming chapter's date, matching the calendar.
The Classics shelf on the home page ignored your content settings while the page behind it honoured them. Both now show the same books.
The security filter's message is only shown when the filter really refused the request. A page the site itself refuses, such as an admin page, no longer claims a filter turned you away. When a chapter save is refused, both the Save button and autosave now say that your writing is still in this browser and nothing is lost.
The Help page has a new section, What gets refused, saying what kind of text and web address the filter turns away and what to do about it.

When something is refused, the site now says so

Version 1.0.76 · September 13, 2026

Release 1.0.76.

A security filter sits in front of WritersGrove and turns away requests that look like an attack. Until now, when it turned away something you had typed, nothing happened at all: a search would simply do nothing, and a save would show an error with no explanation. You now get a message saying what was refused and why, so you can change the wording and carry on.
That filter was also refusing ordinary words. Searching for anything ending like a file name, a title ending in .bak or .hack for instance, was turned away for no good reason. It no longer is.
If a chapter ever is refused when it saves, the editor now tells you, and tells you the chapter is still held on your own device so nothing you have written is lost.

Bigger text where it was too small to read

Version 1.0.74 · September 13, 2026

Release 1.0.74.

The row of tabs under the main menu was set smaller than the menu above it. It now matches, and it sits against the menu as one block with the tab you are on opening into the page.
On a phone that row used to scroll sideways with no sign that there were tabs off the edge. It now wraps onto a second line, so every tab is visible.
Book covers we draw ourselves, for the books with no cover art of their own, had a title, an author and a site name too small to read on the smaller shelves. All three are larger, and on a cover too narrow to hold three readable lines the site name steps aside rather than being printed too small to make out.
The title printed under those covers repeated what the cover already says, so it is gone. Books with cover art of their own keep their title underneath, since their artwork does not carry it.
Links inside ordinary text were being left to the browser's own blue and purple, which are close to unreadable on a dark page, particularly after you had followed one. They now use colours that can be read, and a followed link still looks different from one you have not opened.

See all, and filters on the Classics library

Version 1.0.70 · September 13, 2026

Release 1.0.70.

Every shelf on the home page now has a "See all" link beside its heading. The shelf shows ten; the page behind it lists everything in that category, newest or highest ranked first, with paging.
A shelf shows one series per author so no one writer fills it. The page behind it does not: it lists every series that belongs in the category, so nothing is hidden from you there.
The Classics library is paged rather than loading every novel at once, and it now has the same filters as a genre page, so you can hide AI-written or adult content and anything carrying a content warning you would rather not see.
The home page was rebuilt to ask the database for everything at once instead of running a separate query for each shelf. Nothing looks different; the page just arrives sooner.
The site was briefly unreachable on 13 September when the database ran out of room for new connections. That is fixed.

A menu for every area, and paid subscriptions

Version 1.0.67 · September 13, 2026

Release 1.0.67.

The header has a second row. It shows the pages for whichever area you are in, so Reader, Author and Admin each have their own set of tabs under the main menu. The main menu itself has not changed.
Following, Reading History, Release Calendar, Subscriptions, Referrals and Account used to be buried in the menu under your username. They are now the Reader tabs, visible wherever you are reading.
The author area was one long page. It is now Profile, Writing, Stats, Premium, Tiers, Referrals and Account. The settings that were piled onto the edit page have moved to the tab each belongs to.
Profile shows your author page the way readers see it, with an Edit button. No more guessing what your page looks like from the outside.
Stats is new. It shows your followers, your paid subscribers and what they pay each month, plus how followers and subscribers have moved over the past year.
Premium now says plainly whether your account has Premium and how, and only offers to manage a subscription when there is one to manage.
The menu under your username is now just Log Out.
Following and subscribing are now clearly different things. Following an author is free and tells you about new chapters. Subscribing is paid, starts at $1 a month, and is what gives you early access.
Free subscription tiers have been removed for that reason: they gave early access at no price, which made them a second kind of follower. If you were on a free tier you now follow that author instead, so you still hear about everything they put out.
Authors: every tier is now a monthly subscription of at least $1, and a connected Stripe account is needed before you can create one, because that is where the payments go.
The author page has a new layout, with the picture beside your name and details rather than stacked down the middle, and a smaller share row.

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