Updates

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

Author rankings, calendar links and two admin tools

Version 1.0.89 · September 15, 2026

Release 1.0.89.

  • The Ranking figure on your Stats tab and on each series dashboard now shows a real number: your place among the site's authors, and the series' place among published series, by how readers follow, review and comment. It is recomputed every hour. The book dashboard no longer shows a ranking, since books are not ranked.
  • Chapter links on the release calendar are now the site's link colour, so they can be read against the dark background.
  • Subscribing to the newsletter after moving around the site in place sends one signup, not three, so it no longer uses up your daily signups.
  • For admins: the Classics Library table now has a search box that finds a book from a partial or misspelt title, author, series or ebook number, shows 25 imports a page, and refreshes itself only while an import is queued or running.
  • For the main admin: the Users page can now make an account an admin and take that back, with a confirmation, and each change is recorded.

An accessibility statement and a way to report a barrier

Version 1.0.88 · September 15, 2026

Release 1.0.88.

  • The site now has an Accessibility page, linked from the footer beside the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. It says what standard the site is built to (WCAG 2.1 AA), how the site is tested, and when it was last reviewed.
  • If something on the site is hard or impossible for you to use, you can now tell us in two ways: by email to accessibility@writersgrove.net, or with a form on the Accessibility page for anyone who cannot use email. We reply within two to three working days.

Classics imports are checked one book at a time

Version 1.0.85 · September 14, 2026

Release 1.0.85.

  • A classics import now lands as a draft book rather than a draft series. A book brought into a series that is already published stays hidden until an admin publishes it, and a new series is published with its first book. Unpublishing the last published book in a series takes the series off the Classics page with it, and any draft book can be deleted from the admin page.

The admin Users page manages accounts, and Analytics has tabs

Version 1.0.84 · September 14, 2026

Releases 1.0.78 to 1.0.84.

  • The admin Users page now spans the whole window and shows each account's referral code. The search finds an account by its code as well as its email or username, and the list can be narrowed to premium, admin or disabled accounts and sorted by join date in either direction.
  • Each account has a View page with everything on record: the account fields, premium and billing, content counts, the referral code, every account that signed up with that code, and the referrer's commissions and payouts.
  • Each account has an Edit window with the actions an admin can take: disable or re-enable, grant free premium days, delete, and create or change the referral code, its free days and whether it is active. Every action asks for confirmation first. Changing a code's text carries the accounts that signed up with the old text over to the new one.
  • Deleting an account from the admin page is the same 30-day deletion an account holder can start for themselves: subscriptions are cancelled first, the account is signed out and hidden, and it is removed for good after 30 days. The View page shows the date and offers Cancel Deletion during those 30 days.
  • The Referral Codes admin tab is now the referral payouts alone. Codes and free premium are managed from each account's Edit window. Referral codes cannot be changed by their owner once set; the Referrals page says to contact support if one needs to change.
  • The admin Analytics page is split into tabs: Overview, New Accounts, Total Accounts, Paid Premium and Top Authors. Total Accounts is a running total by month. Paid Premium counts only accounts with a paid subscription, never free premium, and its history is recorded daily from this release on.
  • The Classics Library admin page is split into Import and Library tabs, the Library tab spans the whole window, the imports table refreshes on its own every 30 seconds with a Refresh button beside it, and a finished import's note can be cleared.
  • Every in-page navigation now opens the new page at its top instead of part way down.

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.