April 2020 Updates
We're starting this month off with an old habit we dropped for a while — monthly updates! April saw a ton of improvements to the platform, new releases, and new aspects to Write.as that we're excited to share with you here.
Better billing management. We've improved our Billing section, so now you have better insight into your active subscriptions, discounts, add-ons you've purchased, and all of your past invoices — now downloadable as easy-to-read PDFs.
Automated password resets. As strange as it may sound, we haven't had a “forgotten password” feature in the 4 years that we've had user accounts. Instead, you'd send us an email so we could reset your password for you. While we'll miss those spontaneous conversations, we've finally automated this process, so you can now reset your password entirely on your own. (But if you need company like we do, you can still always email just to say “Hi”!)
Dates on blog posts. Another peculiar design shortcoming, perhaps a remnant of our zeal for minimalism — blog posts weren't dated! That was weird. But now it's fixed. You'll see consistent dates on your blog home page and individual blog posts, as long as you're using the Blog display format.
Better navigation. We've made it easier to navigate across different parts of our suite — whether getting to Read Write.as, the Write.as editor, or your prompts and submissions. Look for more gradual improvements coming in May!
Some quality of life fixes. You might've noticed that your anonymous posts page could take a while to load. We've vastly sped that up, and fixed pagination on Novel-formatted blogs.
eBook exports. This new add-on lets readers download your entire blog, or a group of hashtagged posts, as an ePub file. Our ultimate goal is to turn this into a full eBook creator, with just enough customization to be widely useful, but not so much that it becomes unwieldy. Grab the add-on in the store, and share your feedback on this forum thread.
Write.as for Teachers. We offer a safe, ad-free writing space for teachers and their students — whether your class needs writing submissions with no setup, or individual blogs for each student. Learn more about how Write.as can help on our Write.as for Teachers page.
WriteFreely Beta. The free and open source software behind Write.as is now in beta with our latest release, WriteFreely v0.12! This version advances features that make WriteFreely the platform for writing communities. Along with this, we've launched new services and partnership options around our open source writing platform.
ActivityPub mentions. Now you can mention users on Mastodon, Pleroma, and other ActivityPub platforms in your blog posts. Write a long response to someone in the Fediverse, or mention your own microblogging account so that replies to your blog post also notify you there.
Easy forum sign-in. Previously, you had to create a separate account just to participate on our forum. Now you can easily sign up with your Write.as account to join the community, give your input, and help shape the future of our independent writing platform!
Custom favicon for blogs. Pro users can now add custom favicons to their blogs. Just send us an email with the attached favicon and we'll add it for you!
Invite others. Now you can easily invite people to join you on Write.as. Check out your new Invite page to create a special link to share with family and friends.
Pro bundles. We now offer bundled Pro subscriptions at a special discount for writing groups, classrooms, and various organizations. Get in touch with details about how you'd like to use Write.as, and we'll set you up with a custom deal.
That's about everything for April! Subscribe to future monthly updates on our dedicated RSS feed, via email below, or in the fediverse by following @blog@write.as.
Any questions or feedback? Let us know on the forum or by replying to @write_as@writing.exchange.