Moon Blood Garden Updates Oct. 15 - 23

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  Posted by Drac Morbis Fri at 5:41 AM - Filed in Entertainment - 13 views
  

  MOON BLOOD GARDEN - WHAT'S NEW
  Update log: October 15 - 23, 2026

  In short: stories can now have a cover picture and styled text, there is a Report button on everything members post, everyone now joins with Normal Access and can ask for explicit access from the dashboard, there is an optional once-a-day e-mail (off until you turn it on) when someone replies to your forum posts, members can write their own stories in The Library, GIFs in forum posts now play, the site now fits phones and narrow windows properly, the feed gets an Explicit tick, emojis, GIFs and clickable web addresses, stories can be downloaded, and a few sign-up and account changes. Newest first.

  
  STORIES: COVER PICTURES AND STYLED TEXT
  - Cover pictures: Write a Story, and the editor of a story you already wrote, now have a "Cover picture" box (JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF, up to 8 MB). It is cropped to a portrait book jacket and shows on your story's card in Member Stories and on its page. Choose another file to replace it, or tick "Remove the current cover". A story without one keeps the book icon. The cover of an explicit story is hidden from members on Normal Access, like the story itself.
  - Styled text: above the text of every chapter there is now a toolbar - bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, raised and lowered text, small capitals, a font list, text sizes, text colour and highlight (a palette, or any colour), left / centre / right / justified, headings, quotes, a "* * *" scene break, a thin line, "start a new page here", and Clear formatting. Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I and Ctrl+U work too. The buttons just type small tags in square brackets into your text - the same kind of tags as the forum - listed under the Tags button, so you can type or fix them by hand.
  - Preview shows the chapter exactly as readers will see it, as you type, on a choice of papers (Ink, Sepia, Parchment, Void), so you can check your colours on light and dark.
  - On the story's details, "How the text looks" sets a typeface and an alignment for the whole story. Leave both on Default and your story is shown in the reader's usual look, exactly as before.
  - Readers are still in charge: if a reader picks Sans or Serif in Reading Settings it replaces the fonts you chose, your sizes follow their own text size, and a title or line you centred or right-aligned stays that way.
  - Chapters you have already written stay exactly as they are until you save them again.

  REPORTING
  - There is now a Report button on forum posts and replies, pictures, galleries, journal entries, stories (the story page and the reader), tracks and music albums, feed posts and replies, wall posts and replies, comments and member profiles. It sits beside the other buttons, in their style, and is never shown on your own content. (Private conversations keep their own Report button, as before.)
  - Press it, say what is wrong, and Submit. It sends without leaving the page, and the button then reads "Reported".
  - You can only report what you could see yourself (nothing from a staff-only forum, no drafts, and nothing explicit if you are on Normal Access). There is one open report per item - once staff have dealt with it you can report it again - and up to 30 reports an hour.
  - For staff: Admin > Content reports (moderators and admins). Each report shows what was reported as it was when it was reported (so it is still there if it is edited or deleted), who reported it, their reason and a View content link. Filter by Open / Reviewed / Dismissed and by kind, search, then Mark reviewed, Dismiss or Delete (deleting a report never touches the content). Everything is in the audit log, and a report from an explicit area keeps its text hidden from staff who are on Normal Access.
  - For staff: a new report puts one entry in your bell - "3 reports are waiting for review" - that opens Admin > Content reports. It is a single entry that keeps count: it goes up as reports come in, down as they are dealt with, and disappears when none are left. Reported private conversations go to admins only. It only ever says the number, never what was reported or by whom.

  EXPLICIT ACCESS
  - Everyone now joins with Normal Access. There is no access choice to make any more - not on the sign-up form, and not after you verify your e-mail. Members who already have Moon Blood Elite Access keep it.
  - New members are no longer shown the Site Guidelines pop-up on their first visit. The guidelines are still there to read any time: account menu > Site Guidelines.
  - Looking for explicit access? On your Dashboard, under the Post to Feed / Profile / Account buttons, press "Looking for explicit access?". It asks you to let Drac know the exact forum you found Moon Blood Garden at, and why you want explicit access. Its "Contact Drac" button opens a private message to Drac with a short request already typed in ("I'd like to request explicit, full access. I don't mind graphic/violent content."), which you can add to before sending. If it is approved, your access is switched on and the link goes away.
  - The Site Guidelines now come in two versions: members with Normal Access see the Normal Access rules, and members with Moon Blood Elite Access see the Elite rules. If your access changes, so do the rules you see.
  - For staff: Moon Blood Elite Access is still given in Admin > Members > the member > Content access. Both sets of guidelines are edited in Admin > Settings > Site guidelines (each has its own heading, rules and closing line). The "First-visit access choice" boxes in Admin > Settings are gone, since there is no pop-up any more.

  DAILY REPLY SUMMARY E-MAIL
  - Once a day, only when someone has replied to your forum posts the day before, you get one short, plain e-mail: links to your six most recent new replies, how many more there were, and a link to the forum. It never contains thread titles, forum names, member names or any post text, so a reply in any part of the site reads the same.
  - It only goes to members who have visited in the last 30 days, and never more than once a day.
  - It is off until you switch it on - on your Dashboard (the E-mail card), or in Settings > Notifications > "Daily reply summary". Switch it off the same way any time.
  - Everything else still stays on the site, in the bell and your feed.

  MEMBER STORIES AND THE LIBRARY TABS
  - The Library now has three tabs: Drac's Dementia (the original stories), Member Stories (new) and Member Journals (the old Journals tab).
  - Write your own story: press "Write a Story" on the Member Stories tab. Type it straight in, with a title, blurb, content note and your first chapter. You can add, reorder and edit chapters later, keep it as a draft, or publish it. There is no uploading or importing.
  - Member stories are read in the same page-turning reader as everything else in The Library, with the same default font, and take likes and comments. People who follow you are told when you publish or add a chapter.
  - Explicit is your choice. Moon Blood Elite Access members can tick "Explicit story" on their own stories; nothing marks a story explicit for you. Explicit stories are hidden from Normal Access members.
  - You can edit and delete only your own stories. Staff can step in if something needs moderating.

  GIFS IN FORUM POSTS
  - A GIF attached to a forum post used to show as a small, cropped, frozen picture, and only played when you clicked it. It now plays right in the post, at its own proportions (up to 240 pixels). Other pictures keep their small thumbnails, and clicking any of them still opens the full-size viewer.
  - This also applies to replies, to the forum pages visitors can see, and to a GIF placed inside the text of a post.

  THE FEED
  - Explicit tick: Moon Blood Elite Access members can tick "Explicit" on a written post. It is hidden from Normal Access members, replies included, and shows a small EXPLICIT badge to everyone else. Staff can mark a post explicit afterwards.
  - Emojis and GIFs in feed posts and replies, same buttons as the profile wall.
  - Web addresses now become links when you type them the normal way (www.example.com, youtu.be/abc), in the feed, forum, comments, journals, wall posts and private messages. Links to other sites show the "You are leaving this site" pop-up first.
  - GIFs sent in private messages can only be opened by the two people in that conversation.

  PHONES AND SMALL WINDOWS
  - Every page was checked at phone and tablet widths and fixed: nothing scrolls sideways or gets cut off, and the menu collapses properly.
  - All the tabs on Settings and on profiles are reachable now. They wrap onto a second line instead of hiding.
  - Short words are no longer chopped in half on small screens.

  EXPLICIT PROFILES
  - Normal Access members who open the profile of a Moon Blood Elite Access member see a warning first, with "Go back" or "Okay, Proceed". Anything marked explicit stays hidden from them either way.

  STORIES AND FORUMS
  - Download button on stories: when the author has attached a file, you'll see a "Download" button (a ZIP or TXT) beside "Start reading".
  - Moon Blood Tidings now sits at the top of the forums for everyone, in light blue. Some forums let staff start threads while members reply.

  SIGN-UP AND ACCOUNT
  - The site sends your verification link, password resets and, if you keep it on, the daily reply summary (above). Everything else stays on the site, in the bell and your feed.
  - If an e-mail to your address bounces for good (a mistyped or closed address), the site stops mailing it. Changing the e-mail address on the account clears that automatically.
  - For staff: Admin > Email bounces now receives bounce reports from the e-mail service by itself. A permanent bounce is logged with the reason and the address is blocked, and the page has a "Make a token" card to set the connection up.
  - Outlook, Hotmail, Live and MSN addresses sign up like any other now. The special pop-up and "Verify by E-mail" are gone.
  - Delete Account moved to the bottom of the Account tab on Settings, and now clears out everything you uploaded.
  - When staff suspend a member, their profile shows "This user has been banned" and everything they posted is hidden. Nothing is deleted, so it all comes back if the suspension is lifted.

  Found something odd, or want something changed? Post below or message a staff member. Thank you for being here.