We're excited to announce the Halloween Secret Gift Drabble Exchange!!! Come to the forums to check it out and get more details!

____________________________________

February 2008:
Well, I made it with a few hours to spare. :)

I was hoping to get Checkmated v5.0 out the door, for the 5th anniversary of Checkmated v1.0. We had a number of little goodies in the month of February to celebrate, but the site overhaul is definitely the biggest and the one that took the most time.

There are a ton of new features--I'll go through a few of the bigger ones here:

Bedchamber Integration: There is no more need to log into the Bedchamber. If you are logged into the site and you view your updates or the library, the Bedchamber stories will automatically appear. Don't worry--the Bedchamber stories are still there.

Bookmarks: This is probably the biggest addition to Checkmated. I've created something that will allow you to add a bookmark for any story you want. You don't have to make a story a favorite anymore just to remind yourself to read it.

The bookmarks page is kind of your one stop shop for our Checkmated readers. That's now the location where you can manage your favorites, subscriptions, and bookmarks all in one. If you click on a star next to a bookmark the story is automatically favorite. The same with subscriptions. You can also mark stories as "Read" or "Unread" so you can keep track of which bookmarks you've already read. You can also drag and drop your bookmarks so that they appear in an order that makes sense for you.

Author Bookmarks: You can do the same thing with authors now. Authors can be bookmarked--if you just want to remember them in the future. They can also be favorited just like the could before. But now you can also subscribe to an author. If you really like everything an author has written and you want to be notified when they start a new story you can "subscribe" to the author.

Story Recommendations:
For each story we have 5 recommended stories. These recommendation come from you--our readers. The recommended stories are the top favorites of everyone who liked the story you are currently reading.

Your Shelf: This is now the one stop shop for all of our Checkmated authors. Here you can see, edit, or add a chapter to all the stories you've published--along with the vital statistics for each story such as how many people are subscribed, or how many people have it marked as a favorite.

RSS Feed: If you have an RSS reader and wish to subscribe to our RSS feed and receive all new stories published to our site click on the blue RSS button on the top right hand corner of our page.

Customized Updates: In your control panel, go to Update options, and choose which Time Zone you are in. Now you will see the correct time of your last visit to Checkmated in the upper right hand corner. And each time you visit the "Updates" page you will see the stories that have been added since your last visit.

Disclaimer:
The Characters and situations of Harry Potter depicted on this website are the legal property of J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic and AOL Time Warner, and have been used without permission.

No copyright infringement is intended.No profit is being made off this site; it is for entertainment purposes only.