Community & Updates
The Community & Updates page keeps you connected with Penpoint news and lets you contribute anonymous writing stats to the community. You can control when you see announcements, check for new ones, and manage your stats contributions.
Announcements
Penpoint automatically checks for new announcements when you open the app. You’ll see a notification overlay with any new updates, features, or tips.
Checking for Announcements
The Check for Announcements Now button lets you manually check for new announcements at any time. When clicked, Penpoint will check for the latest announcements and display them if any are available.
Announcement History
The Announcement History section displays all announcements you've received, organized from newest to oldest. Each announcement shows:
- An icon indicating the announcement type (update, tip, promotion, or general announcement)
- The announcement title
- A status badge (New, Dismissed, or Expired)
- Published date and expiration date (if applicable)
Each announcement has action buttons:
- View: Opens the full announcement content in an overlay
- Unread: Restores a dismissed announcement to your new announcements list
Tip: Expired announcements remain in your history for reference, but won't appear as new announcements even if you mark them unread.
Global Stats Contributions
You can optionally share anonymous writing stats to help build community numbers. This is entirely voluntary and can be enabled or disabled at any time.
- Start sharing: Enables anonymous stat contributions to the community
- Stop sharing: Disables contributions immediately
- Show Raw Contribution Data: Inspect exactly what data is being shared at any time
When disabling contributions, you can choose to also delete any previously shared data from the server, or simply stop contributing while keeping your existing contributions.
Note: Contributions are completely anonymous and contain no personal information or writing content. Only aggregate stats like session time and activity counts are shared.
Discord Rich Presence
Penpoint can optionally display your writing activity in your Discord profile status using Discord's Rich Presence feature. This is disabled by default and must be turned on manually.
How It Works
When enabled, Penpoint communicates with the Discord desktop app running on your computer to show what you're working on. Your Discord status will display two lines of information:
- A description of the section you're in, such as "Working on Characters" or "Working on the Manuscript"
- Your current mode: "Worldbuilding Mode" or "Manuscript Mode"
The status updates automatically as you navigate between pages. The possible statuses are:
- Worldbuilding Mode: Working on Characters, Working on Chapters, Working on Notes, Working on Story Arcs, Working on the Timeline, Working on Relationships, Working on Items, Working on Locations, Working on Tags, Browsing the Index, Checking Progress, In Settings, Reading the User Guide
- Manuscript Mode: Working on the Manuscript
Enabling and Disabling
Use the Turn on button in the Discord Rich Presence card to connect. The Discord desktop app must be running on your computer for the connection to succeed. If Discord isn't running, you'll see an error message.
Once enabled, Penpoint will automatically reconnect to Discord each time you launch the app. Use the Turn off button to disconnect and stop sharing your status. This takes effect immediately.
Note: Your writing content is never shared. Discord only sees which section of Penpoint you're using (e.g., "Working on Characters"): no character names, project titles, or prose are ever transmitted. All communication happens locally on your device between Penpoint and the Discord desktop app.
Privacy
Announcement checking is completely private. Penpoint doesn’t collect any tracking data when checking for announcements. Dismissed announcement records are stored locally on your device only.
Community stats contributions are separate from announcements and are entirely opt-in. You can inspect the exact data being shared at any time, and disabling contributions stops all outbound data immediately.
Note: Announcements are stored separately from your books and won't affect your book data or exports.