Hello everyone! Monthly news for you all.

As mentioned previously in an announcement in our Discord server, we are finally coming off hiatus! Due to general busyness within our mod team, we unfortunately weren't able to get the entirety of our plans out in one complete newsletter - the second part will be posted in Mid September if all goes smoothly - it may be a bit of a slow start back up, but we appreciate any and all patience, and hope you are enjoying the species.

Final Trait Changes:

For the past several months during hiatus, we've been attempting to rework traits for both Gachagons and Bitlings just due to general discontent with how they'd been previous, feeling it generally necessary to simplify, and community feedback we've received over time. We hope that you find what we've decided upon to be simpler and easier to understand, and that you like it! Bitlings will be handled in our next newsletter - for now, here is a list of changes to Gachagons: 

• Teeth traits have been removed, minus long fangs/tusks (which have been merged into one trait). Abnormal teeth have been moved to fall under the Abnormal Body trait
• You are no longer required to list your Gachagons currency and prize - it is optional
• Dark and colored sclera have been merged into one trait (colored sclera) and are now both uncommon 
• Plant and Fungal growth have been merged into one trait (Plant growth) and are now both uncommon
• Synthetic body parts has been added as a trait
• Event trait have been removed and resorted into different already existing traits
  • Stick Horns -> Horns + Plant Growth
  • Compass cheek light -> Abnormal body + Patterned Cheeklight
  • Diorama -> Abnormal Body 
  • Balloon Limbs -> Object Body Parts
  • Candles -> Object Body Parts (this trait is only needed if the candle replaces a part of the body, simply having candles as an accessory is untraited)
  • Elemental Parts -> Synthetic Body Parts
  • Fabric Patches -> Synthetic Body Parts
  • Food Parts -> This trait is staying its own thing, however it has been changed to be rare
  • Lantern -> Object Body Parts
  • Pinata Fur -> Abnormal Body
  • Plush Limbs -> Synthetic Body Parts
  • Stick Spikes -> Plant Growth
  • Visible Bones -> This trait is staying its own thing, however it has been changed to be a prompt trait.
  • Will-O-Wisps -> This trait is staying its own thing, however it has been changed to be rare
  • Wispy Parts -> Synthetic Body Parts
• Two Sets of ears/wings now falls under Extra Limbs
• All wing traits (minus gliding wings and seraph wings) are now condensed into no wings (common) and wings (common)
• Spiral light has been removed as a trait and is now allowed as an untraited thing
• Drippy cheek light and Drippy Pouch are now obtainable via jelly/gooey body parts
• Gacha ball traits have been condensed to Simple Gacha balls (common) and Shaped Gacha balls (sacred). Colors/Patterns/Glitter is no longer traited
• Glittery Fluid and Wave Shimmer have been condensed into one trait, Glittery fluid (uncommon)
• Objects in Fluid has been bumped down to rare
• Glow-In-The-Dark has been bumped down to common
• Functional Hand parts has been moved to the “Prompt” rarity
• Magic Aura Wings are now Synthetic Body Parts + Wings

Any event items that were used to give out any of the event traits have been deleted, and users who have them have been granted a corresponding sticker!

Moderator Changes/Additions:

Please welcome GalacticRing, LobCorp and redcrowz as new general moderators! We are glad to have them on the team going forward.

yugioh and KrinkleFry87 have also been promoted from permanent guest artists to general moderators!

A few of our mods have also stepped down, thank you togeticky and WeiWuxian for your help over the year! :] Bustersw0rd has also stepped down to the role of permanent guest artist!

Changes to Art Redemption:

You no longer have to submit your artwork to the Art Redemption prompt to receive crayons - when submitting to the Art Redemption gallery, there will now be criterias you fill out instead of a form. The Art Redemption guide has been updated to reflect this, please read over it before asking any questions!

Revival of Bitlings + Event preview

Bitlings, a subspecies/failed recreation of Gachagons, were an additional species created by the old owner of Gachagons, Sunfever_ a few years back before transfer in ownership. We unfortunately haven't done as much as we would have liked with Bitlings since then, but with the ending of our hiatus we have decided to give Bitlings a bit of the limelight as to hopefully make them feel more of a part of the wider species as a whole. More on this will be touched upon in our next (non-monthly) newsletter, along with some events - a lore based event, and a free MYO event - coming soon.

General Site Additions

We have decided to add a few more extra features to the site to both improve user experience and make the site a more stand-alone thing - we hope you enjoy the additions!

• On-site direct messages - you may now message individual users and staff directly on-site. 
• WYSIWYG comments -'What You See Is What You Get' 
• Pronoun field - a pronoun section has been added to your account settings and can be edited at any time, viewable on your profile and any site comments you make. This section is strictly for pronouns only.
• New staff page - there is now a dedicated staff page for each individual member/other non-staff system accounts (voided characters, NPC account, etc.), including individual contact information, usernames, etc. You can view it here.
• Username changing - you may now change your site username from your account settings every 30 days without needing help from a moderator. Please keep usernames appropriate!
• The monthly prompt now enters you into a raffle for a Gachagon based off the theme of the month! We'll do our best to do so every month, but please keep in mind a lot of our staff are generally really busy!

September Prompt

This month’s theme is AUTUMN! Draw and/or write about how your Gachagons/other keep species feel about autumn. Is it their favorite season? Do they enjoy falling leaves? This prompt is vague, so feel free to interpret it as you wish!

The September prompt will last till September 30th!

RULES (ILLUSTRATED)

• Your illustration must be (at the least) a halfbody with a semi-scenic background! (We should be able to tell there's depth to the piece!)
• Your illustration must be, at the minimum, cleanly lined and colored!
• Your illustration MUST be submitted to the monthly prompt gallery! (As well as when submitting the prompt, you'll need to link to the gallery submission. Gallery submissions can still be linked to before official approval/while pending, so there should be no reason you can't link it when submitting your piece! Prompt submissions with outside links like Discord, sta.sh, etc. will be rejected.) 

RULES: (WRITTEN)

• Your written piece must be at the least 600 words long!
• Use paragraph breaks, it makes it much easier for our mods to read over!
• Your written piece MUST be submitted to the monthly prompt gallery!

This months raffle gacha can be seen below! To enter for them you must do the monthly prompt. :]

Miscellany

• The navigation bar has changed a bit! 
• Gachapanion Dailies have been discontinued for now along with the gachapanion bonding prompt - we are working on reworking Gachapanions behind the scenes at the moment.
• The daily rewards link has been updated, and is now active again!
• All site guides have been redone, along with the staff and NPC page being updated!
• Bitling and Gachapanion MYO items have been removed from the shops temporarily while we rework these species. You may not send Bitlings or Gachapanions in for approval until we are done reworking them - an announcement will be made once we are done.
• As a general reminder please be kind to our staff, Digimon is still currently homeless and a few of our staff have factors irl that keep them busy. We are all doing our best, any sort of rude remarks to our staff will be met with a warning or potentially a ban depending on the severaity. 

Thank you for sticking around! We're sorry this took so long, and that our plans arent even complete at this stage. We hope you enjoy what we have in store! Please keep an eye out for our next newsletter. :]