I like the new web UI (June 2026)

[Murakami]

I like the idea of the 'read path from start' button that was added to the story map, but right now all it does is go to the root chapter in all cases; it's the same functionality as the 'start over" button in every chapter. This can be annoying on larger stories since it takes you inside the root chapter and thus unloads any delayed loading from the story map.

Since it's in the story map, it might be more useful to have it move the "current" marker to the nearest branch chapter (rename to "find last branch' or something) and not leave the story map. Then people can use it to navigate around on the story map and keep going up till they find the branch they are looking for before clicking into the story and unloading the extended map.



Example of what I mean: you come in looking at "9.1 finally get into Abigail's..." click the button once and current moves to "3.3 Abigail, Your best friend's mother," (nearest branch chapter) then again to "redheads..." all while still in the story map.

 

[RejectTed]

The new variable options are great, but it's breaking some of my fringe code.

Would it be possible to get the Chyoa Guide updated with some more detailed documentation? I've got some edge cases to figure out and I want to dig into the positional of the new variable types.

 

[gene.sis]

but it's breaking some of my fringe code.

Can you be more specific?
It would be good to know, so it can be determined whether it's a fixable bug or it can't be fixed.

Would it be possible to get the Chyoa Guide updated with some more detailed documentation?

Sure. Though I'm not sure how long that will take.
There might also be some additional changes, so I might still wait a little longer.

 

[Friedman]

I like the idea of the 'read path from start' button that was added to the story map, but right now all it does is go to the root chapter in all cases; it's the same functionality as the 'start over" button in every chapter. This can be annoying on larger stories since it takes you inside the root chapter and thus unloads any delayed loading from the story map.

Since it's in the story map, it might be more useful to have it move the "current" marker to the nearest branch chapter (rename to "find last branch' or something) and not leave the story map. Then people can use it to navigate around on the story map and keep going up till they find the branch they are looking for before clicking into the story and unloading the extended map.

View attachment 11785

Example of what I mean: you come in looking at "9.1 finally get into Abigail's..." click the button once and current moves to "3.3 Abigail, Your best friend's mother," (nearest branch chapter) then again to "redheads..." all while still in the story map.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I’ve kept the option to read from the beginning and added another option for readers who open the Story Map from a chapter. They can now select a later chapter on that path and continue reading from their current chapter.

 

[Friedman]

The new variable options are great, but it's breaking some of my fringe code.

Would it be possible to get the Chyoa Guide updated with some more detailed documentation? I've got some edge cases to figure out and I want to dig into the positional of the new variable types.

Thanks for the suggestion! We’ve expanded the variable documentation with more details about variable types, ordering, conditions, and missing values.

Updated pages:
- Reader and Game Variables: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Reader-and-Game-Variables.260239
- Conditional Branches: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Conditional-Branches.266625
- If Statements: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Conditional-Text-with-If-Statements.256046
- Showing Variable Values: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Showing-Reader-and-Game-Values.256761
- Random Values, Rolls, Reveals, and Actions: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Random-Values,-Rolls,-Reveals,-and-Actions.1708314

Let me know if there’s an edge case we still haven’t covered.

 

[RejectTed]

Can you be more specific?
It would be good to know, so it can be determined whether it's a fixable bug or it can't be fixed.

The short answer is I deliberately write If Statements wrong, so the site detects errors when I try to save drafts and won't let me.
1. I pre-write chapters in a separate draft story before publishing the actual story. This allows me to build a backlog and make sure I know where the story is going. Because I haven't bothered to actually create the variables in the draft story, the If Statements don't pass. I've since figured out an easy workaround.
2. I start all my chapters with:

{If@ game=true}Gamemode is off.

{endif}

Just in case, but again, I never actually bothered to define "game", so I can't save changes until I do things properly. Also, thanks to the new documentation, I know that game is a reserved word, so I'll have to tweak it.

Thanks for the suggestion! We’ve expanded the variable documentation with more details about variable types, ordering, conditions, and missing values.

Updated pages:
- Reader and Game Variables: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Reader-and-Game-Variables.260239
- Conditional Branches: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Conditional-Branches.266625
- If Statements: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Conditional-Text-with-If-Statements.256046
- Showing Variable Values: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Showing-Reader-and-Game-Values.256761
- Random Values, Rolls, Reveals, and Actions: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Random-Values,-Rolls,-Reveals,-and-Actions.1708314

Let me know if there’s an edge case we still haven’t covered.

Thanks, I skimmed most of it. I won't be using all of the features, but I'll definitely be using the dropdown variable type and inventory.

 

[gene.sis]

1. I pre-write chapters in a separate draft story before publishing the actual story. This allows me to build a backlog and make sure I know where the story is going. Because I haven't bothered to actually create the variables in the draft story, the If Statements don't pass. I've since figured out an easy workaround.

If you deactivate Game Mode in the draft story, I think it won't check syntax. (Though I haven't checked.)

2. I start all my chapters with:

{If@ game=true}Gamemode is off.

{endif}

Just in case, but again, I never actually bothered to define "game", so I can't save changes until I do things properly. Also, thanks to the new documentation, I know that game is a reserved word, so I'll have to tweak it.

Yes, that doesn't work for new chapters or when editing chapters. (But existing chapters should still work as intended.)

Now you have to do

{if@ game:existing_variable > 100000}

instead. (As no variable can be greater than 100000, it will always fail.)

 

[Friedman]

The short answer is I deliberately write If Statements wrong, so the site detects errors when I try to save drafts and won't let me.
1. I pre-write chapters in a separate draft story before publishing the actual story. This allows me to build a backlog and make sure I know where the story is going. Because I haven't bothered to actually create the variables in the draft story, the If Statements don't pass. I've since figured out an easy workaround.
2. I start all my chapters with:

Just in case, but again, I never actually bothered to define "game", so I can't save changes until I do things properly. Also, thanks to the new documentation, I know that game is a reserved word, so I'll have to tweak it.


Thanks, I skimmed most of it. I won't be using all of the features, but I'll definitely be using the dropdown variable type and inventory.

If you deactivate Game Mode in the draft story, I think it won't check syntax. (Though I haven't checked.)


Yes, that doesn't work for new chapters or when editing chapters. (But existing chapters should still work as intended.)

Now you have to do

{if@ game:existing_variable > 100000}

instead. (As no variable can be greater than 100000, it will always fail.)

Thanks for the feedback!

We now have a native Game Mode check, so you no longer need to define a game variable or use an impossible condition:

{if game}
Shown while Game Mode is active.
{else}
Shown while Game Mode is inactive.
{endif}

{if game} becomes true after Game Mode is started. Resetting keeps it active, while ending the game makes it false again.

 

[TheLowKing]

I like the new 'trending stories' list. Pet peeve: 47/50 of the stories in the list say they're included because of 'fresh chapters this week'. I don't mind the algorithm (don't know anything about it, frankly), but it's a bit boring that the listed reason next to so many stories is the same. Maybe the weights for what reason is displayed could be changed to have some more variety?

 

[Friedman]

I like the new 'trending stories' list. Pet peeve: 47/50 of the stories in the list say they're included because of 'fresh chapters this week'. I don't mind the algorithm (don't know anything about it, frankly), but it's a bit boring that the listed reason next to so many stories is the same. Maybe the weights for what reason is displayed could be changed to have some more variety?

Good catch. The reason labels currently use a simple priority list, and “fresh chapters” is checked first, so any story with a recent chapter tends to receive that label. I’ll adjust it so the displayed reason represents the strongest contributor.

 

[buyerinternet]

I think the new comment liking system is great, but recently someone liked over 20 of my comments which means 20+ notifications that are just for someone liking a comment. Maybe it could group them and go 'X liked your comment and 5 more in the same story' or something like that. Or just a way to surpress that notification in settings.

 

[Friedman]

I think the new comment liking system is great, but recently someone liked over 20 of my comments which means 20+ notifications that are just for someone liking a comment. Maybe it could group them and go 'X liked your comment and 5 more in the same story' or something like that. Or just a way to surpress that notification in settings.

Thanks for the feedback!

I’ll see what I can do with the grouping idea. I agree that it could help when someone likes several comments in a short period of time.

You should already be able to disable notifications for comment likes in your notification settings here:
https://chyoa.com/settings/notifications

 

[Friedman]

I think the new comment liking system is great, but recently someone liked over 20 of my comments which means 20+ notifications that are just for someone liking a comment. Maybe it could group them and go 'X liked your comment and 5 more in the same story' or something like that. Or just a way to surpress that notification in settings.

I’ve now added grouped comment-like notifications, so multiple likes in the same story will be combined instead of creating a long list of separate notifications.

 

[TheLowKing]

The "Up to X chapters ahead" text is pretty hard to distinguish from the chapter title. A bit more space between the two elements would help with that.

 

[Murakami]

When I do recently published in the story map, the right side buttons do not quite fit on the screen. There is just a lot of empty space to fill the width of the window, and the length of the lines is slightly longer than the window is wide (it remains cut off about the same amount regardless of how you resize the windows).

Also a bit weird looking that the view, like, and comments icons do not line up (side effect of showing not published chapters with no way to turn them off).

 

[TheLowKing]

The "Up to X chapters ahead" text is pretty hard to distinguish from the chapter title. A bit more space between the two elements would help with that.

Nevermind! It was one of my user scripts that was screwing up the layout. Oops.

 

[Murakami]

Quick note: contrast on tags when entering them on a chapter is really bad in Sepia

 

[buyerinternet]

I would say the voting system is very long on some pages. https://chyoa.com/chapter/E-Girl.1889529 take for instance this chapter/ story, All the ranked choice round info is taking up a significant amount of the story!

 

[Friedman]

When I do recently published in the story map, the right side buttons do not quite fit on the screen. There is just a lot of empty space to fill the width of the window, and the length of the lines is slightly longer than the window is wide (it remains cut off about the same amount regardless of how you resize the windows).

Also a bit weird looking that the view, like, and comments icons do not line up (side effect of showing not published chapters with no way to turn them off).
View attachment 11835

Thanks for pointing this out! I’ve made some improvements to the layout, including the alignment and the issue with the buttons being cut off on the right.

Could you check it again and let me know if it looks better now?

 

[Friedman]

I would say the voting system is very long on some pages. https://chyoa.com/chapter/E-Girl.1889529 take for instance this chapter/ story, All the ranked choice round info is taking up a significant amount of the story!

Thanks for the feedback! I agree that the ranked-choice voting details could take up quite a lot of space on some chapters.

I've changed this so that the detailed round information is now collapsed by default. You can still open it whenever you want to see the full breakdown and close it again afterward.