I just realized something, in many situations if people continue from the last chapter, the original authors chapter get the second slot instead of being on top. Some people pick their choices based on options, others want to see what was the story that the story owner wanted to write (both very valid decisions) People have authors they particularly like and would love to know that they wrote in a story, even if the first of their chapter might look less enticing than another of the same crossroad. Easy fix, I seem to have seen it done on at least one other site (writing.com iirc, could be wrong.) Instead of Choice 1 Choice 2 .... We should have Choice 1 by author X Choice 2 by author Y .... I think it would be a nice addition to the site and present it to you for consideration.
I kind of like this, but think it should preferably be in grey or smaller font or something unobtrusive so it's there if you want it but easily discernible from the chapter titles. Also, I want to like RejectTed's contribution to this thread one hundred times over.
Well, anything that is unnecessary shouldn't be shown. It'd just be cluttering the experience. Kind of why I like to disable signatures and hate excess white space.
Eh, If you keep the author's name greyed out, it wouldn't be a problem... However, I think that giving people that option could reduce the number of people opening new accounts. Speaking for myself, one of the reasons I opened an account was that I wanted to be able to see the Story Maps to have an idea who and what comes next. Giving lurkers more info could disincentivise them to make an account...
It might not be a bad idea to tie the order of chapter organization by author as well. So, all authors who wrote certain chapters as continuation of a specific thread get listed together.
Well, I think the order of sibling chapters should be determined by the story owner or an editor as they know best which order would make the most sense. (Though this is not possible at the moment but part of another suggestion.)