And the most popular genre on Chyoa is . . .

The Likes per chapter are similar (11.2 to 14.02)
I'd say the lower one comes from the fact that the story is deeper and the longer time it has been around as there might have been users wandering away.

Well, I think that the fav stat is the perfect stat to show the popularity of a story.

Views are not reliable as it depends on various things.
How much exposure does your story have towards search engine crawlers?
Are the chapters published one per day or in blocks? (if you publish one per week, users might open the chapter from the notification, then go to the previous chapter and read the last paragraph and go to the chapter from the notification -> 3 views per chapter; if you publish 3 chapters on a day and the reader behaves similar -> 1.66 views per chapter)
Does your story feature game mode? If so, the reader causes a lot more views as they might have to start from the beginning even if they just skim the chapters they already read. In non-game mode stories, they just go to the story map and choose the next chapter from the last branching point.

The view stat shows every single page impression no matter from what source. A user will cause 1,000 views on a chapter if he refreshes the page 1,000 times.

Unique views would only count a maximum of 1 view per chapter per logged-in user. At the moment, CHYOA doesn't measure unique views. (If this stat would be implemented, it would be possible to retroactively calculate them for every story as the necessary data for that is stored.)

this

 

I have a question: Why do we have Teen category? Isn't the law said that sex is only allowed with adult inviduals (18+)?

 

Teen includes persons aged 18 and 19.

On CHYOA it is prohibited to depict younger characters in an erotic context.

 

As a gay/bisexual writer, I agree. Lesbian porn in general is way more popular than my stuff, and I’d hate for people to open one of my stories and get turned off because they were expecting something else.

 

First, thank you for everyone posting their thoughts, it has been a very interesting discussion to follow. I have been pondering this quite a bit since our current secular/liberal society is so quickly changing its views on sexuality. I would propose that our current western cultural has three broad categories when it comes to sexuality:

1) Encouraged Identities: Those inner sexual "identities" that are viewed as coming from one's core being (straight, homosexual, transgender, etc.). These are viewed as natural and must be tolerated by everyone in society. The only exception is if it physically harms someone.

2) Tolerated Kinks: These are particular sexual kinks that might be expressed in private, such as BDSM, various fantasy play, etc. These are viewed as normal as long as it doesn't directly harm someone, or if it becomes so important it over takes one's life.

3) Immoral: The few things our society still looks down on. Here there are two things: Anything non-consequential which includes sexual activity with children. I guess it would also include anyone who has a "narrow" view of morality.

I would think the majority of people in the West would still put in incest in category #3, especially since having children with someone biologically close to one is unhealthy. However, since sex is becoming less and less about reproduction and more about self-expression, than I don't see why it wouldn't slip into category #2 or even #1.

Please note, the above statements are meant as trying to define our current societal trends, not a statement of my own beliefs.

 

I would rather think of gender identity coming from one's core being while the sexual identity develops later.

Wouldn't say so. If you are a public person, you can't just do such things without getting banished from your position. And those who do it in private might be prone to blackmail.

 

Thanks for the reply. I always appreciate your input.

Maybe, but that gets into the minefield of defining "gender", "sex" and "sexuality".

Again, maybe. Depending on the kink. Western society is in a great transition from Christian morality to something else, and any fundamental paradigm shift is always jarring, especially when that "something else" is not clearly defined.

 

Hm... I guess it is already defined in the constitutions of Western states but not yet practiced that way.

 

The American and British "constitutions" are both explicitly Christian in nature. Even though the majority of the current elites are not. We are seeing a massive paradigm shift in Western Civilization.

 

Many of these categories are useless for the average reader trying to find an interesting story.

Unlike some other literature sites, female-oriented stories don't seem to make it to the top of any category on CHYOA except for "romance", but even that one is mostly stories for men. There are far more men participating on this site than women, and as a consequence every category is dominated by stories for men. So the categories are useless for most women, with the exception of "romance", which is hit or miss.

It would make sense to look to a category named after a specific kink if you're a man trying to find porn, and that's how most of these categories are named. But "Fetish"? That can mean anything from latex to free use, and the meaning of the word "fetish" is that there is no substitute for latex, or no substitute for free use, etc. when it comes to getting you off in a certain way. So someone with a fetish would be unlikely to find his fetish quickly by simply clicking "Fetish".

"Fan Fiction": Looking at a site like fanfiction.net you would think this means stories intended for women to enjoy, but on CHYOA it means stories about fucking a specific fictional character or celebrity real good, and love is optional. And why would a man search for "fan fiction" when unless he's really into all things Hollywood he's unlikely to see a story about a subject he knows? It would make way more sense for him to just search for the name of his favorite.

"Sci-fi", "Fantasy", "Miscellaneous", "Erotic Couplings" - you get the idea. Stories under these categories vary in terms of setting, content, kink, everything.

I'd be willing to bet that most users don't even think about categories and simply type what they want to read about in the search. What's really good for helping readers find stories: tags, because the story will show up in search results for a tag.

I'd be interested in seeing a list of what tags are searched for the most on CHYOA. Maybe there's actually a certain tag or tags where all the women are going that I would never guess. Maybe there's a tag that doesn't belong under any existing category that nonetheless rivals the major categories in terms of popularity.

 

So my theory about why incest is so popular now is this:
1) There's a generation consisting of many more only children coming of age about now.
Without the first-hand experience of having siblings to not be sexually attracted to, the taboo is becoming weaker.

2) With the increased visibility and acceptance of other fetishes and former taboos (homosexuality, BDSM, gender-bending, polyamory, etc.)
there's no reason for incest to not get its time in the sun too.

3) Hentai is probably more popular than people think, and in Hentai incest is ridiculously common. (This might also explain the popularity of
"teen" and "non-con")

4) This same generation of kids grown up without siblings and close extended families also probably has a pretty large rate of parental divorce.
This possibly leads to a decrease in trust and faith in standard-issue romantic relationships, where passion/love is the only thing that keeps people
together, since they know from their own parents that that doesn't last long. In that case incest stories offer an added sense of stability and emotional
connection, since you can't divorce your family and (ideally) love and trust exists there almost unconditionally.

5) Related to 4), incestuous relationships have the benifit of being immediately available. They have a similar appeal to "maid" or "master-servant"
dynamics, in that the partner is already in your own house, so there's no need to really put in any hard work.

Anyway, in conclusion: Incest is a land of contrasts. Thank you for listening to my presentation.

 

I think those are some (probably) very accurate views, especially re no.2. I'm old enough to remember a time before the internet (only just!), when anyone who engaged in even mild bondage was considered uber kinky. With the onset of the internet, those kinks that were previously taboo have to some extent become main stream and as you say diluted. Kinks tend to loose their 'taboo' status when everyone is at, so new taboos then come to the fore, incest is the one that is and will always be a cast iron no no. Anything that is out of reach becomes desirable. For example, if society was centered around sibling marriage and incest was the norm then the kink of the day would likely be sex outside the family, stories on CHYOA would be 'guy meets girl he is not even related to and they have kinky vanilla sex'. We always want what we can't have.

 

Absolutely not. It's hard enough trying to find good bromance stories without having to wade through a bunch of lesbian stories. Just because both are less popular does not mean that they have anything in common. It would be like trying to put elephants and polar bears together because both are endangered. They still wouldn't have anything in common.

 

I second this. Lesbian stories are consumed mostly by an audience of straight males and lesbian females. Neither of those demographics are particularly interested in stories about gay men having sex.

 

As a writer of a lot of incest/free use stories I thought I'd weigh in here a bit.

I'm not entirely sure the current landscape of family make-ups has a great deal to do with it, I mean the subject has been rather lavishly dipped into throughout history. From ancient rome and greece to the bible, it's something that people have always liked to put quite some imagination into, even when they insist they are railing against it as a sin and moral lesson.

I do think that 'forbidden fruit effect' is a major part, porn and erotica is always a work of fantasy after all, it is only the degrees to which it diverges from reality which changes. Starting off with a solid basis of 'these two people should definitely not be together' is an instant draw into the realms of 'so lets imagine if we just ignored all that!' Personally I am not at all attracted to any actual family members, and would be horrified if my stories in anyway encouraged others to abuse those who actual should be closest and most protected by them.

But I think it IS that closeness that draws in the current popularity of the genre. In a world becoming more detached beyond the light of laptop or phone screens, false filters and dating apps. I think the idea of having someone who you already know everything about as a lover is appealing. As you say, it is already having the 'hard part' of an emotional connection naturally enforced and established, that makes the then extra, secretive and insular relationship so attractive.

In hard times we flock around the family hearth, that's humanity at its basest. I think the 'us against the world' of that is a comfort to most. What I do wonder is how those who inherently dislike incest as a topic feel about stories such as my https://chyoa.com/story/There's-Freedom-in-Friendship.17132 which is essentially hitting the same notes, but with the characters being schoolfriends rather than blood relations.

 

So, this is why incest seems to appear out of nowhere in a lot of stories. It's relatable since like everything taboo people are naturally attracted.
To be honest, i was surprized by the high quantity of power play stories in here.