We have several stories coming in or awaiting approval that are literally just existent stories restarted. Should we be doing this, or insisting that people use stories that already in existence? I'm worried that letting these reboot stories through constitutes abandoning the interactive story format in favor of parallel short writing. Unless there is a very good reason, it seems to me that reboots defeat the whole point (and it's not like we still have the issue where you can only add 4 threads).
I just think they split the base against the entire point of the CHYOO system. Why should we EVER need to reboot instead of continue with a current story if the reboot is identical? Just make a new branch off the starting thread that you are copying, not a new story. The only excuse for this on the old site was the four thread limit (the only reason the Roboslut stories are separate is because of this limit; we really should combine them into one giant roboslut story with each of the current stories branching off a starter thread).
Huge stories are harder to navigate. Reboots allow another editor to play by their own inspiration. I'd favor tagging and linking from the "About" or the first page for similar stories.
I think, (identical) reboots should be avoided. With new chyoo you can handle big story maps. You don't need to be the editor to realise your inspiration. But this point is probably the reason for rebooting, cause someone want to get the editor power. The reason for that could be just the good feeling about or the fear that nobody would accept new threads.
I think part of this will be mitigated when Editor and Trusted status come back, because then it will be possible for people to get permission to do their own thing without having to fork. Having exactly 1 person who can approve and no ability to give trusted status makes it harder to confidently submit to other peoples' stories for some people.
To encourage people to use existing stories we probably need - working linked threads in the old stories - a better system of approval for threads (to avoid having users waiting for years) Until then.. PS: of course I'm against duplicate stories
People want two things: Fame and control, which both amount to prestige. Power corrupts, but it's also quite addictive. Removing the thread branch limit cut away the real estate issues, but how can we promote the social aspects of interactive storytelling? Is there a way we can ensure that socializing and prestige go hand-in-hand? What if we scored people not so much on the opinion ratings they've received on their threads, but on how much they've written for other people's stories? It may not be as addictive as cookie clicker, but if people can see their positive interactions as a progressive gain in some respect, perhaps this will encourage them to better utilize the site's potential.
Sounds good, but could be abused easily. (creating a story with one user and submitting to it with another one.)
