Just thought about, how endless pending submissions could be avoided. It should be possible to do a database query, which shows all pending submissions (1 week) from an editor which is absent for 2 or 4 weeks. This information could be used to allow other writers to take control over that stories. Maybe there could be a section on the site, where you can see, which stories are open for taking over (pending submission and absent editor). Interested writers could be referred to the forum.
I think that in all cases, the original author should always maintain control over their own story, even if they remain absent. However, as the current CHYOA methodology for story writing stands, let us use a single hypothetical story as a representative microcosm for our issue. One user controls the acceptance of all other users' contributions to that story. Therefore, user activity is dependent upon one other user's activity. This limits user participation, or else forces them to create their own similar stories. This brings us to whole other issues described elsewhere on this forum. I like idea of using creator absence to merit auto-submission. After so many days of creator absence, perhaps a pending thread should be automatically submitted. This would alter creator control in regards to their level of participation on the site, but this is collaborative fiction, after all. There are other measures we could use to add to this, but I'm worried about what that could lead to. Relying on a measure such as "vote average received" would bloat the system with game-like rules and also create a kind of virtual socioeconomic class system which would sully the notion of encouraging everyone's creative output. The last thing I think we could bear is commercializing our own literary expression. We should probably just stick to absence of story officials. Auto-submission may be a bit of a taboo as it was abused on the old site, but let's examine this from a functional perspective: On the ancient CHYOO, story threads were limited to four (or five, exploiting a glitch, so I've read), which limited user participation on a basis mimicking real estate. If the issue is quality, then maybe we should use the ratings system to weight the sorting of threads. Threads with higher averages and greater quantities of votes would take precedence. Threads lacking votes would take precedence over threads with lower averages and greater quantities of votes. Because it's so easy for me to digress further on this subject, perhaps I or someone else should make a new thread about chapter choice sorting.
I totally agree with that. A user, who takes a story of an absent editor should always be only a "2nd editor". I think, threads should never be accepted automatically, except with a trusted writer system. This could result in "daily" changing order and could be confusing. Maybe there could be a general writer rating based on post-rating, the number of posts, the number of contributions to other stories, presence and the number of views. This could be also a unlimited point-system instead of grading.
