I think the only possible "finished" story is a private one that is announced complete by its author.
I don't think most stories are ever "Finished," but have a few endings to them while other paths keep going.
There also should be the option to mark something as the End of the story. So that there does not appear the chance to add a reply to the thread.
Just write "The End" where it has the "What's Next" option. Technically someone can try to add a continuation, but the story owners/mods still have to approve new threads, and if the story owner thinks the story has room to continue past a "The End", who is anyone else to say differently?
well, I disagree. if someone wants to continue a thread of mine, which I thought of as an ending, then it should be not allowed, no matter who. If they want to continue the story, fine, that is what chyoa is there for, but not from an ending. But yeah, I get what you mean, I just see it a bit different. But I know that I am not in the majority here, but rather the exception, so yeah, I get why it is not included. Go with the needs of the many, not with the needs of a single guy who just happened to make a post on a thread about it.
I'm for the idea of a definitive end to a story. Sometimes you want to read a story with a clear beginning middle and end. I'm not even aware of stories like that on CHYOA let alone how to filter through to find them. Maybe something like a tag on the story or give it a color change in the title to show that it's a complete story rather than ongoing.
I think you will be hard pressed to find a "Completed" story here. You might find completed branches or story arcs, but an actual story that is complete will be a miracle. You are more likely to find abandoned stories instead of finished ones. Sure, adding a "Finished" tag could work on a thread that is finished, but again, other threads could still go on.
Well shouldn't there be a category for it? I know the general appeal of CHYOA is the endless possibilities, but an author could choose to have a set number of finishes to their story and let it be that. I find the trailing off stories more disappointing than a story with a conclusion to it.
Not trying to be mean, but I don't see a need for for that kind of category. For one, if you take them from their normal category and place them in the Finished Category, then it will be harder for people to find them by just browsing through Sci-fi or something. Also, what happens with all the other branches? If they have a certain number of finishes and then say "Ok, we're done." Then isn't that basically leaving everything else unfinished? I think the only way a story could ever be finished is if it didn't allow other writers and only the original writer could make the story a certain way.
I think it might be worthwhile to have a catagory for stories that are INTENDED to go from start to a set of predefined finish points, but those would be rare, however, I have one already that would fit there...
