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Suggestions for improvements and additions to the site.
This feature was rejected 11/29/2020: See replies.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago

Currently, when someone (*cough*cough* @PersonDude) publishes an unfinished story, it is rife with dead pages. If the author couldn't be bothered to complete his own story before hitting the "Publish" button, then the reader gets this standard message:

No Links. You may go back or reset to start over.

I propose that in addition to these two options, and "End Game" option be added. This will benefit the sanity of all.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago
If that happens the story is just unpublished for not meeting minimum standards/being incomplete.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago
... and an email sent to the creator.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago
Normally I would've left something in the comments of the game about why it was unpublished, but since he was literally tagged to this thread, no need.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago
No, I mean that would be a useful feature. If somebody finds a page without links, perhaps the author would like to know about this.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago
Most of the time it's a newly published game, and the author is very aware of it because after an admin takes it down they just stubbornly republish it three or four times while ignoring what multiple people are telling them about the problems with it.

We really do need to revise the minimum standards page tbf, everything it says about ratings is pretty unclear and obsolete and honestly not how the site has ever done things. Looks like someone was just really hesitant to say 'if your story is obviously broken or the community decides it sucks it will be taken down' and beat around the bush awhile instead.

In other to send automated emails of any kind, Killa would have to change how registration works.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago

In this particular case, there were no end game links of any kind. He wrote about two pages of story, and had about five links on each page -- only one of which pointed to another page. There were half a dozen items, none of which did anything to advance the story. So this was literally an unfinished story.

The other idea might be to make it impossible to publish a story that fails to meet a certain standard -- such as a lack of end game links. I assume this much wouldn't be difficult; the site does a basic evaluation of a storygame during the publication process anyway, i.e. by counting the number of pages and links and comparing it to the average.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago
It actually doesn't let you publish without at least one End Game link. In this case there were three, but it looks like they were only accessible after running down hunger or thirst to zero. As far as I know there isn't a way for the site to get too intelligent about what's accessible to what as long as scripting exists, except maybe in forbidding dead end pages altogether.

The only semi valid use of them I'm aware of is when items are required to progress. This is a kind of "puzzle" I always find annoying tbf and wouldn't mind doing away with going forward, but I don't like the thought of breaking an unknown number of existing games.

Anyway, as usual this kind of thing is up to Killa, but with any new unfinished game being so quickly identified and unpublished I'm not sure it's a huge deal. The authors only hurt themselves this way.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago
You're warned before publishing. If they publish anyway that means they just dont care.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago
Right. You do get a warning, and that should be fine.

I know there's cases where an author might want to intentionally not include those links including using scripts and items. I'm not a fan of that type of forcing the reader, but I don't see this being as common enough a problem to warrant a forced end game -- especially with all the options for scripts and such that might make the author want to create a certain effect that they couldn't if they were forced to never have a page without a link.

Add "End Game" to Dead Links

3 years ago
Really it's just that if someone puts up an obviously broken game, the site doesn't need to half assedly fix it for them, it just needs to be taken down the way we're already doing.