Storylines: Start a Story, Let Anyone Write the Next Chapter

TL;DR:
Stories told in posts. Each chapter is a post. Open any image in a storyline and left and right walk you through the story.
Anyone can write the next chapter. Continue from the end of any chapter with a post of your own, and the story branches.
A map of every branch. See where the story forks and how readers split at each fork.
Your story, your call. You approve what joins your storyline. Collaborators you endorse skip the queue.
A community idea. @Moonbear_AIArt pitched Storylines in an article. We built it.

Why we're doing this

You've been telling stories here for years. Comic series spread over ten posts. A character who comes back every week. Descriptions that say "part 3, part 2 is on my profile." There was no way to tie those posts together, and no way for anyone else to pick up where you left off.

Storylines does both. And it wasn't our idea. @Moonbear_AIArt wrote it up in Storylines: One Image Can Start a Whole World, name, pill and all, with an interactive mockup of how it could work. We built from that. Moonbear then tested it with us before launch, and Make this chapter 1 of a storyline exists because he asked for it. Thank you, Moonbear.

Here it is in a minute. (And yes, this video was made by AI.)

Read one

Open an image that belongs to a storyline. You'll know it by the storyline pill. Left and right now walk the story: through the chapter's images, then on to the next chapter. A chip on the image tells you which story and chapter you're in.

At the end of a chapter you pick where to go. The creator's main path comes first. Then branches from their collaborators, then everyone else's, ordered by how many readers took them. Each one shows its first image and its share of readers.

The end of chapter 2: the canon chapter first, then the other path and its share of readers

The map

Tap the chip and the map drops down: the main path as a timeline, every fork off it, and how readers split at each one. Jump to any chapter from there.

Branches don't have to stay apart. The creator can join two branches back together, so different routes can meet at the same chapter.

The map open from the chip: the canon path as a timeline, with the fork after chapter 2

Write the next chapter

At the end of any chapter, hit Write the next chapter. The post editor opens already knowing where your chapter goes. Already made the post? Submit that instead.

Earlier chapters are never copied. They're linked and credited to the people who made them.

The creator reviews new chapters before they join. Collaborators they endorse go straight in.

Start your own

Hit Start a storyline on Storylines, name it, choose who can continue it and the highest content level it allows, then publish chapter 1. Already posted something that should be chapter 1? Its menu has Make this chapter 1 of a storyline.

A few more things that come with it:

Captions. Add a caption to each image of your chapter. Readers see it as a note at the bottom of the image.
A discussion thread. Every storyline gets its own, on its page.
A price, if you want one. You can set a Buzz price for adding a chapter to your storyline. Contributors see it before they publish.

See one in action

CivBot and CivChan can't agree on Who Is the Face of Civitai? CivBot's main path runs from a poll to The Last Word. CivChan forked it after chapter 2 and went her own way, tea party and parade included. Someone from the community has already written the chapter after hers.