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It sounds like you have a lot of questions, and I'll do my best here, but you'll get more and faster responses if you ask on our Discord server. People who know a lot more about the backend than me (and who programmed the backend) are frequent users there. It's also a good place to get feedback on your stories.

Discord link: https://discord.gg/eGPxp5A

That said, all of us who run this site are volunteers, and nobody's getting paid, so that means we aren't a particularly sophisticated setup and sometimes we just don't have answers. We don't have a way of knowing how many bots frequent the website, or why some stories get more views than others, or more upvotes. Sometimes one chapter title will catch someone's eye more than another. Sometimes people will just open the most recent chapter and then click "View story so far" to read the most recent 3 or 4 chapters. Those won't register as views or hits for all but the most recent chapter, even if the user technically read all of them, and we don't currently have a way to track how often that happens. Sometimes people feel like upvoting, and sometimes they don't. It might even be the weather: if you post when it's raining in a lot of places, those people might just feel less like upvoting. And, well, sometimes they just like a chapter, and sometimes they don't. You can't argue about the flavor of the moon shrug

But I get it. I've had stories where my chapters are consistently getting above 5 upvotes, and then all of a sudden they're barely getting one. And I'm not sure why. It's definitely frustrating, but it's almost certainly not nefarious. And the stuff you're writing is certainly welcome.

I'm sorry if that's not the answer you were hoping for, but again, we're all volunteers here doing our best. I hope you don't get discouraged, and I hope you keep on writing. And again, I know it's not for everyone but you're always welcome to drop by the Discord server :)

Nah, he was mentioned in chapter five, but he has changed. The implication is that he's biologically the son of Serena now, while Zoe and Juliet were borne by Linda. He hasn't changed much personality wise, just looks a bit different.

Ok. So that means many different registered users visited them and I should go by views and not hits. Nevertheless let's not discount the possibility that bots could have registered accounts too. The numbers still don't make any sense for actual human readers behaving as I would expect or showing actual interest in the story, consider the current stats for the 6 chapters I wrote for this story:
hits views depth
210 59 43
234 57 44
271 63 45
349 78 46
274 70 47
207 67 48

This still means that if it's actual humans, that they're not reading the story from start to finish because the numbers should be staying the same or descending the further toward the end it goes, but it's actually basically ascending for the first 4 chapters I wrote. It still doesn't really suggest anyone is reading it or has any interest in the story, just clicking on a single chapter and probably immediately losing interest without looking at the ones before it that lead up to it. But why click on something at a depth of 48 without knowing what you're getting into? How about you, are you actually reading it? Or did you just reply to my comment because it was listed in recent comments on the main page? My concern is that my additions to this story are unwelcome at worst and no one cares at best. I don't even know if I should be doing this, just posting the end of this story I found and found interesting, to be received by silence. The chapters written by chompy also are heavily upvoted and none of mine are, though they have been sitting there for 2 or 3 years and mine are recent (yet the views are already comparable to Chompy's chapters in that short time). If this is unwelcome someone say so. If I'm intruding on the territory I should not be treading on, I will stop.

Mikey is just gone as well?

Hits represent any time a link to a branch is clicked, and theoretically may be open to abuse by bots, but views represent the number of registered users, total, who have clicked on a link, regardless of how many times they clicked. Technically you could program a bot to register a bunch of usernames, but that seems a silly thing to do. Chances are, all of your views are real people, and most of your hits are, too. But hits might be one person checking back on the story multiple times, while views are all just one person each.

Perhaps. But also take into consideration that Mikey is adopted in this storyline. Jon is the only one biologically related to his grandfather. I don't know if that makes a difference.

If Mikey is the older brother, would he have inherited the stone?

Is anyone reading this or is it just bots accounting for the hits and views? Someone leave a comment or something.

Heh, I may just do that, thank you

Feel free to steal

I love how you depict the ripple effects of what happened with Linda and Juniper spilling over to change Zoe even before she gets hit with her own reversal.

Now though in this chapter https://fictionbranches.net/fb/story/1982297 it is made rather clear that Sarah just doesn't want to see Sphinx Biff as more than friends, her later confrontation with James here https://fictionbranches.net/fb/story/2112195 and reprimanding James on abandoning Sarah so easily and making a show of helping James in a small way (not that James actually COULD have helped Sarah in a useful way at the time, it was only the werecat Gym teacher that mentored Sarah in a useful way, so Sarah could only be referring to James abandoning Sarah as a romantic partner), does still reek of hypocrisy on Sarah's part, since she just as easily abandoned Biff, so I think it is reasonable within the bounds of her character that she would reconsider what she is willing to have with female Sphinx Biff. After all, if she hadn't discovered James was involved in the revenge plot against Biff, Sarah would have been faced with the reality yet again just abandoning a guy for turning into a girl, this time as a result of having contact with HER. So I don't think it is too inconsistent with the continuity for her to just accept Biff. But I think there's a point where after experiencing abandonment herself and seeing how flippant it would require her to be in order to abandon Biff at this point, coupled with the now observed fact that Biff may even be able to at least temporarily return to his original form, that she Sarah would just say to heck with it and be willing to go further with Biff after all. I still would want to hear feedback from Chompy on this matter though. This is your story.

Well that's not sexist. I bet he would have treated a boy who started wearing feminine clothes the same way.

I don't really buy the claim that going around naked would be less embarrassing for cat-Biff and make her look more like an animal, but it's canonically earlier in the story, so I guess I have to run with it, so I revised it to have her be mostly naked after all. Really though, I've seen cat clothes (check out the youtube channel "I am puma", they have a set of pajamas they put their pet mountain lion in) and it definitely makes them look more human. But I'll go with Biff at least wearing a shirt with a zipper pocket, because she would at least still need to carry things.

in fact currently the number of hits for the 4 new parts I added to it (all in a depth in the 40s) is in reverse of what you would expect from their chronological order, meaning the one I did last has the most views, so I know most readers aren’t just reading the whole path, they’re taking a glance at one chapter (I still don’t understand why they get more popular the further in they get though, I’d still have expected the one that has been up the longest to have the most clicks).

Nice chapter. Though I would have liked to see Jon (now Sarah) make a wish that would make the original Sarah into her identical twin.

And the dragon's name.... was.... Jeff Bezos. And that's how a massive criminal organization was born.

By the way, this is based on the parody of Adam Sandler found in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gMZqGhGgxE. I like how the predicted year for it is 2023, so it's especially appropriate now.

I hope you like my additions, Chompy, if you ever see them. Hopefully they are up to your standard.

Is his name supposed to be Emmett, not Emit? Like Emmett Brown in back to the future (we've already got a Biff, so why not)? Or is his name actually Emit, like how a light bulb emits light? Emit really isn't a normal name.

I commented in the Discord yesterday that I was wondering if I'm qualified to write a scene where two women who used to be friends who have suddenly swapped reproductive systems with their husbands rekindle their friendship.

I love the way you write your interaction. Keep up the great work.

I sure hope where all this is leading isn’t Jon getting a massive harem of changed girls as some sort of gift from the stone as the “interesting” thing he wished for. Especially bad if one of the girls in the harem is his own brother turned sister. I was suspecting that might be the direction all this was leading what with literally everyone turning female whatever they started as, Jon getting a harem of exotic monster girls. And now Emit talking about that is dreadful foreshadowing that only makes me expect it more. Because I have a much better idea of what the “something interesting” can be, truly epic, and I see there are only 3 story passages left and we’re only up to 2020 so if it doesn’t lead to the harem ending but actually ends hanging with years since the last part was written, I may be inclined to put down my ending idea. Which is so much better than Jon getting a harem.

There’s no magnet in a CT scan. A CT scan is just a detailed x-ray from every angle so that a computer can generate a 3D image when all that data is in. It’s only a MRI that uses a powerful magnet.

disappointed that James didn’t get stuck on all fours but just a werewolf like Sarah and soon to be able to be an otherwise human girl but with a wolf tail and ears no doubt, but at least Elliot’s change was suitably severe. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Justice has been served to one of them. Now Elliot’s turn, hopefully. I know, he can turn into a flea and then latch onto James, now there’s poetic justice.

The first time you typed couch instead of coach I thought it was a typo. Then you went and did it 2 more times and I knew you actually didn’t know the word.

Catprog in relative terms to their top speed yes, but a human 15 to 20 mph isn’t a sprint to them, it’s a brisk trot, Biff really shouldn’t have any trouble keeping up with the best human athletes for anything less than a marathon.

Aren’t we forgetting something rather important here? Namely the only reason Jon currently has a cat fetish is because Karyn turned into a cat girl. This was already earlier established. He likes cats because Karyn is one, not the other way around. It makes zero sense for him to go for anyone else. Also now we’re going with Biff having been a bully after establishing his strong moral character? Is it because Back to the Future ruined the name Biff for everyone or just because he’s a jock or because there are other branches where he’s portrayed that way, because the only questionable thing he’s done in the direct descendant stories up to here was a quick Nelson Munce style “ha ha” when Mikey transformed in the middle of class. And I don’t like a character’s image being ruined like this arbitrarily.

reminds me of something https://cat-nine.net/comic/episode-5/213-purrsonal-space/

I sure hope Elliot and James both become genderless cockroach or worm creatures. Petty, vindictive, psychopathic and shallow. And here’s hoping Sarah rethinks her stance and just accepts what she and Biff have even if it’s not ideal.

If Sarah becomes a wolf man that works fror her and Biff though I don’t think Biff would think it’s ideal, she’d still find it good enough. Unfortunately I fear the author is following the first law of gender bending and wouldn’t consider having a female become male, and just wants everyone to turn into girls.

Actually Biff’s nominal flying speed should be much faster than Mikey’s, because she’s much heavier being a winged lion while mikey is a bird, so Biff would need to go much faster for her wings to produce enough lift to keep her up especially while carrying Jon. It didn’t specifically say her wingspan but unless it was like 50 feet, she would need to fly at hundreds of miles an hour rather like a large airplane.

I like this interpretation that Sarah is actually kind and sympathetic, implying that her portrayal as a “bitch” in the first chapter “and so it begins” actually reveals that Karyn was actually just a petty and selfish girl herself, that it’s just in Karyn’s perspective seething with hatred that Sarah MacMillan is a “class A bitch”, and that viewpoint was just petty teenaged girl behavior. I don’t like the simplistic narrative that the most popular girl in school is mean. And Biff not being a psycho either. Hotheaded yes, but he isn’t being harsh to anyone that didn’t attack him first, aside from his initial introduction with the moderate derision of Mikey. The “revenge of the nerds” narrative that everyone is either in the jock/cheerleader caste or in the nerd caste and everyone in the jock caste is a psycho. Though all the other football players but Biff do seem to be.

it’s pretty clear that Jon and Karyn are too overpowered here relative to the werewolves and vampires so the only way to make it interesting is for a conflict between them to ensue. Because if they were in agreement, it’s just not plausible that anything could get in their way. The vampires and werewolves could then try to manipulate them and play them against each other maybe.

I think this should be edited. This is very inconsistent with what is later established of Shawn/Biff’s character. He would have been indifferent to the plight of a changed person but he shouldn’t actually be going out of his way to mock one. He is later established as pathologically stoic and refusing the help of others but by the same token not one to cause others trouble or suffering unless they antagonized him first, but this one incident here then just is the one thing out of place. Granted you want him introduced somehow but here it is and it just is all wrong for him later. idk if the original writer will see this or think it’s a good idea but it would also make him a much more relatable character and easier to side with if not for this terrible and unnecessary first impression that doesn’t fit with anything that follows.

So Biff temporarily becomes a few years younger for a few days, and everyone knows it’s temporary and will only last for a few days, and for that, they actually put him in Mikey’s class several grades back until he changes back… but then he turns into a winged freaking lion, permanently, and they know it’s permanent and that he, or she, will now be a winged lion for the rest of her life, so they… put him back in the same class he was in originally even though they have a separate class for the changed students. Oh yeah that makes a whole lot of sense.

" as he.. became a girl" you say that as if that wasn't the norm, at this point I'd be much more surprised if he didn't, let alone if a female became a male.

Biff seems to be about as smart as the Biff from Back to the Future. Actually considerably less intelligent. First of all, NEVER accept the first offer. Second, what about the hospital bill. She should have at LEAST said "10 thousand dollars PLUS the hospital bill". I have a feeling she's going to be pretty steamed when she gets a hospital bill for 50 thousand dollars and has accepted the 10 thousand payout that she can't back out of as the full compensation. Though a real lawyer worth his snuff could get her out of obligation for signing anything while having just awakened in a hospital room after being drugged, as agreeing to anything under those conditions can't be made to stick. But she'd have to be smart enough to think of actually coming to a lawyer to hire him to represent her.

Great Sage not to mention it sounds like Biff's mother is even worse.

yeah I decided that would actually probably be most aesthetic for having four arms, and the next part with their parents reflects them leaning in that direction too.

I'm all for them getting four breasts. Bring it on!

Sometimes, I like to write Biff and Sarah as a couple who has had several public breakups during the course of the year.

Yes, they're dating, as usual, but as Biff transforms, their relationship would probably change, in some way.

So is Biff and Sarah boyfriend and girlfriend before the changes or just schoolmates/friends? Just asking cause I wonder if they are in a relationship how would the changes affect it?

I sort of liked the idea of Zoe being a socialite.

I can see Zoey staying a Madison and Jon and Mikey part of the new family, maybe Jon is the new mother and Mikey the new daughter with either Biff or Wesley as the new father.

Well, they stay themselves, but they'd have to exist with five other families that are just like them, either for better or worse.

Wonder what happens to the real McMillans.

The same mistake is here. "The female orgasm that he'd experienced the day before paled in comparison". Unless Jon played with him/herself later the night before after having sex with Karyn after becoming anatomically female again, Jon didn't have a female orgasm the night before. Jon was anatomically male at the time with Karyn, he just had Sarah's body in every other way.

There's a mistake on this page. "The female orgasm he'd had had been really nice." The author forgot that Jon hasn't actually had a female orgasm at this point, they just had sex with Jon's body being physically Sarah's body in every other apparent way, but Jon was actually anatomically male at the time. I'm just leaving this note here in case mystichobo ever comes back and sees it.