Choose Your Own Change (CYOC) appears to be non-operational. The link now reports ‘problems in database connection,’ no matter if you go to the main page, index, or any specific story link.
Any hope that this will be repaired. It would be a true shame to lose the many thousands of entries.
(I am particularly fond of the ‘Mars Needs Women’ series, and the many stories of the shirking DeSoto family (mmmmm, Paul DeSoto…).
There’s a read-only copy here, though I gather it’s slightly out of date: https://cyoc-archive.thecostumebox.net/
Also, you might want to try asking at this Discord: https://discord.gg/jRZTfJuVHv
Note: I’m not a member of the Discord and can’t vouch for it, it’s just a link I found in a thread about CYOC being down. They’re apparently a different set of people who are trying to re-create the site.
I’m not part of the CYOC community, but if this ends up being definitive (hopefully not) maybe it would be good to offer them a place where they can safely continue sharing their love for Transformation stories? We already have a vast Transformation community, and enough stories to justify a new site in the GKS family (actually, I just filtered out “Transformation” and the site said it’s near the 30% of the stories in the database).
It is likely higher than that, some stories will not be tagged as such, whether by oversight or they have used a more specific tag to describe things. A good proportion of the Reality Change and Powers and Magic sections would also qualify but would not necessarily be listed as Transformation.
Historically TF has always been a part of Spiral.
However, since to me TF and Mind Control are two separate things and in light of CYOC’s demise, I’m open to the idea to offer a site that could take over in spirit.
But other than CYOC, any site I’m going to host will always be focused on stories which are not exclusively straight/cis/normative. Because I see that as one of my ‘missions’.
I’d be willing to extend the existing functionality of the site to become more CYOC-like, you just have to tell me what you’d like to be added/changed to get there.
And of course, if this is going to be a new site in the GKS fold, I need someone to help me with the design. Maybe Hijaden could jump in again (he helped with the title screens for Cupid, Collar and Kinky).
It’s sad to see such a big archive of fiction disappear but t b h CYOC was nasty, there was sooo much underage stuff on there. I can’t say I’ll be shedding too many tears.
CYOC WAS also hard to navigate, i.e. lack of tagging, ambiguous titles. I have some treasured entries (mine and others) that I’ve managed to save (again: Mars Needs Women ;-). But every website has it’s lifespan, and I guess CYOC’s has come to a close for new engagement.