Orphan Episodes
As of 01/31/2012
An "orphan episode" is one whose parent episode does not contain a link to it. For example, episode 1006 has options pointing to three child episodes 15659, 15660 and 15661 -- but it also has four "orphans", 6790, 6791, 6792 and 6793. Once you're in an orphan episode, you can jump to its parent by clicking on the "Go back" link (if the orphan has been completed) or the "Cancel" link (if it hasn't). There is no way, however, to link from the parent to the orphan.
Early on, I think that most orphans were created by either a) people who started to add a new episode but then aborted it, without properly using the "cancel" feature, or b) system errors that caused episode creation to die in mid-process, after the children had already been created. In February 1999, when MarkT rewrote the Addventure software to "clean up" unused children, there was a sharp drop-off in the number of orphans created. Since February 1999, orphans are usually only created when MarkT deletes an episode for one reason or another.
Why bother with orphan episodes? Well, they present an opportunity to take a storyline off in a direction not given by any of the existing options. What if you don't like any of the options? What if the option you want has already been taken? If the episode you want to extend has orphans, then you can use one and effectively add your own option to the parent!
The disadvantage to writing an orphan episode is that it will be difficult for readers to find. Orphans will never appear in a Tree View, and cannot be linked to from their actual parent episode. Of course, if you make the orphan linkable, then you could write a later episode that links back to your orphan. The only other way for readers to stumble across your episode, once it stops appearing in the "Recent Episodes" lists, is to find it on one of the Index pages.
Orphan episodes which have already been completed
Orphans of episodes 0-999Orphans of episodes 20000-29999
Orphans of episodes 30000-39999
Orphans of episodes 40000-49999
Orphans of episodes 50000-59999
Orphans of episodes 60000-69999
Orphans of episodes 70000-79999
Orphans of episodes 80000-89999
Orphans of episodes 90000-99999
Orphans of episodes 100000-109999
Orphans of episodes 110000-119999
Orphans of episodes 120000-129999
Orphans of episodes 130000-139999
Orphans of episodes 140000-149999
Orphans of episodes 150000-159999
Orphans of episodes 160000-169999
Orphans of episodes 170000-179999
Orphans of episodes 180000-189999
Orphans of episodes 190000-199999
Orphans of episodes 200000-209999
Orphans of episodes 210000-219999
Orphans of episodes 220000-229999
Orphans of episodes 230000-239999
Orphans of episodes 240000-249999
Orphans of episodes 250000-259999
Orphans of episodes 260000-269999
Orphans of episodes 270000-279999
Orphans of episodes 280000-289999
Orphans of episodes 290000-299999
Orphans of episodes 300000-309999
Orphans of episodes 310000-319999
Orphans of episodes 320000-329999
Orphans of episodes 330000-339999
Orphans of episodes 340000-349999
Orphans of episodes 350000-359999
Orphans of episodes 360000-369999
Orphans of episodes 370000-379999
Orphans of episodes 380000-389999
Orphans of episodes 390000-399999
Orphans of episodes 400000-409999
Orphans of episodes 410000-419999
Orphans of episodes 420000-429999
Orphans of episodes 430000-439999
Orphans of episodes 440000-449999
Orphans of episodes 450000-459999
Orphans of episodes 460000-469999
Orphans of episodes 470000-479999
Orphans of episodes 480000-489999
Orphans of episodes 490000-499999
Orphans of episodes 500000-509999
Orphans of episodes 510000-519999
Orphans of episodes 520000-529999
Orphans of episodes 530000-539999
Orphans of episodes 540000-549999
Orphans of episodes 550000-559999
Orphans of episodes 560000-569999
Orphans of episodes 570000-579999
Orphans of episodes 580000-589999
Orphans of episodes 590000-599999
Orphans of episodes 600000-609999
Orphans of episodes 610000-619999
Orphans of episodes 620000-629999
Orphans of episodes 630000-639999
Orphans of episodes 640000-649999
Orphans of episodes 650000-659999
Orphans of episodes 660000-669999
Orphans of episodes 670000-679999
Orphans of episodes 680000-689999
Orphans of episodes 700000-709999
Orphans of episodes 710000-719999
Orphans of episodes 720000-729999
Orphans of episodes 730000-739999
Orphans of episodes 740000-749999
Orphans of episodes 750000-759999
Orphans of episodes 760000-769999
Orphans of episodes 770000-779999
Orphans of episodes 790000-799999
Orphans of episodes 800000-809999
Orphans of episodes 810000-819999
Orphans of episodes 820000-829999