I don't mean to sound rude, I'm sorry if I do. I just wish I could help somehow. but I lack knowledge of coding to do much else.

Hi. I'm totally with you and suggested it previously on forums. I, though, was hoping to promote Squiffy. Eventually, I want to push harder. Really, very few people understand how powerful of a tool Squiffy is (And, I guess Quest as well). I know the site managers think there really isn't much that can be done, but I don't think that is true. So, let's hang in there and keep these types of ideas flowing. I mean, also, why not keep Squiffy and Quest as open source but make revenue selling manuals to educational institutions on how students can use them (I have written one but haven't promoted it really or create games that are educational in nature and sell to teachers. There are so many ways to raise revenue to get advanced programmers to work on the site. How about sell to a company like Google with the idea that it has to remain open source as part of the deal?

Anyway, if you believe in these products the way I do, keep writing.

The main thing holding it back is just that IF in general is extremely niche and doesn't really have any money in it. Ad revenue barely keeps this site afloat, and I'm not even sure it's enough to be honest. There are no real active developers left other than The Pixie on QuestJS and even then it's just a timesink passion project. I can't imagine he makes any money from it in any way. Income to fund devs would help, but there's just not enough of us in the community to really make a difference, and it's hard to find anyone that's willing to volunteer the endless hours required to maintain a project that realistically barely has an audience to begin with. We all wish that wasn't the case, and we're all pretty passionate about IF to various degrees, but it's really hard to attract and retain people that don't simply move on in a year or so, and rightfully so.

There is probably a way forward, but I don't know what it is. We need passionate talent that is willing to sacrifice their own time for something they'll get very little out of, and that's something people need to decide on their own. The unfortunate thing is that even if we had funding there isn't much we could do with it. I don't think either The Pixie or Manowar actually have more time to dedicate even if they wanted to, and the few people in the community who have spoken up in interest tend to disappear that very week once they realize the monumental task they're offering to accept.

Sorry for getting a bit wordy. I'm 100% with you both here and I am not trying to discourage this conversation. I've been kicking around this community a little over 20 years and a mod for about half of that so I've seen a lot of history here. If there is a way to update the site and bring IF more into the mainstream or at least more relevant, I'd love to see it.

Thank you Cryophile for your honest answer. It made a lot of sense. I do understand that this is a niche area. I believe the way to make it mainstream is through education. I've used Squiffy with so much success in the classroom as an English teacher. Now that I kind of see the issues, I'm going to try to promote the site through different avenues to see if those interested in it as an educational resource would be interested. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking about my 9th grade class playing the Epic of Gilgamesh game that I created with so much joy, trying to figure out how to win. Now, I'm remembering how each November, there is about 60 to 90 people who all of a sudden read an article I wrote that has a The Great Gatsby game I created attached to the article. I know that the only explanation is that a class must be reading the article and playing the game as part of an assignment. There is interest there.

I also wish there were more honest conversations such as this one in which people think out loud. I will always truly believe that there is a way for this site to become more mainstream.

I can see education being an open door. I have toyed with the idea of using a game by pointing here from the LMS I manage at work, if I eventually make one for training. People pay good money for training programs with branching scenario capabilities. You may be on to something there.

I've also wondered if some version of published Quest could be worked out with Amazon so that the published books and full-fledged IF games might be marketable in the $0.99 market. There are plenty of free and $0.99 books on Amazon that get circulation, but I think if there were an IF category, people might find a little traction from the niche there.

No idea how to work out something like using Amazon Kindle as a publishing platform for Quest games though.

It really is very niche and I'm grateful for the IF community that works hard in their spare time to keep it all alive and going. I believe that it does have a chance to grow. There's a great many "choose your own adventure" books as apps in Google Play or as books on Kindle. Interesting that it's always at least just hanging on. Don't lose heart!

No idea how to work out something like using Amazon Kindle as a publishing platform for Quest games though

Wouldn't work with Quest, because all the code runs on the server side (or on a Windows machine). But IF with limited capabilities can be done on Kindle.
I'm working with a pretty ugly bodge that will take my text files and output both a Quest gamebook and a non-scripted Kindle book; but at this point it only works with capped variables

Mr. Angel, I don't understand some of what you just said, but it makes me happy to know that you're on it! At least for the gamebooks.

It sounds like if you'd need actual server space, someone would have to make a pitch to Amazon that it would be worth it to them to run the quest engine on a server that was linked out to from Kindle. Anyone with a super-high charisma in the group? haha

textadventure could sell Cover Art for $1 each.
Cover Art can be used for any of your published games in textadventure.
Cover Art are sourced from volunteers from textadventure.

Cover Art helps to differentiate games easier so players can find their preferred type of game faster.
In the forum, beside the username, there will be a number, it represents how many Cover Art that person have bought which also shows how many $ that person had donated.