Advanced Use of Subscriber Groups

Guild members are able to use subscriber groups to determine who sees private content. When used with tools like Secrets, you can make sections of an article visible only to certain people. At Grandmaster and higher, features like self-assignable subscriber groups let readers opt-in to this hidden content. This is useful for things like GM-only information or letting readers choose a faction to support.
The official feature guide to subscribers goes over all this, but what about what World Anvil doesn't tell you? Read on for information on more advanced uses to this incredibly flexible feature, with links to examples from across the Anvilsphere.

General

Subscriber groups are best used when they solve a problem or address a need you already have. Since they add overhead and have some drawbacks, make sure they're the best tool for the job before you dive into them.

Tips

• Joining a self-assignable subscriber group automatically makes someone a follower. This usually isn't a problem, but it's good to let your non-following readers know.
• To put multiple subcontainers on a single line, use CSS to set the secret-subdivision display to inline.
• Search subscriber group IDs with ctrl+k or advanced search to find where it's used. However, this only searches the main vignette, sidebars, and footers, and will miss anything in credits or prompt fields.
• Joining or leaving a self-assignable group will make the page refresh so it can adjust to any changes in available content.
• Subscriber counts are per person, per world. If one person joins three groups in World A, they count as one subscriber. If they also join group in World B, they now count as two.
• Create a test account to make sure your groups work right. For ease of sign up, see if your mail provider supports plus aliases .

Secrets versus Subcontainers

Subscriber containers tend to be best for one-time-use hidden content that will only be viewable to a single subscriber group. For most other uses, Secrets have more features and are more flexible. Subcontainers also require a Grandmaster or higher subscription, so some people may have the choice made for them.

Use Secrets if

• You want to reuse the info in multiple places
• You want to review all hidden content in one place
• Some hidden content might become public knowledge later
• Some hidden content should be visible to multiple groups
• You don't have a Grandmaster or higher subscription

Use Subcontainers if

• You're Grandmaster or higher and the hidden content is only going in one place and will only ever be visible to one group

More on Secrets More on Subcontainers

Seek-and-Find

Readers are encouraged to search articles for ways to join various subscriber groups. A central overview article shows how much they've found so far, and may indicate how much they haven't found yet.

1. Figure out what readers will be looking for.

2. Decide where readers will find those things.

3. Create an overview page to show their progress.

Collectables

Examples

JOY Cathedris Yonderverse

The collectables version of this can also be considered a treasure hunt - there are objects hidden throughout the World that readers can hunt for to add to their collections. This is a great option for artists who can show off their skills by drawing all the different items readers can collect.
To make one of these, you'll need to decide what you want your readers to collect. It could be coins from different countries, souvenirs from various travels, medallions of challenges completed, or anything else you think suits your world.
You'll also need to create a self-assignable subscriber group for each collectable. Between making these groups and the art, you may want to start with a small number of items and expand over time.
In various articles throughout your world, include the self-assignable subscriber group code, the image of what's being collected, and a link to the overview page. That way, if someone finds the collectable without knowing about the treasure hunt, they can learn about it right away and possibly be compelled to keep hunting.

Progress

Examples

Vaelis Arin

This version is closer to achievement hunting. As they read articles, readers can join groups to signal their progress. This is a more writing-focused version, letting readers claim accomplishments related to what they've read.
Start by brainstorming what accomplishments you want your readers to be able to look back on. These will likely relate to articles you've already written or have planned. An article about a traditional dance, for instance, could have an achievement to say the reader has learned how to that dance.
Create the groups for the different achievements and put them within their associated articles with a link back to the overview page. As before, you may want to start small and add more over time.
The overview page here could be styled like a journal or list of quests. You'll likely want to include some indicator of how many more achievements the reader can find, but it's up to you how verbose you are in what those achievements are. You could even do a mix - clear indication of what some missing ones are, but leave the others a mystery.

Choose Your Destiny

Readers choose between mutually-exclusive groups, either as a one-off game or in a way that will affect what content they see going forward.

1. Determine what decisions you want readers to make

2. Figure out what impact do those decisions will have

3. Define how readers will make decisions and see results

Choose Your Own Adventure

Examples

Khulgran

These can be done without subscriber groups. Using subscriber groups add options to alter the story based on prior decisions, such as keeping content hidden until a certain decision is made, or altering how an article looks depending on prior decisions.
Non-Subscriber Version:
Choices are made based on clicking different article links. Readers can always go back and make a different choice, or open all links to see all paths. Nothing tracks their progress through the story.

• Pros: Simpler to set up, Simpler to interact with
• Cons: Lots of articles needed, Fewer options

Subscriber Version:
Choices are made by joining self-assignable subscriber groups, which unlocks content such as entire articles or sections within articles. If readers change their choice, they'll gain access to different content and lose access to other content.

• Pros: See reader decisions, Innumerable options for how the game could function
• Cons: More technical to set up, Requires readers commit to joining groups/following

Character Creator

Examples

wow that's a lot of stars The Library of Dulūn

Great for RPG-based worlds, you can use self-assignable groups and mutually-exclusive tags to let readers make their own (very simple) characters in your world.
First decide what categories of decision suit your world, such as selecting a species, joining a faction, or choosing a class. These are your mutually-exclusive tags. Next, define a handful of choices within each category. These are your subscriber groups. Focus on a handful that are iconic to your setting. You can always add more later.
When you design the character creator, include brief descriptions of what each choice means and link out to articles for readers to get a more thorough explanation. It can be tempting to want a full and up-to-date article on every choice, but a stub is plenty. The goal is to make sure each decision is clearly distinct from all the others.
Conditional groups, like sub-classes, are possible but difficult to implement. You can't nest subcontainers or auto-remove readers from a group if they no longer meet the pre-requisite. This isn't show-stopping, but I recommend avoiding this complexity unless you're really enthusiastic about it.

Utility

Subscriber groups can be used for general utility, helping you make your world more organized or help readers personalize their experience.

Custom Notifications

Examples

Solaris Yonderverse

Notifications for private articles now only go to members of the assigned subscriber group. This means you can send a targeted notification to a subset of users, then make the article public so anyone can find it on your world.
Followers can sign up for specific types of notifications, such as for events, stubs, weekly features, or anything else you have need for. Make sure you have an overview page to make it easy for followers to adjust what notifs they've signed up for.
This can be a great option for anyone who worries about sending "too many" notifications (you aren't). It can ease worries if you know the notifications are being sent to people who signed up to specifically receive those notifications.

Anti-Subscriber

There are times when you may want something to be visible based on the absence of a subscriber group.
A common example is hiding something from your players, but making it visible to your non-player readers. There's a lovely tutorial over at Ethnis on how to do this.
Another example could be to provide certain instructions to followers who aren't in any of a certain number of subscriber groups. While there are user states to target logged in/not logged in and follower/not follower, there's nothing for subscriber/not subscriber. Instead, we can use CSS's :has option to check if a container has a visible subcontainer, and hide or display content based on that.
That's a little advanced, so I'll write a tutorial on it at.... some point. Unless someone else gets there before me.

Display Changes

Some more advanced CSS shenaniganry with :has involves changing how a page is styled based on membership in subscriber groups. You can use this to style pages based on what faction the reader aligned with, or even create a light mode/dark mode toggle.
This will also go in that guide I might get around to writing, but if anyone gives it a try before then, please do share your results!