- ID: YYBW-003
- Status: Decided
- Date: 2026-04-13
- Scope: YY Branching World / YY's World evolution
- Depends on: YYBW-001, YYBW-002
- Supersedes / clarifies: Clarifies the move away from endless roots
- Museum lineage: PM-018, SK-008
Context
At first the system implicitly leaned toward an indefinitely long root timeline. That threatened clarity, onboarding, narrative shape, and compute discipline. A better structure emerged: each root is a finite arc, usually one calendar month, with occasional longer premium arcs.
Decision
The standard root is a finite monthly arc. Users can load the most recent month from the home page. Occasional 60–90 day arcs may exist as premium or special one-offs, but the normal shape is one month per root.
Why
Monthly roots provide:
- natural calendar boundaries
- clear entry points
- replayability
- narrative shape
- shared community reference
- hobby-friendly scope
Alternatives considered
- Infinite root timelines — rejected because they bloat and dilute comparison.
- Very short 1–7 day roots only — too small for meaningful compounding by default.
- Carry state across months by default — rejected early because it confuses canon with path history.
Reversals / scars preserved
- The impulse toward endless history was preserved as a warning.
- The eventual premium 60–90 day idea remains, but as an exception rather than the default.
- The calendar-month framing was a late but strong simplification.
Consequences
- Home page should foreground the current month and archive prior months.
- Endings matter; roots need closure and replay affordances.
- Monthly structure aligns well with email, YouTube arcs, and static publishing cadence.
Invariants preserved
Compression through one-month chunks; Timestamping via calendar alignment; Discipline via bounded arcs; Survivability via archiveable seasons.
Freshness boundary
Revisit only if user testing proves a different unit is materially superior.