As the title says, I'd like to know what are the consequences of setting carts as forks.

Here's an example... I submitted STAR SPLORE last month. This week, I got a reply asking for some changes. I wanted to accommodate the request without changing the main cart, so I submitted an alternative version of the cart.

I didn't want to start a new thread for this alternative cart, though. So I just embedded it in a reply on the original thread. I guess that's why the cart doesn't show up in "New Carts", nor does it appear in my profile under "Cartridges".

And that's fine! It's an alternativo cart, I don't want anyone to find it before the main one...

But I noticed that, when I click "Edit" on a cart, there is a "Forks" section. I know what a fork is in GitHub, but what does it mean here?

Should I set this alternative cart as a fork of the original STAR SPLORE? What are the consequences of doing that in the BBS?

idk

Ok, so I did it... For science.

Now, when I edit the original cartridge, I can see the fork.

Didn't notice any other changes.

Something I noticed is that, while my alternative cart doesn't show on "New Carts" if you just navigate page by page, it DOES show up if you search for it.

This was already true before I configured it as a fork, though. I believe that's just what happens when your cart doesn't have a thread of its own, and is only embedded in a reply to another cart's thread.

Anyway, is that all there is to a fork? Maybe @zep can answer - or someone else who knows how the BBS works a little better...

Is there a way to retroactively set a cart uploaded as a fork? I'd like to do that to one where I hacked someone else's game and uploaded it back into the thread. It doesn't show up on new carts which is good, but I don't know how to check/set/verify that it's a fork because I surely did not do any coding on that cart nor anything else except mess it up!

Yes, you can do it, @hseiken.

That's exactly what I did to "STAR SPLORE by year": I set it as a "STAR SPLORE" fork retroactively.

Let me sum the steps up for you.

1. First, go to the post with your cart embedded and click the tiny Edit link just below your cart. Once you do that, you will enter the "cart edit page", where you can edit the cart's title, change its licensing, check its verstions and set it as a fork.

2. Go to the end of the page, to the "Set Fork" section, and click on the dark, empty space to the right of ID:.

3. Type the parent cartridge ID here. Don't forget the version number. For example, I typed star_splore-1. Then click the Save button.

That's it!

Note: on step 1, if your cart is not embedded in any posts, just create an unlisted post and embed it so you can edit it.