Supporters and chapter locks

The Supporters tab in Studio lets you keep chapters back for people who support you. It works with any platform (Patreon, SubscribeStar, Ko-fi, your own site). Sexter never checks who pays you. You decide who gets a link.

The tab is for community stories. Official stories use site-wide supporter tiers instead. It is hidden on read-only views and version drafts.

The tab has three sections: Support page, Chapter locks, and Unlock links. Switch between them with the sub-menu under the main Studio tabs.

How it works

1. Lock one or more chapters
2. Create an unlock link and send it to your supporters
3. A supporter opens the link, reads which chapters it unlocks, and taps Unlock
4. The chapters are now on that player's account

Opening the link does not use it up. Only the Unlock button does, so link previews in Discord or on your platform never spend uses.

Support links

Add up to 3 links to your own support pages. Players who hit a locked chapter see a Support {your name} button that opens them. One link opens straight away. Several links fold into a short list.

Add a short lock message if you want to tell players what the lock is for. It shows on the locked chapter card. Leave it empty to use the default text.

Lock chapters

In Supporters, switch Locked on for any chapter. You can also set it in the chapter marker editor on the Chapters tab. Locked chapters show a Locked badge in Studio.

• A locked chapter stops the story for players who do not have access. Everything after it stays hidden too
• Players see a lock on the story page chapter list. The row shows a support chip: with one support page it is named after the platform (for example Patreon) and opens it directly. With several pages it reads Support and folds out a list of your platforms. With no support page it just reads Locked
• Tapping the chapter opens a card with your lock message and a Support {your name} button, or one row per platform if you added several. How supporters get an unlock link is up to you, so the card does not mention one
• Being written wins over Locked for play. If both are on, players see Being written and cannot unlock yet. A lock badge still shows on the thumbnail so you can see the lock is set
• You, co-authors, viewers, moderators, admins, and playtest links skip the lock when playing, so you can always test the full story. The story page still shows the lock so you can see what players see

Locking a chapter that players are already reading stops them at that point until they unlock it. The Supporters tab asks you to confirm before it locks a chapter.

Unlock links

Go to Supporters -> Unlock links and press New link. Pick one of two modes at the top:

• One link: a single link you can share anywhere, for example in a Patreon post for a whole tier
• One per person: type one name per line (up to 100 at a time). Each name becomes the label of its own single-use link

If no chapter is locked yet, the form says so and offers a Lock chapters button that takes you to Chapter locks.

After you create, the window shows the new link with a Copy link button. In One per person mode it lists every name with its link, and Copy all copies them as Name: link lines. New rows are highlighted in the list for a few seconds.

The page a player sees lists your story and the chapters it unlocks, then asks them to tap Unlock. Each account can use a link once. A second tap on the same account does not spend another use.

The top of the section shows how many links you have, how many are active, and the total unlocks. Each link is one compact row with a status dot, how many uses are spent, and a copy button. With 6 or more links you also get search, a status filter (All, Active, Used up, Ended), sorting, and Copy all for whatever is currently listed. Open a row to see the full link and Who unlocked, which lists the display names that used it. Remove access takes the chapters away from one account and gives the use back.

Revoke stops new unlocks but keeps access for everyone who already used the link. Restore turns it back on. Delete removes the link and the access it granted.

Only the story owner can create, edit, or delete links. Co-authors can view them.

Limits and honest notes

• An unlock link is a speed bump, not copy protection. A player can share a link with friends until the uses run out, so size the use limit to your audience
• A player needs a Sexter account to unlock. They are sent to sign in first and return to the link afterward
• If the site needs an invite code to register, new players still need one

See also Publish and updates.