Quality Standards On The SCP Wiki

Oh boy people are gonna hate this take.

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Channel art was created by TheVolgun

Thumbnail image of Doctor Cimmerian was commissioned from Lord Bung.

[maxthemannequin]

"Learn to live in the world you are in. Keep working toward the world you want it to be, but recognize the world you are in and live there, too."
Dr. Cimmerian is starting to sound like my therapist and I'm not sure how to feel about that.
Edit: transcribing quotes is hard :(

[stevenshaw]

Im in the minority where i read the tales, canons, and groups of interest and then fall down the links to scps and other canons/stories that provide context. Its so good.

The advantage of tales is you get to see an scp or charater in context or written in a new style. I really do love the depth all the authors have built in

[erikasauer]

Personally I feel that SCPs are best when they are ambiguous and leave the mind wandering and wondering.

[DeathAlchemist]

I always saw Tales and GOI formats for the ppl who are deeper into the site than most. Honestly, the way I like something authors to do it was having scp articles link tales because they can add more context to the scp.

[UGNAvalon]

On the topic of Quality Control: I’d love to see a “You’re Wrong About” episode on “SCP Rewrites”.

It could cover ideas such as: What determines if an article needs a rewrite? What determines if an article is “worthy” of a rewrite (as opposed to deletion) ? What goes into a “good rewrite” (if such a thing can even be determined!) ? Which SCPs were actually rewritten without us newer readers being aware, and how do they compare then & now? Are some SCPs actually “stealth rewrites” of others? Does a rewrite automatically make an article “better”, or could it end up receiving worse backlash than the problematic original?

I think among the most famous examples in recent memory would be 166 (formerly “Teenage Succubus”, now “Teenage Gaea”). Obviously the most problematic aspect of the original was its use of teenage sexualization (and to a lesser degree, making author avatar Clef look overpowered yet again). However, a major criticism of the current version is that it’s missing the “conflict of identity” that made the original so interesting (ie a “celibate succubus”, now replaced by… a generic nature deity (promotes plant growth, damages technology, highly sensitive, etc) (kinda like the exact opposite of 073-Cain, now that I think about it..)).

After poking around a bit, I discovered that 2 “stealth rewrite” versions of 166 have already existed before: 4166 “Former Teenage Succubus” & 0166 (a Tale). Both of these explore different aspects of the original 166 concept, with 4166 focusing on the Faustian implications of a teen gaining succubus powers, and 0166 focusing on the exploitation of “tragic female targets of romance” via a metanarrative lens.

I guess my point is: rewrites of SCP articles (even popular/famous ones) are a lot more common than we might initially suspect, and while some tackle the core concept of the original better than others, there’s still a lot more that can be gleaned by analyzing “when/why/how should we make a rewrite?”.

What do you think?

[brokenursa]

I forget if it was you or another SCP YouTuber who has mentioned in the past that one of the biggest issues tales have to overcome is the fact that an SCP article contains all of the information you need to understand the story by itself, while a tale almost always has to draw from outside context in order for the reader to understand everything going on with it. The quality is a hurdle, but demanding that your reader read something else first before they read your story is arguably a bigger problem. Even if you enjoy reading, you don’t want to pick up a book, open it to page 1, and only then be told that the book is a sequel.

[keamort]

The best thing I found in the wiki are okay SCPs with links to okay tales. It makes a larger universe based on an interesting idea but it seems like a lot of work to make and post both at the same time. The best tales I found also were short stories linked together into a longer narrative but self contained enough to be read by themselves.

[NihilisaFrank]

i mean one of my biggest gripes with one of the more popular scp-001 articles "when day breaks" is that it's really just...a tale. not an scp article. and it's a rather *good* tale, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it really is just a tale dressed up as the "coveted" scp-001 spot. did that probably get more people to read it then it just getting relegated to a tale? yes, i suppose it did, and now it's rather celebrated, but it's just not why i read scps to begin with. reasons i think a lot of early scps work well to me is because while also being a complete narrative in its own way, it also allows the reader to view it almost as a "writing prompt" of sorts where you can form your own stories and ask your own questions about the scp simply from the implications in the article. like you said before i believe (or maybe it was someone else), introducing too much information and context from sources that aren't explicitly connected to the scp to craft a narrative in an article feels like its not trusting the reader to understand what you are trying to tell them and...idk that type of writing still isn't my bag. some of those types of scps are great, but it's personally not the reason i choose to read this type of creative writing over say, like any other of the innumerable creative writing sites that exist

[ekiouja]

To be quite frank, sometimes I read scps to look at an interesting idea and the implications of that idea. I might not be interested in a character driven story when I come to read things at the wiki. Sometimes I will, but it is the minority.

[Fernlom]

As someone who is planning on writing for the SCP wiki at some point, videos like this are very helpful to me. Thank you Dr Cimmerian

[NimhLabs]

Dr. Cimmerian says you are WRONG about SCP Tales

[ryderant]

Couldn't agree more, newer SCP's seem to be just be tales but with an scp number

[xslckyh]

IMO, I'd rather SCP articles just be short to the point articles and tales just be tales. Nothing against them, but I usually go into articles with the expectation of reading a short to the point article.

[SPAMLiberationArmy]

I feel like... As critters not necessarily authors, good/original/strange ideas make the best SCPs, but we can't just tell people "have better ideas." We end up trying to fix ideas by telling people to explore deeper or work in narratives, and for whatever reason people read that as "make it longer/turn it into a tale."

[generalironbeak]

11:27 Respect to this American who produced a Queen's Perfect English Accent :D

[CalamityM]

I actually enjoy some of the early Tales on the SCP wiki. My favourite series from the Acidverse (Are We Cool Yet) was 'The Cool War' by Randomini; because it was a fun, wild ride.

[gabrote]

Why can't we have a simple, solid article with no more plot than, for example, 108. I mean, c'mon

[nowhereman]

One thing I've always disliked about tales is that they make often make reference to other SCPs, and if you're not familiar with the Skip in question you have to stop reading the tale and go and read that article, which is annoying as hell.

[FakeSugarVillain]

I wonder why, even knowing this, the site stills feels very intimidating to new authors

[MegaTang]

If you think the average SCP is mediocre writing, I actually want a video of you reviewing non-SCP writing made on the internet or atleast talking about your favourite non-SCP related internet stories compared to SCP in quality.