SCP Foundation - Creepypasta with roid rage - now ITT: SCP fans

[ZMOT]

Mostly the latter. It is irritating as fuck to read articles or discussions (for example, the TV Tropes article) and every other line is a reference to an SCP number that you then need to click on to even know what it's talking about.

Its not just them, basically the entire internet does this, and it makes discussing SCP tedious as all fuck.

Like (random example I made up but just try to tell me this doesn't happen all the damn time): "Man, it would be interesting of SCP-SJS and SCP-44224 met, do you think this could be the origin story for SCP-66996? I dunno, I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if SCP-ZORK got eaten by SCP-909J2. Maybe it would cause something similar to SCP-90210?"

It's like talking to anime tards who insist on throwing random Japanese words into every other sentence, except worse because its just numbers and even if you've read the entries, you'll have to stop every sentence to google an article just to follow what should be a basic conversation. I can at least pick up on what random Japanese words mean after a few repetitions, but even a fan of the Wiki is going to say "hold on, I gotta double-check which SCP that is..."

>tv tropes

but seriously, a number is defined, a title is not, especially when it's a non-descriptive title like "thing that makes you dead". it's also from back in the day when there were far fewer SPCs, and only a few people constantly talking about it (if they didn't outright say "that one thing that makes you dead" because they couldn't remember the number either). I'd also expect shit like tv tropes to have the direct link so you can check with one click what they're even talking about.

another thing, and that might just be my impression, "back then" it was kinda frowned upon constantly mixing SCPs. as much fun it might be to go "imagine if they send 682 in", it was seen as a trope and unimaginative writing. it works for some SCPs, but if you'd constantly mix SCPs (which might even be in different locations canonically), it becomes boring, if not outright retarded fast.
it's similar to the dr. bright self insert shit that didn't really exist back then that much, it was just a collection of (deadly) curiosities, not some retarded attempt at a SCP cinematic universe for sexpests and troons looking for someone to groom...

EDIT: what I mean is, latching onto an another SCP is also kinda like fanfiction. it's not it's own thing, but piggybacking something else. it's not creating something new, but "improving" what already exists, either by coming up with a stupid OC donut steel for powerwank, or some romance so the author can flick her bean to shipping two characters - not saying fanfiction is always bad, but if the point is creative writing, "same thing but slightly different" isn't seen as very creative. why bother reading an SCP that only exists so the author can write a funny interaction log, extends someone else' SCP, or shove down his super special self-insert character down people's throat?

I assume that's why up to ~2000 there aren't that many interactions in the first place, which might be a reason going by numbers only never bothered me that much.

 

[AnOminous]

682

An example of the number thing working, because if an SCP were well known enough to distinguish itself by actually being known as that number, it was definitely a good one.

The rest are just numbers, because there are so many of them.

But as another example, there is only one 007.

 

[Commander X]

Saw this take on the steady degradation of the SCP wiki and the failure of the concept as a whole:

SCP had some reddit OC's like Clef and Bright but that's gotten way more pronounced now, It started off somewhat whatever, now it is annoyingly noticeably bad.

Earlier SCP article writers also knew that less is more, The overuse of REDACTED is joked about but in reality the modern ones leave nothing to the imagination whereas the old ones barely explained shit beyond the base concept and they were leagues more interesting for that, unlike these modern SCP articles where they post a novella's worth of "lore" and practically walk you through it.

 

[Mexican_Wizard_711]

Saw this take on the steady degradation of the SCP wiki and the failure of the concept as a whole:

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SCP had some reddit OC's like Clef and Bright but that's gotten way more pronounced now, It started off somewhat whatever, now it is annoyingly noticeably bad.

Earlier SCP article writers also knew that less is more, The overuse of REDACTED is joked about but in reality the modern ones leave nothing to the imagination whereas the old ones barely explained shit beyond the base concept and they were leagues more interesting for that, unlike these modern SCP articles where they post a novella's worth of "lore" and practically walk you through it.

I assume you got this from a fan Discord since no official staff member would ever acknowledge the subpar writing quality of recent articles

 

[Druveer]

I get most of my SCP content via TheExploringSeries channel on youtube and wow do I ever miss the days of simple article that weren't novellas.

Also Dr. Faggington needs to be a thing and he'll be trying to find out which SCP is making everyone at the foundation talk and write reports like they were sophomore year theater kids.

 

[skykiii]

but seriously, a number is defined, a title is not, especially when it's a non-descriptive title like "thing that makes you dead".

Yeah but none of the SCPs have titles/descriptions that generic... plus they all have canon titles.

not some retarded attempt at a SCP cinematic universe

And thank goodness for that!

The SCP Wiki is kinda like Marvel and DC in a way--the individual thingamabobs are interesting or could fuel a series all on their own, but somehow become a bit stupid if you start thinking of them as all being in the same universe.

Also I have to agree with that guy who said SCPs should be containable. That's actually something that breaks my suspension of disbelief--basically the SCP universe should have gone through like five million apocalypses by now.

 

[VargReallyDidNothingWrong]

I have to agree with that guy who said SCPs should be containable. That's actually something that breaks my suspension of disbelief--basically the SCP universe should have gone through like five million apocalypses by now.

Yeah the sheer amount of "uhhh yeah this thing will absolutely destroy the planet/humanity/the galaxy/the universe/reality as we know it but for some reason it hasn't yet and the SCP Foundation is researching how to make it not do the thing but they haven't figured it out yet also it will definitely do the thing in the next 10 years if they don't figure it out" nightmare scenarios is too high.

There's also a huge amount of SCPs where, if you sit down and think about it, it makes no sense for the SCP to have been discovered at all and NOT already destroyed the world. And it's not just modern SCPs that struggle with this, it's been a problem since the first 100. I think the earliest one i can think of that made no sense to me was that mask (SCP-035) that would ooze acid or something. The Foundation needs to rebuild it's containment chamber every few weeks or something, it's got a special unobtanium lined cell, the 4 inch thick glass case it's in gets melted into goop within weeks, it makes you go nuts if you're too close to it and essentially forces you to put it on, which instantly kills you....

But it was found in the basement of some italian church lmao.
??? ok? Why wasn't the church literally a lake of corrosive goop? How long had the mask been there? Oh it's an 18th century mask? So it's been in that basement for literal centuries? Apparently that church basement was the best possible containment procedure you could want for that fucking mask because it was perfectly fine chilling there instead of requiring a triple locked steel and lead lined enclosure and 4" thick glass cases you need to dispose of via a different SCP every 2 weeks.

 

[ZMOT]

Yeah but none of the SCPs have titles/descriptions that generic... plus they all have canon titles.

7000 (or whatever stupid amount there is now) canon titles, which at some point no one can remember either besides the most notorious ones, which then depends if you read it and browsed it via the list, because that's the only place where the names show up afaik).

But it was found in the basement of some italian church lmao.
??? ok? Why wasn't the church literally a lake of corrosive goop? How long had the mask been there? Oh it's an 18th century mask? So it's been in that basement for literal centuries? Apparently that church basement was the best possible containment procedure you could want for that fucking mask because it was perfectly fine chilling there instead of requiring a triple locked steel and lead lined enclosure and 4" thick glass cases you need to dispose of via a different SCP every 2 weeks.

that's just bad writing tbh, which is something that should be fixed in the review process. if that church basement somehow contains the mask, it would be logical to a) figure out how and why, then replicate it or b) keep it there, lock it down and throw away the key.

think I mentioned it before, but lot of SCP writers forget that the foundation doesn't have unlimited funds - even when it looks like it, nor is run by the retards that currently write for it. you know as they say, any character is only as smart as it's writer, and since the foundation has an obvious scientific background boy are lot of them dumb af (since the troon downtime there's been a lengthy post brewing with an example, but I'm just too lazy).

for the same reason I don't really mind "uncontainable" SCPs, but like everything moderation is key. I look at it from the perspective like "if you know a meteor is coming and hitting us in the next ~20 years, what are your options?". but like the mask it needs to make sense, if there's an SCP that blows up the planet if you don't jerk if off every 3 hours, why the fuck hasn't it happened by now? who did the jerking up until know? why would anyone create something like that?
the other problem is that "uncontainable" is often mixed with retarded powerwank, because OF COURSE your special OC SCP needs to destroy the planet, the universe and every dimension when you don't exactly perform whatever the writer thought as clever and UeXpLaInAbLe, it can't just locally nuke the facility (which is bad enough) or the local area to a point everyone would notice it.

There's also a huge amount of SCPs where, if you sit down and think about it, it makes no sense for the SCP to have been discovered at all and NOT already destroyed the world.

canonically that has happened a few times, usually the foundation goes back and (tries to) prevent it or if somehow nothing changed trying to figure out why (like that one SCP where you go through a tunnel and end up in a world where everyone died for unknown reasons at the exact same time and date). there's even scp 2000 which sole purpose is to "fix" an XK class event.

 

[BirdUp]

can we just talk about how macguffin SCPs are really stretching the bureaucracy gimmick (and SCPs with no story are pointless; fuck off with that "DOOOOOOOD, POINTLESS SCP'S ARE GOOD BECAUSE ANOMALIES SHOULDN'T NEED AN EXPLANATION!!" shit)
RPC-429 is probably the best SCP i've read but 95% of it is a (well-written) chatlog that the containment procedures, description etc have been lumped on top of

 

[Mexican_Wizard_711]

can we just talk about how macguffin SCPs are really stretching the bureaucracy gimmick (and SCPs with no story are pointless; fuck off with that "DOOOOOOOD, POINTLESS SCP'S ARE GOOD BECAUSE ANOMALIES SHOULDN'T NEED AN EXPLANATION!!" shit)
RPC-429 is probably the best SCP i've read but 95% of it is a (well-written) chatlog that the containment procedures, description etc have been lumped on top of

Some explanation for scps is ok, but it becomes a problem when you're writing full feature-length novels within a page

 

[ABE LINN COHN]

can we just talk about how macguffin SCPs are really stretching the bureaucracy gimmick (and SCPs with no story are pointless; fuck off with that "DOOOOOOOD, POINTLESS SCP'S ARE GOOD BECAUSE ANOMALIES SHOULDN'T NEED AN EXPLANATION!!" shit)
RPC-429 is probably the best SCP i've read but 95% of it is a (well-written) chatlog that the containment procedures, description etc have been lumped on top of

>best SCP i've read
>prominent tranny character

 

[BirdUp]

Some explanation for scps is ok, but it becomes a problem when you're writing full feature-length novels within a page

short to mid-sized SCPs go nowhere because they just describe "it does X, Y and Z"
so i'm like, "ok, but why does the author want me to read this, besides thinking 'oh cool'?" but you can't give them a meaningful narrative without resorting to more conventional storywriting through discovery logs, interviews and addendums
it's the same thing with Mystery Flesh Pit and its travel brochures, uniforms and OSHA signs but the creator doesn't paint it as storytelling

 

[VargReallyDidNothingWrong]

short to mid-sized SCPs go nowhere because they just describe "it does X, Y and Z"
so i'm like, "ok, but why does the author want me to read this, besides thinking 'oh cool'?"

Autistic man entirely misses the point of SCPs

 

[BirdUp]

Autistic man entirely misses the point of SCPs

i know what SCPs are but i don't like how authors parade the format as storytelling

 

[VargReallyDidNothingWrong]

i know what SCPs are but i don't like how authors parade the format as storytelling

Autistic man says he understands SCPs, then immediately displays he doesn't at all

The concept was to tell a story via nothing but dry clinical logs and reports in such a way that your imagination fills in the blanks for you. If your "SCP" is just a Stephen King short story with a plot and characters and all that shit clearly defined and stated what makes it an "SCP" and not just generic amateur fiction?

 

[Montalbane]

Autistic man says he understands SCPs, then immediately displays he doesn't at all

The concept was to tell a story via nothing but dry clinical logs and reports in such a way that your imagination fills in the blanks for you. If your "SCP" is just a Stephen King short story with a plot and characters and all that shit clearly defined and stated what makes it an "SCP" and not just generic amateur fiction?

Because we filled it with black and queer bodies and discourse about the ebil of gabidalism

 

[BirdUp]

The concept was to tell a story via nothing but dry clinical logs and reports in such a way that your imagination fills in the blanks for you

nigger you can't tell a story through the bureaucracy gimmick, that's what i was trying to say
an SCP that tries to tell a narrative has to use more conventional storywriting which is longer than telling the reader "my SCP does XYZ, bye"
at that point, the bureaucracy is an afterthought that can be easily cut out

 

[ABE LINN COHN]

it's the same thing with Mystery Flesh Pit and its travel brochures, uniforms and OSHA signs but the creator doesn't paint it as storytelling

My negro what are you on about? MFP specifically works because it doesn't require long explanations yet still tells a story. If you removed all the long incident reports and only looked at the entries that are just a picture and maybe a short description you'd still be able to piece together a compelling story.

 

[BirdUp]

If you removed all the long incident reports and only looked at the entries that are just a picture and maybe a short description you'd still be able to piece together a compelling story.

oh ok so we have to get the readers to make up a story
mfp is a worldbuilding project; the images are there to look cool, and the only story that exists is localized to the incident reports

 

[ABE LINN COHN]

oh ok so we have to get the readers to make up a story

Yes. That is the whole fucking point of SCP and MFP, dumbass. You give the reader just enough detail so that they can make their own inferences. The original SCP was only 4 paragraphs long, yet it inspired an entire genre of Internet fiction because it leaves the reader pondering "what is this thing, really?" "where did it come from?" "why does it want to kill people?" and "what is this mysterious organization that catalogues items such as this?". You didn't need a signed note from SCP Creator™ explicitly telling you how the object was created, why, what to feed it, and its favorite color. Not that you can't have interviews, experiment logs, and relevant documents, but they have to add to the mystery and they shouldn't be the length of a fucking novel. I like SCP-2128 because its experiment logs read like something a clinical organization dedicated to the greater good would do when given access to such an item, but it doesn't overstay its welcome and leaves you wondering at the end.