Technically this is always true. You don't ever need to apply for a copyright, what you write is your IP. This is so you can't just go stealing someone's work and publish it yourself if they had no intention of doing so.
The problem lies in that you're posting on a wiki that can be edited. But yes, breaking that rule basically kills the project. Because then no one will write for you if it can be edited or adjusted. You'll just end up with a circle jerk of the same shit and the stuff that popularized your website will end it. A lot of writing projects end this way because the people managing it get fucking arrogant and think that it 'belongs' to them when there are dozens or sometimes hundreds of writers involved.
Then they force these writers to adhere to more and more stringent shit, before out and out editing their work down. Before you know it, everyone talented is gone and just writing what they want and posting it on writing websites or blogs and you only have an untalented pool of shills and yes-men and soyboys who can't write worth a fuck and the project dies.
Its a miracle SCP lasted this long in the first place.
As for
@pixelatedharmony deleting things that were under Creative Commons, that depends on the agreement. Creative Commons isn't just a blanket license and it is true it is non-revocable. However, there are six types of creative common's licenses:
As a creator, if you do Creative Commons, you have to be
VERY VERY FUCKING CAREFUL at what you put on it. You are essentially giving up ALL rights, including monetary. The only way you could revoke the license is if: 1) They removed your credit from your work. Then they violated the license agreement or 2) You licensed it under the 6th license, meaning if someone touches them or edits them, the license is revoked.
CC is a legal standard, and it isn't to be used lightly. If I write an original story on Kiwi Farms, that is my IP. Obviously, if I post it here myself, I'm permitting users to read it. But unless I give permission, nobody can monetize it, share it anywhere else, or do anything to it. I know this is a ridiculous case as I'd only write horrifying shit here that would never get published. But it still stands.
When you do a CC license, you are essentially giving up every single right you have, except for credit. A CC license, if not specified, is assumed to be the broadest. There's no 'unspoken agreements', its you voluntarily giving up your right to do what you want with your material. You couldn't even revoke it if they went: "This was by the stupid faggot
@pixelatedharmony, may the fucking cunt burn." You're credited. Not flatteringly, but it doesn't violate CC.
I mean, technically people could sue you if you deleted the content unlawfully (because it is no longer yours). And that's something to remember. If you license under CC,
it is no longer yours. I can take anything you write and make a million dollars off of it and as long as I credit you, I don't owe you shit. That's why you have to be EXTREMELY careful with your IP rights as a writer. This is why a LOT of shady writing 'contests' have it in their fine print anything you submit is owned by them and by submitting you're giving up your IP. Even on fanfic websites. Or wherever you post original fiction that can be publishable. Read the fucking TOS. The whole website could be creative commons and if you write something that takes off, you're fucked. Or the website states anything posted there is owned by the website. People are always looking for easy ways to poach writing, just like art.
Creative commons licenses are typically mainly used for two purposes: Community Software Projects and Open Science Articles. If you use it for anything else, watch what you use it for. Pick which license you want, and understand it. Otherwise if you just say 'Creative Commons', it defaults to giving up all of your rights. Don't ever fucking use it because you want to be seen as 'nice', 'liberal' or 'open'. It is a serious legal contract.
Just like everything you write is yours, if you slap CC on something, then its everyone's. And if you did general creative commons that made the website popular, tough. Your rights are long gone and you honestly don't have a legal right to delete them. I mean, the likelihood of someone taking legal action is laughable. But still, its something to keep in mind. Unless they take your name off it, then they violated it. But that's the only way it can be legally deleted.
EDIT:
Look at it like this: Anything you write, anywhere is automatically copyrighted and you can sue anyone who monetizes/abuses it/copies it, without doing anything yourself. It automatically falls under copyright. No lawyers, no copyright office. If you use CC, you automatically give up all your rights, and people can do anything, as long as they write your name somewhere giving you credit. Just as copyright works automatically with no lawyers and copyright office, so does CC. It legally means something and is not just an internet thing.
EDIT 2:
If you're doing a community project, always put CC number 6. That allows the work to be shared and downloaded, but not monetized or edited. The second some soyboy faggot seeks to edit your shit or 'transform it', the license is null and void and you delete it and say go fuck yourself. And then you get to sell it, because the rights go back to you. Though I'd never do a writing project where anyone has control over what I write or could be edited or with people I didn't trust. Because while it may be illegal to lock you out, you still need to pay a lawyer if they lock you out. Though I would because I'm a spiteful cocksucker, I wouldn't just stop at one part. I'd have the lawyer go through everything I wrote and if some nigger changed my grammar I'd get that shit pulled from the project even if they weren't making it more 'progressive'. Change an 'a', it goes the fuck away.
I'm a bit too passionate about my fiction writing.
