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

[Punished “Venom” pH]

The only reason you're here is because you clicked on the wrong link 10 years ago and went down a rabbit hole. What "principles" are you even talking about? You didn't even claim to have principles until it was convenient for you. SCP could solve world hunger and you'd still find a way to hate it. Your only "principle" is getting back at people you don't like.

you’re cute when you’re mad

 

[Mexican_Wizard_711]

While I hate the Three Moons Hub, I do like SCP-3922. However looking over in the 3922 extended, I found this weaksauce virtue signal.

Don't know why the Foundation would give a crap about mundane politics.

 

[Punished “Venom” pH]

While I hate the Three Moons Hub, I do like SCP-3922. However looking over in the 3922 extended, I found this weaksauce virtue signal.
View attachment 2225750
Don't know why the Foundation would give a crap about mundane politics.

If anything the Foundation would be the ones causing the trouble for their own benefit to start with

 

[ToS]

Continuing coverage of the 6K contest.

The longest article in the 6k running is 48,211 words. (That’s the Shaggy et al one.) There’s also a 30,561 word one, three 20,000+ word ones; and eleven 10,000+ word ones. The average 6k entry is 4,500.

The sum of total words in the 6K is just shy of 480,000 words. At an average reading pace of 225 words per minute, reading all of the entries would take you about 35 hours.

Time between Wiki and 1K: 36 months
Time between 1K and 2K: 28 months
Time between 2K and 3K: 40 months
Time between 3K and 4K: 15 months
Time between 4K and 5K: 16 months
Time between 5K and 6K: 14 months

Entries for 1K: 13
Entries for 2K: 30
Entries for 3K: 42
Entries for 4K: 72
Entries for 5K: 68
Entries for 6K: 94

1K entries that use a custom CSS theme: 0%
2K entries that use a custom CSS theme: 0%
3K entries that use a custom CSS theme: 2%
4K entries that use a custom CSS theme: 4%
5K entries that use a custom CSS theme: 7%
6K entries that use a custom CSS theme: 30%
(^ Does not include Black Highlighter theme)

Spoiler: Analysis

There is a 38% increase in the number of entries from 5K, a 30% increase from 4K, and a 124% increase from 3K, and so on. While this is clearly something to celebrate if you are running the site, more users and more participation, let’s ask a question the staff doesn’t ask much these days; what does it mean for the more granular viewpoint of the authors?

There has been such an inflation of entries, not just to the 6K but to the SCP mainlist by the same token, that there is a decreasing likelihood that they will all be read. There is more pressure for articles to be judged on the rating readers will immediately see on it. People will either be reading at random as the auto-ordering dictates, or they will read their preferred authors. Naturally, the authors with more routine readers will receive more reads and (up)votes. This would suggest that existing popularity has an increasing say in perceived article quality.

This is the equivalent of monetary inflation increasing a wealth gap. There is a tier of elites who are getting richer in upvotes, simply by already being elite. This centralizing force - where a more concentrated number of authors will have a higher percentage of the upvote totals... something we know they masturbate over - is the source of the power abuse seen in SCP, both in the staff and in sexual predators. This centralization and its side effects are likely going to get more pronounced with time, given no changes to the current architecture, especially if either Rounderhouse’s or djkaktus’ entry wins (looking like it’s a given atm). This is well demonstrated in the fact that these two authors — perhaps THE two who market themselves the most — are in the lead currently, especially given that their entries are in the upper range of length, at ~23,000 and ~18,000 words, respectively. Seen here:

I love me some CSS theme. To be honest, my eyes are having a feast in this contest. However, we are all familiar with the detachment of story quality in favor of graphics or flare. Style is not a good thing as the primary focus. When it is hyper-concentrated upon, other parts of a work will suffer, simply due to the necessary division of the labor. Only so much time can be committed to each part.

With that in mind, let’s look at the current contest and ask ourselves how much work went into the looks that would otherwise be directed towards the writing.

The extraordinary pump in custom CSS theme use (up 330%; again, I attribute to the success of SCP-5999) would suggest that aesthetics are playing an increasing role in perceived article quality. Not only are authors utilizing looks to grab more views and help their entry stand out from the crowd, but it is working.

This is corroborated by comparing the average rating for articles using custom CSS to that of articles that only use the old default Sigma-9 CSS theme (no Black Highlighter, no disgusting multicolored info header module that they now animate).At the time of writing:

Average default layout rating: +49
Average custom CSS layout rating: +83 (69% increase)

Also, the top 5 articles in the contest all have heavy, near-web designer-grade CSS treatment.

This trend will likely increase with time and future K contests. In the future, SCP will look better and better, until style too has eclipsed what the site is nominally pegged to; which in the eyes of the staff and users, is still not popularity, but quality writing.

 

[Furret]

The sum of total words in the 6K is just shy of 480,000 words. At an average reading pace of 225 words per minute, reading all of the entries would take you about 35 days. (The voting period lasts for one month. Tell me this isn’t reducible to a popularity contest.)

Not sure how you got a total reading time that high. This analysis of 190 studies gives an average reading rate of 260 words per minute for fiction. Dividing 480,000 words by a reading rate of 260 wpm gives about 1846 minutes to read every entry. That's 30.8 hours of raw time for the average Joe to read every SCP-6000 entry. Hours, not days.

More than a full day of raw time for the average person to read all the entries is still going to lead to people prioritizing names they're familiar with and articles that are immediately attention-grabbing, so marketing is still a major factor in who wins this contest (Kaktus and Rounder both know this and have pulled a pretty big marketing stunt to get the top two spots), but unless I fucked up my math I don't think it's as bad as you say it is.

 

[ToS]

Not sure how you got a total reading time that high. This analysis of 190 studies gives an average reading rate of 260 words per minute for fiction. Dividing 480,000 words by a reading rate of 260 wpm gives about 1846 minutes to read every entry. That's 30.8 hours of raw time for the average Joe to read every SCP-6000 entry. Hours, not days.

More than a full day of raw time for the average person to read all the entries is still going to lead to people prioritizing names they're familiar with and articles that are immediately attention-grabbing, so marketing is still a major factor in who wins this contest (Kaktus and Rounder both know this and have pulled a pretty big marketing stunt to get the top two spots), but unless I fucked up my math I don't think it's as bad as you say it is.

Oh you are right. Adjusted the post. Was way off. So about 3 articles per day would get you all of them read in the month window for voting.

I wish I hadn’t had clicked that link. The self-importance is gross.

 

[BurnerPhone]

6K entries that use a custom CSS theme: 30%

Dangling your keys in front of a baby has the same effect. Custom CCS themes are becoming so frequent it might hurt the long-term growth of the website. It's just too hard to get noticed as a writer on that site without resorting to theatrics.

 

[NobodyInParticularMan]

Let me get this straight, are you saying they didn’t just ban you for your chat content but deleted your articles too? Or did you do that yourself?

As nobody in particular and someone who definitely isn't the author I can only surmise that he took a break for several years and came back to find that articles of his were deleted or altered without any input from him. The last two that were up and unmolested, he took down on his way out after being banned for calling a retard a retard.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

So really, asking inconvenient questions is the reason.

 

[ToS]

Dangling your keys in front of a baby has the same effect. Custom CCS themes are becoming so frequent it might hurt the long-term growth of the website. It's just too hard to get noticed as a writer on that site without resorting to theatrics.

Yeah I think the message from the numbers is that given the economy and design, it is likely to be getting harder.

Now you might need to be able to code well, at least some, and be a graphic artist too or at least have an eye for it. It’s a bigger skill set and harder, sure. But somewhere in there is a site about writing well.

Spoiler: Rant

The custom CSS themes and visual pizzazz in general will continue to be another niche that the ever-expanding SCP format mines for upvotes, because it can; same as it ever was. You really can’t blame something that has no ability to temper itself. Like inflation, diffusion is hard to reign in once it is started.

Not really progress because you can look at what was real spiffy a few years ago and it already looks dated as hell; an IMO example is Hippo and Peppers’ 001 proposal... great article, but the O5 voting blocks just look clumsy now, next to the new streamlined ones I mean. Those were real nifty when they first came out. Can you call fashion continuous progress? It’s more memetic meandering. Does anyone think that koolaid-colored hair won’t be looked back on with facepalms in just a few short years?

The difference with the OG style is that it’s hard for a minimalist, classic look to be dated because its design is conservative; less things to potentially look awful in a short time. The restraint and Lindy effect ensure that it will remain relevant. It has real staying power, and is a good investment.

A good article is timeless and like gold, it doesn’t rust. The writing quality is the real store of value in a creative writing format, surprise.

The trends are more and more like the speculative euphoria and superficiality of fashion or interior design. So yeah, the validation-crazed authors pour over themselves to make the format more like things it shouldn’t want to be like. The authors are happy to invest their effort in the ephemeral things that will be outdated soon for that quick recognition. Will the article be as impressive when the new shine wears off? Probably not. But I guess the upvotes are already there by then, aren’t they?

More damaging I think will be the increased frequency and reduced scarcity of the K contests. Just look at the 001s. They don’t really make the splash they used to. We’re getting there.

 

[AnOminous]

That's 30.8 hours of raw time for the average Joe to read every SCP-6000 entry. Hours, not days.

I don't think people as massively online as the SCP population are going to be anywhere near the average Joe in terms of how long it takes to read an article.

 

[Punished “Venom” pH]

The issue is that the content creation engine isn’t being maintained as the pool of people who participate in the site grows. If we’re talking about metrics, I think one everyone overlooks is individual article engagement. It’s been touched on a few times here in the context of the quantity of 6k contest but in general, if you track the ratio of comments and votes over time you’ll see it get diluted from reliably double-digit comment threads to having little to no active community engagement, unless you can market yourself effectively.

This is why we saw the proliferation of increasingly silly titles, the encroachment of pop culture references and CSS and other gimmicks, a desperate competition to stand out in the crowd where everyone’s playing a game of follow-the-leader. Vote chasing and an obsession with the metrics that mean the least but are easiest to measure has caused the creative process to become a series of disconnected echo chambers with a writing workshop forum used almost exclusively by newbies and the staff who babysit them with boilerplated critique responses.

They value growth but they’re accommodating the large influx of active, talented writers poorly.

I don't think people as massively online as the SCP population are going to be anywhere near the average Joe in terms of how long it takes to read an article.

Bold of you to assume that SCP Wiki community members actually read new content regularly. They’re too busy shilling their new piece to have time for that.

 

[Gar For Archer]

What’s so great about Rounderhouse’s entry? It reads more like an 001 proposal (where “lol the world’s already been irreversibly destroyed” is a pretty common trope) and the main image literally looks like a shitty Deviantart fetish edit.

 

[ToS]

What’s so great about Rounderhouse’s entry? It reads more like an 001 proposal (where “lol the world’s already been irreversibly destroyed” is a pretty common trope) and the main image literally looks like a shitty Deviantart fetish edit.

I have a lot of time on my hands right now, so I read it just so that I could reply.

Spoiler: It’s good

It was certainly written with the expectation of being SCP-6000. It links to the not-yet created series 7 page at the very end with the urge to “get to reading”, which is a ballsy thing. It’s a written work about reading. A reader’s paradise. I think it pulled it off really well and feels at home in the 6000 slot. What makes it good specifically imo is the set-up from RAISA, the tension and dialogue between the central characters, the meta-play of stories grappling with being bigger than themselves, and a really clever touch at the end that’s sort of a set-up and denial of the choose-your-own adventure bullshit seen in others. Of course it looks great. The actual composition is good, with little phrases that I wish I would have come up with first... something increasingly rare in SCP compositions, and certainly absent in over-praised works like those of djkaktus. Subtlety in the images is good too; the snake is actually a woman thing on a closer look. I didn’t catch that the first time. That you are transported to the Wanderer’s Library at the end, exiting the scp document in the form of a (thankfully short) tale, is a really inspired and memorable move given the setup. It ends up subverting that trope you mentioned about the world ending.

Rounderhouse has come a long way from that kid with the grating author page who wanted to be djkaktus when he grew up and who wrote that dinky article about a sloth in an art gallery. This entry is sort of a love letter to writing for the wiki itself and the celebration of SCP as an ongoing collaborative writing phenomenon. A real tribute. It is supremely more philosophical in its thinking than any previous _K and revolves around what are, imo, deep questions. Has a 4K/5K hybrid feel. Even the inclusion of the big name SCP authoritative figure is well-justified (Moose created/helped create The Wanderer’s Library and the Serpent’s Hand). Certainly makes djkaktus’ preferred K subject material, lore appropriation, and self-inserts look immature.

I think this will easily win, but even if it doesn’t, to me djkaktus will henceforth be “Diet Rounderhouse”.

Having said that, there are imperfections like grammar stuff (its/it’s, a few missing words, etc) that lead me to believe the visuals were polished a bit more than the text, although there are the equivalent of typos in the design too (those white sections of the <hr>‘s stick out like a sore thumb when not on that white background, divs page alignment gorked on mobile). While the pacing of the dialogue is good and keeps it moving without slogging, it feels like it circles sometimes about the same thing... endings and stories over and over. There are gaudy components meant to be those car keys, like the spinning logos and the fade-ins on page load.

I still cringe to think of what this means for the egos at play in the site and the increased cancerous effects they will surely have on the culture. Now we have 2 djkaktus-level egos being fattened. I have a feeling Rounderhouse will surpass djkaktus in more ways than just compositional and design talent...

Let’s hope his leadership in and representation of The Wanderer’s Library itself means a different trajectory and handling of the success than his purely-mainsite doppelganger.

Judging from Rounderhouse’s loud noting of every upvote milestone in the comments along the way though, and his idea of recanting it as a 6k entry to make it his second 001 if he doesn’t get his way in the rankings, I sincerely doubt it. I wish there was a way to inoculate these authors from the flattery and praise that is like rat poison to them.

In contrast, Kaktus’ entry is stuffed full of his own lore and pulls in others’ successful works (tritely, previous _Ks and K-entries, even SCP-073 CAIN with an edgelord new image of him ) to buttress his own. He does this a lot. (“Character 1: Bring in [insert samsara/dr bright/George bush/donald trump/obtuse but famous SCP, character, or cultural figure].” “Character 2: NANI?!?”)

Spoiler: It’s massively overrated

I echo the criticism of it already given here. I am constantly asking why I should care about all this lore detail, as opposed to Rounder’s, which immediately addresses universal sentiments, and gives you all you need to know without assuming you’ve gotten your PhD in acanthochronology.

This is expressed in a choice quote from his entry here that I think captures it perfectly:

“Dir. Malthus: The SCP-1000 file would be great. Are you familiar with SCP-2932?”

(2932 is another of kaktus’ that, yep you guessed it, is described as “massive”.)

The prose and composition can be real clunky; “the stoppage of the heart and death”, “the oldest growth roots”, “toxic fog”... the like.

In the dialogue too. In addendum 2, Dir Lancaster is basically a personality-less stand-in for what djkaktus wants the reader to ask about next so he can go on about his lore via Freitas, his own stand-in, also personality-less. The dialogue is very one-sided and unnatural. Feels like a video game protagonist’s multi-option discussion with an NPC that you are getting a quest from. And that you have to ask all the questions about in order to progress. It lacks liveliness, believability, and connection. It isn’t conversation.

The dialogue in addendum 3 is begging to be overacted poorly by would-be soap opera actors. Same flat problem. Leading question —> more lore, leading, lore, leading, lore, leading, lore. On and on. The only break in the repetition is when he drops the leading question altogether and lets the lore finally just take the mic.

Addendum 3 is also his attempt to shove the success of 4K, his one that got away, into this. Same for addendum 4. He does the cameo thing again with Kain Pathos Crow, again with Clef, again with SCP-343. There’s SCP-1000 interacting with SCP-4000. There’s Sophia Light interviewing Cain. There’s Lily’s 001 being mentioned by Cain... many of his past works... ad nauseum. His entry is another monstrosity of other people’s Legos forced onto his. None of the colors match. I guess in the shape of a tree.

Rounder’s lore inclusion comes off as a long-neglected and powerful statement, while Kaktus’ comes off as a game of grab-ass. It’s like that cross-universe fanfic that thinks there’s a direct relationship with how awesome it is and how many cameos it can throw in. Djkaktus is truly writing for the lowest common denominator.

Again in addendum 4. Leading, lore, leading, lore. No actual conversation here.

The only thing positive I have to say about this are the most superficial and a-literate parts; the graphic design (particularly the “side footnotes” and how they translate to mobile) and the images.

Anyway. Kaktus achieves 1/100th of what Rounder does in 30% more words. Rounder’s is exciting while Kaktus’ is tiring. To just come out and say it, I think this article is fucking terrible and I don’t want to finish it. Other, better entries deserve those upvotes more. Cest la vie.

And also I take it back; djkaktus uses “massive” in his article again, just in the second paragraph of the description instead of the first.

 

[Punished “Venom” pH]

I have a lot of time on my hands right now, so I read it just so that I could reply.

Spoiler: It’s good

It was certainly written with the expectation of being SCP-6000. It links to the not-yet created series 7 page at the very end with the urge to “get to reading”, which is a ballsy thing. It’s a written work about reading. A reader’s paradise. I think it pulled it off really well and feels at home in the 6000 slot. What makes it good specifically imo is the set-up from RAISA, the tension and dialogue between the central characters, the meta-play of stories grappling with being bigger than themselves, and a really clever touch at the end that’s sort of a set-up and denial of the choose-your-own adventure bullshit seen in others. Of course it looks great. The actual composition is good, with little phrases that I wish I would have come up with first... something increasingly rare in SCP compositions, and certainly absent in over-praised works like those of djkaktus. Subtlety in the images is good too; the snake is actually a woman thing on a closer look. I didn’t catch that the first time. That you are transported to the Wanderer’s Library at the end, exiting the scp document in the form of a (thankfully short) tale, is a really inspired and memorable move given the setup. It ends up subverting that trope you mentioned about the world ending.

Rounderhouse has come a long way from that kid with the grating author page who wanted to be djkaktus when he grew up and who wrote that dinky article about a sloth in an art gallery. This entry is sort of a love letter to writing for the wiki itself and the celebration of SCP as an ongoing collaborative writing phenomenon. A real tribute. It is supremely more philosophical in its thinking than any previous _K and revolves around what are, imo, deep questions. Has a 4K/5K hybrid feel. Even the inclusion of the big name SCP authoritative figure is well-justified (Moose created/helped create The Wanderer’s Library and the Serpent’s Hand). Certainly makes djkaktus’ preferred K subject material, lore appropriation, and self-inserts look immature.

I think this will easily win, but even if it doesn’t, to me djkaktus will henceforth be “Diet Rounderhouse”.

Having said that, there are imperfections like grammar stuff (its/it’s, a few missing words, etc) that lead me to believe the visuals were polished a bit more than the text, although there are the equivalent of typos in the design too (those white sections of the <hr>‘s stick out like a sore thumb when not on that white background, divs page alignment gorked on mobile). While the pacing of the dialogue is good and keeps it moving without slogging, it feels like it circles sometimes about the same thing... endings and stories over and over. There are gaudy components meant to be those car keys, like the spinning logos and the fade-ins on page load.

I still cringe to think of what this means for the egos at play in the site and the increased cancerous effects they will surely have on the culture. Now we have 2 djkaktus-level egos being fattened. I have a feeling Rounderhouse will surpass djkaktus in more ways than just compositional and design talent...

Let’s hope his leadership in and representation of The Wanderer’s Library itself means a different trajectory and handling of the success than his purely-mainsite doppelganger.

Judging from Rounderhouse’s loud noting of every upvote milestone in the comments along the way though, and his idea of recanting it as a 6k entry to make it his second 001 if he doesn’t get his way in the rankings, I sincerely doubt it. I wish there was a way to inoculate these authors from the flattery and praise that is like rat poison to them.

In contrast, Kaktus’ entry is stuffed full of his own lore and pulls in others’ successful works (tritely, previous _Ks and K-entries, even SCP-073 CAIN with an edgelord new image of him ) to buttress his own. He does this a lot. (“Character 1: Bring in [insert samsara/dr bright/George bush/donald trump/obtuse but famous SCP, character, or cultural figure].” “Character 2: NANI?!?”)

Spoiler: It’s massively overrated

I echo the criticism of it already given here. I am constantly asking why I should care about all this lore detail, as opposed to Rounder’s, which immediately addresses universal sentiments, and gives you all you need to know without assuming you’ve gotten your PhD in acanthochronology.

This is expressed in a choice quote from his entry here that I think captures it perfectly:

(2932 is another of kaktus’ that, yep you guessed it, is described as “massive”.)

The prose and composition can be real clunky; “the stoppage of the heart and death”, “the oldest growth roots”, “toxic fog”... the like.

In the dialogue too. In addendum 2, Dir Lancaster is basically a personality-less stand-in for what djkaktus wants the reader to ask about next so he can go on about his lore via Freitas, his own stand-in, also personality-less. The dialogue is very one-sided and unnatural. Feels like a video game protagonist’s multi-option discussion with an NPC that you are getting a quest from. And that you have to ask all the questions about in order to progress. It lacks liveliness, believability, and connection. It isn’t conversation.

The dialogue in addendum 3 is begging to be overacted poorly by would-be soap opera actors. Same flat problem. Leading question —> more lore, leading, lore, leading, lore, leading, lore. On and on. The only break in the repetition is when he drops the leading question altogether and lets the lore finally just take the mic.

Addendum 3 is also his attempt to shove the success of 4K, his one that got away, into this. Same for addendum 4. He does the cameo thing again with Kain Pathos Crow, again with Clef, again with SCP-343. There’s SCP-1000 interacting with SCP-4000. There’s Sophia Light interviewing Cain. There’s Lily’s 001 being mentioned by Cain... many of his past works... ad nauseum. His entry is another monstrosity of other people’s Legos forced onto his. None of the colors match. I guess in the shape of a tree.

Rounder’s lore inclusion comes off as a long-neglected and powerful statement, while Kaktus’ comes off as a game of grab-ass. It’s like that cross-universe fanfic that thinks there’s a direct relationship with how awesome it is and how many cameos it can throw in. Djkaktus is truly writing for the lowest common denominator.

Again in addendum 4. Leading, lore, leading, lore. No actual conversation here.

The only thing positive I have to say about this are the most superficial and a-literate parts; the graphic design (particularly the “side footnotes” and how they translate to mobile) and the images.

Anyway. Kaktus achieves 1/100th of what Rounder does in 30% more words. Rounder’s is exciting while Kaktus’ is tiring. To just come out and say it, I think this article is fucking terrible and I don’t want to finish it. Other, better entries deserve those upvotes more. Cest la vie.

And also I take it back; djkaktus uses “massive” in his article again, just in the second paragraph of the description instead of the first.

Fascinating to see the student really outshining the teacher here. Makes me wonder if the prickly glory hog is gonna keep standing by his man once he starts feeling a little inferiority.

 

[Gar For Archer]

I have a lot of time on my hands right now, so I read it just so that I could reply.

Spoiler: It’s good

It was certainly written with the expectation of being SCP-6000. It links to the not-yet created series 7 page at the very end with the urge to “get to reading”, which is a ballsy thing. It’s a written work about reading. A reader’s paradise. I think it pulled it off really well and feels at home in the 6000 slot. What makes it good specifically imo is the set-up from RAISA, the tension and dialogue between the central characters, the meta-play of stories grappling with being bigger than themselves, and a really clever touch at the end that’s sort of a set-up and denial of the choose-your-own adventure bullshit seen in others. Of course it looks great. The actual composition is good, with little phrases that I wish I would have come up with first... something increasingly rare in SCP compositions, and certainly absent in over-praised works like those of djkaktus. Subtlety in the images is good too; the snake is actually a woman thing on a closer look. I didn’t catch that the first time. That you are transported to the Wanderer’s Library at the end, exiting the scp document in the form of a (thankfully short) tale, is a really inspired and memorable move given the setup. It ends up subverting that trope you mentioned about the world ending.

Rounderhouse has come a long way from that kid with the grating author page who wanted to be djkaktus when he grew up and who wrote that dinky article about a sloth in an art gallery. This entry is sort of a love letter to writing for the wiki itself and the celebration of SCP as an ongoing collaborative writing phenomenon. A real tribute. It is supremely more philosophical in its thinking than any previous _K and revolves around what are, imo, deep questions. Has a 4K/5K hybrid feel. Even the inclusion of the big name SCP authoritative figure is well-justified (Moose created/helped create The Wanderer’s Library and the Serpent’s Hand). Certainly makes djkaktus’ preferred K subject material, lore appropriation, and self-inserts look immature.

I think this will easily win, but even if it doesn’t, to me djkaktus will henceforth be “Diet Rounderhouse”.

Having said that, there are imperfections like grammar stuff (its/it’s, a few missing words, etc) that lead me to believe the visuals were polished a bit more than the text, although there are the equivalent of typos in the design too (those white sections of the <hr>‘s stick out like a sore thumb when not on that white background, divs page alignment gorked on mobile). While the pacing of the dialogue is good and keeps it moving without slogging, it feels like it circles sometimes about the same thing... endings and stories over and over. There are gaudy components meant to be those car keys, like the spinning logos and the fade-ins on page load.

I still cringe to think of what this means for the egos at play in the site and the increased cancerous effects they will surely have on the culture. Now we have 2 djkaktus-level egos being fattened. I have a feeling Rounderhouse will surpass djkaktus in more ways than just compositional and design talent...

Let’s hope his leadership in and representation of The Wanderer’s Library itself means a different trajectory and handling of the success than his purely-mainsite doppelganger.

Judging from Rounderhouse’s loud noting of every upvote milestone in the comments along the way though, and his idea of recanting it as a 6k entry to make it his second 001 if he doesn’t get his way in the rankings, I sincerely doubt it. I wish there was a way to inoculate these authors from the flattery and praise that is like rat poison to them.

In contrast, Kaktus’ entry is stuffed full of his own lore and pulls in others’ successful works (tritely, previous _Ks and K-entries, even SCP-073 CAIN with an edgelord new image of him ) to buttress his own. He does this a lot. (“Character 1: Bring in [insert samsara/dr bright/George bush/donald trump/obtuse but famous SCP, character, or cultural figure].” “Character 2: NANI?!?”)

Spoiler: It’s massively overrated

I echo the criticism of it already given here. I am constantly asking why I should care about all this lore detail, as opposed to Rounder’s, which immediately addresses universal sentiments, and gives you all you need to know without assuming you’ve gotten your PhD in acanthochronology.

This is expressed in a choice quote from his entry here that I think captures it perfectly:

(2932 is another of kaktus’ that, yep you guessed it, is described as “massive”.)

The prose and composition can be real clunky; “the stoppage of the heart and death”, “the oldest growth roots”, “toxic fog”... the like.

In the dialogue too. In addendum 2, Dir Lancaster is basically a personality-less stand-in for what djkaktus wants the reader to ask about next so he can go on about his lore via Freitas, his own stand-in, also personality-less. The dialogue is very one-sided and unnatural. Feels like a video game protagonist’s multi-option discussion with an NPC that you are getting a quest from. And that you have to ask all the questions about in order to progress. It lacks liveliness, believability, and connection. It isn’t conversation.

The dialogue in addendum 3 is begging to be overacted poorly by would-be soap opera actors. Same flat problem. Leading question —> more lore, leading, lore, leading, lore, leading, lore. On and on. The only break in the repetition is when he drops the leading question altogether and lets the lore finally just take the mic.

Addendum 3 is also his attempt to shove the success of 4K, his one that got away, into this. Same for addendum 4. He does the cameo thing again with Kain Pathos Crow, again with Clef, again with SCP-343. There’s SCP-1000 interacting with SCP-4000. There’s Sophia Light interviewing Cain. There’s Lily’s 001 being mentioned by Cain... many of his past works... ad nauseum. His entry is another monstrosity of other people’s Legos forced onto his. None of the colors match. I guess in the shape of a tree.

Rounder’s lore inclusion comes off as a long-neglected and powerful statement, while Kaktus’ comes off as a game of grab-ass. It’s like that cross-universe fanfic that thinks there’s a direct relationship with how awesome it is and how many cameos it can throw in. Djkaktus is truly writing for the lowest common denominator.

Again in addendum 4. Leading, lore, leading, lore. No actual conversation here.

The only thing positive I have to say about this are the most superficial and a-literate parts; the graphic design (particularly the “side footnotes” and how they translate to mobile) and the images.

Anyway. Kaktus achieves 1/100th of what Rounder does in 30% more words. Rounder’s is exciting while Kaktus’ is tiring. To just come out and say it, I think this article is fucking terrible and I don’t want to finish it. Other, better entries deserve those upvotes more. Cest la vie.

And also I take it back; djkaktus uses “massive” in his article again, just in the second paragraph of the description instead of the first.

Fair enough. I guess the central conceit of “the Wanderer’s Library lies at the inevitable end of everything” just isn’t an idea that particularly interests me, and I don’t particularly like the idea of a XK-slot SCP (which I think are the ones more likely to be viewed as “universally canon”) explicitly showing an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario that doesn’t return to the status quo at the end of the article, because it just seems too final.

When reading Kaktus’ article, the poor phrasing really stood out to me. Remember when SCP articles at least pretended to be technical writing with a clinical tone? That’s pretty much completely gone now.

 

[Punished “Venom” pH]

Fair enough. I guess the central conceit of “the Wanderer’s Library lies at the inevitable end of everything” just isn’t an idea that particularly interests me, and I don’t particularly like the idea of a XK-slot SCP (which I think are the ones more likely to be viewed as “universally canon”) explicitly showing an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario that doesn’t return to the status quo at the end of the article, because it just seems too final.

When reading Kaktus’ article, the poor phrasing really stood out to me. Remember when SCP articles at least pretended to be technical writing with a clinical tone? That’s pretty much completely gone now.

Clinical tone has always been more reflective of what you can get away with rather than any real standard of consistency, tone or not bad writing is bad writing.

 

[Furret]

I don't think people as massively online as the SCP population are going to be anywhere near the average Joe in terms of how long it takes to read an article.

It's a possibility, but even more generous reading rates that I pulled out of my ass (300 and 400 wpm) are still above 20 hours of raw time spent reading all the entries, so I think my point still stands.

The issue is that the content creation engine isn’t being maintained as the pool of people who participate in the site grows. If we’re talking about metrics, I think one everyone overlooks is individual article engagement. It’s been touched on a few times here in the context of the quantity of 6k contest but in general, if you track the ratio of comments and votes over time you’ll see it get diluted from reliably double-digit comment threads to having little to no active community engagement, unless you can market yourself effectively.

Staff is trying to get more eyes on articles without many votes with this, but it's not really pushed much and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the site's readers don't know it exists. Fact is, without some sort of recommendation algorithm to facilitate the discovery of overlooked talent (that the hobbyists at SCP can't reasonably be expected to create), "getting big" on SCP depends much more on your ability to be immediately attention-grabbing and shill yourself than on your actual skill as a writer. This isn't really the fault of the staff or community, it's just a reality of being as big as SCP is now. Even the people who actively seek out new writing simply don't have the time/energy to read every new thing that comes out. What is the fault of the community is caring so much about numbers and validation in the first place, but I've complained about that enough already.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

Staff is trying to get more eyes on articles without many votes with this, but it's not really pushed much and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the site's readers don't know it exists. Fact is, without some sort of recommendation algorithm to facilitate the discovery of overlooked talent (that the hobbyists at SCP can't reasonably be expected to create), "getting big" on SCP depends much more on your ability to be immediately attention-grabbing and shill yourself than on your actual skill as a writer. This isn't really the fault of the staff or community, it's just a reality of being as big as SCP is now. Even the people who actively seek out new writing simply don't have the time/energy to read every new thing that comes out. What is the fault of the community is caring so much about numbers and validation in the first place, but I've complained about that enough already.

If only they knew that most people just read them in order and don't care about anything behind the scenes.

 

[Punished “Venom” pH]

If only they knew that most people just read them in order and don't care about anything behind the scenes.

They don’t care about the vast majority of readers, anybody who isn’t a power user might as well not exist except for the work necessary to manage and ban them as staff see themselves fit to decide.