SCP Foundation

Just emerging from the depths of the site to say hello. I have enjoyed reading your thoughts and opinions about the SCP, and seeing what the average, outside person thinks of our work. While it may not always impact our creative process, attention (be it good or bad) is always a pleasant event.

As one of the oldest standing members of the series, it pleases me to see that a simple little creepypasta thread has grown so much that other websites actually know of our existence. While The Foundation itself would find this upsetting to the extreme, as a author it is very pleasing.

Once again, just wishing to say hello, and engage in a little shameless self-promotion. Clef and Kondraki seem to get all the love...in any event, if you have questions, concerns, or comments, please feel free to let me know, and I'll attempt to be helpful, or failing that, at least coherent.

Wow, you people are just pouring out of the woodwork, aren't you...

'ello there... And yes, it sure has grown, hasn't it? But there's a lot of great stuff on the site.

About the only question I've got for now, I suppose, is how do SCP numbers get chosen, and how do authors know where the holes are in the numbering order to fit new ones in?

I might as well ask a question too - how did you get started? Did whoever founded the site just say to themselves, "Hey, we should put all this crap from /x/ somewhere..."? Because if that's the case, how did it turn into a wiki?

(also, hello)

edited 23rd Sep '09 12:33:47 PM by Tzetze

The number selection is, generally speaking, totally random. Most people just find a open number, and grab it. Some may have a deeper meaning, but typically the numbering system is just a way to keep things logged.

Honestly, I'm not sure how the very beginning happened. I started posting like mad on /x/ over a period of a few days, plastering up 5-10 new items or so. During that time, I was pointed to the first wiki site, still in it's infancy, and dived in to it with both feet. It's been snowballing ever since. It's always been a wiki site, but the community only really developed after the move to Wikidot.

You'll find The Foundation community much like a hornet's nest: once poked, we swarm. I'm surprised more of our trope-savvy users haven't turned up yet...then again, seeing as I've had my own username here for a total of a hour or so, maybe it's not so surprising.

It's good to hear you folks like the site, and the things inside. We generally profess a lack of concern with outside opinion, but it still helps to know that yes, at least some folks don't think we suck. It's that knowledge that helps withstand the "SCP SUCKS, WORSE THEN HOLDERS!!!1!ONE!" comments that come up from time to time.

...Holders...? Isn't that a kid's book series?

Oh, is it that 538 thing? I have no idea what I'm talking about.

We might be somewhat biased, we have a ton of channers here for whatever reason (not me though). Made Of Meat was posting /x/ creepypasta just yesterday.

edited 23rd Sep '09 12:45:50 PM by Tzetze

Hadn't heard of "Holders" honestly, but a quick google search brought up the Holders series creepypasta... or at least, links to people discussing it. A lot of links to that pasta are broken.

Anyway, if I were to pick something to connect this site to now, it'd be Warehouse 13 — in the other direction. To some extent it almost feels like the W13 folks liked your style, but... I dunno, that show was neat for the first few episodes, but seems to've gone downhill.

As for things I'd guess as inspiration for SCPs... urban legends, The X Files (when they weren't on their alien plot kick), and The Outer Limits, with a little Cthulhu Mythos thrown in.

As a note, I like this one. Found it via the links in your current edit storm on the forum. Take something that seems really useful, then show how you can twist that in knots. And it seemed so safe...

This has a pretty great Escalating War.

Interesting... also good fodder for a Wiki Walk.

Incidentally, eep. I knew where this was going once I saw the name Totenkinder.

Actually, The Holders and our current mass edit are slightly related. The Holders were a creepypasta series following a basic format, somewhat like the SCP. The basic structure was this: go to unsettling place —> find a creepy person —> experience/do/have a unsettling event —> acquire a item from the creepy person (holder) which will cause BAD things if all the items are brought together. All of this was accomplished with great deal of descriptive and creepy text, and the overhanging threat of intensely unpleasant death for even the slightest mistake.

The issue that came about was this: The Holders were the work of primarily one man, and he lost his frigging mind. He started posting, stating that this was all real, and that he was finding the items. I honestly don't know how it all ended, as I tuned out around the time he started to mention god-like power and dismissing other people's contributions as "silly fiction".

The wiki has allowed us to largely avoid any one person freaking out and polluting the whole work. However, it's also allowed for a lot of contributions to be added that, while interesting, are just not that great. The mass edit is (hopefully) intended to weed out items that don't fit, make room for new and better content, and generally increase the overall quality of the work.

I have to agree with the wiki-walk statement as well. If nothing else, the SCP are good for eating up time at a abnormal pace. Every time someone says they've lost three hours just browsing around, it makes me grin. The new site has been running for over a year now, and i'm hoping to keep it going for many more. Heck, we even have a "Aperture Science"-style site in the works...

A question: Is it really difficult to ascertain which SCPs are badly written or not? And what are your criteria?

edited 24th Sep '09 5:42:06 AM by Kinkajou

By the way, I personally have never lost three hours on an SCP wiki-walk. I've never lost less then five hours at a time when I wiki-walk your site.

So, my question — if you know: About how many are morphs of something from a recognizable source and how many are whole-cloth creations? I would never have figured out that 682 was a morph of Wolverine, if I hadn't read the "How-to write an SCP" page.

It's hard some times to determine what entries do and do not fit. Some don't hit the clinical tone right, and some just don't seem to "click" for some intangible reason. Those are by far the hardest to edit, as it's hard to say what's even wrong, but something is. Some, however, jump right out with a banner of "DELETE ME!!"...like that time someone tried to make a girlfriend for Able...*shiver*

Just to put this out: 682 is not, in any way, a morph of Wolverine. It's a rather good example of refitting a concept in theory, but 682 is it's own entity. Ideally, everything is whole-cloth new creations, but the reality is we swipe existing concepts a lot. However, that's true of almost any creative expression, so I don't feel it's a issue unless it's a very direct rip-off.

Speaking for myself, I start with a fear, or something I like, such as insects, loneliness, or a hysterical fear of memo spikes. From there, I just start playing with how to showcase this in the SCP format to best effect. I can't speak to everyone's creative process, but it seems most of the better-done entries have some basic fear or concept at the heart.

OK, "morph" was really a bad choice of word, there. But thanks for the clarification.

Hell, Dr. Gears. You've seen my complaints about the site. But that doesn't mean I hate the site, it's a great idea. I have tried (unsuccessfully) to copy it, don'tcha know?

If I may add my 2 cents to Gears' statement (worship his manliness). . .

When it comes to determining whether or not an item fits, I go back to the original (SCP-173) and ask myself whether the item in question feels like it belongs in the same universe as it. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I don't.

The key, I think, is surreal horror. The mind can generally rationalize away anything it understands, but if there are one or two elements that just don't make sense, it's that much scarier.

The phrase I believe Dr. Gears was going for was Captain Ersatz. I just remembered that I tried this twice, both as the FCC and Lockdown. Both failed miserably.

edited 24th Sep '09 12:25:09 PM by TropeKira

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, no matter the form. It may be deeply unsettling flattery at times, but flattery none the less. The SCP format works for some reason, some aspect of it's many odd facets seems to strike a cord with most people. That, and we have a habit of occasional self promotion, and a fanatical community...

Actually, i wasn't looking for a Captain Ersatz-style reference. It's more like this: There are MANY films/books/games/other things playing off of people's fear of spiders. The SCP Foundation is no different, we're playing with basic concepts that have generally already been done to death. It is by the execution that a entry can set itself above and apart from others, along with the somewhat distinctive SCP tone and format. While we rip off ideas, we (generally) do so no more then any other creative series.

I have to agree with Clef, regarding surreal and unknown elements in horror. This is especially true when coupled with otherwise mundane events or items. Anything that cracks the shell of normalcy that people often fail to realize they have around them can be deeply unsettling. Add in the SCP trend of reporting horrific events with 0% emotion or care, and you can leave people rather shaken.

So more Deconstruction than anything is what you're saying.

In part, yes, but I think the whole series is hard to define in a single trope. It touches on many of them (for better or worse), and I think that's part of the "something for everyone" appeal. Honestly, one of the best definitions I've ever heard of the SCP series was supplied by a friend while working at a haunted house:

"It's like the X-Files and Fringe got married, but couldn't conceive, so they got sperm from the MIB comic, but raised the baby as their own. The child then went on to bottle fed on old-school sci-fi, spoon fed splatterpunk horror, then fed itself with a j-horror and twilight zone sandwiches. It's schooling was handled by obsessive horror geeks and internet nerds."

...to be fair, he was exceptionally drunk at the time, but the spirit is there.

Which sounds like This Is Your Premise on Drugs. You must have very eloquent friends if they can muster up such an anology while drunk.

I do, unfortunately. I also have access to a car, and am frequently at home. Some of the texts I have received rival "The Jabberwocky" in beauty and sheer WTF?

So here you'll find my first rip-off.

Dr. Gears? Cool!

edited 24th Sep '09 3:25:59 PM by Katrika

Wait, so Holders is actually what I was thinking of? Weird.