Required Reading

Introduction

So, you want to be a member of the SCP Wiki. Before you do that, there's a few things we expect all users of the site to know, and the process to join is a little less intuitive than you'd initially expect. This guide will hopefully make both aspects as clear as can be.

What Should You Know

Everything on the Site Rules

There's a good number of rules that site members are expected to follow when interacting with the wiki, and we'll outline some of the more important rules here:

  • Don't be a Dick. Rule Zero of the Wiki. Don't be an asshole to your fellow members, including but not limited to - harassment, personal targeting, racism, homophobia, transphobia, telling people "your article sucks balls" without explaining why it sucks balls, telling people "your article sucks balls" in general because I'm sure there's better ways you can phrase that, vandalism, spam, the list goes on. There are thousands of different, colorful ways of being an absolute annoyance to your fellow users. Don't do those.
  • Don't Vandalize. Mentioned it above, but to elaborate, "vandalism" is defined as non-dismissable changes to another person's article without their explicit permission. In a less robotic way, don't make changes to other people's articles beyond fixing a misspelling or broken CSS item without them allowing you to do so beforehand. Adding a forgotten rating module or changing "chooclate" to "chocolate" is fine. Adding unnecessary elements or changing existing sentences outright is not.
  • Don't Roleplay. Not onsite, at least. Users on the site are expected to not talk like they actually live in the SCP universe. The Foundation is fictional, and participating in the wiki is meant to be out-of-character.

Rights Agent Notice

Use of this website constitutes legal authorization for SCP Wiki licensing staff to act as your rights agents in cases where the copyright(s) of a work published on this site is infringed by a third party.

This authorization is limited to the removal of infringing content via section 512 of the DMCA, regional equivalents, or legal action. This authorization is via Informal Contract agreement, and is an extension of the formal agency authorization provided to licensing staff by the creators and copyright holders of SCP-173, the SCP Foundation concept, and the SCP Foundation logo.

Staff Procedures

The rules of this site and the procedures that govern it are made to help the wiki run smoothly and make the user's experience as comfortable as can be, so it would only make sense for the users to be able to see what happens and have a say in the proceedings.

All non-sensitive staff actions, along with any policy discussions, rule changes, etc, are logged on the 05Command wiki, which is separate from the SCP Wiki. On here you can see most things related to staff's work, including the individual teams' composition, recent changes to the site, internal discussions, and so on and so forth. While normal site members cannot directly comment on 05Command proceedings, we have the Staff Policy Discussion forum category, where all users can comment on said policy discussions as they occur.

Additionally, once you've been active for a while and feel like you can help contribute to the site's functioning, consider signing up to one of the semi-frequent staff recruitment threads on the site forums.

Wiki Membership

Wikidot Is A Platform

The SCP Wiki is hosted on a platform called Wikidot, which houses a number of other wikis: A TI-Basic programming resource, Half-Life mod lists, a comprehensive detailing of every concert Bruce Springsteen has ever done for some reason… Within those, stands the SCP Wiki as well, so to join you'll first need to make a Wikidot account, and then apply it for an SCP Wiki membership.

Membership to the SCP Wiki doesn't automatically include membership to any of the wiki's sub-platforms, such as the SCP Sandbox (a place to post Works-in-Progress) and the official chats (self-explanatory), since they're technically separate locations. Joining the sandbox is explained on the sandbox proper, and joining the IRC is explained in the chat guide. Any additional platforms, like Discord, will also have their own sign-up process.

Creating An Account

On the top-right corner of your screen you should see a sign-up/log-in button. If not, go here. Sign up to the platform1 (if you have any issues with that go to the official chatrooms and ask around), then apply for membership to this wiki by following the instructions in the next tab, titled "Submit Application". You'll see a small section where you can input text, where you're expected to include the sentence, "I will not submit any AI-generated text or images to the SCP wiki; I will follow site rules and respect community members." Input that sentence, nothing else.

Please note:

  • Do not use any email address with numbers in it or any hotmail email address, as there currently exists a bug which causes such emails to delay or not receive their confirmation emails.
  • The 'Facebook Integration' offered by Wikidot for account registration is currently broken, and could lead to issues using or recovering your account. We strongly advise against its use.

Account Requirements

Keep in mind the following rules when creating your Wikidot account and applying to the SCP Wiki:

  • Your username must follow our username policy. In short:
    • No names with profanity, slurs, offensive content or connotations.
    • No names implying wiki staff positions (e.g. Staff, Operational Staff, Moderator, Admin, Administrator, etc.)
    • No names containing "SCP", or implying specific, unique positions/affiliations in the Foundation or other fictional groups on our website (no SCP-173, SCPFan99, O5-Money, D-1234, MTF Leader, etc.)
    • No names with pre-established Foundation characters on site. (like Dr. Bright, Dr. Sophia Light, Able, or Alto Clef.)
    • No names that impersonate notable public figures (e.g. "Dr Joe Biden" is not allowed while "Dr Joe" is)
    • If you've already created your account, to change your name go here, and click on Edit next to your username. You can only change your account's username twice, so be careful.
  • You must be at least 18. This website contains mature themes and discussions, and we expect members to behave in a mature and adult-like manner. All members are expected to be at least 18 years old, and to have reached the age of majority within the nations of which they live. There are no exceptions to this rule, ever.
  • You may only have one account per person, and one person per account. No alts, no account sharing.
  • Please note that membership in various sites which have had adversarial relationships with our own is cause for an application to be declined.

Our platform comes with many of its own quirks and glitches, but we work with what we have. It is important to remember that if something doesn't work right, you're likely not the first person to discover this issue, and the chatrooms will almost certainly help you deal with the problem.

(If it tells you that you can't join, it's because you're already a member.)

Included page "guide-to-newbies" does not exist (create it now)

Throughout this page you'll find red links to other guides and essays on writing, in the form of "For more information, see here". If this is a topic you want to read more about, we recommend you take a look. Additionally, you can find more official guides on the Guide Hub, and other useful writing advice on the Essay Hub.

So, you want to write an SCP.

Writing an SCP is something that most new members of our site are eager to do. However, writing for the site can be challenging, and your first attempt may not be successful. Even authors with experience writing elsewhere can struggle, because an SCP requires you to tell a story in an unusual format.

The fact is, a lot of authors struggle with their first attempt. But don't think of this as a rule, a curse or an excuse not to try. Think of it as a challenge!

The difficulty doesn't come from bad luck or a lack of potential, but from a lack of experience, and the only way to learn is through practice and feedback! With help from more experienced members of our community, you will be able to write something successful. The best advice is to be patient. The writing process takes time, and it's unlikely you're going to write the next hit SCP overnight.

Before you start writing, take time to read recently published works to get an idea of what your article could look like. Read critically- think about why the works that are highly rated are so well received, and why works that aren't highly rated aren't. Additionally, don't spend all your time here! A big part of writing is thinking through what makes for a compelling story in a wide variety of genres and forms of media.

There is no need to rush to post right away - we'll be here regardless of whether it takes you a week, a month or even a year to complete your article. We'd rather have one good piece than several weak ones, and if you can learn what works by writing your first article well, you can follow it up with something even better. For this reason, critique is available for everything from your initial idea to your final draft, to spot things that could be improved on and to help you to refine your ideas. This is an essential part of the creative process, so if you want to succeed on the SCP Wiki, make sure to pay attention to the sections on getting feedback from others.

It should be noted that this guide is intended as basic advice for beginners - while there are successful articles that don't follow all of this advice, it's important to understand what the basic expectations are before you try subvert them.

It's also worth mentioning that you don't have to start by writing an SCP! We have several different types of article on the site, from tales written in prose to "Group of Interest" formats looking at the anomalous from a different perspective. If you come up with an idea you think could be better conveyed as a tale or GoI format, you may want to try that instead. While more general writing advice will still apply, including the importance of receiving critique, the lack of a defined format for these articles makes it hard to offer guidance in a guide like this, although the looser format does come with more freedom for you as the writer.

While we'd recommend reading the whole guide, you may find it more helpful to focus on the Generating an Idea tab first, get some feedback on your concept, then come back to this guide when you're ready to develop it further.

This page lists all major SCP wiki rules, and how warnings and bans work. Follow the spirit of the rules, not just the exact letter.

Rule Zero

Don't be a dick.

This is the foremost rule from which most other rules follow. We expect you to behave in a reasonably civil, mature, and non-disruptive way on the SCP wiki.

I. Interaction & Behavior

  1. Voting: You may vote on any article on the site for any reason you like, as long as your reasoning is based solely on the content of the article.
    1. Voting on your own article: You can upvote or even downvote your article as you like.
    2. Brigading: Calling for group downvoting (or group upvoting) of an article is prohibited. Being part of a vote brigade may lead to a ban.
      • Note: Not every call to check out an article by someone who dislikes it is brigading. Context and intent will determine whether or not an incident is considered brigading. Rule of thumb: Don't try to push a group of people to vote the same as you.
  2. Comments: You can comment almost anywhere on the site2, as long as you are respectful to other users. All comments must follow the Criticism Policy. Do not troll or make personal attacks.
    1. Arguments: You may dispute the actions and opinions of anyone, including staff, as long as you do it in a calm, mature, and civil way.
  3. Forum Activity: Don't make contentless or excessively short posts (spam), don't bump threads for attention, and don't post on threads more than a few months old if you're not contributing substantially to the conversation.
    • The SCP Wiki is an inclusive environment. Hate speech and slurs will not be tolerated.
    • Avoid double posting. Edit your previous posts using the "edit" function under the "options" tab to the lower right of every comment.
    • Every image posted to forum or discussion threads must be collapsed (check the "Formatting" tab of this guide for the code for collapsibles).

II. Site Content

  1. Posting Articles: Do not post a large number of low-quality articles. When staff tell you to slow down or stop posting, listen.
  2. Using images: Images included in your article must follow the rules of our Image Use Policy. You must include the source of your images on the discussion page, and this source must comply with our site policy and license. If you have any questions, contact the Licensing Team.
  3. Plagiarism: You may not copy any portion of someone else's writing to use as your own work without proper attribution. You may not attempt to pass off another user's article as your own work. Doing so will result in summary deletion of the work.
    • Note: Borrowing narrative or character content from other works is generally fine, so long as there is not a blatant or malicious attempt to deceive the reader into believing that the work is your own. For example, consider the numerous adaptations of Sherlock Holmes: Elementary, Sherlock, The Great Mouse Detective, etc. Your works should be original in style and technique. Contact staff if you're not certain if something is plagiarism.
    • Because plagiarism is both a licensing issue and a violation of site rules, we have a special Plagiarism Jurisdiction policy.
  4. Collaborative Posting:
    1. All posted works must be written by the user that posts the work unless specifically noted as being a collaboration between one or more site users that are current members of the SCP-Wiki at the time of publication. Collaborative works must indicate which site users collaborated in the creation of the article in question.
    2. Surviving articles that are improperly attributed will be given a grace period of 48 hours from notification, where the poster will be given the opportunity to provide correct attribution. After the expiration of that timer, articles that have not been corrected will be subject to summary deletion, regardless of vote count.
    3. Failure to abide by this policy will result in disciplinary action, according to the usual escalation procedures.
    4. This does not exempt articles from deletion via the standard voting process, should downvotes exceed stated thresholds.
  5. Content Posting by Banned Users: Users currently banned from the site may not submit new articles or other works to the site in any way. Users banned for harassment concerns may not request content edits to their articles or submit any new content to the site in any way.
    1. Users banned for disciplinary matters may request content edits to existing work so long as proposed edits are not intentionally provocative, rule-breaking, or be so universal as to constitute a de facto new piece. Proposed edits will be considered on a case-by-case basis with no guarantees of acceptance. Attempts to circumvent this policy will be seen as justification to deny any future edit requests.
    2. All banned users may request deletion of their existing work or works, within reason and at staff’s discretion.
  6. Editing:
    1. Responding to edits of your articles: You may alter the text of your own articles at will. However, please do not remove technical changes to your articles, such as an added rating module or a corrected page name. (See also: technical-content-policy)
    2. Editing others' articles: You may correct unintentional grammar, spelling, or formatting errors on other peoples' articles. Please put a summary of changes in the 'Short description of changes' box. Any further edits require permission from the original author, the current curator, or the Curation team. Any unauthorized edits may be viewed as vandalism and subject to disciplinary action.
    3. Collaborative logs: You are free to add original content to open collaborative logs. These pages are tagged as "collaboration". Content may be removed by the page owner or the Curation team. Please do not fix unauthorized or bad edits — contact the original owner or Curation about additions that you feel are inappropriate or low-quality. Alterations to the structure of a collaborative log are not permitted.
    4. Updating tags: Don't add or change tags unless you know what you're doing. If you have any questions about implementing new tags, please contact a member of the Technical Team. If you have any questions about the tagging process in general, please contact a member of MAST. Do not remove Staff Process tags from any article (in-rewrite, deletion-range, deletable, _cc, or _image).
  7. AI generated content
    1. The use of generative3 machine learning4 models to generate user facing content5 is banned.
      • Users who post AI-generated content to the SCP wiki will receive a revocation of membership on their first offense, and a permanent ban on the second.
      • Good faith exception: This policy does not apply to properly-cited images from external sources unless they were created by, for, or at the behest of the user who posted them to the Wiki.
    2. Furthermore, the usage of tools whose primary use is generative machine learning is also banned for user facing content.
    3. All exceptions to this policy are on the following white list:
      1. (This list is currently empty)
    4. Examples of banned content include but are not limited to
      1. ChatGPT generated text
      2. Midjourney/Stable diffusion
      3. AI voice generation
    5. Examples of allowed content
      1. DeepL translator, Grammarly (proofreading/spellcheck assistance only. No AI-generated content or AI-revised/rewritten material)
      2. Fractal generation
      3. Traditional text to speech (if license compatible)
      4. AI generated CSS code
      5. Writing stories about AIs
  8. Donations: Read and follow donations-policy.

III. Interacting With Staff

  1. Moderative Posts: If you see a "Staff Post", "Mod Post", or "Admin Post", do not reply except in the following circumstances:
    1. Call for Rewrite: Only reply if you want to volunteer to rewrite the page, or to discuss the rewriting of the page.
    2. Deletion Vote: Only reply if you want to ask to rewrite the page, or to request a stay of deletion.
    3. Open: Anyone may respond to this post.
  2. Staff Requests: If a staff member asks you to change your behavior, whether by Private Message, Staff post, or other means, you are expected to do so.
  3. Ended Discussions: Do not try to continue a conversation that has been given a Stop Order.
  4. Staff Decisions/Appealing: If you disagree with a Staff decision, you may appeal to a different staff member. The decision of the other staff member is the final decision on the issue.

IV. Disciplinary Process

The normal steps of punishment escalation are as follows:

  1. Warning
  2. Membership Revocation
  3. Short Ban (usually week-long to month-long)
  4. Long Ban (month-long to year-long)
  5. Permanent Ban

If a staff member warns you about your behavior, and you do not follow the instructions they give you, you will be revoked or banned.

Additional violations equal longer bans. Especially severe violations may result in skipping to more severe punishments, including being permanently banned immediately.

Users who receive permanent or year-long site or chat bans can have their cases reviewed by the chatop team or site disciplinary team respectively, who may decide to enact disciplinary measures if they feel it is warranted.

After your ban has been served, you will have to reapply for site membership. If you want to rejoin the community, you must follow the same process as all new members.

These actions will never result in banning:

  • Writing an article no one likes.
  • Voting on any article based solely on your own opinion of its quality or merits.
  • Respectful disagreement with users or staff decisions.

These actions can result in an immediate permanent ban:

V. Appeals

Any user that has received a site ban lasting longer than 24 hours is granted an opportunity to appeal that ban immediately. They may, at their discretion, choose to wait as long as they wish to appeal the ban or waive the appeal opportunity entirely. Users who have been banned for longer than a year are granted an additional opportunity to appeal upon the anniversary of the initial ban date. Users that have been permanently banned may appeal annually until such a time that the Disciplinary team decides to revoke their appeal privileges.

Exceptions to this are as follows:

  • Users who have been banned for being underage may not appeal unless the judgment was made in error. This ban cannot otherwise be overturned until user has reached minimum age requirements.
  • Users who have been banned for blatant severe trolling may never appeal.
  • Users who attempt to hack, exploit, or otherwise gain control of or damage SCP Wiki-related servers or accounts may never appeal.
  • Certain anti-harassment bans may never be appealed.
  • Users who have had their appellant privileges revoked may never appeal. In other words - you can lose your ban appeal privileges in certain circumstances.

Chat bans are usually separate from site bans and do not always mirror each other. An exception to this is that someone permanently banned from the site may be permanently banned from the chat as well. This does not apply in the reverse, however. Chat permanent bans are only mirrored on the site in the event of blatant trolling. Chat bans follow a similar process as outlined below, with the exception that they are handled by Chat staff rather than the Disciplinary Team. There is cross-over between chat-staff and Disciplinary, but the bans are usually separately dealt with.

The Appeals Process:

An appeal is defined as a request to commute and/or reverse a disciplinary decision.

Users may appeal by reaching out to any member of the Disciplinary Team in any way they feel comfortable doing so, provided that a record of their appeal can be provided. (Voice conversations cannot be accepted as an appeal.) This can be through Site PM, discord, email, etc.

Users may also appeal by appearing in #site17 on our IRC network and requesting to speak with any member of the Disciplinary Team.

A user may request clarification of the reasons for the ban before appealing, and staff will accommodate any request for clarification by outlining the reason for the ban and providing a link to the 05command record of their ban.

The user may then outline their reasoning as to why they believe the Disciplinary decision should be commuted (ie. having a ban length shortened) or reversed (ie. having a ban removed). Any appellant will be granted a reasonable length of time within which to make their appeal. Once the appeal has been made, it will be presented to the entirety of the Disciplinary Team for discussion. This might take anywhere from a few minutes to a day or so, depending on members’ real-life availability.

In the case of an appeal for a site ban, the appeal will then be added to the user's 05command record and the Disciplinary Team will voice their opinions upon the appeal by voting to accept, to deny, or to commute. Any decision requires a minimum of three votes in support in order to be confirmed. (ie. 3 votes for denying, 3 for a shortened ban, etc.) Once made, the decision stands unless overruled by a supermajority (60%, rounded to the nearest integer) of the Disciplinary Team or by Administrator's fiat.

Appeals of chat bans, on the other hand, are discussed amongst available chat staff and are decided internally.

Whenever possible, votes on appeals should include a statement declaring the reason for the vote. A statement of support for prior reasoning is acceptable.

General notes on appeals:

  • Take the appeals process seriously. Rule 0 still applies, especially in appeals.
  • Abusive language will not be tolerated in appeals and will be grounds for immediate rejection of the appeal.
  • Consider your words before you say them. Do they adequately respond to the reason for the initial ban? Stay on-topic.
  • Once a decision on appeal is made, it is done. Continuing to hassle additional staffers is generally frowned upon. We will know if you go to multiple staff to ask.
  • Take the time to read through the 05 thread(s) that led up to the ban. If you don’t understand what something means, ask for clarification. We don’t want to hide information, we want everything to be as clear as possible.

VI. Other things that can get you in trouble

These include, but are not limited to:

  • Behavior that is indistinguishable from trolling: When it comes to trolling, staff take an "if it looks like a duck" approach. The end result is the same and we don't want that kind of behavior here.
  • Raiding another site: Do not use the wiki or related platforms to organize disruption of the normal operation of another site. If someone else is doing this, don't take part in it.
  • Stirring up shit: This means "a pattern of constantly toeing the line of unacceptable behavior". Negative patterns of behavior that are established and determined to be a detriment to the site or community are never tolerated for long.
  • Art Plagiarism: Any art you post to the wiki must be compatible with the site's CC BY-SA license (for example: a CC-BY or a Public Domain license). If you trace, recreate, or heavily reference an image, it must also be compatible with this license and you must cite it. Failure to cite your sources in the above cases is grounds for disciplinary action equivalent to literary plagiarism. In addition, artworks which are made by using references non compatible with CC-BY-SA must be modified past recognition from said references.
  • Vandalism: Making malicious edits to pages without proper authorization will result in a ban, the length of which will be decided by the Disciplinary team. Unauthorized edits without malicious intent will result in a revocation of membership, with ban implementation at the discretion of the Disciplinary team.

All rules are subject to interpretation by staff. Everything on this page is subject to change after review by Staff.

See Also

The passcode for being accepted to the wiki is located on the Join the Site page. Chat Staff will not help you find it.


<+Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.

If you're already a well-versed IRC user, then point the client of your choice to irc.scpwiki.com (Ports 6660-6669 are available, as well as 6697 for SSL with SASL enabled) and join us in #site19 (you will need to register and identify before joining). Please proceed to the 'Rules and Guidelines' tab.

If none of that makes a bit of sense to you, please read these basics in their entirety before attempting to chat, because it probably will not work otherwise.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) allows for discussions across multiple channels, which are prefixed with a #. For example, #football, #cats, and #techsupport would be topical channels people might congregate in. You can also have private, 1-on-1 conversations with people, and even create your own channels to discuss whatever you'd like.

On the "Click Here To Chat" tab, you'll see something that looks like this:

chat1.png

If you have never registered a SkipIRC account (which is entirely separate from Wikidot accounts), you will be required to do so before you can join our main channel. This is easy. Go ahead and hit Connect, you'll see something like this:

chat2.png

I've highlighted some relevant areas.

1.) Status Bar. All channels and private messages will show up here, and there are options and the leave/quit button on the right-hand side. The "SkipIRC" link is clickable and shows server information and important notices.
2.) Options. Customize the experience, add notifications, lots of little things like that.
3.) Help. This is specifically for help using the Lounge client.
4.) Mentions List. Click this for a time-ordered list of messages that included your nickname.
5.) Channel Options. This has different options depending on your abilities in the channel, and a different set of options if you're on the SkipIRC window.
6.) User List. Click this to pop out a new menu with the list of users in the channel. Some users have a prefix in front of them, they indicate a user's rank in the channel. They are ~ (owner), & (admin), @ (op), % (half-op), and + (voice). Different channels use these ranks differently. In #site19 and #site17, all users with a rank except + are chat staff (or bots that assist in performing channel duties). Users with the rank of + in #site17 are not staff, but are trusted non-staff users that can reliably give good information on basic questions.
7.) File upload. You can attach small files to share with the channels.
8.) Input box. This is where you type your messages, as well as commands like /register and /identify.
9.) Chat window. The screenshot above shows what a channel will normally look like on joining, showing the topic, then a list of users.
10.) Channel Bar. This will show the current channel as well as the topic.

Channels

We make use of three primary channels here. Most channels require registration; for more information, see that tab.

  • #site19 - For general discussion.
  • #site17 - For getting help from staff. This channel does not require registration.
  • #thecritters - For giving and receiving critique on drafts and ideas.
  • #stormofbrains - Joint brainstorming channel with discord for the development of ideas and concepts.

There are also official channels for staff teams:

  • #site11 - Technical Staff
  • #site34 - Licensing Team
  • #site77 - Maintenance and Ancillary Staff Team (MAST)
  • #site81 - Community Outreach
  • #workshop - Staff and community-led seminars and workshops.

To join a new channel, it's as simple as /join [channel] (this can be entered in any chat window). E.g., /join #thecritters will take you to #thecritters. (This can also be shortened to /j #thecritters. You can leave a channel with /part #channel in any window, or /part from the window of the channel you want to part.

You can double-click a name in the user list to begin a private message conversation with that person, and all your channels and conversations are available in the status bar.

If you have more questions, please feel free to ask chat operators for assistance.

Remember, to join chat, you must have read and understood the guide!


If you are having issues connecting, please go to the staff chat client over here.

General Questions

Is SCP real?

No. We are a creative writing website. The Foundation, its anomalies, and everything else that's been written about is fictional.

Furthermore, we are not a roleplaying site, and users are asked to not act in-character while conversing with other users.

Can the memetic hazards hurt me? Will I die if I scroll down and read SCP-001? Can I click on SCP-2000?

The "memetic hazards" are just random pictures. The security warnings are just to tell the reader how much the Foundation thinks these things are important and scary.
Likewise, you'll be perfectly fine reading SCP-001 or SCP-2000. This is true for all SCPs like this - you're supposed to read everything.

These are works of fiction — they can't hurt you.

How can I join the SCP Wiki?

You'd first need to create a Wikidot account, our current hosting platform, then apply for it to be a member of the SCP Wiki. For more information, go to our Joining the Site page, or to the Guide for Newcomers page under the For New Users collapsible on the sidebar.

Do you all write this stuff, or did someone else?

We wrote all this stuff. We are a community of writers - Check out the Author Pages for a semi-comprehensive list of contributors who have made all this possible.

How long has this site been around?

Basically, the original SCP (SCP-173) was written back in 2007, the first incarnation of this wiki (on editthis.info) was made in early 2008, and we moved to Wikidot in the middle of that year.

Read this forum post and the site history essay for more.

Do you have any social media, chat platforms or other methods of contact?

We have a variety of social media accounts, including a Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok. We also have an IRC Chat and an Official Discord.

If you have any questions about a social media account or want to get in touch with SCP Staff outside of Wikidot/IRC, please email scp.internet.outreach@gmail.com.


Can I draw or make artwork about an SCP? Can I show you?

Absolutely! Post away in our Fan Work forum and be sure to check out our official guide about How to Post Your Art to the SCP Wiki to learn about how to make an art page!

I have a question about Containment Breach/Secret Lab/Blackout/some other video game.

We are not the official site for any of the SCP video games, and cannot take feedback or bug reports on them.

I have a question about a content creator's SCP work.

We are not officially affiliated with any non-wiki SCP content creators. Their content can be found on their own channels.

I want to create a project based on the SCP Foundation. Can I do that?

Yes! See our Licensing Guide for more information. The short version:

  • SCP is licensed under the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 License — meaning anyone else can copy and profit off of anything you make if they wish, as long as there is proper attribution.
  • Yes, you can make money off of anything — except the former image of SCP-173, Izumi Kato's Untitled 2004. But you must follow the license.
  • You must credit us and link our site.
  • No, we can't take off the Creative Commons license. Not "won't" — "can't".
  • Yes, we will help you sort out licensing confusion if you ask. See the Licensing hub for more details.

Any additional licensing questions can be forwarded to SCPLicensing@gmail.com.


Can I change someone else's article?

Only for spelling, punctuations and grammar corrections (commonly abbreviated as SPaG). Otherwise, please leave a comment in the article's discussion thread requesting a change. You can also send a message to the author, or to the Rewrite Team. Consult Site Rules for more info.

What is vandalism?

We define any unauthorized edits to pre-existing content on the site as vandalism. You are free to edit your own works as you see fit, but editing the work of other users without permission is against the rules. You are already authorized to make minor grammar edits (fixing unintentional typos, spelling errors, etc), but nothing more.

You may request any additional edits to be made to existing work by asking the original author, the current curator of that work, or a member of the Rewrite Team. If you don’t get permission, don’t make the edit. If you don’t know if your edit requires permission, you may ask in our IRC chat.

More questions? Feel free to join #site17 or the Discord and ask staff anything.


See also:

  • Glossary of Terms - Definitions of specific terminology used on the SCP Wiki.
  • Guide Hub - A central location of all the guides onsite.

In order to maintain our standards of quality, pages found to be substandard by the community through the voting system (e.g. the Rating Box) are removed by Staff. There are exceptions for submissions that are found to be in violation of site policy. No matter the reason for deletion, staff-handled deletions are always recorded in the Announcements forum in the most recent Deletions thread, with reasons clearly given.

Grace Period

Pages are typically afforded a grace period of 24 hours after the posting of a deletion vote, during which time they are not eligible for removal from the site, regardless of rating. If a page is one hour or one year old, it doesn't matter. Everything gets a 24-hour period.

Standard Process

If a page’s rating falls to -10 or lower, that page becomes eligible for deletion. A member of Senior Staff (Operational Staff or higher) will make a post in its discussion thread, titled Staff Post, suggesting deletion. This post will have a timer on it, noting how long the deletion vote has been in place. When a page reaches three Staff votes for deletion and the deletion timer has passed 24 hours, it is removed from the site. If a page's rating falls to -20, the timer is suspended and it becomes eligible for immediate deletion provided it has three Staff votes for deletion.

If a page’s rating rises above -10, all Staff votes for deletion prior to this are voided. Should it fall again, voting for deletion must begin anew.

If an author requests a stay of deletion to make edits or rewrite a page, these may be granted. Consideration of these requests is on a case-by-case basis, as oftentimes, the best thing is to start again from a clean slate. Supplementary pages will be automatically deleted when their parent page is. Authors may repost supplements as standalone works to be judged separately as they see fit.

Reasons for Summary Deletion

There are instances when Staff will waive the standard deletions process and delete the article (with two other staff members needed as a witness). These situations are:

  • Articles with malicious intent such as, but not limited to: links to viruses, sexually explicit material, spam, advertising, trolling, and illegal content.
  • Pages that are physically harmful towards anyone who has any form of photosensitive epilepsy, or toward any user in general.
  • Pages that are clearly unfinished. (e.g. articles with blank sections or [insert text here] notes)
  • Attempts to "game" site procedure, such as re-posting a non-rewritten article in an attempt to get around downvotes.
  • Blatantly plagiarized6 material.
  • An article posted outside of the current range7. Authors may repost their articles within the acceptable range as they see fit.

Collaborative Posting:
All posted works must be written by the user that posts the work, unless specifically noted as being a collaboration between one or more site users that are current members of the SCP-Wiki at the time of publication. Collaborative works must indicate which site users collaborated in the creation of the article in question.

  • Surviving articles that are improperly attributed will be given a grace period of 48 hours from notification, where poster will be given the opportunity to provide correct attribution. After the expiration of that timer, articles that have not been corrected will be subject to summary deletion, regardless of vote count.
  • Failure to abide by this policy will result in disciplinary action, according to the usual escalation procedures.
  • This does not exempt articles from deletion via the standard voting process, should downvotes exceed stated thresholds.

Self-Deletion

Authors have the ability to delete their own work at any time. This is accomplished by:

  1. Clicking "Options" at the bottom of the page,
  2. Clicking "Delete",
  3. Selecting the checkbox for "Delete Completely."

Be sure to select "Delete Completely," as a failure to do this does not remove the page; it simply renames it to '/deleted:page-url'. After doing so, announce your choice to delete in the most recent Deletions thread.

If an author attempts to self-delete their work and fails to do so properly, either by blanking the page or renaming it, it will be deleted fully by Staff.

If an author should request their material be removed, and be able to prove authorship beyond a reasonable doubt, these requests are granted. Authors may also request deletion of all their work to be done by staff. This will likely require a basic explanation of why, and may not be immediate, but generally speaking the wiki staff will acquiesce to such requests.

If circumstances imply that a request for deletion is being made during a time of distress, or there is evidence of malice or spite on the part of the user, requests for self-deletion may be delayed or denied.

More Information

Staff have a more detailed and thorough version of the deletions guide which specifies exactly how these processes take place and the policies they follow. If you're interested, take a look at the Staff Deletions Guide on the administrative site.

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