SCP-597 and slurs on mainlist entries.

SCP-597 and slurs on mainlist entries.

pxdnbluesoul 04 Dec 2019 21:30

Took a question in 17, didn't have an immediate answer and wanted to bring it up for discussion.

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[2:18:30 pm] <LordStonefish> I've recently noticed that SCP-597 has a slur in it, and we've all just kind of ignored it
[2:18:35 pm] <LordStonefish> for ten years
[2:18:39 pm] <@bluesoul> scp-597
[2:18:47 pm] <%Secretary_Helen> bluesoul: SCP-597: The Mother of Them All (Rating: +182. Written 10 years ago By: name) - http://scp-wiki.net/scp-597
[2:19:02 pm] <LordStonefish> r*tarded
[2:19:41 pm] <LordStonefish> It's clearly used in a context where it's meant to provoke shock, rather than use any kind of pretense of clinical language, being as it is between two blackboxes
[2:19:41 pm] <@bluesoul> man this thing would get killed nowadays
[2:20:29 pm] <LordStonefish> I don't know if anything can be done about this, but it's definitely the kind of thing that modern staff would take care of.
[2:20:40 pm] <LordStonefish> as opposed to 2009 staff
[2:21:02 pm] <@bluesoul> yeah it's a fair question but one i'm not comfortable making an executive decision on
[2:21:32 pm] <LordStonefish> But as a person on the autism spectrum, seeing this kind of dehumanizing language in a semi-popular skip is somewhat disconcerting.
[2:21:37 pm] <@bluesoul> i'll bring it up for discussion on 05

To their point, it is entirely likely if this was posted now it would get absolutely killed for a number of reasons, using a needless slur being high on that list. It has had basically a decade of insulation against that though and is in no real danger of deletion now.

Do we want to act on this and, if so, how?

SCP-597

Last edited on 04 Dec 2019 21:50 by pxdnbluesoul Show more

Re: SCP-579 and slurs on mainlist entries.

LilyFlower 04 Dec 2019 21:34

No. It's, in my eyes, a bad article, and the slur is needless. But we have creative freedom on the wiki and we always have - and retroactively editing articles to make them "cleaner" leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If people dislike the article, or the slur, they can downvote, and comment. That's all we should, or can, do.

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~🏵~Flower Power~🏵~

Re: SCP-579 and slurs on mainlist entries.

taylor_itkin 04 Dec 2019 21:58

This. This sums up my tale nicely.

Re: SCP-579 and slurs on mainlist entries.

pxdnbluesoul 04 Dec 2019 21:58

This is basically my sentiment as well. We have, over the course of the last decade, defined staff as being custodians of the wiki rather than outright arbiters of content. Author provenance is a key tenet of what we have built. Those things do not mesh with whitewashing old articles, regardless of the merit of the argument. Precedent would indicate we leave this alone, and let members vote things to deletion.

Re: SCP-579 and slurs on mainlist entries.

AdminBright 04 Dec 2019 22:40

Same.

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Admin, SCP Wiki

Re: SCP-579 and slurs on mainlist entries.

Jacob Conwell 04 Dec 2019 23:01

Not to make this an echo chamber, but agreeing with Lily's take.

Re: SCP-579 and slurs on mainlist entries.

TheMightyMcB 05 Dec 2019 00:05

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Re: SCP-579 and slurs on mainlist entries.

The Pighead 05 Dec 2019 09:21

This.

Personally, I downvote the article for the slur and because it's for me a damn mess which I don't understand. And people are totally free to downvote and comment if they don't like this. But for me, this is important to not retroactively editing old articles.

In the beginning, the community was not perfect, not at all, and even pretty toxic. Fortunately, we grow up and became more and more mature. And editing articles of the beginnings can be seeing like "No, this period had never existed". And that's not a thing who leaves good taste in my mouth.

Re: SCP-579 and slurs on mainlist entries.

subtletea 06 Dec 2019 03:47

Agreeing with all before.