Around 6:30PM CST on Tuesday, IRC user agi PMed me asking about the proper etiquette for responding to a draft that they see as having high potential for being at least culturally insensitive, if not downright racist: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-14201771/the-new-world
I recognized the name of one of the authors (darkartist) from IRC, as well as them being told that basically reducing an indigenous peoples' culture like this could be very offensive to some, and I recalled them not reacting very well. I also tracked down their ideas thread here: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-14194289/scp-wwww-the-new-world where they got similar feedback and don't seem to really be understanding why people are having misgivings about this.
They got no greenlights and in the draft thread their co-author admits they did almost none of the work: "he (DarkArtist) did most of the work I just read over it and fixed some bits." That sounds like giving crit, not co-authoring. Looking at the facts as they are, it seems to me like they sought out a co-author specifically to get around needing greenlights, which I feel is something that shouldn't really be allowed. (Maybe if the co-author had greenlighting privileges I'd see it differently…)
In the logs below I have bolded the user's comments that show he's really not getting it, and colored comments from other users trying to explain the issue in blue.
[2021-09-20 13:45:48] <IronShears> Okay so I do have a lot of thoughts about your SCP. First of all I'm curious as to what your intention with your article is? Like what are you trying to make the readers think.
[2021-09-20 13:46:22] <DarkArtist-Discord> honestly its mostly worldbuilding for a goi the cowritter is working on
[2021-09-20 13:47:11] <DarkArtist-Discord> anything else?
[2021-09-20 13:48:44] <IronShears> Ah I see I see. Could you tell me a little bit about the GoI if possible? My main issue with this right now is that you're kind of doing two different stories at the same time that are sort of connected but the connection isn't super clear.(The fact that it's now disappearing vs who created it. It might be more clear if you focused on one or the
[2021-09-20 13:48:45] <IronShears> other OR made the connection more obvious.) Another thought I had is that there isn't really much emotion here. It kinda just seems like an explanation.
[2021-09-20 13:51:10] <DarkArtist-Discord> > The fact that it's now disappearing vs who created it
[2021-09-20 13:51:10] <DarkArtist-Discord> Thus why it is "two separate files" the main one that is just America, that has the dissapearing problem, and the civilization/cult which is the GOI (The resurging one that's talked about on the dark period) that's meant to be the ones who created them and the setup for that GOI.
[2021-09-20 13:51:19] <DarkArtist-Discord> If I don't make sense tell me
[2021-09-20 13:54:37] <DarkArtist-Discord> Also its a cult that worships knowledge since i didnt say it
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[2021-09-20 14:00:16] <IronShears> I do definitely feel like the connection between the two should be more obvious. Like is the resurgence causing the disappearance? I also feel like as a wider issue designating Indigenous Americans as being dangerous because they descended from a cult is definitely a bad idea
[2021-09-20 14:01:17] <DarkArtist-Discord> I did not do that I don't think? I said that they have higher odds of being reality warpers, which if anything, is a compliment imo
[2021-09-20 14:02:23] <DarkArtist-Discord> > Like is the resurgence causing the disappearance?
[2021-09-20 14:02:24] <DarkArtist-Discord> No, the dissapearance is happening because the thaumaturgic ritual used to create it is fading
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[2021-09-20 14:03:09] <DarkArtist-Discord> > I do definitely feel like the connection between the two should be more obvious.
[2021-09-20 14:03:09] <DarkArtist-Discord> It's not meant to be obvious, because there really is not too much of a relation other than one creating the other.
[2021-09-20 14:03:24] <IronShears> Well, you did write that they're descended from a cult and that the foundation put SRAs on rezes as a precaution. It reads like that.
[2021-09-20 14:03:51] <IronShears> Okay so it is two different stories entirely?
[2021-09-20 14:04:07] <DarkArtist-Discord> I mean- i did say the cult faded away on around the 8-9th century
[2021-09-20 14:04:13] <DarkArtist-Discord> more or less, yes.
[2021-09-20 14:04:19] <MisterIodine> Requesting greenlight and crit on an idea https:##scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-14198909/seeking-greenlight-immoral-energy#post-5086651
[2021-09-20 14:05:49] <IronShears> I definitely think the stories should at least be more connected because as it is right now you have two separate things happening and they don't really touch eachother.
[2021-09-20 14:05:55] <DarkArtist-Discord> there's sras to avoid them killing each other n shit
[2021-09-20 14:05:55] <IronShears> In the same article
[2021-09-20 14:06:11] <IronShears> Uh. Yeah that's pretty bad
[2021-09-20 14:06:22] <DarkArtist-Discord> dont see how so but i mean alright
[2021-09-20 14:07:11] <Sarah> it paints them as violent, a stereotype very harmful to the native americans
[2021-09-20 14:07:24] <DarkArtist-Discord> its like saying you dont leave places with tons of nukes open to the public with the codes printed on a wall. imho.
[2021-09-20 14:07:50] <DarkArtist-Discord> i dont think violent? its to avoid *accidental* occurances since they dont know they can do it
[2021-09-20 14:08:04] <DarkArtist-Discord> but i mean if it looks so fucking bad i can change it
[2021-09-20 14:08:34] <DarkArtist-Discord> or delete it
[2021-09-20 14:08:34] <IronShears> Okay but here's the thing. You guys wrote the fact that they're "nukes" in the first place. It looks pretty fucking bad right now.
[2021-09-20 14:10:11] <DarkArtist-Discord> i used the nukes as an example. i meant, you dont leave a thing thats capable of danger that doesnt know it can do the dangerous stuff and can thus do it accidentally unsupervised and free roaming, again this is my opinio and if you two think its so bad ill delete it, im not too sure of that part anyway it was a sugestion from a guy on discord
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[2021-09-20 14:10:49] <Sarah> oh i was just saying the way you phrased it made it seem like they were violent
[2021-09-20 14:11:00] <KDEX> Someone down to leave a review on my joke SCP?
[2021-09-20 14:11:06] <Sarah> yes
[2021-09-20 14:11:12] <KDEX> https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-14200741/a-not-so-superhero
[2021-09-20 14:12:38] <DarkArtist-Discord> changed it, tell me if its better now lol
[2021-09-20 14:12:42] <Sarah> all i saw was crabs and hes given dozens of people stds and i- mdksokjdk
[2021-09-20 14:12:42] <Sarah> gimme a sec
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[2021-09-20 14:13:51] <KDEX> Well.. anyone else?
[2021-09-20 14:14:53] <DarkArtist-Discord> sure 1 sec
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[2021-09-20 14:17:49] <IronShears> I think that's a bit better but I do still feel like this is a bigger issue. Coming up with an origin story for an entire continent of peoples who have their own history and cultures and erasing all of that in favor of saying they descended from a cult is pretty hard to justify without it sounding very ignorant.
[2021-09-20 14:18:47] <DarkArtist-Discord> i mean i didnt touch their cultures, just say that they developed later and more fast-paced
[2021-09-20 14:18:55] <DarkArtist-Discord> like
[2021-09-20 14:19:15] <DarkArtist-Discord> yes, they did come from a cult-thing instead of from ppl crossing through an ice plain,
[2021-09-20 14:19:25] <DarkArtist-Discord> but their story is the same, just happens later
[2021-09-20 14:21:35] <IronShears> But you still said they all descended from a cult. And you said that meso-american cultures were directly derived from this cult. You know. I really don't want this to become an argument so I think I'm just going to stop now. If you don't want to change it, alright. I've just shared my thoughts on it.
[2021-09-20 14:23:19] <DarkArtist-Discord> i mean, im spanish, and i come from ppl who lived through a dictatorship. and? not all of the population were cultists, just, you know, the *society* was teocentrical and their methods were cult-ish. maybe lots of ppl just lived *through* the cult.
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[2021-09-20 14:23:49] <DarkArtist-Discord> and, for the record, would you say a content warning is needed, and if so, what should i say in it.
[2021-09-20 14:23:56] <Sarah8> hi sorry im back my comuter messed up and disconnected me
[2021-09-20 14:24:01] <Sarah8> computer*
[2021-09-20 14:24:24] <HeWasAMoog> I think the idea IronShears is trying to get across (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that it justifies the kind of reductive attitude a lot of people with ill intent have, at least in-universe.
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[2021-09-20 14:24:59] <NoahTheVerdent> I have an idea for an SCP. Do we have one based off of the fear of the dark?
[2021-09-20 14:24:59] <DarkArtist-Discord> Could you explain that in terms I could understand without painfully reading it 100 times… Im really tired today.
[2021-09-20 14:25:00] <Sarah8> Im sure its completely unintentional but that is really how it came across
[2021-09-20 14:25:36] <DarkArtist-Discord> well i mean if it really did come across like that, yes, it is unintentional lol
[2021-09-20 14:25:39] <HeWasAMoog> Real life assholes like to boil down the cultures of entire continents to a single idea that they can attack.
[2021-09-20 14:25:52] <Sarah8> my dad is real life assholes
[2021-09-20 14:25:53] <DrFullham> NoahTheVerdent: We likely have a LOT of SCPs based on darkness.
[2021-09-20 14:26:01] <DarkArtist-Discord> ah alright i can understand that.
[2021-09-20 14:26:24] <DarkArtist-Discord> that is not what i tried to come across as, if i did.