So the rewrite for SCP-049 by Gabriel Jade and djkaktus has been up for almost three days as of this writing. Not even the biggest downvote brigade in history could topple it by this point. So now that the dust is starting to clear from the immediate impact its been having, I'd like to discuss proposing to create an article on the site that will effectively -ARC the original SCP-049.
There are a small contingent of users who have been talking about the idea of such a thing happening and throwing their support for it, enough to seriously consider this, even if you never think this should happen. See PepperGhost's post here. Even Hippo's post here can have some points in it in favor of -ARCing.
Let me discuss why we could or should do this, and the flipside for why we shouldn't, to lay down the groundwork for this thread. I won't point out every argument for both sides; just some.
SCP-049 has been historically significant in many ways. It is the version everyone who has read the site will know, and despite it not being written that well1, it's a core part of many's understanding of 049 and the works its inspired. The original 049's personality is lampooned in Containment Breach The Musical, as well as Lust in the Time of Anomalous Cholera. It's the foundation for SCP-049-D. 049 and 035 were heavily associated (which, yes, isn't specifically on our site but still worth mentioning). The tricky part with the current 049 is that not a lot of the references to the article on our site can co-exist with the current one now (and I know there's more than just what I've mentioned). The writings of 049 on our site, whether played straight or subverted or parodied or reimagined etc. are all specifically based off of the old 049.
PeppersGhost and Hippo lay out further points, but to take from both; future readers of the site who will now miss the context of the original article will find the 8 - 9 pages of discussion in the thread to be utterly confusing and readings of 049 to be pretty incompatible with the only version they will know. And the original article, while written shakily and with poor clinical tone, inspired enough people directly to work with it and around it in writing stuff about the plague doctor that it's still pretty important, not to mention how controversial the site has been throughout history. (Even kaktus himself wrote a breakdown of the original 049 which hundreds of people have read by this point; it's clearly important in that regard too.)
Now for why we shouldn't. The last article that wasn't a writing guide that we've archived was back in 2015. There's a few of these. And before then? 2012 - 2013 is what I can find. So it's been an extremely long time, relatively speaking, since we've had the need to actually -ARC anything (and even the last time was for SCP-048-ARC (hey, wait a minute…), which didn't get -ARC'd easily). So why bother to continue to -ARC stuff? In addition, the archival system is, quite frankly, outdated, and we haven't seriously had a look at how to address or examine the system. (Please note that this proposal is in no way about addressing the -ARC system; please do not comment on how to fix that in this thread unless it specifically pertains to SCP-049.) The original 049 is in the revision history; if users want to access it, they can find it there.
I will mention here, before opening discussion, that the last case on this sort of scale was with SCP-148. Back then in 2011, an article like 148 was not around for as long as 049 was when it got rewritten, it was in the negatives while that was being done, and it was not co-rewritten with its original author. The way this issue was addressed then was to edit a lot of articles referencing 148, either editing it out or adjusting the reference to fit the rewrite (which… isn't so viable now with 049). I will also mention that if Gabriel Jade, at any point, wishes for the original not to be -ARC'd (either now or in the future), we should respect those wishes.
Since 049 has been up for a little under three days, I'll have this discussion open for five days.
Do you think an article on the site should be created to effectively archive the original (IE; last updated version before the rewrite) version of SCP-049?
Timer has expired. ~ Decibelle