Now, in the past few weeks I've been thinking about rewrites, and how we classify them. Most rewrites fall into two categories: Those that patch up the writing while keeping the original concept intact, and those that use the original article as a jumping off point for something totally different. I can use two of my own rewrites as examples:
SCP-213 would be in the first category. I didn't really add anything new to the concept or writing, I just brought it up to Foundation standards while making it more cohesive. I used the ideas of DayDreamin, BlastYoBoots and NekoChris, but I didn't really change what was there.
In SCP-703, I completely changed eveything about the article. The original was a closet that generated random items, and I changed it to be something that creates items based on the desires of people around it. Very little of the original concept remained intact.
So my proposal is to formally split these two categories, rewrites and remakes. A rewrite is something that completely changes the original article, using it as a jumpin g off point for a whole new idea. A remake is when we change the article to bring it up modern standards, but don't actually change the basic idea.
Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!