Tech Hub Tag

Tagging


Page Tags

  • All SCP Articles should be tagged with scp, one and only one object class tag (safe, euclid, keter, thaumiel, neutralized, or esoteric-class), and at least two attributes (see below).
    • Joke SCPs should be tagged as joke in addition to its normal object class (or esoteric-class if non-standard or omitted).
    • Archived SCPs should be tagged as archived in addition to its normal object class.
    • Decommissioned articles should be tagged as decommissioned in addition to its previous object class.
    • Neutralized articles should be tagged as neutralized.
    • The grandfathered-in split-class articles (such as Safe/Euclid and Euclid/Keter) are tagged as both of their split classes. As split classes are no longer allowed, this exists only for the sake of posterity.
  • Article Supplements should be tagged with supplement and their parent page set to the SCP they are attached to. The latter automatically creates breadcrumb links, so explicitly created breadcrumb navigation should be removed.
    • If the supplement represents some kind of experiment log or report, it should be tagged as an experiment.
      • If this experiment log is an open-edit collaborative log, it should also be tagged as a collaboration.
    • If the supplement represents some kind of exploratory log or report, it should be tagged as an exploration.
    • If the supplement represents some kind of incident log or report, it should be tagged as an incident.
    • If the supplement represents some kind of interview log or transcript, it should be tagged as an interview.
  • Tales should be tagged as tale.
    • If a tale unambiguously identifies or involves one or more Groups of Interest, then their individual GoI tags should be included.
    • If a tale involves a project tag, that should be included as well. (See Tag Guide.)
    • If a tale is a non-Foundation creepypasta, it should be tagged as creepypasta in addition to tale. By definition, if it is a creepypasta, it should not have any project or GoI tags.
  • Any page that links to multiple other pages in any kind of group or categorization should be tagged as a hub. The exception to this is scp articles; they should never be tagged as a hub.
  • Any page that has sufficient work done to it by contributors other than the original author such that the original author cannot take full credit for its content should be tagged as collaboration. scp articles should never be a collaboration by this definition, though their supplements can be.

Attributes


  • If an entity is in fact a human being, then it should have the following tags by default unless they are overridden by some aspect of its anomalous properties: alive and sapient.
  • Was it made by an intelligent creator?
    • Was it created as an artistic expression?
      • If the object is a three-dimensional representation, then it is a sculpture. If it is a full-body representation of a person, apply the humanoid tag. If it is a representation of an animal, apply the appropriate Animal tags, if any.
      • If the object is musical in nature, whether it is a musical composition or enables the creation or composition of music, then it is musical
      • If it is used for in an artistic performance, such as a dance or play, it should be tagged performance
      • If the object has decorative or functional designs written on, carved or cut into its surface, it is inscribed.
      • If the object has artistic significance but doesn't fall into any of the aforementioned categories, then it should be tagged as artistic.
    • Was it created to manipulate other things?
      • If the object was primarily intended to be used to kill, harm, or otherwise disable or impair another living thing (such as a gun or combat knife, but not a wood ax or swiss army knife), then it is probably a weapon.
      • If the object is hand-held and used for a specific purpose doesn't fall under weapon, then it is a tool.
    • Was it created to perform some kind of household, commercial, or industrial function?
      • If the object is used to perform calculation or data manipulation, it is a computer.
      • If the object is a household appliance (defined as something that performs work that enables or improves quality of life in a home such as a television, microwave, or lamp), then it is an appliance.
      • If the object is primarily intended to transport passengers or cargo, it is a vehicle.
        • If the vehicle primarily flies or moves through water, then it should also be tagged as airborne or aquatic, as appropriate.
      • If the object is primarily intended to be worn:
        • If its purpose is primarily for comfort or protection (such as in the case of body armor, a coat, or a hat), then it is clothing.
        • If its purpose is primarily decorative or for purposes other than survival (such as a wristwatch or a necklace), then it is jewelry.
      • If the object is primarily intended to hold or carry information:
        • If it primarily holds textual information in a human-readable format (such as a book or written contract), it is a document.
        • If it holds information using a method other than text (such as a video clip or audio recording), it is media. Electronic media also falls into this category, as any data on computer storage device is not directly human-readable. However, if the contained data is also primarily textual, it may be both document and media.
      • If it consists of food or drink, it should be tagged food.
      • If an object does not fall into any of the categories above, then it should merely be tagged as an artifact. For the purposes of SCP tagging, artifact means that it was created by any intelligent being, not just a human.
    • Does the object use power?
      • If the object operates using semiconductors (such as those in computer chips), it is electronic.
      • If the object is powered by electricity but is not electronic, then it should be tagged as electrical.
    • If the object has moving parts, it is probably mechanical.
      • If said moving parts are mostly gears and springs, it should also be tagged as clockwork.

FAQ

This explains the difference between commonly misused or misunderstood tags. If you think any of these might apply to your SCP, please read this thoroughly. If you're still not sure, ask a staff member.

biological vs. alive

  • Something that is biological has elements of living things, such as living tissue, organs, or organic compounds such as proteins, fats, or other substances that are related to or used by living things like proteins and fats, but does not show traits of actually being alive (see below).
  • Something that is alive conforms to the traits of living things. These vary from biologist to biologist, but for the purposes of tagging ir generally has all of the following traits:

 * metabolism - All living things consume energy, use it to catalyze live processes, and excrete waste in some form (even if it's just heat).
 * reaction - All living things react to their environment: they chase or seek out things that they perceive as food and stay away from things that are perceived as dangerous. Even plants will turn their leaves towards the sun in order to maximize their photosynthetic potential.
 * reproduction - All living things reproduce, either sexually or asexually.

  • Something that is alive is by default biological and does not need to be tagged as both.

parasitic vs. contagion vs. self-replicating vs. reproductive

  • A parasitic entity is something that "feeds off" another entity. This is distinct from a mutualistic relationship because a parasitic entity does not help the host in any way; it's purely harmful. This can refer to both parasites, which simply live off and harm the host, and parasitoids, which kill the host, and neither have to necessary be biological or living in the context of the Foundation.
  • A contagion is something that infects something else, and once infected, spreads to other uninfected individuals. In the context of the Foundation, this may not be a biological process, and this is distinct from a parasitic entity because a contagion becomes indistinguishable from the host, whereas a parasite remains a distinct entity from its host. A computer virus is also considered a contagion.
  • A self-replicating object is something that makes copies of itself. It may accomplish this either through budding/splitting, or by turning other things or raw materials into instances. This usually, but is not always, a non-biological process.
  • A reproductive object affects the biological reproductive process of a living organism. This usually means that it uses the reproductive system or organs of another living organism to make copies of itself, and is always a biological process by nature of what it is. This is distinct from a parasite in that it actually hijacks the reproductive process; something that merely feeds off the uterine lining of an affected animal would be a parasite, but something that imitates a fetus and forces the host to undergo the normal processes of pregnancy would be reproductive.
  • parasitic and contagion are generally mutually exclusive; you can only be one or the other. self-replicating and reproductive are also generally mutually exclusive, except in extreme circumstances.

compulsion vs. cognitohazard vs. mind-affecting vs. memetic

  • A compulsion is something that compels subjects to do something that they normally might not do. This is distinct from a cognitohazard because it does not require line of sight or any perception of the source; sometimes mere proximity is enough. This is distinct from mind-affecting because it's not an overriding force that makes you do it, it's best described as a strong urge or feeling of intense curiosity. This is also distinct from from mind-affecting because it's usually temporary; once a subject is removed from the presence of the compulsion-generating object, they will usually recover (even if it takes a long time).
  • A cognitohazard is something that poses a danger to any subject that perceives it with any of our five physical senses: sight (visual), hearing (auditory), smell (olfactory), taste (gustatory), and touch (tactile). This applies to both things that cause physical harm as well as things that cause psychological damage, but only in a way that would be anomalous. A bright light that causes blindness would not be a cognitohazard, nor would a sharp edge that cuts you when you touch it. A sound that causes you to bleed from every pore or a smell that causes you to go insane would be a cognitohazard.
  • A mind-affecting effect is one that (usually permanently) affects the way a subject thinks (most commonly by altering personality or behavior, or inducing psychiatric conditions). This is distinct from a compulsion because of its permanence and in that this is usually an intense obsession, not just a mild urge.
  • A memetic agent is best described as "infectious information". It is a piece of data in a subject's mind that has an anomalous effect on that subject's physical or mental state that is spread when anyone else becomes aware of the same information. All memetic agents are cognitohazards as you can't be exposed to information without observing it somehow, but not all cognitohazards are memetic.

memetic vs. infohazard vs. meta

  • An infohazard is an object that has an effect that triggers whenever you refer to it or describe it. This is separate from a memetic agent because it is still an object, not a piece of information. SCP-426 is a prime example of an infohazard; whenever you refer to it, you always speak about it in the first person.
  • A meta object is an object that affects its documentation, is affected by its documentation, or has containment procedures that extend to its documentation. This sometimes overlaps with infohazard, but is distinct. SCP-048 is a prime example of this; documenting an object as SCP-048 causes accidents to happen, but speaking about SCP-048 or explaining it is harmless.

acoustic vs. auditory vs. audio

  • An acoustic effect is something that is a sound wave or other type of compression wave. This means that it has to have something to act as a medium (such as air or water), and means that it exists independent of an audience. Something that can be heard by subjects but can be recorded as well is probably acoustic.
  • An auditory effect is something that specifically refers to the sense of hearing. Something that can be heard by one or more subjects but cannot be recorded or picked up by others is an auditory hallucination. auditory can also be referred to cognitohazards if the act of hearing triggers an effect.
  • audio is a major tag (see below), used on pages to designate that there is an audio file attached to it. It is not an attribute, and should not be included on pages that merely describe an SCP with an audio component.

extraterrestrial vs extradimensional vs future vs ectoentropic

  • An extraterrestrial object is one that is "not of the Earth", meaning it is either in space or came from space. This applies to all such objects, be they organic (alien life), artificial (alien artifacts), or non-artificial (asteroids and other celestial bodies).
  • An extradimensional object either originates from or enables travel to or from a plane of existence, parallel universe, or timeline other than our own. Any object described as having been produced by a culture or civilization "not known to history" may generally be considered extradimensional if it is beyond a reasonable doubt that it could not have simply been a civilization that was lost to history or otherwise from the future.
  • A future object is an object that was displaced from a later temporal time frame into an earlier one. This still applies to objects that are no longer from "our" future so long as it was considered "from the future" at some point in time.
  • An ectoentropic object produces energy or matter from an unknown source in such a way as to be generally considered "from nothing". Any object that produces objects from an extradimensional or future source does not qualify for this attribute, even if we do not know an exact origin for said objects.
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