Heya everyone, a new member to the SCP Foundation site here, and I'd just like to express some very disappointing thoughts and feelings about those who handle the site and how things operate.
So I joined not long ago at all, and with most guidelines on how to write SCP's being very hidden and all over the place in various articles and pages (You guys seriously need to work on this, really. Like put a IMPORTANT NEWCOMER GUIDE or something on the front page, not have us sift through tons of forums and all that.) I did the best I could to post an SCP with heart.
Now, once I found an entry I liked, I began editing, and oh…oh God, what are all these symbols, options, and unexplained tools? I really had to click and test every single one just to find out what they did? Very unprofessional and user-unfriendly. No guide on that I presume, huh? Or is it lost somewhere in all the forums? Either way, I did the best with what I got.
Once I finished everything up and posted it
(on top of also having to figure out how to remove the ACCESS DENIED on the SCP list, which was not explained anywhere how to do by the way, just that you should do it), I excitedly watched as my post began having downvotes flooding in.
Now sure, I don't expect my work to be amazing or to fit everyone's tastes, but goodness, I've seen review bombing for games have more generosity and sense. Why am I being downvoted so much? Can I get feedback? Why do we only need 10 VOTES TO DELETE AN SCP? HELLO?
The entire rating system needs to be either reworked or removed entirely. You cannot allow people to downvote unless they type out a reason, no exceptions. If downvoting leads to removal, you have to have standards somewhere. It's like if Steam allowed games to be removed from the platform once they got 20 bad reviews with no written words in each one. Sounds stupid, right? Why is there even an ability to delete based off votes? Articles should only be deleted for having obscene offensive content or obvious lazy work or AI, not genuine works. Whose standards am I trying to appease here? Why do I HAVE to? It's not your SCP, so it doesn't need to appeal to you or get deleted. We're all here to have fun and observe one another's works.
You say this is to ensure the site has standards, and that posts meet good quality expectations, but if a well-thought-out SCP spanning multiple paragraphs on top of having multiple pictures can be deleted by 10 redditors who thought "eh, I don't like it", then how is something like 173 good? SCP 173 —- while yes, it was the og first SCP, it is two paragraphs with no photos and a very basic premise. Is this the kind of standards we should follow? Make it make sense. As long as people really tried with their submissions, who the hell cares about "standards"? We have joke SCP's and that one nonsensical garbled pile of trash, I Am At the Center of Everything. Is that up to our standards?
SCP is supposed to be a fictional universe with all kinds of amazing ideas, creatures, ect, but if those who want to contribute to the world get gatekept and blocked off from doing so because those in charge believe they seriously can write better than half these submissions, then I believe this site has sadly gone to the dogs, which is deeply depressing.
Any moment now, my SCP will be deleted, so I've made sure to copy it all and save it elsewhere for safekeeping. I know you'll probably say "post it in the sandbox forums" but I don't WANT to do that. I WANT it here. Who is really going to go to the sandbox forums to see SCP's? Especially when you have to FIND it in this mess of a site?
I love this universe and everything about it, but God, it is so sad to see yet another fandom that I have to avoid like My Hero Academia or anything else just to be able to enjoy it and seem normal to those outside the fandom. I offer a challenge to those who run the site; write an SCP and post it. See if you can keep it up without deletion. I wonder how it'll fare.
I really don't want to come off as bitter or anything, but damn, this site was very user-unfriendly to use, everything took a while to do, and after all my work, I just get booted out by 10 random kids. Really, how am I supposed to feel? I can't edit my SCP, there isn't anything TO edit. It matches similar themes and ideas as others on the site, and it's written the same way too, so no matter what I do, it won't matter. 10 people just…don't like it, so I'm screwed. That, or they are review-bombing me just to free up my slot for them to use. Bet nobody thought about that being a possibility here either, but oh well.
To those remaining on the site, godspeed to you all, because I know being here and trying to appease the Elder God's that run it must be as stressful and time-consuming as a full-time job.
This was a decently rough blemish to my love for the universe of SCP, and I'm sad to see what has been done to it in regards to something as important to it as the wiki. Hopefully something eventually happens to restructure the whole site, or remove all those currently in charge, because we desperately need new, friendly, and normal people running it. Guys like us, like-minded folk who contribute to the site as anyone else does. Not Corpo writing snobs who WITH A STRAIGHT FACE put on their writing page that you need COLLEGE-LEVEL WRITING SKILLS? What the hell is this, a job application?!
Take it easy guys, you aren't getting paid for this. Please try to have fun and consider all the feedback here. Make SCP's site a place where everyone can have fun and interact again.