Introduction
Communication is a fundamental element of any organisation, including the SCP Wiki. Failures in communication, such as those during the Bright Works Project and November 2025 incident, have resulted in a dissatisfied user base, increased staff workload, and a loss in trust resulting in users and staff leaving the Wiki.
These events have demonstrated a need for a staff team dedicated to handling complex, public-facing communication in all its forms. A Public Relations Team, or PR Team for short, is the answer. The PR Team would work to prevent further damage and begin closing the gap between staff and users, helping to create a more unified SCP Wiki. It would also help refine critical communication from staff, aiming to prevent situations like those mentioned above.
Team Duties
Given the nature of a Public Relations Team, and the increased workload that comes with this kind of work, the team must only be brought in to handle specific tasks. It cannot be treated as a one-stop solution for every form of communication from staff.
It is not possible to list every duty the PR Team may undertake. However, before the team is called in, one question must be asked:
Will this staff action (or inaction) result in noticeable community dissatisfaction?
If the answer is yes, the PR Team will be called in to assist.
Examples Of Public Relations Team Duties Include:
- Acting as a final review for Disciplinary and Anti-Harassment Team threads before they are posted. Importantly, the Team would only have access to documentation intended to be made public.
- Assisting with user complaints to ensure both the user or users and staff feel heard, with the aim of reaching a satisfactory resolution for both parties.
- Acting as front-line communicators during critical situations where members of the community are dissatisfied.
- Drafting of critical policy or statements before they are presented to users. Critical policies or statements are defined as being:
- Are related to something that would be a major change or event on the site (such as structural changes).
- Needs to be urgently created, implemented or released.
- The community, staff or both are heavily invested in its outcome. There may also be segments of the community that are concerned or highly critical of the policy or statement.
Examples Of What The Public Relations Team Will Not Handle:
- Answering basic questions from users that can be handled by the relevant team.
- Assisting with inter-team communication.
- Reviewing Disciplinary and Anti-Harassment Team materials that are not intended to be posted publicly.
- Drafting of non-critical policy or statements such as event announcements. Non-critical policies or statements are defined as being:
- Aren't related to something that would be a major change or event on the site (such as structural changes).
- Don't need to be urgently created, implemented or released.
- The community, staff or both may or may not be heavily invested in its outcome. There are no segments of the community that are concerned or highly critical of the policy or statement.
These examples are not an exhaustive list of what the PR Team will or will not handle. In every situation, discretion should be used by members of the team when deciding whether they should become involved.
Structure & Reasoning
The structure of the Public Relations Team would be nearly identical to that of existing staff teams. It would fall under Community Outreach, with Sub Team Captains leading the team and a group of staff members making up the bulk of its membership.
The Team will often be handling time sensitive situations, or multiple situations simultaneously. A singular captain could find themselves quickly overwhelmed, leading to a constant stream of new captains which would make it difficult for the team to operate effectively. There is also the risk of a lone captain being unavailable at a critical time due to other commitments, leaving the team without leadership when they need it the most. Having multiple captains helps to prevent these issue from occurring.
Discussion will go on for one week.