Bright Works Discussion Draft

What is this?

This is a discussion thread serving as the culmination of the Bright Works Project. The aim of this thread is to finalize staff's approach in handling Bright's remaining works. Several proposals are presented.

The process of creating each of these proposals has been very thorough, with the goal of providing an exact model for handling comparable situations in the future. As a result, the proposals cover a wide range of options, not all of which are ideal solutions. This was done to show for future reference that staff thoroughly considered all relevant options, and allowing these proposals to be applied to any similar issues without the need to repeat discussion

Why is this an issue?

In short, a former administrator and long-time author on the SCP Wiki (who will be referred to as "Bright" throughout) received an AHT ban in 2022 for the following:

• Unwelcome sexual attention, including sending users sexual images, pressuring sexual discussion or interaction, or repeated unwanted flirting.
• Repeated inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others.
• Encouraging any of the behaviors defined by the Harassment Policy.

For further details, please see the Bright List Deletion Message.

Bright's conduct was enabled by their position as a high-ranking member of staff and the relative popularity of their works. Since their AHT ban, many of Bright's works — all of which are harmful — have remained on the site. The Bright Works Project was started to provide a final, permanent resolution to this issue with a primary goal of harm reduction. This has been long-delayed — to an unacceptable degree — but it is now ready to be finished so that we can put this matter to rest once and for all.

Solution(s):

Now that the proposals have been fully prepared, they are ready for discussion and then voting. To begin, there will be a week of discussion on 05command for staff and a mainsite mirror open for discussion by SCP Wiki site members. On the final day of discussion, we will post a comment asking staff to reply if they feel that a second week of discussion is necessary; if there is sufficient consensus for additional discussion, then we will hold another week of discussion. This process will continue until no further discussion is needed.¹

Additionally, simultaneous with this discussion being launched, there is a 3-day vote on provisional content blanking. This permits staff to authorize certain Bright articles for being blanked / hidden from public view until the discussion and voting on these proposals has been finalized.

Once discussions have finished, we will move on to ranked choice voting between the 5 proposals. This will be a standard O5 vote (meaning that only staff cast votes), to determine which of the five proposals we are choosing. After a week, if a vote passes with a majority, then that plan is chosen. If there is a lack of consensus on the specifics of the chosen proposal, a secondary vote — also running for a week — will be held to decide the contested specifics of the proposal.

Once the voting period is finished, the chosen proposal will be implemented in accordance with the timelines outlined in the proposals themselves.

By the end of the timeline, we will have handled the current phase of the Bright Works project, and dealt with the most important issue (works authored by Bright). After this, the Bright Works project will continue to address the remaining harm and impact left by Bright, next addressing Bright's contributions and edits to other pages on the SCP Wiki, where the goal will be removal. Following that, we will be contacting individual authors and series runners, asking them to adjust their content, if needed.

We will continue to do everything that we can to address the failings of the past, and to prioritize the reduction of harm as much as possible — our hope is that we will finally be able to resolve this long-standing problem as soon as possible.

The Proposals:

Remove and Counter Bright's Influence

• This proposal recommends the deletion of the vast majority of Bright's works, while paying special attention to the handful of remaining works which need particular handling due to the potential for future harm caused by their prominence. This proposal focuses on allowing the community to recontextualize Bright's narrative on the SCP Wiki, counteracting and replacing Bright's influence.
• » Draft here «

Near-Total Removal

• This proposal focuses on the removal of almost every aspect of the works Bright created on the wiki. Specifically, this proposal would remove all of their pages, with the most overtly harmful works being left empty, instead redirecting to an updated version of the Bright List deletion note.
• » Draft here «

Single Source of Truth

• This proposal focuses on the reduction of future harm by having a disclaimer added to each work by Bright on the SCP Wiki, explaining the circumstances of their AHT ban to the extent that such is possible, and warning users against pursuing interaction with the author. This disclaimer would be applied to all pages, and their content hidden behind a collapsible.
• » Draft here «

Adapted Deletions Threshold

• This proposal would place all power into the hands of the community at-large to cast their votes on each individual Bright piece by creating new rating modules to set aside the existing upvote totals on Bright works. Pieces that reach the adapted deletion threshold will be removed at the end of a set voting period.
• » Draft here «

Minimal Staff Intervention

• This proposal would remove only the most overtly harmful works from the wiki.
• » Draft here «

Footnotes

1. Please note: It is the hope of staff that extensions of discussion time will not be needed; it is included solely for the possibility of further discussion being required due to the complexity of the subject matter here.