Bright Works Proposal Draft: Single Source of Truth

Single Source of Truth

What is This?

The harm done by these works was originally enabled by the SCP Wiki, as said works are presently hosted there and the author was a high-ranking member of site staff. As long as these articles remain on the SCP Wiki, we will be the main source for anyone wanting to read them. This grants us the potential ability to reduce future harm — to prevent readers of these works from being pulled into the orbit of their author, by placing them in their proper context. This ability is lost if the articles are removed entirely from the SCP Wiki, such that potential victims will access the works on sites outside our control, likely without any of the important context we could provide.

This proposal would see a disclaimer added to each work by Bright1 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, regardless of content, as the issue is not just the works themselves, but the author too.

The original text of each article would be kept in a collapsible beneath the disclaimer, ensuring that as many visitors as possible will read the disclaimer before accessing said original text. While we cannot necessarily ensure that each visitor will read the disclaimer present, the disclaimer text will still be present on the page regardless.

What Issues Does This Proposal Address?

Issue: Harmful Works Authored By Bright

Details: Bright used their works and the fame gained thereby to manipulate their victims. The works continue to amplify Bright's visibility simply by existing. Even in the author's absence from the site, these works might still lead vulnerable persons to interact with Bright.

All Bright works are inherently harmful as a result of their role in perpetuating Bright's legacy and influence. The reason why works are classified as 'Harmful', 'Ambiguously Harmful', or 'Non-Overtly Harmful' is based on the literal content of each work. Works classified as Harmful are works that were considered to have the most harmful content, notably content involving harmful portrayals of subjects such as sexual assault, the degradation of woman, abuse of minors, and the normalization of abuse and control — all of which was used to manipulate victims. Ambiguously Harmful Works refer to pages that contain content that is to a lesser-degree as harmful as outright Harmful works, or could be read as not overtly harmful. Non-Overtly Harmful Works are works where the content has no apparent issues. There is no such thing as a Bright page that is non-harmful. All of Bright's pages perpetuated their influence and reach.

Resolution: A disclaimer above each article would allow potential readers of these works to learn why Bright was removed from the site, and why they should not attempt to contact the author. This would also provide context to the questionable content of the works affected, preventing the misreading of that content as being acceptable or praiseworthy.

This is Resolved When: The issue is resolved by this proposal when the disclaimer-adding process for all works written by Bright has been completed. All subsequent issues are resolved in the same manner unless otherwise noted.

Issue: Ambiguously Harmful Works Authored By Bright

Details: As above, but in the case of articles where the questionable material is more subtextual or otherwise subtle.

Resolution: As above.

This is Resolved When: As above.

Issue: Non-Overtly Harmful Works Authored By Bright

Details: As above, but in the case of articles where no obvious questionable material is present beyond the connection to Bright.

Resolution: As above.

This is Resolved When: As above.

Issue: Bright's Co-Authored Page(s)

Details: As above, but in the case of articles co-authored by Bright.

Resolution: As above, but specification must be made in the disclaimers that the co-authors of affected articles are not those disclaimers' intended target.

This is Resolved When: As above.

Issue: Rewriting Bright's Pages

Details: There is an occasional push to re-write these pages to remove the offensive material.

Resolution: This proposal locks the articles' content, essentially as 'proof' of the claims in the disclaimers. Bright's works will never be eligible for rewrite, should this proposal be chosen.

This is Resolved When: The issue will be resolved when the pages are locked and perpetually ineligible for rewrite.

Issue: Bright's Contributions to Series

Details: Some of Bright's pages are part of series involving contributions by other authors.

Resolution: This has no meaningful effect on the process of adding disclaimers; series editors still on the site may decide to unlink Bright's articles from their series.

This is Resolved When: As above.

Issue: The Slots

Details: Bright's works take up several high-profile SCP slots, and their potential usage in the event of deletion is a matter of contention. Some of Bright's tales have URLs which could potentially be used by newly posted tales, resulting in confusion and unwanted attention either to those new authors or towards Bright.

Resolution: The works would be permanently frozen to their present slots, which now act as disclaimers and permanent records. These pages would not be subject to standard deletions processes, to ensure we remain a comprehensive source, to ensure that the harm is addressed.

This is Resolved When: As above.

Issue: Off-Site Works that Backlink to Bright's Pages / Slot Shock

Details: Removing Bright's works would result in backlinks no longer functioning, and leaving the slots empty or replacing them could produce negative reactions from users expecting to find what they previously found at those urls.

Resolution: All links would still function, and now point to the disclaimers and a collapsible within which the original work can be found. Backlinks become a means of educating potential readers about Bright's actions.

This is Resolved When: As above.

Issue: Supplementary Pages

Details: There exist pages not written by Bright that act as supplements to pages written by Bright.

Resolution: Disclaimers on the main pages ensure that the original articles are still viewed in their proper light; whether supplementary pages written by other authors require disclaimers for being based on works by Bright also require disclaimers about the originator of those concepts is beyond the scope of this project.

This is Resolved When: If the above is seen as an issue that needs addressing, it will be resolved through a separate initiative.

Issue: Handling Bright's Harm

Details: Bright is the cause of a great deal of harm to SCP Wiki members past and present, SCP community members past and present, and others. Bright's works enabled this harm, and continue to do so. The SCP Wiki should act to mitigate harm already done, and prevent further harm being done, to whatever extent we can.

Resolution: This proposal's resolution to the above issue is the raising of attention to Bright's actions and the danger of associating with them, permanently shadowing their works under a banner proclaiming their potential for harm and the harm that has already been done. This proposal does not involve the direct handling of any known cases of harm.

This is Resolved When: This cannot ever be fully resolved. The permanent maintenance of these disclaimers is one means of attempting ongoing resolution efforts.

Issue: Off-Site Reaction

Details: Any act involving the works of Bright will inevitably attract attention from the off-site portion of our community, which may not be fully informed and may also not be aligned with our own opinions on the matter. Reaction to this proposal in particular may result in the impression that staff has chosen to do little to address the underlying issues or treat the problem of Bright with an appropriate amount of care. Users who want the pages to remain should be satisfied.

Resolution: The disclaimers themselves explain the purpose of the disclaimer solution; proper outreach efforts to explain why this solution was implemented should be made in order to ensure that there is no mixed messaging. Opinions that this measure does not go far enough cannot be mitigated within the bounds of this particular proposal.

This is Resolved When: This will be ongoing indefinitely, but implementing the disclaimers and ensuring our intentions with them are made clear to the off-site community will address most of the issue.

Issue: Issues Regarding Staff Mass Deletions

Details: The ability of staff to mass delete SCP Wiki pages, as has been suggested with Bright's works, is contested.

Resolution: This proposal involves no mass deletions, and the issue is therefore not germane to this proposal. The changes proposed are minor and reversible. This may serve to assuage fears that the staff of the SCP Wiki intend to embark on any campaigns of mass deletion; it also prevents the impression that staff will engage in irreversible retaliatory action when a user has been banned by the Anti-Harassment Team.

This is Resolved When: As above.

Issue: INT Translations

Details: Many of Bright's works have been translated to other language branches.

Resolution: The other branches should be encouraged, via the Ambassador Team, to translate our disclaimer and add it to the relevant pages, with special attention given to ensuring that our altruistic reasons for doing this are clear to the staff of those branches. How they choose to act will ultimately be up to them, but a list of all translations has already been generated.

This is Resolved When: All pages translated from the works of Bright on all other language branches have the disclaimers, in the relevant language. This will be a lengthy process, but its implementation will be out of scope for -EN staff once the Ambassador Team has contacted each branch and explained the situation and our wishes.

What Pages are Addressed by This Proposal?

Content Warnings: The following list features mentions of pedophilia, sexual abuse, beastiality and grooming throughout.

+ Show All Pages

Step-By-Step Breakdown:

  1. Pre-Implementation (Approx 14 days)
    • Staff will draft an appropriate disclaimer to be placed over each of the articles.
    • This process will involve both AHT and Community Outreach, based on both the user in question, and the role of the Community Outreach team on effective public-facing communication.
    • This disclaimer will provide as much information as the SCP Wiki can provide within the bounds of legality. Additionally, this disclaimer will need to be clearly presented as an out-of-universe statement, and provide relevant links to Bright's AHT record.
    • Should the need arise, a component for this disclaimer can be created for ease of application.
  2. Implementation (Approx 1 day)
    • The disclaimer (manually or via a component) is added to each of Bright's articles.
    • With the disclaimer in place, the text of each article will be placed in a standardized collapsible beneath the disclaimer.
    • Both of these steps can be completed at the same time.

Why This Solution?:

This proposal uses Bright's articles themselves to spread awareness of their actions, framed in the harmful nature of much of their work.
Given that the SCP Wiki hosts the originals of Bright's works, and many extant links to those pages remain in the wider Internet, it's highly likely that unsuspecting persons will end up following those links to the originals. As such, the Wiki is positioned to serve as a single source of truth regarding Bright by leveraging the backlinks and the relative popularity of the articles spread. This would be done by having the articles themselves serve to inform people of Bright's actions, and warn people to avoid their further work or Bright themself.

This proposal also ensures that the history of these events and the issues which caused this abuse to be hidden in the first place are not forgotten.
These works will remain as clear evidence of what happened, and via the disclaimers and other explanations, serve to educate people on what happened, how it happened, and how to recognize it happening so that it cannot happen again. While it's inevitable that there will be individuals seeking to read these works without the disclaimers regardless, by keeping the works on the site, we can prevent such users from being driven away to any alternative sites where Bright can continue to cause harm, or spaces where their perceptions of Bright's body of work can be turned to targeted hate towards Bright's victims. Additionally, by using Bright's works as a platform of the disclaimer, rather than laying out the abuse in a disconnected AHT thread or the Bright List Deletion message, further awareness can be brought to this matter. Users encountering Bright's work will be forced to confront the information presented to them, and are provided with the information on whether or not they want to choose to engage with the author's works further or not.

Concerns:

Disclaimers may have the opposite effect of their intended purpose if placed on less-popular works, drawing unneeded attention to Bright.
Our goal with this proposal is to leverage the popularity of Bright's works on the SCP Wiki to spread the message far and wide that Bright is harmful and should be avoided. However, putting disclaimers on Bright's less-popular works, which most users may not even realize were written by Bright, may have the opposite effect — instead of discouraging them to interact with Bright or their sphere, it may pique their curiosity and encourage them to visit pro-Bright spaces in an attempt to "learn more". Furthermore, this may encourage these users to give their unsolicited opinions on Bright, sparking arguments about Bright and thus negatively affecting those with trauma surrounding Bright. Overall, this concern may not currently be sufficiently addressed by this proposal.

Readers may ignore the disclaimers.
This is true, and there is little that can be done to prevent it beyond making the text concise and the disclaimer visually arresting. Ensuring that any number of readers do see and internalize the disclaimers is, however, a net positive. That something does not solve an entire problem does not mean the problem cannot be addressed at all.

Bright may object to the disclaimers.
Assuming proper care is taken with the phrasing, the legal threat should be limited. However, it is unlikely that Bright would wish to call attention to these disclaimers.

Harmful content in these articles will not be removed from the SCP Wiki.
This is true, though the works will be gated with a disclaimer and collapsible, which may dissuade readers from engaging with the work based on the information they learn about the author.

This proposal may be viewed as an inadequate, Band-Aid solution.
This is true, as with the above concern, the works are only gated by a disclaimer and collapsible, with little else done to alter the state of the work on the site or remove it in any way.

This does little to actually address any harm already caused.
This is true. The proposal in question fails to address harm that has already occurred, and is focused entirely on avoiding future harm. Additionally, staff also understands that placing these disclaimers on Bright's work might galvanize fans to direct their harm towards public-facing victims, who have already spoken about harassment they received on account of previous staff action towards Bright.

Final Summary:

Each work authored by Bright will be placed in a collapsible, above which will be a disclaimer providing context for the author's ban so that potential readers will better understand the situation and not be pulled into said author's orbit. The pages will remain on the SCP Wiki in this altered form indefinitely. Relevant teams are:

  • Anti-Harassment Team
    • Drafting/review of disclaimer;
  • Community Outreach Team
    • Drafting/review of disclaimer;
  • Tech Team
    • Creation, implementation and/or approval of any components/listpages utilized for this;
  • Ambassador Team
    • Informing INT branches of changes, providing disclaimer for usage as desired.
Footnotes
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