Notice: This page is currently unfinished. While it is intended for public viewing, keep in mind that its contents are subject to change, and do not yet represent immediately actionable staff policy.
For all staff: Feel free to 'be bold' and add any suggestion you see fit to this page. We're still spitballing.
We anticipate that once we have acted upon the Bright Works project, a large number of Bright's SCP slots will have been deleted, with their slots released to the userbase and new articles taking their place.
While this process appears simple in principle, we need to release the slots in such a way that the harm caused by Bright is minimized. Because many slots containing Bright works are low-numbered slots that users consider valuable, the release schedule we choose should minimize conflicts relating to these slots, as these conflicts will likely bring up Bright. We ideally want to minimize further discussions regarding Bright because we do not want to publicize Bright and we do not want to expose those with Bright-related trauma to more Bright-related content. This means that this slot-replacement process, should, to the average user, appear as "invisible" as possible.
Here are the following variables we should determine:
- Slot Recycling Frequency — How often will slots be released?
- Instantaneous — All recyclable slots will be released immediately.
- Staggered — One recyclable slot will be released at an interval. (e.g. "one slot will be released per day")
- Batched — Several recyclable slots will be released at an interval. (e.g. "five slots will be released on Friday of each week")
- Slot Recycling Interval — For recycling strategies that don't release them immediately, what will trigger the next slot(s) to be released?
- Fixed — The next slot(s) will be released after a fixed amount of time. (e.g. "once per day")
- Stable Replacements — The next slot(s) will be released once the replacement work(s) have reached a stable threshold of vote stability. (e.g. "once the new article(s) in the current batch of slot(s) has/have reached a +10 rating)
- Slot Recycling Order — Which slots will be released first?
- Random — Slots will be released randomly.
- Most Prominent First — The most prominent/harmful of Bright's works will be released first.
- Slot Recycling Publicity — Will we announce slot releases anywhere?
- No Announcement — Slots will be released silently; it will be up to the users to claim them on their own initiative.
Other questions to answer:
- Who will know slots will be released ahead-of-time?
- Who will be responsible for releasing them?
- Who will be prohibited from taking slots once released? For how long will they be prohibited from doing so?
More specific ideas:
Staggered Batches.
Releasing slots in staggered batches. Once the current batch of slots has been completely filled with pages with a +10 rating or above, the next batch will open.
- Pros:
- Requires zero coordination between staff and users.
- Simple to implement.
- Prevents a chaotic rush to claim all slots at once.
- Cons:
- Spreads out the process over a longer period of time.
Immediate Release.
This proposal would release all the slots immediately.
- Pros:
- Requires zero coordination between staff and users.
- Simple to implement.
- Will, in theory, resolve nearly all slot conflicts almost immediately.
- Cons:
- The large number of 'desirable' slots being released all at once will cause chaos and a mad rush.
- Low-quality articles may be posted, deleted, and replaced again, resulting in more undue attention on the slots.
Assigned Release.
Having slots be assigned to specific authors ahead-of-time so that it is likely a stable, uncontroversial draft will end up in them and so conflicts between authors are avoided. To avoid bias, the authors could be chosen via lottery, a neutral third party, or prioritizing victims of Bright.
- Pros:
- This will obviate arguments about "who gets what slot", reducing drama.
- All slots can reliably be replaced immediately.
- Cons:
- Complicated to implement.
- People will complain if they don't get the slots.
- Requires coordination between dozens of chosen candidates — what if people inevitably flake or are delayed?
- Requires that we collect a list of candidate authors, which will inevitably cause avoidable spectacle.