Topic: Compliments.
User: cptsquid MikeUseRainDance SynthPanda_ Ecronak Dc_Yerko
Summary: General appreciation for contests team

Not really a complaint at all but it seems as though events have been handled really well this year. PDcon absolutely knocked it out of the park and it already appears as though Classiccon is a huge hit. I'm not sure the right term for the more "unofficial" events (e.g. draft swap, intcanoncon, Pridefest) but those have also knocked it out of the park and have been incredibly engaging. The event staff have been incredibly diligent, both across the wiki and on the discord. I also have to give props to them with how the overlap between Pridfest and Classiccon was handled, everything was done in a truly respectful manner and was a fantastic step up from the wrathcon stuff from last year. Community Outreach also did a really good job at promoting Pridefest and seem to be doing good to promote Classiccon right now.

Now that we're a little over halfway through the year, I feel pretty confident in saying that revealing the approximate dates of (official) contests is an improvement on the way things used to operate, if for no other reason than the fact it helps fight FOMO if you don't have the time/energy to take part in any particular contest. I hope the team decides to do that again next year!

Seconded, it's amazing to have a preview of what contests are gonna hit, especially when you have a very rigid schedule and want to plan ahead. Great idea for sure!

Just wanting to say you're doing an amazing job with contest lately. Hubs are beautiful, and themes are really cool. Congratulations for that! Keep up with the great work

Everyone with positive feedback for the contests team was so kind, thank you. We’ve been trying to improve scheduling transparency and are working on a calendar to make it even better in 2026, so it’s good to hear it’s already been making a difference.

Topic: Art contest request
User: cptsquid MikeUseRainDance
Summary: A request for an art contest.

My one "complaint" is that I would like to see the art side of the wiki involved a little more in these events. I was a little disappointed when the art component was removed from whatever Classiccon was going to be but Pridefest handled art really well. Granted I am almost entirely certain my itch for an art event will be satisfied with sciptember and art exchange and I have full faith the event teams will handle those well.

Gonna mirror cptsquid's comment a bit and say that I would really like to see a fully artwork themed contest. Maybe it could even be linked with a writing contest and we have artists submit their work for writers to pick from for creating articles to attach to the pieces. I think it could be a fun indirect collaboration effort. Really any art based contest I think could be a lot of fun.

While we're still debating the feasibility of art & writing contests, we will def take the demand for an art-exclusive contest into account.

Topic: Contest schedule on contests page.
User: Wynths (For the user who raised the point, if applicable)
Summary: Put the contest schedule on contests archive page.

I think the events on the wiki are great, and that making and regimenting the calendar for the events , along with making it more visible, would be able to help shine some light on these events. I think that just adding a link under "Contest Archives" to a page like "Upcoming Events", and putting a table there with the information, would be a great move.

A schedule page with a yearly calendar is currently in the works. It'll have its own page alongside a submission form for unofficial contests to be placed on the calendar, so as not to clutter the existing archives page.

Topic: Contests Archive
User: Anonymous
Summary: User agrees with the above point

Agree with Wynths, there should be a Contest Archive page a la the Canon Hub, Curated Lists, etc.

We already have a contest archive! You can find it here: Contest Archive

Topic: Event Preparation Time
User: Anonymous
Summary: User requests additional time between when events are announced, and when they begin

Perhaps more prep time for events? i sometimes will skip them if the writing time is particularly short.

Prep time depends on the type of contest at hand, so short prep times are usually intentional. If there’s general demand that our largest contests (like Kcons) should have longer prep times, we’ll totally consider it, but as of right now that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Topic: Anthology Events
User: Anonymous
Summary: User likes anthology events

the anthology events were really cool. I appreciate the effort people put in to create unique events.

Thank you for the kind words, but we don’t run anthology! We’ll let them know you thought so :)

Topic: Pridefest Duration
User: Anonymous
Summary: User requests pridefest last the entire month

Please actually make Pride Fest last all month in the future. No interrupting it with a contest announcement ten days before the month ends, no saying "We're only doing features for half a month", none of that. The world's scary for queer folks right now and seeing an allegedly queer-friendly space take half-measures for the sake of an arbitrary schedule is disappointing.

Staff are currently working to make Pridefest an official event, so rest easy on that front! Additionally, June will now be dedicated exclusively to Pridefest, and no other official events will occur that month with the exception of five-year anniversaries. Staff discussion concluded that since we can't really move the anniversary date, five-year anniversaries will also occur in June.

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Topic: Site Staff
User: Sinking_Otter
Summary: User would like to see the Wiki's social media accounts post more frequently.

I think it would be good to see Community Outreach post more regularly on the Wiki’s official social media pages. Right now, quite a few of the official pages haven’t seen activity in months, or only see infrequent posts, which is a shame because these spaces are great ways to reach people and get more eyes on the Wiki. As it currently stands, here are the stats:

Facebook: The last post was from January 23rd, and the second last post was from August 27th 2024.

Twitter: The last post was from June 22nd, promoting Classic Con, and the second last post was from November 2nd 2022.

TikTok: There aren’t any posts by the Wiki. Further, there are only 5 reposts and 6 videos in playlists, all of which seem to have been from around 2 to 3 years ago.

BlueSky: I want to compliment whoever is running this page, as it receives fairly frequent updates that include sharing art, different works, and recent happenings on the Wiki, such as contests. However, this social media page isn’t advertised with the others in the Wiki’s sidebar. At the very least, it should be added, perhaps as a replacement for Twitter if the Wiki wants to go that route.

Instagram: Once again, I want to compliment whoever has worked on the most recent posts on this page. They’ve gotten good engagement, and people are clearly enjoying the content being posted. However, posting on this page has been infrequent. They’ve been 4 posts over the last 2 weeks, followed by 1 in May, 2 in March, then 1 on August 27th 2024. Also, there hasn't been any posts regarding contests or other Wiki happenings. While I do like the current content being posted, and it's clearly working, I do think there should be a mix of fun posts and posts about news/events, rather than purely fun.

Reddit: This is by far the most active social media page the Wiki has. Full compliments to the team that keeps this page active and moderated. They’re doing a spectacular job.

I know from experience that maintaining a social media page is difficult. Creating and posting content, reading and replying to comments and keeping the page updated with new profile pictures, descriptions, etc is hard and time-consuming. I also don’t expect Wiki to post multiple times daily or to produce highly edited content that takes hours to produce.

But there should be more frequent posts, especially on platforms like Twitter and TikTok that have seen little or no activity. There are always new/old articles and art that can be posted and promoted, as well as important events like contests or town halls like this one. And with more activity comes new eyes that will make their way to the Wiki to read and perhaps contribute. At the very least, I think a few articles being promoted each week would be a great first step, and help get more eyes on the Wiki's socials and the Wiki itself.

The Internet Outreach subteam has been having consistency issues primarily due to a lack of personnel. As mentioned in your post, maintaining dedicated social media platforms with consistent activity is a multi-person endeavor, and IO has been seeking skilled individuals to recruit for a while. We hope in the future to continue expanding IO and ensuring its operations are entirely self-sufficient and (most importantly for volunteer work) fun.

To address specific platforms:

The Facebook was largely maintained by a singular member of staff. After they retired, it largely fell by the wayside, especially due to its relative lack of meaningful activity prior besides article highlights and announcements. IO is still looking to staff the Facebook.
The Instagram was largely mirroring the Facebook's posts for much of its lifetime. As of recently, a new staff member took up the Instagram as an individual platform, and they are responsible for the platform's revitalization. We are still seeking new users to staff the platform to prevent burnout.
The Twitter and the Bluesky mirror each other's posts. The Twitter has been posting just as frequently as the Bluesky.
The Reddit has thankfully avoided burnout by being a moderation position rather than content creation position.
The TikTok has suffered from several major issues that has prevented its revitalization, namely: 1. its content creators being removed from staff due to external factors, 2. difficulty in consistently producing shortform video content, and 3. conflicts between personal monetization and staff accounts being unmonetized. IO has continuously attempted to fix these issues, but there are many other problems that we have to address first.

We will continue to recruit personnel and work on solving the issues that prevent consistency. We apologize for this turbulent period.

Topic: Subreddit Event
User: Anonymous
Summary: User requests a time to focus on lower-rated articles.

A few years ago, the subreddit did a "No Nut November" event where discussion of articles above +500 was banned. Can something similar be done again, either on the subreddit or on the main site?

We will forward this suggestion to the Reddit Subteam as a potential event (or something similar) to do in the future!

Topic: Social Media Activity
User: Anonymous
Summary: User requests that social media activity is more consistent

Hi!, I feel like the community outreach team could probably be a bit more consistent with posting in other platforms such as tiktok or Instagram because while the posts there are good, they are quite rare, with weeks long pauses between posts, which I believe could be improved

You're absolutely correct in that regard; please see our above comment in response to Sinking_Otter for further details.

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Topic: Front page layout
User: Anonymous
Summary: User feels front page should be easier to navigate.

The Front Page should be changed to be more in-line with that of The Wanderers' Library. While I am aware this is largely a Wikidot issue, tag searching is unwieldy and unintuitive, and ideally there would be an explanation of the tag if you click on it/hover over it.

The Front Page has been updated to expand on discoverability and further expound on important navigation landmarks. It is expected to be further iterated upon with further feedback and streamlining.

Topic: Additional article navigation buttons
User: Matthgeek
Summary: User thinks we could better support discoverability for highest rated articles or recent works.

It would be nice if with the spotlighted pages there were links to the highest rated article in the last month, or the most recently posted article, or some kind of "highest rated in proportion to author's overall rating". This would help solve the problem of not getting eyes on lesser known works.

These are all things a reader could figure out for themselves, but having them readily accessible drives more attention that way.

These links are present on the front page, which also leads to dedicated pages such as Shortest Pages and Top Rated in the last Month.
"highest rated in proportion to author's overall rating" is currently not feasible or difficult to implement with regards to sitewide servicing.

Topic: Issue regarding Front Page Feature selections
User: Jiwoahn
Summary: User feels that there is a bias in highlighting works of established authors on the front page.

Readers will always have a bias towards reading the new works of established popular authors first, but I think we can combat this by changing the Reader's Spotlight on the front page to prioritize first-time nominees. As in, smaller authors who haven't had a spotlight before. That way, we can give them 15 minutes of fame while also highlighting a hidden gem.

Also, the "Featured SCP" has often been one that was chosen by the same user that wrote that article. Perhaps that shouldn't be allowed?

The Reviewers' Spotlight is meant to be a reward for reviewers, not a chore, so I am hesitant to add strict requirements to what spotlighted reviewers are permitted to feature. I can recommend that reviewers prioritize spotlighting works by newer authors; ideally this would be accompanied by some resources to help reviewers efficiently find quality works by smaller-name writers.

I have no intention of disallowing self-features, especially in the cases of front-page features granted as prizes for winning contests and features granted for participation in the Critique Team mentorship flights.

Topic: Front Page Redesign
User: Jezixo
Summary: User feels the front page is too retro.

I know this has come up many times before but I figure it's worth checking anyway.

I understand that the design of the front page is almost intentionally retro, but is there any chance of a redesign project any time soon? There's a lot more it could be doing to welcome and direct new visitors, let alone reflecting the many advances in web design that have occured since 2009.

Apart from the UX improvements though, it seems a missed opportunity to showcase the vast and incredible CSS talent the wiki has today.

The Front Page has been updated to expand on discoverability and further expound on important navigation landmarks. It is expected to be further iterated upon with further feedback and streamlining.

Topic: Front Page Overhaul
User: ubergoober
Summary: User suggests a major front page overhaul.

Reform the Front Page

I've been saying this for a long time — the front page is ugly as fuck. It lacks a lot of basic design elements, accessibility features, and useful information that any modern website would have on their front page. I propose a number of reforms to the wiki's front page that would make it actually worth visiting for new and veteran members of the community alike.

Problem: The front page is not friendly to new users. Image you're just hearing about this whole "SCP" thing, and you want to know more about it. You google "scp," and the Wiki is the first link. As soon as you click, you are met with a barrage of horrendously organized and utterly useless information. The top banner shows whatever contest is going on (which new users would have no interest in), several selected works on the site (that notably do not serve as a good starting point for reading), an art carousel, and advertisements for our much less UX-challenged sister sites. Most egregiously, any usable information is relegated to the left 10% of the screen, crammed into the sidebar. One would think that a front page should entice new users into the world of SCP, but nothing on the front page achieves this goal. It doesn't even explain what the SCP Foundation is, which is plainly embarassing.

Problem: The front page is largely useless for already-initiated members. While a new user may feel that all this poorly-organized content is meant to appeal to the long-time community of the SCP Wiki, you'll find that rarely do frequent visitors of the site bother to look at the front page. The only thing it manages is to not be a complete eyesore (which it is doing a merely passable job at), as users quickly navigate away from the front page to the content they actually want to see. If the front page linked to feeds of new content, top rated content, and curated hubs, I might find myself actually using it.

Problem: The front page is terrible for accessibility. I am not an expert on this, nor am I personally affected by this, so I'll keep it brief. The front page hardly follows any guidelines for accessible UI design, and this would not be hard to fix. If the front page gets a redesign, it should be accessibility-friendly, have a clean layout, and be easy to navigate.

Solutions:

We already have a guide for newcomers, guides to reading and writing, and other onboarding resources. However, for some unknowable reason, they aren't linked anywhere on the front page, instead being relegated to a tiny box in the top left. On mobile devices (which many SCP readers access the site from), it is completely hidden unless they open the sidebar. Increasing the prominence of these introductory pages would be nice.
The Wanderer's Library, which as mentioned previously, is kicking our ass in the UI department, includes a brief primer on what their website is actually about, introducing new users to the environment and content of their website's setting. This primer, despite being located in a small innocuous text box, is leagues better than our default banner, which users may not even realize is a clickable link. Additionally, further down, they have a more in-depth, but still succint, explanation of their site so that users don't have to sift through heaps of garbage to get initiated. It would be trivially easy to explain what the SCP Foundation is on the SCP Foundation's website, but for some reason we haven't done that.
The Wanderer's Library also has a large link saying "EXPLORE THE LIBRARY" at the very top of their page, allowing users to delve into the content of their website rather than having to scan through a sidebar. While this link on WL links to Wing One (their analogue to Series 1), ours doesn't have to link to Series 1 — it could link to the latest series, the recently posted or top of the month feed, user-curated lists, or some sort of series landing page with all 9 series linked.
Some of the SCP international branches, such as -ES and -RU, have feeds linked on their front pages of new works posted. While many may raise the valid point that the -EN Wiki recieves far more new contributions (with many of them being low quality), Listpages allows us to simply have a rating threshold on how high a page must be to display. For example, we could have a small panel showing the latest 2-3 posts of, say, +25 or higher. Additionally, a similar panel showing the top 2-3 posts of the last 30 days would be nice.
I hate to say this but even the Backrooms are kicking our asses with their front page. Yes, the brown theme is kind of ugly, but the layout of their page is far more well-organized than ours is. Notably, they have a panel called "Explore the Backrooms," which links to their different content hubs. The SCP Wiki has a lot of important hubs, and many go unnoticed due to being relegated to the sidebar. A panel with links to the tales hub, canon hub, and series hub would be nice and would help with the wiki's abysmal content discovery.
All this featured content is nice, but let's be real, people don't look at it more than once a month. Either move it below the important information, decrease its size, or remove it entirely.

Ironically, I have heard these actually usable features on other sites referred to by SCP users as "content bloat," which is further proof that no one actually looks at our own front page.

I have brought these issues up in 19cord and staffcord to no avail, so here's hoping my concerns will be addressed.

The Front Page has been updated to expand on discoverability and further expound on important navigation landmarks. It is expected to be further iterated upon with further feedback and streamlining.

Topic: Front Page Overhaul v2
User: jswessler
Summary: User also suggests a major front page overhaul.

I have to agree with ubergoober a lot here: The SCP Wiki front page isn't representative of what new or experienced users are expecting from a front page. The main issue, like they pointed out, is that most of the relevant info and navigation for most users is on the sidebar. This causes experienced users to rarely use the front page (and miss out on contests, featured articles, etc.), but also causes new users to become lost, as they'll most likely look at the big highlighted sections to learn where to start, only to find that none of them are meant for new users.

I've been thinking about how to improve the frontpage navigation experience, and I think it's important to cater to the average user who just googles "SCP" and clicks on the wiki with no knowledge. These people may have been told about SCP by a friend, or played Secret Lab, or watched an infographics "top 10 SCPs that will kill you" video, and are just curious to learn more. To that end, I think the front page should provide an immediate and clear entry point for new users. To that end, here's how I think the front page should be organized:

A banner with the Foundation logo, motto, and description. I know this is here usually, but right now it's replaced with the "Classic Con" banner, which won't make sense to new users. They should have confirmation that they clicked on the right website…
On the top left: Popular articles: Love it or hate it, many new users come here initially to learn more about the mainstream SCPs. Even just adding a link to a list page with 173, 096, 682, SCPs that people are likely to have come here to see will be helpful to maintain attention from new users.
New articles over +25. I love this idea from ubergoober: The top 3 most recent articles over +25 are featured on the front page. This will give authors and high-quality articles a guaranteed chance to be featured on the front page, where new users can easily see the difference between classic SCPs and the more modern style of writing today.
Current series OR a link to each series, like in the sidebar: Again, new users want to read SCPs, not stare at cons and news they don't care about. The front page should offer an immediate way to get to SCP articles.
A few guides: I believe the most important guides and essays should have a permanent spot on the front page, at a minimum, 'How to Join' and 'Site Rules'.
A link to the forums: Self-explanatory. Forums are currently stuck in the sidebar; moving this to the main site with high visibility will probably increase traffic and help engage more users.
On the top right: Keep featured SCPs, tales, and art. Again, this offers a great chance for authors to showcase their work, as well as for new users to see the modern SCP wiki. I would move art up in the same section as SCP and tales.
Keep Featured GOI Format on the 2nd row: GOI formats are pretty daunting for new users. They're here for SCPs, and GOI's are hard to understand without at least some knowledge of SCP lore. They should stay out of the way so new users aren't overwhelmed, while keeping them accessible for users who want to see the featured format.
Move Site News to 2nd row: Again, new users probably won't care about town halls or staff fiats, they want to see SCPs.
Move the current con to the 2nd row: Again, important thing to be on the front page, but not what new users are looking for. Seeing "Classic Con" in place of the SCP banner makes me think I'm not on the right website.
Everything else can probably stay the same. Sister sites should stay, and I think we should add some more commonly used guides & resources at the bottom of the front page, as well as an about section that summarizes the SCP Foundation's out-of-universe history (or just a link to that page).

Thank you for reading my wall of text… Obviously, this is just an idea after looking at the front page for a while, but I do think changes are necessary to improve user-friendliness. Thank you! :)

The Front Page has been updated to expand on discoverability and further expound on important navigation landmarks. It is expected to be further iterated upon with further feedback and streamlining.

Topic: Front Page Overhaul v3
User: Nelen Xan-than Gum
Summary: User also suggests a major front page overhaul.

I agree too. When I first got into this website, I didn't notice that the "classic con" was the competition. Comparing it with many other websites, the "main" site is, however, the worst one I think.

Cn scp site https://scp-wiki-cn.wikidot.com

I'm from China and of course, I joined the Cn site first. I really think that its layout is far better than the En site.
On the top of the front page, there is a banner that reads, "The Foundation database is highly secret. Anyone who isn't authorized will be punished if they visit this site." (Forgive my translation). It's quite eye-catching! Newcomers will be curious about the access restriction. This banner also explains that the Foundation is a secret organization. Though it doesn't explain thoroughly, it is still attractive, appealing readers to explore more. It has a "new articles" list.

Br https://backrooms-wiki-cn.wikidot.com

I know that many of you feel superiority toward the Br site. Obviously, it's a young site. However, its layout surpasses the SCP main site. On the top, like the SCP-CN, it has a large banner with a rough description of the Backrooms:
"If you accidentally clip out of reality in the wrong place, you will end up in The Backrooms. Here, only the damp carpet reeking of decay, the maddening monotony of yellow, the endless hum of fluorescent lights operating at maximum capacity, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms await to engulf you. Should you hear something lurking nearby, God help you—for it has heard you too."
(AI helped translate). This expresses what the Backrooms is, and readers immediately understand the concept. Below the banner, it has:
• A Discord link (convenient for all users)
• A "Join the Site" link
• FAQ between them
This is far more helpful than SCP-EN! The Br-CN eliminates the chaotic sidebar! Very efficient! It also has a "new articles" list!

cn cloud scp https://scp-wiki-cloud.wikidot.com

This isn't well known, and it's considered a joke site, but it's still better than EN SCP in some ways. It keeps the messy sidebar, but has a "new articles" section. You can easily find new content!

As you see, all these sites implement this simple but effective feature! Additionally, both SCP-CN and Br-CN display Sandbox links on their front pages. Br doesn't even have a sidebar!

So here are my proposals:

KILL THE SIDEBAR AND PUT KEY FUNCTIONS ON THE FRONT PAGE

Add a header description. Prominently place "Join the site" and "Newcomer Guide" links. They are vital.
Add "newly created pages" section to highlight recent works and help new writers gain visibility.
While foundational SCPs like 173/096/049 are basic, they help newcomers understand the setting. Create a "Classic Articles" section including complex works like 2718/3125/231/3309.
Create a dedicated GoI hub.
Learn from other sites. Backrooms outperforms SCP-EN in UX despite being newer. As the Chinese proverb says: "With a keen mind and thirst for knowledge, one stoops not to ask even the humble”，let alone BR-CN just started later.

The Front Page has been updated to expand on discoverability and further expound on important navigation landmarks. It is expected to be further iterated upon with further feedback and streamlining.

Topic: RE: Front Page Overhaul(s)
User: incrediblywackycat
Summary: User support a major front page overhaul.

mirroring ubergoober's use of "abysmal content discovery".

imagine walking into a library, and every individual shelf is split into ten different vaguely related subsections that you don't know the definitions of. a library where every collection that isn't ancient or freshly published gets huddled in some dark closet in the back.

this is specifically frustrating when it comes to tag navigation. why is it that clicking on a tag brings you to the entire list, where you then have to manually find your way to the search bar to see what you actually clicked for? shouldn't it be the other way around? when i select the "eric" tag, i should actually get to see what articles are tagged with ''eric"!! i was completely baffled when first navigating this stuff because it's so unintuitive.

rather than smushing all those content hubs together on the side bar, i like the idea of a dedicated masterlist which organizes them in a simple, reader-friendly manner. then, they can branch off into more niche/specific areas.

The Front Page has been updated to expand on discoverability and further expound on important navigation landmarks. It is expected to be further iterated upon with further feedback and streamlining.

Topic: Reverse Series order on Sidebar
User: Tsercele
Summary: User suggests we reverse the series order on the sidebar, to encourage reading modern pieces.

Presently, the sidebar's UI design encourages users to start reading with Series I, which does not reflect the community's current culture or editorial standards. I think this probably contributes to the number of new users who post 2008-style articles, believing they are still in vogue.

I propose changing the "SCP by Series" module to descending order, with the latest series at the top and Series I at the bottom. This would provide some subtle encouragement for users to start with more modern articles. Additionally, if staff adds a sidebar link to the 001 Proposal landing page, it could improve visibility for those articles.

This is partly addressed with the Front Page directly linking to the newest Series.
Your suggestion will be further discussed in tandem with future plans, as we approach and surpass Series 10.

Topic: RE: Reverse Series order on Sidebar
User: MonsieurIguana
Summary: User also supports the idea, and suggests other ways to improve readership via UI design.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to reply to posts on here, but I want to heartily second with the notion that the UI design encourages new users to look at Series I SCP's. As a newer author on the site, I was quickly discouraged by the amount of criticism I received that my ideas and writing were too "series I", because earlier series (1-3) is most of what I read before trying my hand at creating SCP's. I legitimately thought, as mentioned above, that I was supposed to start with series 1 by the site design.

I would also lightly recommend that canon hubs be pushed higher, as it is an effective form of tight-knit community building and could pull people into specific niches of the community faster.

This is partly addressed with the Front Page directly linking to the newest Series.
Your suggestion will be further discussed in tandem with future plans, as we approach and surpass Series 10.

Topic: Sidebar overhaul
User: Matthgeek
Summary: User supports and proposes a sidebar overhaul.

I would love to see the sidebar re-worked.

As it is, the sidebar sits in an awkward area of not being comprehensive, but having too much stuff for a non-comprehensive resource.

It also has a lot of options that are not intuitive to people who do not have previous experience with the site, which makes things even worse.

I think the categories should be dropdown menus, so people aren't overwhelmed by the number of links. Each menu could also have a link along the lines of "what is a series?" or "what are non-article pages?"
Or if dropdowns aren't desired, then the headers could just link to other pages which provide the links and explain what they are.

Additionally, the sidebar is where people are going to check first for different things. If they don't find it on the sidebar, they might never check the drop down menus at the top right.
I am speaking from experience here, since I didn't realize there was a direct link to the guide hub until today.

Either the sidebar should be more clearly labeled as being just about discovering new articles, or more should be added to the sidebar, such as links to guides and other out of character pages.

Thank you for your time!

The sidebar is designed around being a quick navigation menu that's accessible everywhere, thus it contains most pertinent links in that regards.
Collapsible has previously been examined, but being collapsed lead to the risk of it being overlooked completely, especially at a glance.

With consideration to the site as a whole, the onboarding process for familiarizing links is being moved to the front page.

Either the sidebar should be more clearly labeled as being just about discovering new articles, or more should be added to the sidebar, such as links to guides and other out of character pages.

This previously resulted in massive bloat, so we usually seek alternative layout solutions.

Topic: Method of Saving A List of Pages
User: AJPatternsin does not match any existing user name
Summary: User requests a system to track/save/favorite pages, or see what you have rated, on the site directly.

Does everyone else have a ton of bookmarks in a folder called 'scp' in their browser too? I wish there was a system to save/favorite pages, and a way to list pages you've rated already. Is there some alternative here I'm missing? I dont want to keep fighting to keep bookmarks organized ×o×

This feature is currently available with crom

Topic: SCP Article Name and Number
User: IcePhoenix44
Summary: User things that both the article name and number should be displayed

a different complaint, minor one at that. i kinda wished the scp title shows up with the number. i felt like we are approaching to 5 digits very quickly. i think alot of users often mix up the numbers and imo it might be a little helpful for the title to show up? idk how much this helps and i wouldnt mind if this doesnt happen. just a minor suggestion ig

While technically possible, this would be highly impractical, as this would require staff to go and manually change the titles of over 9000 individual articles.

Topic: RE: SCP Article Name and Number
User: Gaster66
Summary: User supported the idea, adding that titles should appear in the newest pages feed.

Adding onto this, I'd actually love if the SCP titles showed up in the Newest/Top Rated/Shortest feeds. I don't know how difficult it'd be to do, but I feel like seeing the title for the SCP you're going to read makes it easier to stick with you. Plus, some titles are really eye catching.

Without the implementation of the previous suggestion, this would likely slow down listpages significantly.

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Topic: Technical Aspects
User: Desdendelle
Summary: HTTPS Issue

The wiki's behaving weirdly as far as HTTPS is concerned - I often get a "this site doesn't support HTTPS" page from Firefox when I open the wiki (as well as SCP-INT), but not all the time. It's been like that for years at this point.

It is possible you're using links with scp-wiki.net, which for technical reasons, is not https by itself, but redirect to scp-wiki.wikidot.com. Otherwise, https requests can sometimes be dropped/downgraded for unknown reasons, which a reload usually fixes.

This is only regarding the English site, as SCP-INT and some branches do not support https at time of writing.

Topic: Technical Aspects
User: Jezixo
Summary: Scroll to footnotes issue

Not sure if this is the case for anyone else, but the "click to scroll to footnotes" thing on footnotes has never worked for me, on PC, Mac or Android mobile. Is that a known bug?

As far as can be ascertained, Wikidot uses a jQuery version of scrollTo (as opposed to browser-native scrollTo API), which is long outdated and no longer works on Chrome and other browsers (but still works on Firefox, surprisingly.)

Reference: https://github.com/flesler/jquery.scrollTo/issues/164

Topic: Technical Aspects
User: Dc_Yerko
Summary: Accessibility

Accesibility stuff for articles could be cool. Options for colorblind people, options for people who would prefer a dark page, or options for people who wants to read an article using the standard theme.

Could be a site-wide thing, could be components.

But specially accesibility stuff can be really cool to have here

Any sitewide functions and/or accessibility options are technically difficult to implement currently.

On the whole, Tech is working on improving overall accessibility for the site as part of our audit process.
(N.B. Same as q.5)

Topic: Technical Aspects
User: AnomalySource
Summary: Bug sending user to previous site (Crossposted in Navigation)

Before I start I want to thank the staff for maintaining the wiki. Y’all are awesome

I’m curious about a specific technical thing.

When pages on the wiki are loaded they appear to load in several time. As in if hit my hotkey for the previous site I was on it will send me to one identical to my current one.

I have included a video demonstrating what I am talking about.

I’m curious about the technical reason for this occurring as it does not occur on the sandbox wiki, O5 Command, or The Backrooms wiki (which is also hosted on wiki dot).

Edit: Apologies if this is not the right place for this. I didn't see the other threads when I made this.

Staff has looked into this issue, and is narrowing down how it occurs on Safari. Investigation is ongoing at the moment. (same as no.7)

Topic: Technical Aspects
User: Arcana Nox
Summary: Dark Mode

Can we get a dark mode? Most of the time I'm here is when insomnia has struck, and opening the site is blinding.

Any sitewide functions and/or accessibility options are technically difficult to implement currently.

On the whole, Tech is working on improving overall accessibility for the site as part of our audit process.
(N.B. Same as q.3)

Topic: Theme Approvals
User: Anonymous
Summary: User feels we are approving too many themes.

Please stop approving new themes without the guarantee they're going to be widely used. Most of the themes on the site look ugly and reduce accessibility.

If any pages on the site are hard to read or otherwise possess accessibility issues, do report it to Technical Team to be addressed when possible.

"Ugly" is a subjective judgment and is beyond Technical Team purview.

Topic: Safari Mobile Issue
User: Anonymous
Summary: User has issue on navigating on Safari Mobile

When browsing the wiki through the Safari browser on mobile, every page creates several “duplicates” in my history that results in having to press the back button far more times than should be required.

Staff has looked into this issue, and is narrowing down how it occurs on Safari. Investigation is ongoing at the moment. (Same as no.4)

Topic: Accessibility of New Articles
User: Anonymous
Summary: User's device cannot process modern graphics.

"Hi, aspiring SCP author here (just waiting to turn 18 to participate). As cool as ACS and the new and unique page formats are, the device I read on can't process the graphics, so I am unable to enjoy most of the newer SCP articles (from about 4500 on, actually). Imo there should be a way to access the content without the graphical code and flashy formatting. I don't always have access to a computer, and I really would like to read more recent articles more often, to see what kind of writing style the community is looking for. Thanks!

More information is needed per your device's specification and browser version.

Most components and formatting on site are standard HTML and CSS, which should be performant on every relatively modern device and browsers.
In a pinch, your browser may have a reader mode that can be turned on, as there is no other available easy method for blocking a page's CSS.

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Wikijump (Technical Team/Wikijump Team)

3/3 Items

Topic: Wikijump status
User: Anonymous
Summary: User is unsure of the status of wikijump.

I've looked at the Wikijump site, and there has been no update for a while… is the project dead?

We are still actively contributing to Wikijump development. However due to circumstances we haven't been keeping up on putting out update blog posts - usually we only post when there are significant updates that we really wanted to talk about. But rest assured that features and improvements are still being made, just not posted on.

Topic: Wikijump status
User: Anonymous
Summary: User is unsure of the status of wikijump.

So is Project Foundation just dead?

We are still actively contributing to Wikijump development. However due to circumstances we haven't been keeping up on putting out update blog posts - usually we only post when there are significant updates that we really wanted to talk about. But rest assured that features and improvements are still being made, just not posted on. (N.B. Same as above)

Topic: Wikijump Suggestion
User: Anonymous
Summary: User has a suggestion for wikijump

If Wikijump ever happens, please consider accessibility options such as changes in text size, being able to fully hide the sidebar and top bar on any theme, and high-contrast mode. A large portion of our userbase relies on content farms that do not represent the work of this site in order to 'read' what's on the wiki because of its lack of accessibility features, on top of other technical issues.

Yes, the overall improvement of the user experience is one of the important aspects we strive for in the Wikijump project. But the core functionality always comes before polishing, and in this stage of development we focus on having a basic site that is capable of importing data from Wikidot sites and displaying them correctly. We will work on the user experience improvements when we think the underlying features are ready.

Townhalls (Events/Data Analysis)

2/2 Items

Topic: Contest interrupting Town halls
User: Anonymous
Summary: User is upset that a contest interrupted the town halls.

Last year you said you wouldn't interrupt town halls with contests, and this year, you're interrupting town halls with a contest. Again. Why do you bother responding to feedback if you're just going to fucking lie about it?

Unfortunately, while our staff teams and sub-teams do their best to communicate with each other, and avoid overlap wherever possible, we did not feel that the level of overlap would significantly impact the chance to provide feedback through town halls. While staff is an overall group, our membership is constantly in flux, and we cannot always speak to things said in the past.

Topic: Contest interrupting Town halls
User: Anonymous
Summary: User is upset that a contest interrupted the town halls.

"Is anyone on staff actually talking to each other about how events line up? This is the second year in a row where the Town Hall and a major contest have overlapped with each other, and instead of focusing on how the site should be made better, everyone is fawning over a bunch of flash fic.

Either nobody is communicating time frames for these events. nobody cares, or this is being done on purpose."

In the past, there have been issues in terms of communication between teams — we are currently in the process of addressing that internally, especially in regards to overlapping timeframes.

Bright Works Project

2/2 Items

Topic:Bright Works Project/Town Halls
User: Anonymous
Summary: User is upset that town halls were run alongside the bright works project.

Cancel this town hall until you're done dealing with Bright's bulslhit. Stop kicking the fucking can down the road.

The Bright Works Project is an asynchronous collaborative effort within staff that is unaffected by other ongoing staff efforts. Town Halls was not a factor in impacting progress within the Bright Works effort.

Topic:Bright Works Project Progress
User: Anonymous
Summary: User is upset regarding the speed of the Bright works project.

If you aren't going to do anything about Bright's works after literal years of discourse and months of public thumb-twiddling, just change the site's tagline to "Sexual Creeps and Pedophiles" because your failure to make any meaningful moves regarding his work is a tacit endorsement of them. Also unban Siddhartha.

Staff is actively continuing to work on the project, and is focused on ensuring that any solution is a permanent one, rather than a quick solution.

Article Discoverability (Curations / Community Outreach)

2/2 Items

Topic: Assisting In Visibility for Smaller Authors
User: Sinking_Otter
Summary: The user would like to see more ways of promoting works by lesser known authors, to better support equality.

The Wiki overall does an awesome job at promoting a wide variety of works on the site, but there needs to be more done to promote the works of lesser-known authors.

Throughout my almost year on the Wiki, I have noticed that there tends to be a focus on promoting works by well-known authors. This makes sense, as well-known authors have a reputation for releasing high-quality work and have also gained the trust of readers over time as a result. Thus, when it comes to selecting promotion via things like front page features, their names and works are more likely to come up, and consequently be promoted in those spaces.

But I think this has had the unintended consequence of making it much harder for lesser-known authors to have their works seen, as the majority of promotion is taken up by works that have already been seen by a large chunk of users. Further still, it creates the false illusion of an ‘in club’ so to speak that tends to promote works from certain people. I want to say I don’t think such a thing exists, but consistently seeing the same names and works in the spotlight can certainly give that appearance to new users.

Before I continue, I want to say that not every work on the Wiki can or should be given something like a front page feature. There are thousands upon thousands of works on the Wiki, and promoting each one equally is impossible. Further, not every work by a lesser-known author is a hidden gem. Any promotion of a work should be done solely based on its quality, not because the author is newer or not as well-known or the opposite.

I also acknowledge that lesser-known authors do get promotion. I’ve seen many fantastic works be promoted via features or recommendations by other users that are from lesser-known authors or new authors. Promotion for any article is possible and happens frequently.

However, more could be done, and taking action on this issue would be of significant benefit to Wiki. Promoting a wider variety of works from a wider variety of authors exposes readers to works they might've otherwise missed. Further, it'll help to bring to light canons, GOIs, etc that might've not seen a contribution to them or a work using them for some time. That in turn could see them have more works contributed to or involving them.

While I have mentioned front page features frequently here, they aren't and shouldn't be the only method of promoting lesser-known authors. Curated lists, for example, could be a fantastic way for users to find a wide variety of works from a mixture of well-known and lesser-known authors. Another method is to promote the use of the random page feature. Currently, it's very hidden away, which is a shame because I think encouraging its usage and potentially having it become more prominent is an excellent way to have works seen.

Another option is via community outreach. The Wiki has a presence on sites like Reddit, Twitter and Facebook. It would be great to see more articles posted by the outreach team in these spaces. It will bring new/returning users to the site and help get some more eyes on a variety of works.

In sum, I'd like to see more promotion for lesser-known authors, as it's an area that I think needs improvement and that can only benefit Wiki in both the short and long term.

The long and short of it is that front page features are selected in one of three of the following ways, each one less common than the last; Crit flight selection, contest winner selection, and staff selection.

Ill explain each of them.

Crit flight selection is, as stated, the most common. For these we allow people who have completed a crit flight to promote whatever they want, which most of the time, ends up being an already popular article or something they or a friend wrote. In some instances, the leading moth/butterfly may select something as well, particularly if one pair already chose an scp to spotlight and their mentee already chose something.

The second method is contest winner selection. This only happens when there's contests and front page features are usually the reward for these. Again, people either show off their own work or a friend's work.

The last and least common is staff selection, which only happens twice a year if I recall correctly. This is when someone (usually zyn) selects all three spotlight articles because there was no contest and no crit flight.

So this only comes down to one controllable vector: the staff selects.

I would be lying if I said zyn has no bias because we are all human and all have biases but I think she strikes a good balance of new and old, unknown vs known, etc.

Plus its only (at least that I can recall) only twice a year that it happens

(N.B.: same answer as q.2)

Topic: RE: Assisting In Visibility for Smaller Authors
User: Wynths
Summary: User supports the idea of curated lists

i'll second the suggestion about curated lists - having a list like "Plague Thinks These Articles Are Funny!" or "Queerious' Tale Den", would do a number for encouraging new users to both see and think about articles that the wiki in general thinks is good. it might be difficult to get people to attach their names to a list like that, but it could be worth a shot.

The long and short of it is that front page features are selected in one of three of the following ways, each one less common than the last; Crit flight selection, contest winner selection, and staff selection.

Ill explain each of them.

Crit flight selection is, as stated, the most common. For these we allow people who have completed a crit flight to promote whatever they want, which most of the time, ends up being an already popular article or something they or a friend wrote. In some instances, the leading moth/butterfly may select something as well, particularly if one pair already chose an scp to spotlight and their mentee already chose something.

The second method is contest winner selection. This only happens when there's contests and front page features are usually the reward for these. Again, people either show off their own work or a friend's work.

The last and least common is staff selection, which only happens twice a year if I recall correctly. This is when someone (usually zyn) selects all three spotlight articles because there was no contest and no crit flight.

So this only comes down to one controllable vector: the staff selects.

I would be lying if I said zyn has no bias because we are all human and all have biases but I think she strikes a good balance of new and old, unknown vs known, etc.

Plus its only (at least that I can recall) only twice a year that it happens

(N.B.: same answer as q.1)

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Topic: Technical Aspects
User: PoufyPoufson
Summary: Retaining a more reader-based design

I think we should retain the design that makes it as difficult for people to become authors as possible. The continued health of the wiki is dependent on maintaining a large, active readerbase. More resources should be allocated to reader navigation, and aid in becoming an author should be downsized and authorship disincentivized.

It's not a zero-sum game. We want to make it easier to become an author and make navigation easier for readers. Suggestions for both goals are always welcome.

Topic: Comprehensive Rules Resource
User: Anonymous
Summary: User wants a single source of truth for the rules.

I would love for there to be a comprehensive Rules document for all the different rules (forums, discord, posting, self-promotion, etc.) and at least one staff member with the job of keeping the rules document up-to-date. It's so incredibly hard to integrate into this community when there are all these unwritten rules about when and where and how often you can do things

Staff has been working on adding a comprehensive set of links to the main site rules page to address the issue of rule discovery. (Attempts to create a single comprehensive mega-document haven't gone well, so we're trying a different approach.) If you have suggestions for additional pages that should be linked, or if you believe that certain de facto rules aren't adequately documented anywhere, please leave a comment in the discussion page for the Site Rules or chat with staff in #site17 on SkipIRC or #observer-discussion on Staffcord.

Topic: Wikidot Tags Are Biased
User: Avalon3131
Summary: The current tag system promotes an 'in club' level of popularity(?)

Semi-related, but the current "tags" system also contributes to the "in club" illusion, as the requirement for making a new tag about an SCP('s title) (eg "hard-to-destroy-reptile") include "must be referenced by multiple articles" & "must be referenced by multiple unique authors". This inherently favors older &/or more popular articles getting tags about them (further increasing their visibility), while newer articles have to hope that they use the right tags to hopefully attract a reader that can increase their visibility.

Tags are descriptive, not prescriptive - its purpose is to serve as a navigational tool to assist in categorization and underpinning discoverability, not as a "reward" or some such.

As Wikidot does not have a robust tagging system like AO3's, Tech's requirements exist to prevent bloat, and establish that a tag has, or will have varied uses in the future that can't be easily grouped otherwise (as seen with many character tags, both old and new.)

While there may exist perceptions of tags as an achievement (a la Goodhart's law), this is primarily a sociological component that Technical Team has no control over.

Regarding the anonymous user who raised a complaint about a specific staff member, the message has been forwarded to the relevant staff teams.

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Cn scp site https://scp-wiki-cn.wikidot.com

Br https://backrooms-wiki-cn.wikidot.com

cn cloud scp https://scp-wiki-cloud.wikidot.com

KILL THE SIDEBAR AND PUT KEY FUNCTIONS ON THE FRONT PAGE

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