Shoot, this is good.
Agent Baker assists SCP-3961 with making the copies, after which he is given a gentle pat on the back.
I have nothing to really say other than this is the best part. :)
SCP-3961 / Discussion
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This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-3961.
I don't have a lot to say about this one. It's my attempt to mix a little bit of magic with history. I know this won't be for everyone.
I do want to whine for a bit. I feel like I've reached this opposite of writer's block: I have too many ideas I want to pursue. But I always find myself stopped. I lose interest, I come up with something new or I just don't find myself enjoying the writing process. My execution of these ideas are sloppy, and I find myself writing but ultimately getting nothing done.
Rant over.
I want to thank Zyn and
Dr Aers for taking the time to look this over quite a few months ago.
Forgot to mention, but the picture is mine. I release it to CC for anyone to use.
So… I'm not sure how I feel about this.
I feel like I've seen a similar theme (dead person is a scip that acts like dead person) before a few times, and… this isn't the best iteration of it. While the base concept is down, and your clinical tone and organization are fine, I just feel like the "emotional" impact at the end falls flat.
I initially thought that maybe I'd get more out of this if I were more familiar with the life of Taft, but I downvoted after realising that I probably wouldn't. The actions of the SCP here seem generic in such a way that you could replace the Taft statue with any statue of a member of a university faculty anywhere in the world, after changing some proper nouns, and the SCP would still have exactly the same impact. For such a common theme (as mentioned above) of 'historical ghost object' to remain fresh and interesting, I think it needs to have more unique historical detail to distinguish it.
This sums up what I was unable to explain pretty well.
Those were definitely the articles biggest weaknesses I picked up during the drafting and reviewing stage. Given the feedback, I'm not sure replacing the person would do the article any good: it would still suffer from the same problems that have been pointed out. I guess just for me, I wanted it to be Taft.
I always appreciate getting good feedback, so thank you.
Taft's soul locked inside this statue, not bad at all.
The addendum of the skip's active state was also interesting. Nothing to say more.
Upvote.
I don't actively dislike this one. I'm well disposed toward the succinct narrative, and there's a certain charm to helpful law school statue and the Foundation helping it make copies. Its lightness leaves me mostly unmoved, though, and the bit at the end about the water-stained pages was too melodramatic for my tastes.
It is certainly a divisive article, one that I completely understand why. I'm debating keeping it up or not: Is it salvageable, or is the base concept too flawed for that?
IMO, you should definitely keep this up. Sure, maybe it could use a few touch-ups in providing meatier and more-earned emotion, but the what you have already is solid as heck.
Again, that's just my take.
I'll probably do some major editing to it later today, but I think the emotion aspect fell a bit flat for a lot of people, so I'm hesitant to focus on that. I'm mostly fond of the interactions between the SCP and the Agents, and that's where I'd like to improve on.
I'd love people's thoughts on how I could improve it.
Ironically, more interaction would make more emotion, IMO. Right now it comes off as "Here's a dead guy he's kind of nice and misses his wife". Putting in more detail into his character and fleshing him out so we can get attached to him makes that quiet moment at the end way, way sadder.
It's nice to see the foundation containing things in a "nice" way for a change. The scp itself is pretty heart warming.
I think it's pretty good as it is now, if you add to it you should make sure it keeps a consistent tone.
Taking the excellent feedback I've been given into account, I have completely changed the final addendum to something more in line with the tone of the rest of the article. I know this still isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think this at least matches up with what people did like about it a little more.
This is the kind of article I like to read after a long busy day. I wish my university had a statue like this. Most of the sculptures/art installments I've seen around campus are either befuddling or terrifying.
I really like the parts with the pat on the back and the cake and the helping edit papers. Kind of reminds me of my favorite high school teachers, like my stats teacher who made the class chocolate chip pancakes after exams week and my creative writing teacher who would give feedback to kids from other classes with not as great instructors. Good people.
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page revision: 1, last edited: 25 Feb 2021 03:57
