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So, this began as a project Ihp and I spitballed back and forth a few months back before he left. With the format fully developed and a few articles written up, I figured I would go ahead and publish.
What this is: An attempt to create a new format and type of article by introducing Nexus Documents onto the site.
What you can do with this: anything. Go hog-wild. This was made for people to use and expand on.
I like the concept, but one thing is bugging me:
"Nexuses"
Can we do it like "Nexii" or " Nexae" ? i think that would be the correct plural for -us words, like "Cacti"
No that's not correct. "Nexus" is fourth declension and the proper Latin plural would be "nexūs". The "i" ending is for second declension nouns. We aren't writing in Latin though, but rather in English and therefore the regular plural is "nexuses" (although the dictionary also gives "nexus" as an irregular plural, presumably derived more directly from the Latin, if you prefer).
Like I said below: fake latinate plurals are almost never right.
Okay, so…
Continuing off sirpudding's mention of fake latinate words below, here's a quick lesson in plurals.
The standard English method of plural making is adding -s to the end of a word. If the singular noun ends in s, add -es. Simple enough.
There are irregular plurals, of course. The Latin plural is one of those. In Latin, a singular masculine noun ends in -us, and its plural ends in -i. (The singular feminine noun ends in -a and has a plural of -ae.) So, many Latin derived words follow that route instead: alumnus => alumni, radius => radii, and so on. Still, simple enough.
However, not all words ending in -us are Latin words. "Octopus" is the most obvious example, which actually comes from Greek with a Latin wash. But there's a whole other class of words in the English language that end in -us that aren't Latin derived: fake Latin.
Words like "cactus" and "nexus" weren't in Latin, originally, but were coined by 17th century scholars, using Latin (or in the case of cactus, Latinized) words as the basis to make them sound more erudite. As a result, it's sometimes okay to go cactus => cacti, but it's also okay to go cactus => cactuses. You don't generally see nexus => nexi, though, but nexus => nexuses.
ETA: Of course, sirpudding goes into more specific Latin detail, so listen to him.
Cacti is correct because cactus is second declension. However this is English and "cactuses" is less pretentious and goofy. "Nexi" isn't only pretentious, it also advertises your ignorance about the thing you are pretending to know better than us commoners about. If you want to be all 19th century upper class British public school about it, say "nexūs", but why are you doing this? Just wear your Oxbridge tie or whatever and leave us out of it (sorry Lord Blackwood, maybe we can just all remember you went to Eton)?
If you aren't a 19th century upper class British snob, you can probably just use English.
Also, philosophically: If there are multiple nexuses, then are they truly nexuses?
Generally speaking sure, you can say that both the Port of Long Beach and Dubai are trade nexuses, right?
The idea and concept is good, and I know that the Nexus stuff has been brought up before. I just don't know if I like them like this.
I can't judge this concept on the articles you have here, because all but one fail to really do anything with the concept. It seems interesting, but they read like they're kind of half-formed or thought-out. I don't know if that's the writing, or the format itself (and some of these seem like they'd work fine as mainlisters). While I will wait for any more possible others of these before writing them off, I'm not particularly impressed with this and how they are.
It's an idea I want to like, and one I could very easily see myself liking, but you didn't really do anything with what you have here. Bold, original ideas need corresponding execution- the worst thing you can do with this sort of work is enter half-cocked.
I just want to see this work itself out, with more people writing things. It probably would go/have gone better if it stated with works from multiple authors (which it may/may have been, I don't pay that much attention to WiPs), rather than forcing out five simultaneous articles, none of which really capture that bit of ingenuity that so many SCPs do. I would say that you can't force creativity, especially when you have to spread it so thin. If things aren't in the works now, with multiple people, I'd say that giving it a hard reset may be the best course of action.
Pros:
Cons:
Suggestion:
Gonna echo the cons here. I already don't find Anomalous Locations to be all that interesting; how does a "nexus" classification affect something like that SCP town in Kentucky that no information can escape from? I mean, what's the difference?
Also throwing my hat in the "the plural of 'nexus' should be 'nexudes'" ring.
Isn't the plural of "Nexus" "Nexii"?
Edit: Per Merriam-Webster, no it isn't. But "Nexuses" just seems wrong somehow.
This seems very similar to the log of anomalous locations, which, I might add, has gotten next to no love lately.
HF1
I enjoyed these. I think that they could use a bit more fleshing out, but overall, they are a good read. Probably my least favorite is harkness, mainly because there isn't much meat to it. But I do love making green pastures into an actual part of the site. (As apposed to a reference in a tale or two)
Edit: whiiiich now that one is gone, which makes me sad.
I like the concept, but none of these entires are anything more than uninteresting SCP articles with middling execution. The seed of an idea is here, but this needs more development time to realize its potential.
Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!
I feel like I've heard of something like this *cough* *cough* Gravity Falls *cough* *cough before. Maybe I'm being dramatic, though.
S&C Plastics (the source of Nexuses) predates both Gravity Falls and Welcome to Night Vale. Wiki is old, dog.
That said, the idea of towns that aren't quite right is probably as old as American literature itself, if not back to Heraclitus.
Haha, yeah I know it's been 7 years. I was actually going to say something about gravity falls too.
(account deleted)
