So yeh, this is a thing.
I remember "Sortelli's Law" being a thing in one of the discussion pages, but I can't remember what or where. If anyone remembers, add it.
Rules of Thumb / Discussion
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This is the discussion related to the wiki page Rules of Thumb.
I don't want to add one since I'm not sure it'd be agreed upon, but I'd like to propose:
Law of Emotional Torque: A good article forces a strong emotional reaction, be it fright, curiosity, longing, pity, or rage. Simply being dangerous or incomprehensible isn't enough; it has to make the reader react, as well.
Needs A Name Observation: Just because it's threatening doesn't make it frightening. Danger alone will not carry an article.
I agree wholeheartedly with both of these, and am likewise unable to come up with a good name for the second point.
The first is a key rule to good fiction-writing in general. The second outlines the biggest mistake many newbie articles make.
I'm not sure that AGREEING is a problem, since there's about a third I don't agree with, but I don't know that the Author has approved of additions.
You don't read very well, do you?
This page, though, is for things the userbase in general, primarily those who have been around for a while and know how to craft good contributions, have noticed are trends or truths about writing within the SCP wiki community.
You're right - I completely skipped your intro and read the thumbs.
Conversely, you're not going to be mocked for breaking several of them:
Principle of geometric mediocrity: SCP articles wherein the SCP is something shaped like something tend to suck.
Most things are shaped like something, after all.
No, most things are something, not just shaped like something.
It's the difference between "a brass monkey" and "an amalgamation of brass in the shape of a monkey". SCP articles wherein the shape or material of an object is given greater attention than the object as a thing tend to be poorly written articles.
This applies most strongly to "shapes", articles wherein the object is "a cube of X" or "an orb of X", because they have no object to focus on beyond the shape and texture.
Except that things that ARE things don't tend to turn you inside out if you hold your mouth the wrong way.
I grant you the cubes, though. Fucking spheres, too.
(account deleted)Sal's Law:
If everybody in the chat tells you that your SCP should not be put up, it probably should not be put up.
This is funnier than most -J scp's we have around.
That said, i have a corrolary to Sal's law.
Approval of SCP in chat ,and approval of SCP only correlates reliably for extreme values. A moderate approval often means you have just met all three fans your idea will ever have.
I like the sound of that.
if your reading this your gay
Hah! Well done, Ghost.
"WELL FOUNDATION. YOU MADE IT SO EASY. SO VERY VERY EASY." - dimensionpotato
somebody has to say it. lord knows we have an abundance of "#11. Downvoted." type comments, and those just don't do anybody any good.
I'm glad this page seems to be catching on.
Is there any point at which one can start adding to this? I'd like to add one about brevity in general. Something like 'Explain your article in detail. Then give it a good looking and attach a tl;dr to it. That tl;dr is your finished article.' Or something to that effect.
…this is the second time someone has asked this.
Guys.
The first paragraph directly says "feel free to add to this".
Seriously, people, read.
I think people keep asking because I didn't want to just add what I had.
What they're missing is that it's my newness that caused me to hesitate, and ask about feedback, not a worry about not being allowed to edit at all.
Sorry Yoric.
Tweaked the Brevity Clause to more clearly state what I think was the intent; obviously feel free to knock it back if I was mistaken.
It, uh, actually makes sense now. Thank you for that.
I like this page.
Added a tidbit from Gears that I found in the discussion for SCP-356.
/forum/t-369784/rules-of-thumb#post-
page revision: 2, last edited: 15 Jan 2023 15:06
