On the upcoming 2000 contest...

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On the upcoming 2000 contest...

AdminBright 20 Sep 2013 07:45

So, everyone who has been around for a while, may remember we did a contest to pick who got the 1000 spot. The theme of the contest was 'Urban Myths,' and it got a whole lot of real good response, like my own SCP-1337(shameless plug). But! we're coming up on the 2000s! Which means another contest, and another theme! Now, the Senior Staff has been talking it over, and we're pretty sure we've got a good one, but, on the off chance we missed something…

I'm soliciting ideas for the theme for the 2000 spot contest. What do y'all think the theme should be?

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Admin, SCP Wiki

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

EFS19 - MC_Kejml 20 Sep 2013 08:09

Something about the change of milleniums. There had been a lot of crazy going around the year 2000, be it Y2K, 2012 and the like.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Aelanna 22 Sep 2013 15:10

This sounds like a neat if boring idea for a tale contest (if it were 1999), and an absolutely terrible one for SCPs.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

EFS19 - MC_Kejml 23 Sep 2013 09:27

Well, that makes it one person that likes it and one that doesn't. I for one would really appreciate such an SCP, because we have none that I can remember about this phenomena and what better place is there than the 2000 post, who even has the cornerstone of the idea in it's number.

Maybe 2012, hmm.

Last edited on 23 Sep 2013 09:31 by EFS19 - MC_Kejml Show more

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Accelerando 20 Sep 2013 08:23

Well, we've got urban myths. Why not try for some well-known and worn out ancient myths? I know we've got a handful around, but maybe someone could put a spin on Greek myths, or another reason on how the Aztecs disappeared.

Edit: Ack, that's what I get for posting at 11 at night.
Still, Mayans and Aztecs are both pretty amazing.

Last edited on 20 Sep 2013 20:11 by Accelerando Show more

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

(account deleted) 20 Sep 2013 10:11

The Aztecs didn't disappear. You're thinking of the Maya, who also did not disappear, they just stopped building giant pyramids. There are still Mayans today, and indeed there are more now than at any time since the Spanish conquest. So not gone, just found better uses of their time than building stepped pyramids.

Also, GoI pileup! Every SCP in the contest must include at least 2-3 GsoI to a reasonably significant degree. Ideally, they should interact with one another as well as the Foundation.

Last edited on 20 Sep 2013 16:16 by (account deleted) Show more

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

RhettSarlin 20 Sep 2013 12:25

I like the GOI pileup concept, but 4 per article is overly much. Two is plenty, and I'd say one is acceptable as long as their use is extensive and it expands the lore for that GOI.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Joreth 20 Sep 2013 14:26

But that's what makes it a challenge, no?

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

(account deleted) 20 Sep 2013 14:34

If someone can use all of the GsoI, they automatically win.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

AdminBright 21 Sep 2013 05:42

I actually had an idea like this… Of course, it ends in a really bad pun…

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Admin, SCP Wiki

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Trollzaya 20 Sep 2013 23:37

Stupid question—what's GOI mean? I keep seeing it everywhere, and Googling gets me nowhere… :C

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

defuse00 20 Sep 2013 23:40

Groups of Interest.
http://www.scp-wiki.net/groups-of-interest

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vincent_Redgrave 20 Sep 2013 14:50

Seconding Accelerando's and Gaffney's ideas. Both of them seem interesting to work with.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

HammerMaiden 20 Sep 2013 12:43

Reaching 2000 entries is a sign of maturity for the wiki; a harbinger of the end of our community's adolescence. Part of adulthood is accepting your mistakes, owning them, and learning from them.

I think the 2000 contest should have to do with Foundation mistakes. An organization of this size is bound to have a few thousand skeletons in the closet: oversights, missteps, blunders and debacles. SCP-2000 should be one of those. A long-kept secret of a horrible (ethically? consequentially? in terms of the cost of human life? compromising our core values? there are a million ways to take this) mistake which the Foundation is finally willing to let out of the bag.

I know there are a couple articles which have a theme similar to this, but the Gestalt entity of the Foundation generally only allows the very loosest, most superficial hints of the underlying incompetence inherent to gigantic, bureaucratic organizations. It's time for us to stop pussy-footing about and own up to it.

What do you reckon such a horrible mistake that it's been kept quiet for over a hundred years might be?

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Mistbourne 20 Sep 2013 13:01

I like it. 8900-EX is a good example of something that broke containment so catastrophically that the Foundation had to deploy a specially-developed amnestic to make it the "new normal". If we've got one, we have to have more.

While uncontained SCPs normally hit my "downvote" button, something at large, or only contained after massive loss of civillian life and nearly breaching the veil, would work for this.

I actually have an idea along those lines…

Last edited on 20 Sep 2013 13:02 by Mistbourne Show more

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

FaustoV 20 Sep 2013 18:24

I've got an idea liek thata s well <_<

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Harriot 21 Sep 2013 00:42

This. I like this very much.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

thedeadlymoose 21 Sep 2013 07:00

Not a bad idea, though it does sound a little like extant SCPs — as you acknowledge.

But… you gotta keep in mind that surviving entries will become SCPs in their own right. Might not work out so well with several dozen of the 2000 block being "dark terrible secrets"… although who knows, maybe that could still be fun. At the very least, though, it would undercut the winner. And things might get derivative fast.

Also this might have a leetle too much in common with my own SCP-1000, although that's not something the Foundation itself did.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

HammerMaiden 23 Sep 2013 13:29

Hm. Guess you've got a point. Too many people doing this kind of trope would run it thin really quickly. All the same, I feel like there's too much "super competence" in the head-canon around here.

Yes, the Foundation is a group of consumate professionals with a very important responsibility to uphold normalcy and protect mankind from the monsters lurking around the corner of perception. But it's staffed (almost) entirely by H. sapiens, which the historical record shows are prone to serious lapses in judgment on a regular basis. If you add the horror of bureaucracy on top of that, and this atmosphere of clandestine secrecy, you have a situation where several parts of the organization will have no idea what their neighbors are doing.

The volume of chaos that kind of situation generates is enormous, and I think it's underrepresented at the moment.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

anqxyr 21 Sep 2013 12:08

This is a nice idea.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Runic 22 Sep 2013 09:40

Anything that gives insight into the Foundation itself, whether that be the inner workings or its history (both of which this covers), is great in my book (so long as it's well written, of course).

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Garrey 20 Sep 2013 14:30

I'd like to see back-to-the-roots minimalism as a theme. No interviews, no researcher notes, no D-class mauling. Just description, image and containment procedures.

Hinted-at back-stories and circumstantial tests and logs are good devices to make a decent idea into an excellent read, and a lot of modern entries put them to good use. But they often lack the impact of a raw idea that draws from the concept itself. With 2000 entries fleshed out it might be hard to come up with such an idea (if it can be done at all), but then again, it's a contest.

SCP-173 is sometimes put down as only being so highly rated because it happened to be the first, but in spite of its age and dated writing, it has a lot of good concepts going for it.

So the idea would be to come full-circle by writing an entry similar in style and impact as SCP-173, but which appeals to modern sensibilities.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Mulciber 20 Sep 2013 23:30

Yup. This.

While all the GoIs and canons are testaments to the diversity of ideas and talent available, a "back to basics" contest would be quite the challenge.

No GoI links, no canon links, no staff characters, just an anomaly, its containment, a picture, and a thousand words.

The perfect dossier.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

marslifeform 21 Sep 2013 00:56

Isn't this exactly what Gears' challenge was?

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vincent_Redgrave 20 Sep 2013 23:31

This would be cool, too.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

(account deleted) 20 Sep 2013 23:40

I was thinking about posting this, and posted it to Thread instead, if only because I don't think it's a theme so much as a format.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

thedeadlymoose 21 Sep 2013 07:02

This might be an interesting contest idea even if we don't use it for now.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

infinity421 20 Sep 2013 20:21

Wow, two thousand SCiPs…

Shivering with excitement, here. Perhaps I'll finally have worked up the courage, writing ability, and ideas to write an SCP by the time we're having our three thousandth SCP contest. My prose is usually too beige or purpley or SCP.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Rejekyll 20 Sep 2013 23:48

Gods. Must be fairly well-known and from a non-modern religion like Greek, Hindu, etc. The main thing I like about this idea is that it's in the same vein as the 1000 contest was in.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Accelerando 20 Sep 2013 23:56

Why can't we have obscure gods, like Cyamites, demi-god of the bean?

Honestly though, I think this could work.

Last edited on 20 Sep 2013 23:56 by Accelerando Show more

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vincent_Redgrave 21 Sep 2013 00:05

Muahaha… I could write up Lonnie/Lono for this one. Or maybe Mr. Swift.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Djoric 21 Sep 2013 02:51

I like this idea. Greatly.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Aelanna 21 Sep 2013 03:01

Part of me is amused.

Part of me thinks there will be a massive, catastrophic flood of Mary Sue humanoid entities.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vincent_Redgrave 21 Sep 2013 03:13

Simple… To stop that, we ban war gods and love/sex gods. (Sadly, this would exclude Lono).

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Joreth 21 Sep 2013 03:34

why did u delete my entry u said no sex&love gods & war gods & my god was the god of horror&death&spooky&terrerists pls undelete my entry pls pls pls

Hey, mods, um, I think you're being really baised here, I mean, I know my entry wasn't the best, but I'm pretty sure my entry about god of beauty and purity isn't against the rules, and compared to some really confusing entries I think my straightforwardness stands out. She is 6"2' and shoulder length golden hair that reflects light in a way it shimmers. Her eyes are of variable color, as it reflects the soul of the viewer. Her powers of bringing out the purity within people has been used to redeem obedient D-classes. There isn't any rule against this. I spent a lot of time on it, and my followers on dA and tumblr all gave me pretty positive comments about it.

YOU CANNOT DELETE THE GOD OF DEATH METAL IT'S APOLLO WITH A MORE MODERN TWIST

I thought the god of sushi was a good idea ;-;

You mods are just afraid that my Baby Odin would beat your own shitty gritty entries so you deleted my entry screw you all and your circlejerk

Yeah I don't think banning any type of god would help

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

(account deleted) 21 Sep 2013 03:47

YOU CANNOT DELETE THE GOD OF DEATH METAL IT'S APOLLO WITH A MORE MODERN TWIST

I'm fairly sure Apollo would've hanged himself upon listening to what Justin Bieber has wrought.

…actually, that's not a half-bad idea. Apollo hanging himself because all of his children (read: musicians) are butchering music, but people are keeping him alive because he's a sun god, and if he dies… 2000 years of Darkness.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

marslifeform 21 Sep 2013 19:36

Write it.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Photosynthetic 21 Sep 2013 20:47

Write iiiiiit.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

EFS19 - MC_Kejml 21 Sep 2013 09:29

Can you please link me to similar real comments on scp-wiki? I am just curious and up for a sensible chuckle

Last edited on 21 Sep 2013 09:38 by EFS19 - MC_Kejml Show more

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Joreth 21 Sep 2013 18:10

None exist that I could find because they all got deleted along with the pages they exist on :3

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vincent_Redgrave 21 Sep 2013 14:20

Fair points. I just thought that the two I listed would lessen the brunt of the whole thing, since most people immediately go to "Badass Immortal" or "Pretty person what everyone loves" when they go for Suetasticness.

Maybe if we have people to invent their own gods? Might lead to some Discworld-esque hilarity/awesomeness.

(Or Soulberg-ish hilarity)

_{also I want some of moose's popcorn from this potential mess}

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

thedeadlymoose 21 Sep 2013 05:42

Simple… To stop that, we ban war gods and love/sex gods. (Sadly, this would exclude Lono).

Or we don't, and sit back and break out the popcorn.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

FaustoV 21 Sep 2013 12:35

Some men just want to watch the world burn…

I didn't know there were mooses on that list…

Last edited on 21 Sep 2013 12:35 by FaustoV Show more

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

(account deleted) 21 Sep 2013 14:12

Or we let shitty entries get deleted instead of saying "but the contest!!11" and then we tempban people who repost the same shitty entries without editing.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vezaz 21 Sep 2013 15:05

It's true, if only we had some method for removing bad articles from the site…

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I sing of arms and the man
Storm-tossed by Hera's jealousy

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

MackDaddy 21 Sep 2013 15:14

^{mind =BLOWN!}

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

thedeadlymoose 21 Sep 2013 07:04

Must be fairly well-known and from a non-modern religion like Greek, Hindu, etc.

I don't like this limitation. Otherwise, 'gods' is a pretty cool idea.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

anqxyr 21 Sep 2013 12:04

^ this, very much.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Rejekyll 21 Sep 2013 15:21

Here's my reasoning: I want the entries to have a sort of mythic feel, no matter how they're written. This will occur as long as the source material also has that feel. Anubis has that feel. Inari has that feel. Czernobog has that feel. Lord Xenu, though? A Wiccan goddess? I don't think they do. So I think that allowing them would stray from the theme of the contest.

Why I said fairly well-known should be obvious. Really obscure gods are far less interesting as source material than more famous gods. Now, fame is subjective, but you get the gist. Doesn't have to be uber-famous, just someone that not every reader will have to Google once they hit the Discussion.

I'm not unequivocally opposed to tweaking the guidelines, but I'd like to see your reasoning since I disagree.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

anqxyr 21 Sep 2013 16:26

I personally don't want a contest that focuses just on particular gods because I think it would prevent some great entries from been written.

I want to read about newer gods. I want to read about gods that very few people know about. I want to read about made-up gods, and gods who think they're made up. I want to read about the giant furnace in the sky that rips gods apart and from their bones forges new pantheons. I want to read about a little house in the middle of nowhere, in which each object has its own god. I want to read about Foundation rewriting dictionaries and influencing mass media to change the definition of the word "god" in order to contain the deity of memes. I want to read about the birth of the first god. I want to give the people on this site an epic theme and see all the awesome things they will do with it.

Reading eight different takes on Zeus, not so much.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Djoric 21 Sep 2013 17:06

I concur with this post in its entirety. Making it solely about big, well-known gods seems to just be a thoroughly stifling limitation. If anything, this should read like a jolly jaunt through the Horizon Initiative's record room.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Rejekyll 21 Sep 2013 17:47

Eight posts about Zeus would indeed be boring, though I still stand by what I said. However, I am very opposed to the idea of allowing made-up gods — at least for the contest. There is more than enough material in the real world.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vezaz 23 Sep 2013 15:21

Why place any limits on creativity? Especially considering that the 1000 contest was about real life legends. Let people make up what they want, if they do it poorly we'll downvote.

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I sing of arms and the man
Storm-tossed by Hera's jealousy

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Rejekyll 23 Sep 2013 20:04

Because "made up gods" and "real gods" are two very different contests, just because of the way they'd end up working. Like I said, if more people think that making up gods would be better, then go for it; I'm still very opposed to it (as the 2000 SCP contest) though.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Runic 22 Sep 2013 09:37

I'd like this, if not for the fact that we'd have a dozen gods running around afterword, and I feel like it would instantly become stale if that happened.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

ObserverSeptember 21 Sep 2013 01:15

Ancient SCPs.

Please note, I'm not talking about myths. I'm talking about an anomalous artifact that has been around so long it was contained by ancient civilizations, and continues to be contained. Something like SCP-1732, but less visible and still active.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

b1uJ4Y 22 Sep 2013 13:39

This sounds awesome, but I kind like the gods idea more. Also, does anyone know when the contest starts?

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vincent_Redgrave 22 Sep 2013 14:49

Probably once series 2 closes in on being completed. I wasn't around for the 1000, but I doubt they'd start a contest without leaving room for people not interested/can't come up with ideas for the contest to continue posting other skips, then officially open the series 3 to non-contestants once all the first two blocks are full.

Note: This is all conjecture, I have no actual idea.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Pig_catapult 21 Sep 2013 03:46

I made the suggestion elsewhere that it be some sort of original creature that nonetheless has the feel/flavour of being something out of folklore or a fairy tale.

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Piffy is an SCP Foundation Moderator, Lv. 9001 Squishy Wizard, and Knight of the Red Pen.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vezaz 21 Sep 2013 03:50

I like this one very much.

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I sing of arms and the man
Storm-tossed by Hera's jealousy

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

anqxyr 21 Sep 2013 12:06

I would very much like to read more skips that are original creatures with the folklore feel. However, I don't like this as the topic of 2000 contest. That would be too close to the 1000 contest I think, and I'd prefer something different.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Vezaz 21 Sep 2013 03:52

For the 2000 series I'd like to see us reach for terror. Something to cause real fear in the audience, back-away-from-the-monitor-for-a-while scary. We've got 2000 articles that cover the whole spectrum from funny to enigmatic to horrifying; I'd like to see a showcase in terror.

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I sing of arms and the man
Storm-tossed by Hera's jealousy

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

EFS19 - MC_Kejml 21 Sep 2013 12:34

Yup. Something that would terrify even the guy who read every SCP, twice and backwards.

Re: On the upcoming 2000 contest...

Runic 22 Sep 2013 09:35

I'd love this so much. I feel like this site has moved too far away from the scary stuff, and a flood of genuine horror would be, in my opinion, the greatest thing that could happen to this place.

Last edited on 22 Sep 2013 09:44 by Runic Show more

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