Site News Hub

Note: These are different from the main page's news and the Archived News. Those are for live updates on the site's workings, policies, and projects. This is a summary for site articles and fandom creations for the month in whole, posted at the beginning of each month. If you wish to comment on this news series as a whole, or make suggestions, please comment on this hub instead of the individual pages. Please do not add rating modules to any of the individual pages.

rating: +301+–x
rating: +301+–x

What this is

A bunch of miscellaneous CSS 'improvements' that I, CroquemboucheCroquembouche, use on a bunch of pages because I think it makes them easier to deal with.

The changes this component makes are bunch of really trivial modifications to ease the writing experience and to make documenting components/themes a bit easier (which I do a lot). It doesn't change anything about the page visually for the reader — the changes are for the writer.

I wouldn't expect translations of articles that use this component to also use this component, unless the translator likes it and would want to use it anyway.

This component probably won't conflict with other components or themes, and even if it does, it probably won't matter too much.

Usage

On any wiki:

[[include :scp-wiki:component:croqstyle]]

This component is designed to be used on other components. When using on another component, be sure to add this inside the component's [[iftags]] block, so that users of your component are not forced into also using Croqstyle.

Related components

Other personal styling components (which change just a couple things):

Personal styling themes (which are visual overhauls):

CSS changes

Reasonably-sized footnotes

Stops footnotes from being a million miles wide, so that you can actually read them.

.hovertip { max-width: 400px; }

Monospace edit/code

Makes the edit textbox monospace, and also changes all monospace text to Fira Code, the obviously superior monospace font.

@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Fira+Code:wght@400;700&display=swap');
 
:root { --mono-font: "Fira Code", Cousine, monospace; }
#edit-page-textarea, .code pre, .code p, .code, tt, .page-source { font-family: var(--mono-font); }
.code pre * { white-space: pre; }
.code *, .pre * { font-feature-settings: unset; }

Teletype backgrounds

Adds a light grey background to <tt> elements ({{text}}), so code snippets stand out more.

tt {
  background-color: var(--swatch-something-bhl-idk-will-fix-later, #f4f4f4);
  font-size: 85%;
  padding: 0.2em 0.4em;
  margin: 0;
  border-radius: 6px;
}

No more bigfaces

Stops big pictures from appearing when you hover over someone's avatar image, because they're stupid and really annoying and you can just click on them if you want to see the big version.

.avatar-hover { display: none !important; }

Breaky breaky

Any text inside a div with class nobreak has line-wrapping happen between every letter.

.nobreak { word-break: break-all; }

Code colours

Add my terminal's code colours as variables. Maybe I'll change this to a more common terminal theme like Monokai or something at some point, but for now it's just my personal theme, which is derived from Tomorrow Night Eighties.

Also, adding the .terminal class to a fake code block as [[div class="code terminal"]] gives it a sort of pseudo-terminal look with a dark background. Doesn't work with [[code]], because Wikidot inserts a bunch of syntax highlighting that you can't change yourself without a bunch of CSS. Use it for non-[[code]] code snippets only.

Quick tool to colourise a 'standard' Wikidot component usage example with the above vars: link

:root {
  --c-bg: #393939;
  --c-syntax: #e0e0e0;
  --c-comment: #999999;
  --c-error: #f2777a;
  --c-value: #f99157;
  --c-symbol: #ffcc66;
  --c-string: #99cc99;
  --c-operator: #66cccc;
  --c-builtin: #70a7df;
  --c-keyword: #cc99cc;
}
 
.terminal, .terminal > .code {
  color: var(--c-syntax);
  background: var(--c-bg);
  border: 0.4rem solid var(--c-comment);
  border-radius: 1rem;
}

Debug mode

Draw lines around anything inside .debug-mode. The colour of the lines is red but defers to CSS variable --debug-colour.

You can also add div.debug-info.over and div.debug-info.under inside an element to annotate the debug boxes — though you'll need to make sure to leave enough vertical space that the annotation doesn't overlap the thing above or below it.

…like this!

.debug-mode, .debug-mode *, .debug-mode *::before, .debug-mode *::after {
  outline: 1px solid var(--debug-colour, red);
  position: relative;
}
.debug-info {
  position: absolute;
  left: 50%;
  transform: translateX(-50%);
  font-family: 'Fira Code', monospace;
  font-size: 1rem;
  white-space: nowrap;
}
.debug-info.over { top: -2.5rem; }
.debug-info.under { bottom: -2.5rem; }
.debug-info p { margin: 0; }

Site News Hub
« September 2023 | October 2023 | November 2023 »

DISCLAIMER: This is the Site News for the English Branch of the SCP Wiki. The opinions of the individual members of the Site News team that are presented in each edition of the Site News are their own thoughts and are not meant to be representative of the Site News team as a whole nor are they representative of the staff body as a whole. If you take issue with any of the contents, then feel free to reach out to the editor(s) and they will review the contents to see if there are any edits that need to be made. We intend to always deliver interesting content to you, and we understand that there may be times where controversial or unpopular opinions will be presented whether by our writers or our editor(s). Thank you for your understanding!

Editorial


On the SCP Wiki, there are 48 canons, each a completely separate setting of the SCP Universe. SCP Wiki author RallistonRalliston is the first person to have written for every single one. This is a monumental undertaking, so Site News Team asked Ralliston for an interview to get some behind-the-scenes perspective on what it was like to write for every canon. You can read it below!

Writing for every canon is a huge undertaking! What inspired you to write for every canon on site?

It definitely was quite challenging! I actually can't quite remember what made me want to do it in the first place (it's been more than 2 years since I initially started the challenge) but I am fairly certain that UraniumEmpire's Authorpage was what sparked the initial idea for the challenge. Right at the top of the page, there is a hidden collapsible that shows what UE wants to do before they leave the site — and one of those goals is writing for every canon. I can't say for certain if this is all that made me want to take on the challenge — I've definitely enjoyed reading and writing interconnected stories here on the site even before I decided to start my challenge, so it didn't entirely come out of nowhere — but it definitely had a major impact on my undertaking.

What has been your favorite canon to write for and why?

There's been quite a lot of very fun canons along the way, but if I had to pick one, I'd probably say Cool War 2. CW2 is little more than a collection of titles, of short and chaotic prompts for stories vaguely focused around anart. And, honestly? I really dig the freedom it offers. The concept of CW2 might seem silly on the surface (and trust me, the canon is very silly, but still), but the way it's presented almost immediately gives you a decent idea of what you want to do for it — the themes of your article are immediately clear due to the prevalent anart motif the canon has going on, and the wonderfully unhinged titles it offers are absolutely fantastic prompts for your imagination.

What has been the most difficult canon to write for?

Either Doctors of the Church or Bellerverse. They are the only canons for which I had to try and write for more than once. Some months ago, I wrote a piece set in both of them, trying to bypass having to spend a lot of time writing for two canons I didn't really quite enjoy. It failed, which forced me to come back to the drawing board — and also made me lose all my energy to actually write for them, since the thought of needing to do more work for two settings I didn't really like wasn't the greatest. In the end, though, the work paid off. Failure might not feel so good, but it did leave me with some lessons in mind going forward — lessons which I applied when writing my two next (now thankfully surviving) pieces for both of these canons.

Do you think your canon project has helped bring attention towards smaller and lesser-known canons?

I like to think so! I don't want to blow my own trumpet here, but I do think I have noticed an uptick in discussion regarding some older canons around a few SCP-focused servers. In particular, I think that my contributions to Cool War 2 (of which there have so far been 5) and my general enthusiasm towards the canon and writing for it helped with its small quasi-revival that happened around two years ago.

If an author is trying to write for a canon they have never written for before, would you have any tips for them?

Read. Read, read, read. Getting through the hub might introduce you to core concepts and themes of the canon, but without actually delving into its works you can't get the vibes its articles are going for, you know? Ideally, you'd read the pieces most significant to the canon as a whole. You should do this, and — where possible — ask around: ask people who created the canon and those who have already contributed to it. Communication is key, and all that.

What do you think makes a good canon?

Streamlined, creative universality. Ideally, I think, a good canon should be able to handle many themes and topics — it should be more than just a single series with a fixed beginning and end, without much place to explore new ground. A good canon is one that leaves room for new pieces whilst still having a strong, central concept that carries it forward — one that both reimagines already familiar elements of the setting and gives the reader some new exciting ideas to sink their teeth into.

Have a free plug! What’s your favorite thing you’ve written during your canon project?

I do think that Free Bird is not only the best piece I've written for the canon challenge but just one of my best pieces in general. It's a very personal tale of self-hatred, self-discovery, and freedom. Please do be aware that it is quite a heavy piece — the content warnings should speak for themselves.

Last question. Is there anything else you would like to say to all the readers out there?

Write for your friends's — or anyone else's, really — stuff! Be it series, canons, Sites, characters, or places: there really are little better ways to push your comfort zone and improve as a writer than exploring new, uncharted literary territories. And I'm sure that your friends would very much appreciate you doing this.

- By ParallelPotatoes

Remix-Con was a contest that many people entered, but only a few could win. With Long Arm LarryLong Arm Larry being the winner of the SCP category of Remix-Con 2023, the Site News team has decided to interview them to figure out their inspirations for their entry.

Why did you remix this article? Did you see something that needed fixing, or was it to pay homage? Is there a reason you chose a Reagan article?

The most interesting part about the contest to me was that each remixed work necessarily made a statement about the work it was remixing via the contrast between it and the original work. the author says something via their omissions or additions — this is what the work lacked, this is what it could have been. This was a very interesting opportunity to do something artistically that I think a lot of people just sidestepped to make articles that were inspired by an on-site original but didn't really do much to actually reflect or play with the original content, functioning either essentially as just a continuation or as an independent piece. Which is fine, really, it resulted in lots of great stuff, but to me, this was a chance for a lot of extra depth I really didn't want to miss out on.

1981 was a very happy coincidence because it provided both a legendary and well-known original so that any statement I made would actually land both ways and complex enough subject matter that I had room to do something interesting with it.

What inspired you to make the changes you did? What made you decide to portray Reagan the way you did? Did how he handled the AIDS/HIV crisis in real life inspire what you decided to do in your fictional portrayal?

I mostly just wanted to really dig into what exactly makes Reagan so vile. A lot of handlings of him tend to sink into sort of broad-strokes takedowns about his general conservatism – which aren’t exactly wrong, to be clear, but somewhat sidestep the truly heinous stuff he did.

Reagan’s portrayal in the article is a bit of a deliberate caricature. the real Reagan was charismatic and smooth, but fundamentally a shell of a man -– not the villainous arch-conservative demon he’s written as. This was both artistic intent and the result of me only having so much time to research the article – perfecting Reagan’s mannerisms would have required a lot of time for very little reward, and for the point of conveying the story and emotions that I wanted to the caricature works well enough.

As you remixed a Reagan article, What is your opinion on the SCP Reagan trend? Do you feel like any of the other Reagan SCP articles could use a remix as well?

I don't really have much of an opinion on the trend. He's a prominent political figure, so he's prominent in the consciousness of the wiki. So it goes. From what I’ve read of the other Reagan articles, I wouldn't really say any could "use" a remix — although Apotheosis of the Rat is fantastic, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested.

Do you like your article or the original better?

I think it's hard to say I "like" one better. A piece of historical fiction about the AIDS epidemic is in a completely different league compared to what is essentially just a very well-executed lost media creepypasta. If I had to sit down and evaluate how 7918 and 1981 perform in their respective genre, I would say 1981 outclasses it by orders of magnitude. its status as a classic is well-deserved.

What is your favorite entry of remix con besides your own? Is there another article you almost went with instead?

I really quite liked CO█VE█T███. personally my favorite of the tale entries — just fantastic prose, really great stuff.

I initially wanted to do a riff on 2798, but figured that it wouldn't really have enough appeal to be worthwhile. As you can probably tell I didn't really consider the idea much — I locked onto 1981 hard and fast from the start, and what you see is the result of that.

Thank you very much for your answers! Anything else you’d like to say?

I had a great time participating in the contest, and I appreciate everyone that's taken the time to go read and vote on 7918. Thank you for giving me the chance to talk about it! Also, check out my twitter if you want to see more about my writing both on and off-site.

- By DianaBerry

banner_4th_anniversary.png?width=1700&height=956

Congratulations to the Czech Republic branch for celebrating 4 years of being an official branch of the SCP Wiki! To celebrate this accomplishment, they are holding a JamCon with the theme of cliches! You can check out the entries here.

To hear about this achievement from a more personal standpoint, we have contacted UtylikeUtylike to talk to us about the Czech branch!

"I am simply not sure what to say. I am simply delighted to know that the project (the CS branch), which I helped create in 2019, is still alive and going strong, even if we are probably the smallest branch. I am proud to be a part of our lovely little community of writers and translators."

So you helped create it! Definitely happy to hear your thoughts! Do you have any translated articles you believe people should check out?

"Yes, I did help create it. Back in 2019, me and another user 'Hawkeye' were the original founders of the CS branch. It took a lot of effort and time on our part as well as the INT team which led us through the process but we managed to estabilish a strong and dedicated little community for our language. Since there aren't that many Czech speakers as with other languages, we will probably remain one of the smallest branches but that is alright with us. In the recent year, we've had a bit of an awakening. Last year we suffered a decline in activity but it turned to be just a temporary setback as we are now breaking our own records in activity with the latest contests seeing almost 20 contestants (please keep in mind we are a very small community). Slowly but shortly we are leading a campaign to rework many outdated and old parts of the community. Now, as for the translations, that is perhaps one of our biggest weaknesses and I personally wish to remedy that in the following months. Our international representation. As of right now, there are only a handful of translations from Czech to English on the INT wiki and they are mostly… not our best? I am almost ashamed of that fact so yes, we will be working on it soon. But I can tell you, that our first step is to translate the winner of our current Jamcon! So there's that to look forward to!"

Alright! Well thank you very much for your answers, I can tell you're passionate about your community, even if it's small. The number doesn't matter, the amount of love in it does.

"Exactly! Thank you so much for offering us a little spotlight in your Site news. ❤️ We are honored to be a part of this incredible project and community."

- By DianaBerry

image.png?ex=6518d000&is=65177e80&hm=3a1e60b8ae657b2d2da744f2dedcd7e0af2b85d6939840da03d6f4f4f0baec10&=

It's October, and the groups of interest are out to play! In this unofficial community-run event, a different GOI, character, or concept tag unrelated to the Foundation has been assigned to each day of October. The goal is to read articles with these tags, optionally draw artwork based off of them, or even write your own take on the tag! If you do so, you are encouraged to add it on the GOITOBER 2023 page to help share it with others. Happy reading!

- By ParallelPotatoes

Writing Prompts

Site News is bringing you monthly writing prompts! Every month there will be three user-submitted prompts to help inspire new pieces. Participation in these prompts is completely optional, and any pages based on the prompts will be featured in the next issue of Site News! If you're interested in submitting a prompt for next Site News, send a wikidot PM to ParallelPotatoesParallelPotatoes. (One prompt per person)
This month's writing prompts are below! We only had two submissions this month, but we would love to see more!

Legends Never Die Submitted by Lemonsense
There's a lot of canons on the wiki, but not all of them receive equally as much attention. Write an article for a Canon that hasn't received a new work in over a year.

SC…P? Submitted by Clives000
Despite the Foundation's best efforts, sometimes they get it wrong. Not all SCPs are dangerous, and some shouldn't be an SCP at all. Write an article or tale about a harmless, normal human, animal, object or liquid that achieved SCP status by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Why were they classed as an SCP, and will the Foundation ever realise that they made a mistake?

The following article was inspired by a prompt and written this month!

What Would You Bring? Written by Cicada3301Fan
Inspired by "A tale about SCPs 6600 through 6699" from September 2023's prompts!

If you write an entry inspired by this or a previous month's prompts, feel free to send a wikidot PM to ParallelPotatoesParallelPotatoes to have it featured in the next Site News!

Features Last Month

Top Articles of the Month

Ratings of course do not mean everything, but they are representative of what people happened to like seeing at the time. With this in mind, the following are the top-rated works last month, so if by some chance you haven't encountered them yet, be sure to check them out!

Top-Rated SCP

SCP-7165 by HarryBlank: The Faux Pas

Are you looking for that special someone? Specifically, this special someone?

Top-Rated Non-SCP

REDTAPE HUB by Rounderhouse

A pantheon of impossibly powerful ur-deities tear into each other, destroying one another from the inside-out.

Front Page Features

Every month, an article is selected from each of the three common article types: SCP, Tale, and Group of Interest Format. These three articles are displayed on the front page for the month to bring further recognition to them.

If you would like to view the previous front page features, you can view the archive for the SCPs here, the archive for the Tales here, and the archive for the GoI Formats here!

SCP Article

SCP-6596 by PlaguePJP and LordXVNV: 8 Mile: The Beast of Lust and Hatred Born

SCP-6596 is a vaguely humanoid, bipedal entity resembling the skeleton of an adult horse.

Tale

Everchase by Ralliston

The elevator is fast. But Milo fears that the man is faster.

GoI-Format

Ambrose NYC: One of a Kind "Dining" by stormbreath

To Mr. Ambrose: What was the process that led to the creation of Ambrose NYC?

Reviewers' Spotlights

Works are featured on the site’s front page as part of the Reviewers’ Spotlight, which acknowledges the time and effort spent by forum reviewers helping other authors develop and edit and their works for the mainsite. Each month, community members are encouraged to nominate forum reviewers who have been both particularly helpful and active. Members of the Forum Criticism Team will then discuss the nominations, and select four prominent reviewers to choose the month’s Reviewers’ Spotlight front-page features.

If you would like to view previous spotlights, you can view the archive for them here!

1st of September

On the Multiversal Cargo Train by Tufto [Featured by StrangerSwing]

When the Cargo manifests, the colonists are convinced that they are Englishmen residing on the isle of Roanoke in 1585.

9th of September

SCP-7977 by DianaBerry [Featured by PoufyPoufson]

SCP-7977-2: (SCP-7977-2 giggles.) You're so silly. I don't get it.
SCP-7977-1: I don't get you either.

17th of September

The World I Knew by MisatoKS [Featured by EstrellaYoshte]

You arrive in your old neighborhood. It feels different.

25th of September

You Have a Doppelgänger. by Mew-ltiverse [Featured by Mew-ltiverse]

You have a doppelgänger. This would usually shock you. If you were anyone else.

SCP Data & Trends

All the goings-on of the site condensed into bite-sized takeaways! Is there a statistic or figure you would be interested in knowing? Let us know and we can feature it next time!

image.png?ex=651adbf5&is=65198a75&hm=876cc1e88065eef5ce87cce6e91954ab3df6c6b8ab4541e30d40aaf4d31a027c&image.pngimage.pngimage.png?width=682&height=468image.png?width=960&height=378image.png?width=799&height=468

Like before, we are still renovating this section. It will likely be a couple months, but we will soon have a nice little stats section here. In the meantime, please enjoy our monthly charts.

Also, what do YOU want to see in the monthly stats section? Any data you want to know about? Please leave a comment about it in the Discussion page or use this anonymous google form.

- By Data Analysis Team

New Content this Month

There is a multitude of wonderful works that are posted to the Wiki every month whether they be SCP articles, Tales, GoI Formats, Art pages, Author Pages, Essays, and more! Below, we have all of the creations for this month listed out by week and type (except for art pages, we did that earlier!) We have added little emojis next to articles that qualify to add some additional content. Below we have listed out the emojis we use and what they mean. Be sure to give them a look!

🤝 = Co-authored works - It is always interesting to see the dynamics of how people work together!
💯 = Articles rated at +100 and higher - These are articles that have seen success and should be celebrated for it!
📈 = SCP articles rated under +30 and Tales and GoI Formats rated under +20 - Let's show these a little love!

Week of September 1st

SCP Articles

Tales

GoI Formats

Art

Miscellaneous Pages

Week of September 7th

SCP Articles

Tales

GoI Formats

  • 📈 Pegasus - Written by Baronjoe.

Art

Miscellaneous Pages

Week of September 14th

SCP Articles

Tales

GoI Formats

N/A

Art

Miscellaneous Pages

Week of September 21st

SCP Articles

Tales

GoI Formats

Art

Miscellaneous Pages

Week of September 28th

SCP Articles

  • 📈 SCP-7908- Written by Mr Bumblebee.
  • 📈 SCP-7384- Written by Catsawesome766.
  • 📈 SCP-7478- Written by Quicksilvers.
  • 📈 SCP-7156- Written by Ismerilda_Richter.
  • 📈 SCP-6657- Written by Kera Kazuyo.
  • 📈 SCP-7210- Written by nonumb3rs.
  • 📈 SCP-7306- Written by Dr Acechyles .
  • 📈 SCP-7236- Written by Skiddy_mcdinklefump.
  • 📈 SCP-7275- Written by Jaqu .
  • 📈 SCP-7395- Written by Dr reincarnation .
  • 📈 SCP-6384- Written by Dan Weird.
  • SCP-7621- Written by ParallelPotatoes.
  • 📈 SCP 7143- Written by invader441.

Tales

GoI Formats

N/A

Art

Miscellaneous Pages

Thank you so much for reading the SCP Wiki's Site News!

‡ Licensing / Citation

News Archive

- News Archive, 2023

news-12-2023
news-11-2023
News for October, 2023
News for September, 2023
News for August, 2023
News for July, 2023
News for June, 2023
News for May, 2023
News for April, 2023
News for March, 2023
News for February, 2023
News for January, 2023

+ News Archive, 2022
+ News Archive, 2021
+ News Archive, 2020
+ News Archive, 2019
+ News Archive, 2018
+ News Archive, 2017
+ News Archive, 2016
+ News Archive, 2015
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