Underread and Underrated February 2021

Featured SCP!

SCP-4558: Bel1eve_1n_M1racles

985. console.log ("And the Prophet grasped the handle with both of his hands, and he opened the door.");

Featured Tale/Format!

Among The Stars - Track 0

I am floating through a dream
Seeing the most peculiar things














Topic and Prompt of the month!

Last Month's Pieces and Topic

An Interview with A Notorious Interviewer

Topic + pick of this month!

Underread and Underrated Picks of the Year


Because it's a December tradition to pick out your top 10 consumable products released in a given year, I've dedicated the January February 2021 UaU towards doing exactly that, or at least as many as I can list before I get distracted. Credit to the community for sourcing this!

So, what's on the docket?

So, for this survey, we asked users several questions:

  • Are you a member of the SCP Wiki?
  • How do you interact with the greater community?
  • What do you think was the most underrated SCP posted during 2020?
  • What do you think was the most underrated non-SCP posted during 2020?
  • Feel free to explain the decision behind your choices.2
  • Are there any topics you would like to see covered in the future? Feel free to elaborate on your reasoning!
  • Further comments/concerns?

Let's hop to it!

Are you a member of the SCP Wiki?

This question was "yes" or "no".

Of our 70 responders, 24 (or roughly 34.3%) were not members of the SCP Wiki. While it may seem peculiar to engage with users who don't participate in the wiki, Underread and Underrated was started with the intention of exposing casual readers to semi-obscure works that might not have reached the greater community zeitgeist. In many ways, such responses are just as important as those of Wiki members.

How do you interact with the greater community?

Let's break it down:

  • Reading Articles: 59
  • Writing for the Wiki: 18
  • Poofreading and Critique: 12
  • Fan Art: 15
  • Multimedia Content Production: 9
  • Interacting with Internet Outreach SM accounts: 18
  • Participating in IO-Moderated Communities: 22
  • Participating in non-IO Communities: 18
  • Watching SCP Youtube Videos: 47
  • Oil… floats on water.: 1?

So this is pretty interesting, though I should note it wasn't perfect. This survey was advertised on the Announcement forums, the official Subreddit, and the official tumblr; however, the first two were stickied, while the latter was a single post. Still, I'm sure there's something to be gleaned here.

… oil floats on water!

What do you think was the most underrated SCP posted during 2020?

Feel free to explain the decision behind your choices.

Let's see what—

SCP-5000

458

SCP 5000

scp -3000

SCP-294

Huh. Okay, let's get some things out of the way:

  • SCP-5000 quite literally won the 5k contest! That's… the opposite of underrated, I would think.
  • 458 and 294 were posted well before 2020.
  • SCP-3000, which won the 3k contest, is subject to both of these disqualifications.

Right, what else we got?

SCP: 5002 “A Death In Containment”

Scp 5002 is a beautifully done work spiced with some Skippy flair, but no one talks about it. Yeah, it was from the 5000 contest, but the only ones that people remember are Why?, Megalomania, and the Fifthist scp that didn’t win 55553. It has an interesting story and format, is confusing enough for you to notice new things as you reread, and it has a wonderfully done plot twist at the end which only raises more questions. Overall, it’s an amazing SCP that deserves more recognition.

This is a borderline case: while I wouldn't necessarily qualify it as "underrated" at +548, there's a case to be made that, if once thinks it should have won 5k, it could be said to have been underrated. And while I don't agree that a lack of fan content makes something underrated, I can see why someone might think an article rated that high deserves more than it gets.

Sidenote: 5002 is insultingly good. Go read it if you haven't.

I forgot the number but im pretty sure it was called "all the redacted,small things"4

That SCP was well made, it had logs that were relevant and it tied into the hanged king.

I haven't actually read SCP-5075, but skips like these are one of the main things UaU is looking for. At +74 after nearly a year, 5075 was an SCP that was clearly appreciated by the great majority of its readers, but didn't find appreciation with the greater community zeitgeist.

I'll… probably read it. Soon.

SCP-5375 - "The Name Maker" by ROUNDERHOUSE

SCP-5375: A well made article by ROUNDERHOUSE which I personally think didn't get enough attention. It had quite the impact on me as a reader and I feel like it was drowned out a bit by canrencon as a whole.

5375 rocked, and for the closer SCP from the team that won Canren, it's surprisingly low-rated. Give it a read if you haven't.

cover yourse

Excellent work.

What do you think was the most underrated non-SCP posted during 2020?

Feel free to explain the decision behind your choices.

"Ambrose Vienna - An Out of Mind Experience" by Croquembouche

Ambrose Vienna - An Out of Mind Experience: Well made introduction to a newer league of Ambrose GOI formats as a whole. Really drew away from "food GOI", which is something I love.

Before the 4th Quarter 2020, I saw a lot of hate for Ambrose Restaurants from the on-wiki community, and especially for their original GoI Format. Recent developments have seen people reinterpret the GoI radically, often to considerable acclaim; it's part of a phenomenon I like to call "GoI-Flipping".

GoI-Flipping is an interesting phenomenon; it turned the Church of the Broken God from Shoot-On-Sight terrorists to Gnostic defenders, the Chaos Insurgency from generic bad guys to hot-blooded foils to the Foundation's cold cruelty, and now, it's working its magic on Ambrose. Interested to see where it goes!

Hurt

They're5 both wonderful articles.

This is another one I haven't read; tales in general seem to slip under the radar when it comes to the offsite zeitgeist. It's also part of the Deepwell Catalogue canon, which I don't see talked about very often.

Nobodys observations of rejected nobody applications

Me too, anon. Me too.

lf in oil

oil

Thank you for your contributions.

Are there any topics you would like to see covered in the future? Feel free to elaborate on your reasoning!

Favorite canons!

I've already featured at least one canon in UaU, but as CanRen shows, there's a ton of good canons unknown to the greater community. I'll see about including some more in upcoming UaUs.

I'd like to see different topics such as little challenges/mitigates for the Social media SCP outlets to do, like reddit and such.

I'd love to see a contest based on teams again, the last one looked super fun

UaU offers mini-challenges on most months; however, I wouldn't be opposed to arranging something contest-oriented, or that focuses primarily on lesser-known runner-ups from existing contests.

I want to start writing scps

This one's an interesting request, as I originally envisioned the YaU30 reboot that became UaU as covering specific topics for greater audience consumption. Doing a writing-specific UaU feels at-odds with how it's generally run; even so, it might be nice to focus more on specific writing styles, like November 2020 did.

when its raining

Yes?

Further comments/concerns?

My knowledge on your work is limited so I don't know if my imput is the best, good luck with your survey and further work.

That's no problem! Underread and Underrated was created specifically for people who might not be "in the know" re: SCP Deep Lore™. Hopefully, UaU teaches you new things about the body of SCP Wiki work!

Nope, But have a nice day :>

You too! 💛

fly

Thank you for your contribution! THIS WILL BE THE LAST JOKE SUBMISSION I COVER IN ANY UAU SURVEY ANALYSIS, FOR THE REST OF TIME.

This month's challenge:

  • For everyone: Let's make 2021 the best year ever!… also, uh, produce content for a work rated <+100?
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