🌻🌻

thefriendlyvandal:

v1als:

new ask game send me a 🌻 and ill just tell you whatever the fuck i want

part one: of all the online communities I’ve ever been a part of, the SCP Foundation has been the fucking wildest. never before in all my time on the internet (which began when I was very young) have I ever, ever been in a community as absolutely batshit insane as the SCP Foundation. I am not sure what it is about the community but it seems to attract the fucking weirdest people I have ever come into contact with, and for the entirety of its time as a mostly organised hierarchical system (a community with active admins and mods) it has been loosely roleplaying some kind of dictatorship. never before have I ever witnessed such a perfect miniature sample of bureaucracy and all the bullshit it entails. never before have I ever witnessed such a perfect example of what power can do to someone. in no other community have I witnessed lawyers being threatened and police literally called over internet drama. I have never seen, in any other online community, the kind of vitriolic hatred that some users have displayed towards one another. and I don’t think there’s a community out there that has the Foundation’s specific brand of pretentiousness. 

don’t get me wrong: I’ve met a lot of cool people through the community, and my carefully curated group of friends who are into it have great ideas, hot takes, and incredible story-telling abilities. but out of all the people I’ve met through SCP stuff, most of them have turned out to be completely balls to the wall insane. and not in the fun way. in the “these people are actively harmful to themselves and others” way. there are so many people I look at in the community and sincerely wish that they receive help, or that they’re kept away from impressionable young newbies. it is a fucking jungle out there.

part two: if you’re new to the SCP Foundation, please don’t let the obsession with fame get to you. a lot of people will deny it but there is an obsession with fame and power in the community. I don’t know if it’s because the initial well-known characters in the Foundation made everyone think that was the norm, but for whatever reason it’s a highly competitive area where everyone seems to act with power they don’t have. people seem to forget it’s just the fucking internet. people base their entire personalities and concepts around their influence on the SCP wiki and as a result, people are so cruel to newbies. critique is unbelievably harsh, standards are ridiculously high, and perhaps most confusingly of all, any new approach or experimentation (in a collaborative writing environment) is often violently opposed. the wiki is a very toxic environment and the scores of newbies who never post again are testimony to it, as are the frequent mental breakdowns of staff members or well-known writers. 

unfortunately the wiki has a long history of denying all these problems, too (it’s been going on ever since I can remember, and I have been around for A Long-Ass Time), so really it’s a case of developing your own self-confidence and doing whatever the fuck you want. some people are like me, and do not post on the main site at all and instead just interact with off-site fandom, and some people are like one of my friends, who just writes whatever and doesn’t care so long as the writing is up to his (incredibly high) standard. but both of us reached these decisions through tough lessons that hurt. and what’s more, we both had the advantage of not going in it hoping (or even aiming) for fame. sincerely at this point I couldn’t in good conscience recommend anyone join the mainsite. it’s a shame, because most people aren’t like this at all. but the ones who are define the entire community, and it sucks.

tl;dr everyone on the SCP wiki needs to chill out because it’s literally just the fucking internet

tis true, lads. tis true. 

i’ve said it before, but i think the point was missed seeing part of it was taken out of context and made into a bumper sticker, which in an ironic twist of fate is exactly the kind of shit that seems to be uniquely scp and uniquely strange behavior. the scp wiki is the only site i have ever seen where mental breakdowns among authors are routine and obsession is the norm. this is not a ‘write whatever u want uwu!!!’ problem, nor is it a ‘ew sjws are ruining ess see pee!!!’ problem, nor is it anything in-between; for some inexplicable reason, it is a problem with scp and fame. 

you cannot write for scp hoping for internet popularity and validation through the in-site upvote/downvote system just like you cannot write irl novels for money. it doesn’t work out. it stresses you to the point of collapse. some people fall into this obsession with validation through the wiki without noticing, so it isn’t always something that happens consciously through narcissism; there are plenty of perfectly good people who fall into this. it’s also a thing where scp becomes a coping mechanism for people, and i totally understand that; it was for me all through middle and high school. 

but there is an obsession problem with scp. i don’t know how it happens or why. the only solution that i have come to about how to stop this obsession once it starts it complete and immediate detachment from the wiki. this means cold turkey. drop everything and run. if you realize that you are unable to function without scp, i’m sorry, but you are about to have a mental breakdown. if you are able to go through the day without thinking about scp- meaning, of course, that you aren’t using scp as your main coping mechanism- then that’s a good indication that you’re doing alright and to keep doing what you’re doing. 

‘but van!’ you may say. ‘why are you insisting upon immediately disconnecting yourself from the wiki once you realize that you’re obsessed with it and think about it every day?’. well, you see lads, there is a certain pattern with wiki authors and scp. the following is my hypothesis, based both on what i have experienced and what i have seen. it is a preemptive analysis that goes as follows: 

an author will write for 2 or 3 years, become obsessed, fall into the pattern with obsession with wiki upvotes and responses, drive themselves up the wall with increasing mental distress, then will reach a mental breakdown where they are either 1. banned, disciplined, or otherwise taken into the pits of a disciplinary thread for a showdown with wiki staff (even if they are wiki staff), 2. have an altercation with other wiki users that doesn’t come to a staff showdown but is still fairly volatile, or 3. come to the realization of their own accord that something doesn’t feel right. here i am advising the third option. 

once these points are hit, tears are shed, self destructive tendencies may arise, police may be called (yes, it has happened), or otherwise batshit behavior will go down. people in this position take scp deathly seriously, because they are obsessed and view it as part of themselves. it is at this point where the person decides ‘fuck it’, and quits scp altogether. it’s very hard at first. they’re forced to flounder to find a new coping mechanism to work with, but more often then not they settle on conclusions like ‘hey, i think i was being an asshole to x person’, ‘i don’t think how i’m living my life right now is healthy for me’, ‘i think i have some untreated mental illness i need to seek help for’, or ‘i want to change myself to become a better person’. i know it sounds ridiculous, and different people will experience this in different amounts, but it’s very helpful- if not tough to do- for those who do experience it.

from here, some people come back. some don’t. the people who do come back often keep the wiki itself at an arm’s length while continuing to write for the universe, sometimes on different sites, but always for fun. many have a very different view on the wiki from when they first got involved, and usually it’s a much healthier view. some don’t come back at all, or hang around a little for emergencies. 

you’ll notice people of all three of these types around the wiki, and sometimes even in the fandom. 

(side note: the wiki is not god. do not trust the wiki above your own judgement and do not take it upon yourself to carry out the wiki’s will outside of the wiki if you are not staff, if that makes sense. this is another thing i see happen that’s a symptom of….whatever this is. it’s very specific and very weird.) 

but if you see it in yourself……back down. take it easy. drop it altogether, take a couple months to find other hobbies and to reconcile with yourself and anyone you may have hurt, and come back if you want. the deeper you are, the harder ‘the drop’ will hit you. i was miserable for a good three months, but goddamn if it wasn’t one of the healthiest things i’ve ever done for myself.