Snatching the Pebble from the Hand

SHITPOST — I have a hidden skill.

In 2019, I called out the rating module and everything that it had come to stand for; those who adored it included. That innocuous and innately neutral piece of code up there on the right, a faintly-justified tool that by now only curates the bottom 1% of the garbage, is something that uncareful generations of authors and participants have used to turn the SCP Wiki into a trash heap of putrid self-congratulation. Many will tell you that they don’t actually care about the rating module at the top of their page, or any page, but they do. Everyone likes to say that, and there will come a time when it is trendy to do so; but the actions betray it. No one does anything about it. Are they using Rating-B-Gone? No? Then they do. They do. Deep down at best. They know it’s the first thing their eyes go to. It’s like an immodest amount of cleavage. Doesn’t matter your sex, gender, or preferences; everyone has to notice a cleavage, for one reason or another.

I read a lot of containment fiction. I’m up to date on RPC and SCP Commune; not one new article slips by me. SCP’s product is like diarrhea; too much out, not enough of it solid, too flimsy and only directed by the shape its placed into, uncomfortable, the abeyant result of an initial dietary recklessness (I knew I shouldn’t have asked for the crushed hot red peppers), worth only one look of disgust, then a flush. I won’t ever be able to catch up with the stream of drab, beige mediocrity spilling out of SCP, no one will.

To boot, I continually dislike the thematic and compositional direction the site is taking, the absurdity of it is the philosophical reflection of how decrepit the Staff have become in their talentless stewardship of the ideals and vision of the project. What with a very large portion of the authors this generation having their introduction to SCP and the idea of writing come through the toxic slurry that is SCPD… it’s no surprise. A whole army of shills and social media junkies, idolizing morons who think that their number of sex partners is more an indication of writing talent than their number of contracted STDs; these simps to the rating module, these meme piddlers masquerading as writers with something to say. I now browse SCP strictly by author. It’s the only way I can stomach the site.

I noticed it first very slowly. I would catch it after having read the containment procedures, maybe even a bit of the description too. After a while, I was able to observe myself doing it, as if watching a recording or someone on the TV. Now, I notice how easy it is. Effortless. I notice how much better my experience is. The uncertainty and thrill of independent discovery. I feel like someone who has grown used to the sodium bath of canned food growing their own vegetables for the first time; truly tasting the flavors, the time and effort it takes to deny convenience and shortcuts being one of them.

What am I on about?

I’ve trained myself to not look at the rating module. It can be done. Muscle memory now.

The refusal of the narcissistic paradise that is SCP to move it or make it optional to initially see has demanded as much. I’d also like to thank ACS for being so truly ugly, so horrendously unattractive, which doubtless led me to several repetitions of scrolling past the whole upper portion of many SCP articles (too many).

I’ve trained that long-standing black hole of insatiability and prosthetic self-worth to be nothing more than a blind spot.

Collapse your rating modules.