The Wanderer's Station 2019



The Wanderer's Station

A 2019 Sci-Fi Contest

Theme/Prompt: Science Fiction

FAQ & Rules:

Q: Yo, why is a new mod writing this info down?

A: Don't worry, most of this is from an old contest, which you should check out at least once to see the kind of stuff you can do (after reading the rules, of course). I am also carefully watched by the other staff, so all errors will be corrected.

Q: I thought the Library was dead…?

A: No, just sleeping ;)

Q: Okay, I'm totally happy to hear that! So, what's the contest about?

A: Whether you are new here during this amazing time to be alive, or from the Library's older age, you may have noticed that we are a bit short on Sci-Fi: we have poems, séances, magic rituals, travel guides, correspondences, and all sorts of fantastical stuff with their own tags, but not as much science-fiction mutant attacks, spaceship adventures, dystopian/utopian societies, or…well, you get the idea. At its core, the point of this contest is to add some more of those H.G Wells, Mary Shelley, & Ray Bradbury vibes to this place and show that the SCP wiki is not the only place for it.

Q: Nice! So how do I enter, and what do I write?

A: If you keep up with our wonderful discord or our "Recently Posted" section on the front page, you will notice this piece of second-person writing. It will serve as the hub page for this contest. Within the body and the intro of this page are orange/light-blue links. This means that they are links that lead to pages that aren't made yet; the basis of this contest is to create those wanted pages, fill them with science fiction, and create an amazing hub for all to enjoy.

Follow these simple steps to victory:

1. Go to the hub page. Maybe even read all of it.

2. Choose one of the dead links. This will be your starting point and the title of your entry.

3. Write something related to both the link title and science fiction. The title of the entry should be exactly the same, although minor differences should be fine.

4. When you post an entry, make sure to include " [[include component:wanderers-station]] " at the top. This will import the beautiful space theme created by Rounderhouse that you see here.

5. Tag it with "ws2019". This is very important, as it will help with the scoring and make everything go faster.

6. Wait for the scoring to be completed and bask in your glory.

You can enter as many times as you want; don't worry about running out of links for other people to use, as staff will add more dead links as needed. You have until September 2 (11 PM, US EST) to fill in dead links. After that until the 18th of September (Midnight, US EST), when the contest ends, no new entries will be accepted for the contest.

As for saving pages, I don't think that it would be fair to reserve something like that, considering that the possible links on the hub page outnumber the recent writers in the past few months. But don't rush and write well; if any troubles appear over page creations, staff is more likely to side with articles that have more work put into them.

For those of you new to the site, this is a perfect way to introduce your type of your work to the Library, as anyone can join, whether or not you've written something before. For those of you who have been here the past few weeks…I will see you on the field of writing.

Q: You mentioned scoring. How does that work?

A: For writing and posting something to contribute, you get 3 points for every link that you fill and that has a rating of +5 by the end of the contest. If an entry is deleted, or is obviously off-topic/a shit-post, the article will not count. Then, the rating of your highest rated entry will be added to the total.

Example: You write three articles. This leads to a score of 9. One of the articles was perfect: it had a rating of +10 and was your highest article. This leads to a total score of 19.

Oh, and one last thing! Staff Picks. At the very end of the contest, the staff will each pick one article that they find remarkable. This article will receive three extra and temporary rating points, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it will be counted in the final total. Let's go back to our example.

Example: You write three articles. This leads to a score of 9. One of the articles was perfect: it had a rating of +10 and was your highest article. In addition, one of your other articles gets picked by a moderator. Before it was picked by staff, it had a score of +5; with the staff pick, the score is +8. However, since your highest article is still that perfect one with +10, this has no effect. All in all, you still have a total score of 19.

Collaboration Rule: If two or more authors decide to create a collaborative work, they must both contribute enough to add the "co-authored" tag. The score rewarded for each collaborative article above 5 is 1 point for every person. If a collaborative piece is the highest rated article for all or some members of the group, the said members will all receive the bonus points.

The intergalactic champion (the winner) will be decided on September 18, 2019, and will be the author with the highest score.

THREAT Friendly Note: We expect all contestants to be good sports and play fair. Any attempt to tilt the contest in your favor through illicit or unfair means will result in your entries being disqualified and possible further disciplinary actions. Plagiarism is also not allowed, and will be punished accordingly.

Q: Hmm…Seems legit. How good do the stories have to be?

A: Do your best. Remember, only articles with a rating of +5 are included in the final total. I expect that if you need review help, you will not hesitate to find a second pair of eyes to double-check for basic stuff, or you will read over your work again yourself. It would be preferable if you got your stuff reviewed by someone not participating in the contest, but you won't be disqualified if you do, as there aren't many people to ask for feedback from on-site. If I ( Avelon21) see enough people writing and asking for feedback on either the site or the discord, I'll refrain from participating myself and help with feedback. AWESOME EDIT: All staff that were involved in the preparation of the contest page-hub-thingy ( Roget, Avelon21) are recused from participating due to reasons! Ask for help on the forums and the discord and you shall receive.

One of the admins, Roget is not participating for administration reasons; he might also be open to reviewing drafts as well.

Q: Damn…Thought I could get away with speed-writings. Anyway, what's in it for the winner?

A: The main rewards are art commissions:

There will be a 45$ commission for 1st place, a 30$ one for second, a 10$ one for third, and five 5$ commissions will be given out in a weighted lottery according to placement for all other contestants. In addition, several other artists have been generous enough to offer donating their work, so more art may be given out. Any artists who are willing to commit to commissioning work for the winners can state as such here and we would list you on our contest page, along with the type of art and any links you might wish to provide as examples of your work.

The first place winner will also receive a role on the discord to display their victory, if they are on the discord.

If you have any other questions, message Avelon21 or Rounderhouse through wikidot, ask on our discord, or leave a comment in the discussion below.

Entries

The Other Questions

Q: What do I do if I accidentally claimed a page !? Please don't ban me !

A: Look, if we had to ban people every time they messed up, I wouldn't even be here. Just delete your page by yourself, or contact me or Rounderhouse. As a side note, I think it would be a good time right now to state that if you post something that gets deleted because it hits -3 (self-upvotes do not count for any purposes), anyone except you can post something else for the link, unless it was an accidental page claim. Just be more careful in that case =D.

Q: Are collabs allowed ?

A: Yes, but please refer to the Collaboration Rule above. If it's confusing please ask and I'll give an example (Which I'll add under this question).

Q: Can we edit our pages after we've posted ?

A: You can edit, not revise. If you have to add a paragraph, don't. If you have to fix tenses because it looks like crap if you don't fix it, do. As a general rule from the SCP wiki:

If you wouldn't do it to other people's pages, don't do it to yours.

I want to see people asking for feedback. I want to see people doing their best. If you're rushing and making dumb mistakes and leaving too much out, remember that your articles have to be at +5 by the end of the contest. This is the Wanderer's Station, not the Wanderer's Toilet.

Q: Omigosh, my post isn't above five; can I spam the forums/chat to get more votes !?

A: No, please don't. I'm going to be making an overview forum post of all of the entries (if the list ends up getting too long, I'll just briefly review at least 3/4 or all the ones below five and just mention the ones above +5). Just trust me when I say you'll be fine. As long as you did your best, of course.

Keep on the watch for staff picks too, you never know who'll win…unless you vote more first!

Q: Huh, we're done. Can we still use links from the beautifully crafted hub-page ?

A: Go for it, that's great ! I personally like to see people still enjoying contest events even after they're over. Just make sure to not tag it with "ws2019", but feel free to use the theme and links whenever you want (you can use the theme in other articles, too).

Available Artists

If you are an artist that is contributing work to the prize pool/would like to, sign up here!

Note: To sign up, edit the page and add this on its own line at the bottom (with your information filled out):