Community & Culture
by Lack of Lepers
Recently, the SCP Wiki staff retroactively created a hub page for the SCP-1000 contest. (This contest is colloquially called "1kon", "2kon" for the SCP-2000 contest, and so on.) The 1kon took place in July of 2011, and was so long ago that it didn't receive its own hub. The contest was organized and featured simply on the SCP Wiki user forums. The 1kon hub was a long time coming; the only jewel not set into the crown of k-contests on the site. And it looks great!
To honor the occasion, let's look back at those articles who won the xkons. Where are they now? How are they doing? What is their standing relative to the other entries in the contest? We'll answer these and look at some kon-specific fun facts too.
1Kon — Folklore & Urban Legends
1Kon wasn't the first contest on the SCP Wiki, but it was the first big one (that's a pun for those in the know... also "big" here is relative to today's participation, of course). There were 16 lasting (not-deleted) entries with a cast of classic authors including thedeadlymoose, DrGears, Scantron/CWW, spikebrennan, Quikngruvn, and Salman Corbette.
Many will know that thedeadlymoose's "Bigfoot" took the top slot and is now known as SCP-1000. It won the contest with +46 upvotes; a smashing success in those days. It has been featured in numerous other articles (over 27 of them), appears often in tales (over 22), is utilized in a 001 proposal, and was re-cast in future xkon entries (e.g. SCP-6001, SCP-6666). It in effect created the Children of the Night character-species, which has its own tag on the Wiki.
SCP-1000 is by far the most successful article in terms of upvotes from the 1kon. It is currently the 32nd most-upvoted article on the SCP Wiki, which while impressive, doesn't capture the influence and significance this article has had to the project and community.
Second place went to "The White Dog" by author DrSevere, the article now known as SCP-1111. Only 7 votes behind "Bigfoot", SCP-1111 has tracked well and currently remains the second most-upvoted article from the 1kon. DrSevere had six Series 1 articles prior to the 1kon, and would remain relatively active on the Wiki in the following decade, posting sparsely each year of the 2010s. Early 2019 saw DrSevere return to their sandbox in full force, though no new articles would result. The last edit on WikiDot as of writing is a change in a tale that reads: "changed from SCP-6017 to SCP-9017 because we're getting dangerously close to having an actual 6017".
How has the finishing line-up of 1kon panned out over time? SCP-1000 has the largest percent increase of any xkon winner in SCP Wiki history thus far. This might not be surprising since the ratings obtained back in this day were so much lower to what we see now. Since the completion of the 1kon, SCP-1000's rating has increased a staggering 3,817%. It also represents the largest modern-day gap between a first and second place entry in a prior xkon, with SCP-1111 now at +624 at the time of writing (SCP-1000 at around +1800).
1Kon Fun Facts
sandrewswann of "SCP 001 - S Andrew Swann's Proposal" fame entered this contest and came in 11th place with "The Devil's Music", which is now SCP-1666. The author would post the now celebrated 001 proposal the next month. This 001 proposal is currently the 44th most upvoted article on the site, just behind SCP-1000. This ranking, again, doesn't capture the article's influential scope; it is a consistent inspiration and arguably the Big Bang of an entire informal subgenre of the Wiki now, called pataphysics.
SCP-1337 ("The Hitchhiker") is currently the third-most popular article from the 1kon by upvotes. According to the new hub, this entry tied for last at 0 upvotes by the time the contest ended. This may have been in part due to the fact that the article was a draft when posted, and was only finished later.
SCP-1013 ("Cockatrice") by DrGears came in fourth place in this contest.
SCP-1060 ("Penanggalan") was written by spikebrennan but is marked as unattributed on the hub. This was because the author asked for it to be divorced from his name, due to perceived quality issues with the author's personal standards.
The 1Kon was the SCP Wiki's third official contest.
2Kon — Science Fiction
The contest for the SCP-2000 slot took place for a mere two weeks, from late November 2013 to early December. The number of participants in this contest nearly doubled to 30. The lowest rated contender at the time of contest conclusion was +22.
The top spot went to HammerMaiden's "Deus Ex Machina", now genre-famous as SCP-2000. Its upvote count has increased from +189 by the end of the contest to the current-day +2117, a 1020% increase. It is currently the 25th most popular article on the site by upvote count.
Like SCP-1000, SCP-2000 would seem to introduce a new tag specific to the attributes of the article, namely the character Dr. Thaddeus Xyank, which HammerMaiden also used in another article released three days after what would become SCP-2000. (This article, SCP-1780, would also feature a retrocausal anomaly.) This character has gone on to be featured in 17 other articles, one 001 proposal, three -J articles, and 26 tales (one of which is one of my favorite things on the Wiki).
As for how the runner-ups have panned out over time, the sequence is pretty stable. One notable jump is Kalinin's "Preferred Option", now SCP-2003, which finished in 5th place, but is now the third most-popular of the entries by upvote total. There were some large discrepancies in the other direction in this contest. The 6th place winner, DrEverettMann's "Brain in a Jar" (now SCP-2099) has been relatively outpaced, and is now 13th in the list of popularity by upvote totals. That's nothing compared to Dmatix's "A Higher Purpose" (now SCP-2500), which finished the contest in 8th place, and now lies at #21 by upvote totals.
2Kon Fun Facts
This contest was the first to introduce the tradition of selecting last slots in a series (e.g. X999 or X998) as a consolation prize for placing second or beyond.
HammerMaiden would go on to win the SCP Wiki's next contest as well, The Under-Appreciated Contest with the tale "Exit History".
3Kon — Horror
The 3kon was held over a little less than a month, across March and April of 2017. The number of entrants increased again to total 42, officially. There was a much wider spread of votes than the 2kon, re-approaching the distribution of the 1kon, with the lowest surviving entry here receiving +2. There were officially no articles in the negatives by the end of the contest.
The winner of the 3kon was "Anantashesha" by A Random Day, djkaktus, and Joreth, now SCP-3000. Second place took the SCP-3001 slot, "Red Reality" by OZ Ouroboros.
As for how the articles have panned out; there is no greater shakeup in xkon history in regards to the order of article popularity. SCP-3000 is currently in third place at total upvotes, with SCP-3001 second, and the most popular article from the contest by upvote total now SCP-3999, "I Am the Center of Everything That Happens to Me" by LordStonefish. SCP-3999 originally placed sixth with +214 votes, making this the largest upward jump for any xkon entry in sheer upvote total (+2026), beating SCP-1000's absolute jump (though not SCP-1000's percent change). SCP-3999 is currently the 19th most popular article on the SCP Wiki by upvote total.
3Kon Fun Facts:
This was the first and only xkon thus far to feature a winning article that was co-written.
SCP-3000 is the only entry that features more than one author.
The 3kon is the only xkon where multiple runner-ups have become more popular than the winning article, by upvote count.
So far, the 3kon has produced more 1000+ articles than any other xkon (5), as well as 2000+ articles (3).
SCP-3008 ("A Perfectly Normal, Regular Old IKEA") was not a 3kon entry.
4Kon — History
The 4kon took place from the first of July 2018 until after the first week of August. The number of entries between the 3kon and 4kon experienced the largest jump between any xkons, at an over 70% increase; from 42 articles in 3kon to 72 in 4kon. It also represents the second-shortest time between xkons so far, at 15 months.
4kon's winner was "Taboo" by PeppersGhost, now at the SCP-4000 slot. The largest absolute jump in this contest is SCP-4666, "The Yule Man" by Hercules Rockefeller, which initially finished at 17th place at +151. It is now the third most popular article to come out of the 4kon, behind only SCP-4000 and SCP-4999 ("Someone to Watch Over Us" by CadaverCommander). This constitutes an almost 670% increase.
Next is SCP-4010, "Attempt to look at what we accomplished" by Utylike. Initially finishing in 30th place, it is now the 8th most popular article to come out of the 4kon with an upvote increase of around 530%. Another surprising jump was what is now SCP-4001, "Alexandria Eterna" by GentleGifts. This finished in 8th place, and is currently the fourth most popular by current upvotes.
4Kon Fun Facts:
More top-placing articles from the 4kon have been surpassed in popularity by lower-finishing ones than in any other xkon.
A tied-for-third place entry, SCP-4960 "Kedesh-Nanaya, Or: Why The Foundation Published Hentai to Awaken a Mesopotamian Love Goddess" by DrClef, was according to the author's commentary in an IRC chat, initially intended to be a joke article posted to the RPC Authority.
SCP-4000 is the second highest-rated xkon winner, and currently the 16th highest rated article on the Wiki.
See more interesting fun facts here. (Created by yours truly.)
5Kon — Mystery
5kon began New Years Day in 2020 and lasted for exactly a month. Entries dipped in quantity relative to the 4kon.
5kon was the most unanimous of all the xkons. The winner, "Why?" by Tanhony won by both the largest absolute and relative margins; by +296 upvotes, more than a 98% increase from 2nd place. (The next closest was the 4kon at around a 136 upvote margin, a 43% discrepancy.) SCP-5000 is currently the highest rated xkon winner; at +2682, it is the 11th highest rated article on the Wiki. There are only 2 non-Series 1 articles ranked higher; SCP-3008 and SCP-2521.
The 5kon's entries pan out stably through time, though obviously this is a smaller sample size in terms of duration than past xkons. The top 4 articles of the contest remain in their initial order regarding popularity, determined by upvote total. A notable jump is djkaktus' SCP-5004 "MEGALOMANIA", which initially finished in 11th place, and is now the 5th most popular by way of upvotes to come out of the 5kon (a ~257% increase). SCP-5004 experienced what is likely the most dynamic range in rating of any xkon entry; it was in deletion range shortly after being posted, and rallied thereafter back into the positives.
5Kon Fun Facts:
A graphic novel has been made out of SCP-5000.
See more interesting 5kon fun facts here.
HammerMaiden, winner of 2kon, entered into the 5kon; their first xkon since 3kon.
6Kon — Nature
6kon took place from May to June 2021. The time between 5kon and 6kon is the shortest on record, at only 14 months. Entry participation increased substantially with the highest article count to date, at 92 official entries.
6kon's winner was Rounderhouse's "The Serpent, the Moose, and the Wanderer's Library", now SCP-6000. It beat out djkaktus' "The Demon Hector and the Dread Titania", now SCP-6666, by only 15 votes.
The 6kon's spread has likewise remained stable, as might be expected given that less time has passed since its completion than other xkons. Except, that is, for one article: T Rutherford's "Avalon", now SCP-6001. This article finished in 4th place, and is currently the most highly upvoted of the 6kon, above SCP-6000 by +145. It is the first of the 6kon to break +1000, and has experienced a 202% appreciation in upvotes since the contest's end. (SCP-6000 has experienced a 90% increase.)
6kon Fun Facts:
6kon features the most ties (29 articles at 12 ratings): two at +1, two at +22, three at +28, three at +29, two at +35, three at +41, three at +43, two at +51, two at +56, three at +60, two at +118, and two at +173.
6kon was the first xkon where the SCP Wiki staff did not release the results immediately. There was a deliberation interim after the contest ended and the results announced, more so than usual. This was due to the staff curating votes, a first. The staff disqualified votes that based themselves on whether or not a given article "would fit" as a xkon winner, instead encouraging adjudication of the entry on its own merits, and not the larger context.
The 6kon featured 14 entries about or including trees.
30% of 6kon entries featured custom CSS themes. All of the top 3 articles had custom CSS themes; all of the top 6 did if you include Black Highlighter (SCP-6001). This was a dramatic increase from the 5kon entries, only 7% of which feature custom CSS.
General xkon Fun Facts
The longest streak of participated in xkons consecutively for a user is Ihp at 5 (2kon-6kon). The next longest is a three-way tie between authors Scantron/CWW (1kon-4kon), pixelatedHarmony (2kon-5kon), and djkaktus (3kon-6kon) — all at consecutive 4 xkons.
The number of contests between xkons averages around 4. This count more than doubled between the second and third xkon (9 contests).
After the 3kon, multiple-author entries increased in frequency. Prior to the 3kon, there were zero. After, there were 4 in the 4kon, 15 in the 5kon, and 12 in the 6kon.
The closest xkon by absolute vote total was 1kon with an upvote discrepancy of +7.
4kon is the only xkon with a tie in the top 3.
2kon is the only contest that does not feature a tie.
5kon is the xkon whose entries most filled the first slots of the new series, reaching all the way to SCP-5018.
No winner of an xkon has declined the x000 slot. (Hey, it could happen!)
The number of custom CSS articles in xkons is increasing dramatically. There were 0 articles with custom CSS themes in both the 1kon and 2kon. 2% featured custom CSS in the 3kon. 4kon is 4%, 5kon is 7%, and 6kon is 30% (excluding Black Highligher).
Time Between xkons
Time between Wiki and 1K: 36 months
Time between 1K and 2K: 28 months
Time between 2K and 3K: 40 months
Time between 3K and 4K: 15 months
Time between 4K and 5K: 16 months
Time between 5K and 6K: 14 months
xkon Entry Count
Entries for 1K: 13
Entries for 2K: 30
Entries for 3K: 42
Entries for 4K: 72
Entries for 5K: 68
Entries for 6K: 94
The xkons will continue to be an exciting time that all of us in the containment fiction space can come together and celebrate. SCP-7000 is doubtless right around the corner. We at Confic Magazine will be looking forward to it and many more, and hope to keep detailed statistics on the events, as well as news and analysis. So, stay tuned!
Speaking of contests, this post hereby announces INDIECON 2022, the first Confic Magazine independent article contest!
INDIECON, the first and not last Confic Magazine independent article contest! Any containment fiction format will be accepted, be it an SCP, RPC, Wayward, your own never-before-seen confic format, liminal fiction, tales, or even art.
The top spot will take a prize of $250 courtesy of Confic Magazine LLC.
The theme is: STATUES. Why? Most early SCP articles on 4chan occupied themselves with statues, in mimicry of the original SCP-173. It was once considered a radical and bold idea to move away from statues. So, we are going back to our conceptual roots; your article, tale, or etc submission must feature a statue in some form or fashion, however big or small. It could be as blatant as “the anomaly is a statue”, or as casual as some agent going “oh look, there’s a little statue on that table”. Neat.”
See below for details:
Submissions begin: May 30th, 2022
Submissions end: June 30th, 2022 at midnight CST
Voting begins: July 1st, 2022
Voting ends: July 7th, 2022 11:59 CST
Winner announced with payment prize: July 8th, 2022
Voting will take place here in the SCF Discord server. Each submitted article will be given a post. You will vote on that post with the confic logo :confic: The entry with the most at the end wins. Updates will be announced in that channel as well.
Your submission will be subjected to a blinded presentation; the voters will not know who wrote which article until after the results have been decided. The authors will then be revealed along with the rankings. You can submit the article to whatever site your chosen format is native to also, but we ask only after the contest is over. Posting on a confic site prior to the contest’s end will mean a disqualification.
Send submissions to: admin@conficmagazine.com with the subject "INDIECON 2022 entry <your chosen name>". Submissions directly to the Discord will not count and you will contaminate the blinded presentation. Only send submissions through the email address. English only, I am afraid. The winner will be spotlit on Confic Magazine and receive the prize money. Please have a method of payment ready. We prefer PayPal. We will try to make accommodations but won’t be able to guarantee anything but PayPal, so do please try.
Winner takes all. Runner ups are welcome to submit their works for publication to receive the usual $75 publication payment, and will be accepted if they are of sufficient quality.
Familiarize yourself with our legal (https://www.conficmagazine.com/legal). If you submit in a format that is bound to the rules of CC BY-SA 3.0 (SCP Wiki, RPC Authority, TS/Backrooms, CC BY-SA 4.0 for Liminal Archive), we will publish it to the magazine with that same license. For example, if you want to submit an SCP because you are most familiar with it, sounds good, but it will be published on the magazine as Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0, same as it ever was. You may write in the LLC’s AOE format for this contest, or your own non-WikiDot format, if you would like to retain all your copyright and distribution rights.
Oh, and these must be original! Nothing pre-existing on any site!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/DYNgEmkRRx
Out Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConficM
Help spread the word!