Democratized storytelling on the SCP Wiki

The SCP is a body of user-submitted fiction often compared to other user-submitted horror such as Creepypasta. While these comparisons have been made in research and among the SCP community, the SCP seems to function differently than other such sites. Very little research has been done on the SCP and what exists examines it as a work of horror and as an example of emerging online folklore. This article further expands upon this research by examining how the unique community participating in the SCP Wiki shapes the text, and how the SCP comments on modern media and storytelling through transfictionality and transmediality. This article will examine the SCP community through the stories told in the SCP entries and the rules and structure of the SCP Wiki. In doing so, this article not only provides a better understanding of an under-researched text but will also attempt to uncover a community’s hopes and anxieties surrounding democratized storytelling, and the changing means of sharing information. This thesis also draws attention to and provides opportunity for further research focusing on the increasingly prevalent act of audience participation through user-submitted fiction.