 As an SCP writer and YouTuber, I've encountered a lot of off-site SCP fans that express their frustration and either an inability to join or to understand the SCP Wiki. Since a good part of this channel's focus is on helping you become a better SCP writer, it has always frustrated me when I see people who are fans of the channel but also not members of the site. After all, one of the first steps you absolutely must take in order to become an author on the site is to actually join it, so today we're going to talk about how to do that, how to post, and some common misconceptions about how the site works. Let's get started. So this is the front page of the SCP Wiki, and I've heard on numerous occasions from new site users that this page is a bit intimidating. The sidebar and the top bar alone have more links than you could possibly explore in a single day, much less a single sitting. The site administration is in the middle of a proposal right now to reduce the number of links and to make the site's interface a little easier to interact with, but there's nearly 300 links on this page, so it's perfectly reasonable to find the whole thing a little daunting. But for new site members, there's really only one section you need to bother with, and it's hiding below the fold. This is the section for new members. I've zoomed out a little bit so you can see it, and it's ordered a bit weird, but we'll go over each of the links in a more easy to digest order. First, oddly, you should probably check out the Frequently Asked Questions or Fact section. This will cover a lot of the more basic things you could possibly imagine to ask about the Wiki, like, is it real, or can I make money writing SCPs, or what kind of edits can I make on other people's articles, or how do I join the site? And from there, we can get into some of the more complex bits of actually joining the site. So you can't join the SCP Wiki until you actually create an account on the Wiki Dot itself. So the SCP Wiki is just one of many Wiki Dot sites, probably responsible for a vast majority of Wiki Dot's traffic, mind you, but Wiki Dot itself is a whole other thing. And weirdly, the site guide to joining doesn't mention this at all, it just assumes you have a Wiki Dot account. It does of course direct you to the Guide for Newbies, which does mention it, but I think we should take a second right now and make you a Wiki Dot account. So like I said, the Guide for Newbies will link you to the Wiki Dot registration page. And you can also get there just by visiting wiki.com. If you're having trouble finding it, there'll be a link near the top of the description of this video. And if that doesn't work for some reason, or you still can't figure it out, just Google Wiki Dot. You'll get taken right to the front page. Regardless, once you're there, there are two completely different options for joining. One is a bit simpler. If you already have a Facebook page, you can just link your Facebook account and bam, you'll have an account in no time. The other option is a bit more of a pain and because of various issues, a bit of a minefield to navigate. It's a more traditional sign up option. When you choose a username, you put your email in here, your password in here, and then click register. And after time, you should get an email from Wiki Dot like this one with a link to confirm your sign up. You click that link and you're done. But one small note, if you use a hotmail email address, this will not work, or at least it doesn't work right now. Unless they fixed it since this video has been made or since I last looked. I don't know why, but Hotmail either eats the email because it thinks it's spam or Wiki Dot never sends it to Hotmail addresses. Either way, you will not get an activation email and without it, your account won't be activated, so you can't use it for anything. If you have to create an email in another place you can or just use your Facebook account, it doesn't really matter. But once you follow the above steps and you've actually joined Wiki Dot, you're now ready to join the SCP Wiki itself. Yeah, it's a bit of a complicated process. Go back to the new member section of the sidebar. There's a link for join the site. Click that and you'll be taken to the page you joined through. But the first thing it recommends you do, read the guide for newbies. You should definitely do that. For one, it has a lot of very important information that you're going to need to know in order to not get banned from the site as soon as you join. But also, the passcode to join the site is hidden in there. And I do mean hidden. They put it in a way that you can't really skim for it. You actually need to read every word of the guide. Now when you run into it, you'll know what it is, but otherwise you won't. And I'm sure you'd love it if I just gave you the passcode now, but then the site would just change it if I gave you the passcode. So read the guide, find the code. Once you do that, go back to the join the site page. Go to the second tab and scroll down. And it's best if you read all this stuff too, because you're going to have questions it does answer. But eventually you can scroll down and find the application text box. This is not a real application. You don't need to tell them about who you are or what your hopes and dreams are. No one really cares. The only thing the person process in the application is looking for is the passcode you found in the guide for newbies. But that in this field, wait a few days. I've actually seen people who have had to wait up to two weeks, but that's pretty rare. And bam, you'll be a site member. But what does that change for you? Well, first of all, it means you can upvote or downvote articles. If you know of some articles you like or you've hated in the past, go back and vote for them accordingly, especially if they're mine. One of the best ways to influence the type of content you want to see on the SCP wiki is by voting. In fact, it's the best way. People of course always post stuff that they like, you know, I mean, like a lot of people who write right for themselves, but an upvote tells them and the wider community that they'd like to see more of that type of content. And a downvote tells them that you'd like to see less of that type of content. The voting you do on an article is the most influential thing you can do, no amount of complaining on or off site or praise on or off site on a discussion page for the article even will have the same impact as an upvote or a downvote. I know it doesn't seem like that much, but it is the lifeblood of the site. And by the way, you can post in the forums now and you can also leave comments on the discussion page for individual articles. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, you can post articles to the wiki itself. And this is where often new members run into kind of a wall. You see, first of all, you should definitely check out the how to write an SCP guide in the new members section. This is a fairly comprehensive guide that covers everything you need to know. I run into a lot of new users who want a shortcut. But know this, learning to write is work, not even just for the wiki, but in general. If you're not willing to put in that work, then what are you even doing here? Don't skip reading the guide because it's too long and then later ask people little questions here and there that you could have got the answers for if you'd read the guide. Yeah, it's long and boring. What, you want to be a good writer or do you want to be a quick writer? The last thing we should explore here is the sandbox link. If you're new to writing, you absolutely need feedback from experienced authors before you're going to be successful. You got to learn from other mistakes and not just make your own over and over and over again. In order to get the help you need, you're going to need a sandbox. Now a lot of critics won't even give feedback on a non-sandbox draft and you have to pay me to be willing to look at a Google Doc version of your draft. But what is a sandbox? Click this link and you'll be taken to this page. This is a completely different wiki.site, but one of the winches run by the SCP administration. It has the same formatting and everything. You don't need to join this site. You can just create a page here and when you do you'll be able to apply the formatting help you picked up when you read the How to Write an SCP guide, among other things. Now this is where we're going to come to one of the biggest misconceptions I've heard about the SCP wiki in recent months. The idea that you need to get people to approve of your drafts before you can post them on the site itself. This is inaccurate. You can post and fail as many times as you'd like. The voting system will take care of your poor content and if you somehow manage to make it, reward the good content you make. Once you have a sandbox draft though, you can seek feedback on the forums or in chat. Now seeking feedback in IRC chat or Discord is simple enough, though it can be difficult to get people to read your stuff. The forums are a bit more of an assured way to get at least one person to read your work, but there is a catch and it's probably where people got the idea that they needed approval just to post to the site. So you do need approval to get your draft looked at by a member of critique staff. This is pretty much a necessity given the volumes of draft that they get in any given day. In fact, you have to go through a whole process to get your drafts looked at and starting with is this idea worth pursuing? I got my own problems with that as a measure, but let's not worry too much about it. The thing is, well, I highly encourage you and the site will also highly encourage you to seek feedback before posting. You don't have to. You can just post and fail or post and succeed. If the post falls to negative 10, they'll just delete it in 24 hours. The site is self-correcting in that way, and that can be pretty disheartening to new writers, which is why it's always highly suggested that you seek feedback first, but even then, feedback won't guarantee you a good article or a successful one. Anyway, that's it. If you enjoyed the video or you found it helpful, subscribe and then hit the notification bell so you know as soon as I upload new content. I do new stuff every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you want to help critiquing your works or even just want to support the channel on its own, head on over to patreon.com forward slash decimarian, like everyone on this list has. The $10 and $20 tiers will get you one sitting of feedback per month that you can use to improve your drafts and make them work for the SAP Wiki. I've personally written about a hundred articles on the Wiki at this point, and I've already helped several of my patrons get their works published on the Wiki, become a patron and join them. I hope the video was helpful, and I'll see you on Thursday.