SCP-338 was an early containment fiction article about a pair of parallel copper discs that caused objects placed between them to ‘fade out’ and be replaced by strange artifacts from an unknown origin. It was first posted to /x/ on January 19, 2008, and was subsequently ported to both EditThis, and Wikidot.^[1]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/444231.xml^[2]https://web.archive.org/web/20080803022552/http://editthis.info/scp_wiki/SCP-338^[3]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-338-arc It currently exists on the Wikidot as SCP-388-ARC.

SCP-338 is significant in the history of containment fiction in that it was the first to feature a “black box” architecture, a component that would later find maturity in highly popular and classic SCPs, such as SCP-294 (“The Coffee Machine”) and SCP-914 (“The Clockworks”).

History

SCP-338 was first posted to /x/ on January 19, 2008.^[4]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/446341.xml It had been significantly added to by the time of its first archival on EditThis.^[5]https://web.archive.org/web/20080417032058/http://editthis.info/scp_wiki/SCP-338^[6]https://www.diffchecker.com/cQWzw95H/ A block of bulleted text was added in the containment procedures that further specified parameters of escalation, and to an “HCML supervisor”; a phrase included in early versions (but not the original version) of SCP-173.^[7]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/140042.html On EditThis, the original version was polished with respect to composition and grammar (e.g. the phrase “very varied” was removed). An entire “Addendum” section was added; a detailed list of objects subjected to the anomaly, and the result after doing so.

The addendum section on EditThis’ SCP-338 was the first known example of a “black box” architecture. Numerous objects were placed into the discs and output objects were observed and recorded, giving a cause-and-effect attribute to the anomaly and its process. However most of the returned objects lacked any meaningful description, and are often described as “unidentified object”, which prevents the development of any semblance of internal logic to the anomaly (something that SCP-294 (“The Coffee Machine”) and SCP-914 (“The Clockworks”) would later utilize). One object was described more fully in it’s own separate addendum, however the entry is too cryptic to derive meaningful information about the anomaly, or what lies beyond it.

SCP-388 did not receive any meaningful edits after ported to WikiDot. It’s rating declined gradually, until it was ultimately ARC’d in 2011.^[8]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-348272/scp-338-arc

Trivia

The original SCP-338 lacked a “Description” section.

After the initial SCP-338 was ARC’d, user Scantron/Communism will win rewrote it (though this was never posted to the SCP Wiki). They posted a pastebin to this rewrite; it doesn’t seem to have ever been accepted.^[9]https://pastebin.com/WkDN7cAN