The CI Wiki in their own words.
DrCreed
I had applied to the SCP wiki many times and been rejected many times because I was 13 and pretty immature and all that. But I loved the idea of the chaos insurgency, so I plucked it and I went “hehe mine now,” made a wiki on the wikia (now fandom) network for me and my friends – we engaged in some RP, made items in a shitty copy of the SCP format, and more. Then someone popped up and was like “wanna take this to wikidot” and I said “sure.”
We started working, diversifying our content, making stuff that was semi-passable, and managed to get a small community of friends together. When that happened, we got noticed a bit – some of the items were read out, others were ignored, and the ones I wrote were by my own admission, cringe and not poggers. I don’t even remember them now tbh, but that’s what we were. Over time, shit started to shift, admins came and went, people came and went, and we started the shadow-cabal that is Falchion valley, which now mostly serves as a hub for the oldest members to shoot the shit whenever we’re around.
I ended up leaving after being frustrated and letting my immaturity take the better of me in some administrative conflicts, but I stayed in touch with others – this was around 2015-6, I think? And the CI wiki sort of fell into disarray, with some people coming in and looking around and liking our ideas, and that started THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK – which served as both a friendly reminder that dead wikis could be taken over by others and that CI existed. I came back a few times, as did others, and over time the original staff either were replaced (I stepped down and away from all administrative functions formally) or integrated with the new guard – I believe a guy named metawonderrat was a part of that, but I cannot fully remember.
Anyways, CI wiki has been evolving since then, my memory is shot from a lot of stuff but that’s what I remember, and I’m here as a member who wants to get back to business.
my only remaining articles are the Biological Von Neumann device and mentions of Doctor Creed in articles by the old guard, as we frame the DOOMSDAY CLOCK shift as an internal coup within the narrative and lore of the Chaos Insurgency.
The CI started as my appropriation of a pre-existing concept, and has evolved into what it is now: anomalous arms dealing, terrorism, and anti-SCP foundation activity, which is a direction I want to explore more thoroughly when I get time.
It’s just small human communities that don’t have inbuilt processes for decision that everyone agrees with – I’ve seen similar processes happen on forums for obscure games, slenderman RP wikis, discord chats for writers, and more.
Relying on everyone arguing with each other leads to people who are best able to shout down others winning more than often, and personality conflicts REALLY grate if that’s your main method of decision
I don’t know meta all too well I just know his dedication to the CI wiki has been admirable and he’s one of the reasons there was something for me to come back to this year
But that’s what I remember
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EdAWACSdenyY
I think I may as well add in my side of the story though exact dates I may have to edit in later
Short form: I stumbled upon the current CI wiki dot site ran by Cad after looking at it being mentioned somewhere that there were 2 CI wikis. The old one ran by DrCreed and the new one made by Cad
I can say that I felt pity in my heart for the wiki as they didn’t seem to have basic forums or guidelines set up so I logged in and asked if I could help set up the forums and maybe some basic rules
Unless someone else remembers me differently like Cad I never entered into the wiki dot with the goal of being a mod or admin
But Cad seeing how I offered to help decided I would do more as an Admin of the site
So with my new admin powers on the CII-wiki, on the same day I wrote up the current “Guide to New Recruits” and “Site Rules” with a little help from Zyn
I also set up a proper forum as the communication system of the early wiki was archaic since people basically edited a page to chat instead of thread based content
But with the forum all set up and detailed and basic frameworks up I felt it was awkward to have the than mods and admins having to discuss staff matters on the actual wiki so I proposed making a separate admin site to coordinate efforts. Cad of course picked the proper name for our new staff site. Yes that was Falchion Valley which came online on the second day of me being admin (that is the staff site still is just not as utilized now cause there’s no real need for it but it’s still there)
Okay so continuing what I wrote from earlier. With me as one of the admins, a number of other features were set up during this time as I wasn’t really focused on actual content and more on the additions of the sites usage and framework so I also with a bit of help from outside, set up an IRC chat #basesix which was how some of the members communicated. It was registered under me. It was mostly just staff really though
Then of course a lot of other people were added onto staff who seemed to be able to help with a few old hands
Dr Nouva was one who designed the old CI Logo and Victor Strate who was one of the good writers of the site then
Around this time DrCreed showed up to the former old wikidot CI wiki and found it basically sacked and vandalized due to a schism between him and Hockenberry and Cad and showed up at the new (current) CI wiki rightfully a bit miffed.
Hockenberry (who was also admin at the time) vandalized the front page of the wiki with “WHO LET CREED IN” etc
A discussion between, New CI staff and Creed was started and ended thankfully on amicable terms with Creed giving over control of the old wiki to me and Cad
We salvaged all the old articles from the site and transferred them over to the new site
And also the new CI wiki formerly known as the CII wiki absorbed the formers name. The transfer was complete and there was only one CI wiki
You can read threads on falchion valley if you have the time and patience for it but originally the staff decided to delete the old wiki. But Cad decided the old site still had use and so with a bit of reformatting the old CI wiki is now currently the CI Sandbox site
http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-849023/found-the-creator-of-the-old-ci-wiki Link to the meeting with Creed on Falchion Valley
Now where was I? With all changes going around, things seemed pretty great at the time to me and maybe the other staff members. We had reunited the old members with the new and our site had the basic frameworks of a proper wikidot wiki minus any fancy CSS themes
We than struggled to tackle the fundamental problem of the CI-wiki that frankly we still have a bit of trouble with if I speak only from my heavily biased opinion.
“What is our site style and writing style? What is our identity?
Ah okay where was I? Ah yes, so without going into agonizing detail on how much I (and maybe some other staff) cared about site style and writing style we vetted out some basics. No esoteric classification system with strange codenames just focus on how useful that item would be.
http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-859648/changing-site-style
It really can’t be said enough that outside help helped out a lot in that department
And believe me there was a considerable amount of talk on the staff site on this topic
http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-849254/the-issue-of-tone
http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-846022/object-classifications
It was actually when Mark an old member showed up and was a bit miffed that the old Wiki was vandalized that we kinda had a discussion about it. But to call that incident a crisis would be melodramatic
http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-849905/mark
So to rectify the error in that recollection, basically, Cad got a PM from Mark (The author of the article BED of WEALTH) and things got a little heated due to some bad blood between old and new members and thats when Hockenberry vandalized the front page of the current CI wiki (You will have to really dig into the page history to find it) Thankfully, all issues were resolved amicably without any hurt feelings or aminosity
Also of note is that Hockenberry at that time was the Master Admin of the current CI wiki, that changed during the Mass Edit and Site Overhaul time periods where staff decided that Hockenberry, being underaged, inexperienced and not very active was possibly not the best person for ownership of the site or in any moderator role.
But that’s jumping way ahead in the chronology
So where was I? (again). So the wiki was chugging along great, with most of the classification systems sorted out for the time being and we all had fun together. I wrote what I personally would consider the most important contribution I gave to the CI site (debatable). I wrote the Haos Doctrine
Which is where many CI members today old and new may have heard about Haos as the current leader of the Chaos Insurgency according to our wiki
If you ever read the Haos Doctrine http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/about You will instantly recognize where I might have been thinking of when I wrote it.
In fact I will publicly disclose this now, it was the first interview with “The Adminstrator” that inspired the writing of The Haos Doctrine. If anyone ever asked me to explain how I perceive the Chaos Insurgency, than the Haos Doctrine is what I would ask you all to read again.
Ironically as it was a declaration by the presumed leader in canon of the Chaos Insurgency, It was loosely in my mind a response I would write to TheAdminstrator as an antithesis
While the idea behind the Haos Doctrine hasn’t resonated very strongly with anyone today, the idea of the figure of Haos has stuck. That’s thus how the new staff contributed a crucial part of community lore into present day through Haos.
The other members supported the concept of Haos and with the help of a Tale Contest dubbed “Project Haos, the concept of Haos as a the leading force of the Insurgency took root
http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/project-haos
With the establishment of Haos, and great contributions of writers like Victor Strate, Cad, and new comers like drsteffie, Dr Halsey, and Agent E, things only got better in hindsight for the CI wiki which thrived in a local way
During this time Cad was really coming into his own despite only being 13 (or slightly older?) at the time with confidence, maturity beyond some of us former staff and a drive to improve.
Almost all the site theme work, a few of the CI wiki’s best known works all sprang from his hand. It was almost as if when I arrived and set the framework Cad was able to effectively grow into leadership role. Around this, time it could also be argued by me only that the CI wiki entered into probably its most active (for a small community) period which I will only coin as LOLsurgency
It is with irony that even me and other staff can’t really escape from avatars and larger than life characters to insert into stories. Cad had his dartgun wielding doctor with a fondness for berry mints and an even fonder in universe affection for QUAESITOR (CI Alien Satellite and former IRC chatbot).
http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/if-eye-stay
http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/martin-caduceus-and-the-mcflurry-of-shit
http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/caduceus-impressions-on-the-ci-senior-staff
Victor Strate with his meme related articles which sadly were lost in the Mass Edit sanitzation. Articles like the Shrekoning and an article about him playing cookie clicker. I won’t mention myself as I was mostly concerned with framework and overall “canon (lol what is that)” But Cad did make several tales in light hearted mockery of what I wanted my character to be like
which gave birth to Edison Denhai and Dr Deny (non of which is really what I wanted but hey I got what I deserved XD) insane locked up person and doctor with ridiculous Mary Sue OOT abilities
It should be noted that this was natural as it was part of the fun and interesting parts of the CI wiki for staff and the active users at that time period. No one really cared about seriousness or tone too much and the tales and items that were borne out of that era were interesting for us at the time and that was what mattered.
in dedication to that time period Cad recently wrote a tale to harken back to those golden days
http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/after-aleph
DrNouva once compared us to the Foundation old writers which when I look back was silly but it captured the feelings of that time. She compared me to Gears, (way too high a praise), Caduceus to Clef, etc
However with that comparison, for me a dangerous precedent in my thoughts was set and soon those golden days would come to an end and with it the scattering of friends and staff to the winds.
And that sadly brings me to the beginnings of what would lead up the site overhaul and the rarely spoken off Mass Edit, the transition of the CI wiki to what it is today.
So where do I start in these personal recollections? Ah yes lets start with the overreach in canon I placed myself into with Personnel Designations
http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/personnel-designations
The current personnel designations page is vastly different from when I originally conceived the page. Have created the framework for the wiki, created the Staff Site, and having gotten the attention of the Foundation Outreach team with aspirations of formal recognition on the horizon. I was high and deeply drunk on the spirits of success and it would be a lie to say my ego did not inflate in accordance
The Personnel Designations page was my attempt at adding more to the “canon (again lol what is that?)” to the site and have concepts more inline with my vision of the CI with a shadowl cabal behind the scenes directing the true vision along with Haos. This was the conception of OURANOS and the Intelligentsia which would serve as top secret higher-ups above the Alphas in hierarchy but not publicly.
Immediately the endeavor stagnated due to me unable to agree on how it should be written and instead I offloaded the bulk of its writing to Cad and a small part to Nouva. There was immediately apprehensions about these additions to the site from other active site members due to the inconsistent and incompatible nature of OURANOS or the Intelligentsia as viable concepts for the Chaos Insurgency.
I can’t speak for the other members, but it could possibly be because of my position as an Administrator, and my perceived position as liaison to the Foundation that the other members grudgely tolerated the concept
Truth to be told, my track record at this point as Administrator, wasn’t the best with one embarrassment of cross site plagiarism, increasingly evidence of unprofessional and unwieldy conduct in staff matters weren’t damning as they weren’t major issues yet, but wasn’t the best image to project
This matter also happened to coincide with my transition into a Post-Secondary time frame which I was wholly unprepared for which compounded the stress on such faults.
This was also the time where the Foundation staff were paying much closer attention to the CI wiki due to the cordial first contact and general activity as well as Cad helping out with some “problematic members” from the Foundation via the Spambot Deathwall
http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-1028261/regarding-site-exposure
We were approached regarding assistance with social media
http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-846821/visual-records
We also got our own visual record database for images to utilize
http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-857192/affiliation-and-relations-with-aisf-site
We also (not very reluctantly) cut off ties with AIS due to relations with a user that was deemed not worth the troubles associated. So the fateful moment came where I had a discussion with administrator of the Foundation, thedeadlymoose
Before this conversation, every staff at the CI wiki thought that we were well on our way to be officially recognized as the 3rd official offshoot or whatever that means anything now. But afterwards it proved how wrong we and especially I was and just how far the faults and limitations of the concepts still bedeviled us or me per say
This conversation and my failure to bring it up with the rest of the site staff by accident and due negligence was what I felt personally started the spiral into the Mass Edit
it’s a very long log so I will just quote some of the relevant points
[2015-01-14 19:10:20] <thedeadlymoose> Basically, EdAWAC, this stemmed from me telling a staff member that we should think about doing some more outreach to you guys, to see if we could help you guys make some improvements, and gauge whether you were even /willing/ to make improvements
[2015-01-14 19:12:17] <EdAWAC> What improvements may I inquire. I myself have a vague idea of what some of the improvements were
[2015-01-14 19:13:40] <thedeadlymoose> It’s something of a complex situation, but currently the answer is your quality standards… just as it was before.
[2015-01-14 19:13:52] <thedeadlymoose> Now: I have some sympathy with you guys.
[2015-01-14 19:14:11] <thedeadlymoose> You’ve had a lot of people telling you that you Just Can’t Do certain things, for very little reason
2015-01-14 19:16:13] <thedeadlymoose> But, honestly, the frankly biggest problem is that right now, and for your general history, you haven’t been anything but a ripoff site trying to bask in our reflected glory, and harming our image by your existence. The entire reason your site exists is because you can’t match the SCP wiki’s quality standards, plus that it’s run by underaged users who aren’t allowed on the Foundation.
[2015-01-14 19:22:47] <thedeadlymoose> Well… the problem is that I’m interested, but I don’t want to derail too hard. I’m more asking: Is Hockenberry even active? Why is he your site owner? Why not, say, Caduceus?
[2015-01-14 19:23:05] <EdAWAC> Hocken created the CI-data site
[2015-01-14 19:23:12] <EdAWAC> And Cad was the 2nd user to join
[2015-01-14 19:23:39] <EdAWAC> Hockenberry has just kinda stayed as MA for the CI site
[2015-01-14 19:23:49] <EdAWAC> HE hasn’t been active last year nor this year
That block of line there for me resulted in Hockenberry being removed as MA and as staff in general
[2015-01-14 20:11:40] <thedeadlymoose> Who came up with the Haos stuff? Who comes up with your background material?
[2015-01-14 20:11:54] <EdAWAC> I came up with the Haos Doctrine
[2015-01-14 20:12:00] <EdAWAC> than I rewrote it
[2015-01-14 20:12:13] <EdAWAC> And asked Zyn to look it over
[2015-01-14 20:12:27] <EdAWAC> And I started the Project Haos Challenge
[2015-01-14 20:12:28] <thedeadlymoose> What about the rest of the site background material? The universe stuff?
[2015-01-14 20:12:45] <EdAWAC> Mostly me
[2015-01-14 20:12:48] <EdAWAC> And Cad
[2015-01-14 20:13:05] <EdAWAC> I came up with the concept of the Intelligentsia
[2015-01-14 20:13:26] <EdAWAC> Cad kinda assisted greatly
[2015-01-14 20:13:26] <thedeadlymoose> Okay. That’s good, generally speaking, since you are the two I figure are most likely to actually try to come onto the SCP wiki and attempt to succeed per … well, per actual established quality standards 😉
So from this conversation, the main point was the CI wiki was far from what we thought we were at. We were worse off than ever. and the worse things were yet to come (melodramatic)
So at this moment I should mention that during this time another active member at the time had joined the site and quickly rose to the role of moderator due to their level of activity
That person was Live2Die later renamed to Heartful. My personal impressions of Heartful was that they had a quick wit, and sometimes an bit of an acid tongue and a very assertive personality. Way more assertive than say me or any of the other staff at the time (except Cad)
The biggest error I made as Adminstrator was ironically something I wasn’t even aware off until I was made aware. The above conversation? I forgot to pass it on to the other staff members. It wasn’t out of worry or malice, I simply forgot, with the rigors of post secondary life and other more pressing matters were floating in my mind.
However what seemed as a minor issue for me, turned out to be fatal for me as an adminstrator for the CI wiki.
Now I hate to go back to Heartful but at this point as an active member they had gone from casual observer to a moderator and therefore into a position of moderation in the staff and for me it showed in how much more assertive and sometimes a bit too forceful and authoritative considering their role.
But I received this PM from them. These are wikidot PMs from way back and Heartful currently to my knowledge wants nothing to do with the CI wiki so I’m sure they won’t mind me sharing these
Now I want to dispel any notion that people may have now that I’m pinning to blame onto Heartful. Everything they said there was perfectly correct about me in my role as an administrator (though a bit less blunt and crude would have been proper). But yeah this was the first major fuckup I had as an adminstrator. From gaining this knowledge, the staff hurriedly convened for a meeting to discuss how the site could be overhauled.
http://falchionvalley.wikidot.com/forum/t-1117217/site-overhaul
VAElynx also inputed her opinions in this thread just throwing that in. But from this the idea of a site overhaul or mass edit was born. As in the form the CI wiki was at that point, despite being vibrant and active, it wasn’t considered palatable by consensus of probably 2 or 3 Foundation staff for their blessings
So several matters were decided
With this Hockenberry was relieved of his duties effectively immediately, and I was considered someone who could never again be trusted to lead. Even though I remained at that time as moderator, any kind of contribution I could bring to the site was effectively dead and any influence was gone and this brought us to the Mass Edit.
The Mass Edit was less and edit and more of the staff preening through the various articles on the CI wikia and than putting the torch to anything that wasn’t needed for “quality” purposes. Any form of creation of content was reduced to zero.
Countless articles and tales from the LOLsurgency era were razed to the ground. The most enthusiastic about this Mass Edit seemed to be Heartful. Any concept of the canon I envisioned was rightfully discarded such as OURANOS and the Intelligentsia, and looking back it was a silly concept for the Chaos Insurgency so I can’t say I have regrets on it disappearing
Pretty much a good portion of the articles from all authors were removed from the wiki. Other works were vetted for rewrites which under Heartful if they werent finished rewritten, had to be deleted. The Mass Edit however, did not prove to be the rebirth of the CI wiki that we all hoped it would. Instead it proved the death knell and a slide into a period of obscurity and stagnation.
Dr Halsey and Agent E were all slowly driven away due to the inability to create content and the constant demands to rewrite rewrite rewrite rewrite rewrite rewrite, delete, delete, delete, delete. Slowly but surely in my eyes, the CI wiki withered
So what did I do? I dragged my feet on rewrites, dragged my feet on vetting articles. I personally was sick of all this removal of material that were removed for the sin of not conforming to the outside. DrSteffie went dark. DrNouva went into inactivity due to IRL concerns Victor Strate contracted diabetes and also stopped contact.
Eventually Heartful, the most active champion of the Mass Edit, abruptly resigned and left the site due to mental concerns with regards to SCP and reasons with a conviction never to return ever. But the damage was done
The site entered into a long period of stagnation. With it Cad quietly ended the Mass Edit as even he realized it did more harm than good. I can only speak for myself, but every breathed a collective sigh of relief that Heartful left the site.
Now it’s important to know that my demotion was borne of the fear that I may turn rogue (in my mind at least) and try to damage the wiki in some way with my administrator priveledges. That was also why I willingly transferred over my chat ops rights to Cad
I mean I will just say I would have never done anything as petty as that while I still remained as Administrator but I was no longer to be trusted with power. So I willingly stepped down. I also with deep reluctance handed over MA rights to Cad for Falchion Valley after a heated discussion about it.
http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-2033849/death Agent E’s last real messages
http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/staff:checklist-tales
Checklist of tales that were to be reviewed
http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-1194331/official-mass-review-items
Forum hub of Mass Edit
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Cthuwu The Eldwich Howwow
So basically I first discovered the CI around 2 years ago when the wiki was going through an administrative crisis. Cad was taking a break for reason I’m unsure of but I believe it was school related. However, Cad seemed to be the only person able to accept new members, so the waiting list kept growing.
From what I could tell the wiki was fairly quiet at that point and no one was really doing much, mostly cause no-one could join, including me. However, Meta shown like a star as he Restarted the doomsday clock and tried persistently to keep the wiki alive and get some of the staff back and active. This period lasted from March 23rd 2019 to April 13th 2020 when all applications were accepted. I believe it was resolved when Meta was made administrator after Cad came back.
In early 2021 zesc, baron, and xyth were made mods. I had provided a link to this and operation Doomsday Clock before, but those also disappeared so I’ll repost them later today when I’m no longer mobile. Since then it’s mostly thin Baron, zesc, and meta acting like a pacemaker keeping the site alive. More recently zesc and meta have been working to encourage new writers and starting contests, and a trend I hope they will continue in the future
(The Doomsday Clock) was meta’s fall back if the mods ever became inactive. You should be able to find it in the forum under (I wanna say announcements but look at site proposals if not) and should be about 500 days old.
pixelatedHarmony