The first slot, also commonly known as a oo1 entry, the first entry on an article list, is a venerated position for a piece of containment fiction to have. Most major containment fiction communities have their own equivalent of this coveted spot. Some of these slots are occupied by a single article, others have numerous potential variants linked on a hub page.

The international SCP Wikis each have their own variation of the SCP-001, in addition to hosting translation of one another’s 001 proposals. For simplicity’s sake, no SCP-001 proposal translations will be counted on this list, only the works original to each community.

The title on the SCP-EN Wiki Main List is SCP-001 – Awaiting De-classification [Blocked]

There are currently over 40 Proposals for SCP-001 on the SCP Wiki -EN.

The SCP-001 slot has been viewed as special ever since people began writing SCPs beyond SCP-173. On September 5th, 2007, the day the first non-173 was posted on 4chan’s /x/ board, an Anon humorously suggested that SCP-001 (“SCP-1”) should be “the cursed bones of Draculajesus or something”, ^[1]https://archive.fo/wxQgG#selection-3071.194-3071.199, post 258332 while another joked that SCP-001 should be the final Holder’s Object. ^[2]https://archive.fo/wxQgG#selection-7309.0-7309.6, post 258332 (The Holders were an early creepypasta series about 538 cursed objects that would end the world if brought together).

SCP-001 was first referenced in an SCP article on January 20, 2008 when an Anon posted SCP-003;^[3]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/448755.xml this SCP was supposedly found next to 002 and 001 ^[4]post 448774. There was further discussion about 001, but the poster refused to write 001 on the grounds that 001 was the origin SCP, and that it would impossible to define. ^[5]post 448826 Another Anon supported this decision and stated it would be undesirable for the first several SCPs to be super powerful and resource intensive.^[6]post 448938

The first ever SCP-001 was posted to to the recently created EditThis Wiki on January 21, 2008.^[7]http://web.archive.org/web/20080617143706/http://editthis.info/scp_wiki/?title=SCP-001&action=history The community reaction to the 001 was negative ^[8]http://web.archive.org/web/20080517151235/http://editthis.info:80/scp_wiki/Talk:SCP-001, see the very top comments. As a result, the site Admin (in what was perhaps the only administrative action ever seen on the EditThis wiki) blanked the 001 page, locked the page to prevent future editing, and added the text “BLANKED AND LOCKED UNTIL SOMEONE MAKES ONE WORTHY OF THE TITLE OF SCP-001.” The original 001 was not archived, nor was there any meaningful discussion about its contents.

Over the next few months, EditThis members started adding their own “proposals” for the 001 slot to the talk page.^[9]http://web.archive.org/web/20080616233457/http://editthis.info/scp_wiki/Talk:SCP-001 The above 001 proposal seems to have been the first of these, as it was posted to /x/ only a day after the 001 slot was locked and blanked. No official 001 was ever selected on the EditThis wiki.

This approach was carried over to the Wikidot website where a page existed for members to submit their proposals ^[10]https://web.archive.org/web/20081016155441/https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/proposals-for-scp-001, the kill-agent and in-universe stuff was added by the real world member Dr. Clef in August 2008; check … Continue reading. For many years, the actual 001 page merely stated “Authors are encouraged to submit their proposals for SCP-001 and accept constructive criticism and feedback.” Over the following years, the 001 proposals started to accumulate, and no effort was made to choose the “real” one. In August 2014, djkaktus altered the main 001 page to create the hub present today.^[11]http://www.scp-wiki.net/forum/t-76799/scp-001#post-2125420 By this point, it had long been established that there was not going to be one official 001, so the edit was closer to clean-up than a major change in site culture.^[12]http://www.scp-wiki.net/forum/t-83241/proposals-for-scp-001#post-2094344

A forum thread titled “SCP-001, What’s up with that?” in July 2008. WikiDot user Lt Masipag submitted an entry to the SCP-001, seemingly definitively. The thread was a discussion about this, where it was determined that the move was a willfully aggressive annexation of something not yet decided upon by the greater community. This incident was also the initial impetus for WikiDot and page permissions, per user The Administrator:^[13]https://archive.ph/HBVLt#selection-1227.0-1227.358

“For months, people have been submitting proposals toward SCP-001. Lt Masipag must have known that muscling his way into SCP-001 was going to cause in-fighting and dispute between this sites members. The same way SCP-000 caused so much bad blood before. It saddens me that of all people, one of our own moderators would commit one of the gravest of sins here.

I left all permissions open because I wanted to see how well other could improve the site. We admins are going to have to start locking down pages now, beginning with this one. Lt Masipag will have to submit a proposal for SCP-001 like everyone else.”

Lt Masipag responding:^[14]https://archive.ph/HBVLt#selection-1641.0-1641.313

“I have to admit, what I did was quite bull-headed, but from what I saw SCP-001 was getting nowhere. There seemed to be a general consensus of agreement on Eberstrom’s proposal, so I thought no-one would make too big an issue of it, or that it would in the least the action would bring some priority to the matter.”

This event also acted to solidify the SCP-001 slot as one of illustriousness, meant for a number of iconic entries that would remain ambiguous, be something to do with origins of the Foundation or large-scope pieces of lore, and be exceptionally classified in-universe, available to Overseers only. A motion to leave the page blank to maximize immersive intrigue and secrecy was suggested, with notable people seconding it at the time, such as DrClef. It was the suggestion of DrClef to cast the multitude of SCP-001s as potentially false entries:^[15]https://archive.ph/HBVLt#selection-2443.0-2443.167

“My opinion is that the real SCP-001 isn’t anything we’ve posted, or maybe it’s all of them: the Foundation could be running a disinformation campaign to protect it.”

The title on the RPC Authority Archive I list is RPC-001 – [RESTRICTED].^[16]http://rpcauthority.wikidot.com/rpc-001

The RPC Authority Wiki currently has three proposals for RPC-001. Their basic format and layout for their 001 proposals is heavily influenced by and similar to the SCP Wiki’s, although there is enough of a stylistic difference in presentation to be distinct. 

Both in-universe and out (“dual-universally”), the RPC Authority approaches the 001 slot as reserved for anomalies that require a sufficient amount of attention, though the threshold for that attention is ill-defined. In contrast to SCP’s dual-universal lore of a multitude of false entries to detract from the real one, all RPC-001s are considered “real”. Each is given the 001 designation, with hyphenated sub-designations assigned on an (out-of-universe) chronological basis.

The Backroom’s Wiki’s equivalent to a first slot was Entity-1, which has been transitioned into the Enigmatic Entities list. This list was initially set-up in a similar fashion as other first slot entries, with the first additions referred to as “proposals”, each designated “Entity 1”. ^[17]https://web.archive.org/web/20200824204913/http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/entity-1

The Entity-1 Contest (August 2020) saw the initial canonizing of Entity 1 proposals.^[18]https://web.archive.org/web/20210128181927/http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/entity-1 The contest’s page states:^[19]http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/contest-entity-1-2020

“The M.E.G. have decided the Entity 1 slot would best be used for documenting the most dangerous unconfirmed Entities. Your job is to create a proposal for this list. The Entity can be anything you want (as long as it fits in with the Backrooms tone!). There may be many contestants, but only 4 will be accepted as cannon Entity 1 proposals.”

The rules specified that the Entity-1 proposals must abide by the Entity format, and justify itself as significant enough for the designation in-universe. Entries were added chronologically at some point after, however, the current-day list does not seem to be in chronological order. Only one entry from this contest remains on the site, and so is the only to appear on the contest hub.^[20]http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/the-humans

A deliberate effort to distinguish this version from its containment fiction predecessors seems to have taken place in May 2021, where the word “proposal” was removed from this page, the entries renamed from “[author]’s proposal” to titles relevant to the works, and the list renamed to a collection of Enigmatic Entities.^[21]http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/enigmatic-entities Like Entity-1, the Enigmatic Entities remain those “powerful enough to cause widespread destruction or instability.” Some notable containment fiction authors have contributed to this list, such as CadaverCommander of SCP-4999 fame and Etoisle, previous admin of the Backrooms Wiki.

It should be noted that The Backrooms itself is Level 0 – “Tutorial Level”.^[22]http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/level-0 Their “Level 0” acts as an on-boarding article to familiarize readers with the basics of subsequent Backrooms content. Level 0 uses the iconic yellow wallpaper Backrooms photo.

Liminal Archive’s 001 equivalent is designated Level 1 – The Halls.^[23]http://liminal-archives.wikidot.com/level-1/

Level 1 of the Liminal Archive Backrooms system uses the same picture as Level 0 on the Backrooms/Tech Support Wiki. The articles are fundamentally different both in content and intention. While the Backrooms Wiki is a shallow end on-boarding, the Liminal Archive’s article does not have such an introductory purpose.

The Chaos Insurgency Wiki’s first slot has no special designation for 001. The current article is the Bell of Entropy and it most likely has the first slot only by virtue of being the first article posted on the site.^[24]http://ci-wiki.wikidot.com/bell-of-entropy

The Wayward society notably afforded no article any “first slot” privilege, with the majority of its content being divided among five sections in its Aberration Catalog.^[25]http://wayward.wikidot.com/aberration-catalog

Thank you to Cooldude971, whose past research on SCP-001s is included in the History subsection, and can be found in its original presentation here.