August 2024 Backrooms Report

All the latest Backrooms news of the month!

By Praetor3005
Updated Sep. 05, 2024 from the Staffrooms

The end of Roots2024

The rooms are so back.

Crazy to think that in the last few weeks, we not only got the origin of the Backrooms picture, but also 109 other very liminal pictures of the original Backrooms location right? Welp, roots2024 certainly will make this event remembered through writing forever. Seeing so many people use those unassuming images differently has been incredible for such a small writing blitz. Some members used the same image in different ways, showing how creative an author can be with the same base material, while others imagined wild ways to use those pictures outside of their context. We heavily encourage you all to check those pages for yourself and see how Hobbytown has been once again an incredible source of creativity.

Thanks to all participants, and we hope the wiki enjoyed this little writing blitz! We look forward to making more of those little events outside the classic official contests, so we hope to see you all there as well!

Art pages!

Lute not posting a billion drawings challenge (impossible).

Thanks to the combined efforts of BlueSignet, Super-Robot14 and centurys lute, our site now has a special art category for all artists to enjoy!

For the starting month, we have gotten a bunch of artists already! Specials thanks to ReyDay, scally leantno, I_am_a_dragon and centurys lute for inaugurating this category for the month! Those members have managed to put faces and views on Backrooms articles, which is yet another way to contribute to this rich universe.

Anyone is encouraged to post their art there. No crit is needed, and the deletion threshold is at 0, so give it a try and share your work!

Deletion threshold II electric boogaloo

TS when new system (2024 colorized)

Oh man this change was definitely something.

It's been three months since the introduction of the new posting policy. Three crits to post, and a higher deletion threshold. During that time, we got a big increase in new posted pages, but also an increase in deleted pages (obviously). After some discussions with authors and other community members, it is clear that the system is flawed in some way. After those three months, we have seen that:

Unlike our expectations, the policy hasn't allowed people to improve better, quite the contrary actually, as downvotes became more of a danger to the page than a way to express criticism and help for improvement.
the fear factor is also something we didn't account for. Even established authors feel scared about their page's potential deletion.
Lastly, the lack of readers also make the current total vote number needed feel very difficult, which puts some perfectly good articles near the threat of deletion.

After some discussions with the GLMP, we doubled the grace period to account for the lack of quick voters and make the power of a single downvote less present. During September's period, we will closely look at the deletions and ratings, as well as the author's feelings, in order to find a way to tweak it to allow for this criticism and improvement mind that is necessary for the wiki moving forward while keeping a positive and healthy posting ratio.

If you feel a little lost by staff's direction as of late, give our site direction a read! It contains a summary of everything staff has been discussing about the site, and what we plan to work on to make this community a growing place.

Tag, you're it!

Sweet delicious sorting…

A bunch of things regarding maintenance this month!

Thanks to centurys lute (yes, again), we now have attribution tags for objects! Three for now, seeing the diversity of objects, but if you wish to see more, feel free to use our tag suggestion thread to give away some ideas!

jan Jejasa has also done a bunch of technical quality-of-life changes for maintenance! Now, each tag list has an introduction directly in it, allowing for easier access to its definition while browsing (try it out! Here is an example). Thanks to him, staff also has access to an easier metatagging experience, allowing our dear admins to update them faster. Try linking your page on discord, chances are it already has a custom one!

And on a smaller note, we now have a rewritten tag for all pages that have been well… Rewritten. _{Gosh there's a lot of them.}

Smol change speedrun

Oh noes! The dreaded Happyfiles Virus^TM has changed the entity list! Noooo!_{wdym staff did it}

Quick summary of the very small yet cool thing we had this month!

The entity list and object list are now smaller and the bigger slots are closed. the entity list has closed the slots 300+, and the objects have closed the slots 200+. No page has been moved, however, and they are all present in the "other entities" or "other objects" tab. This change is aiming at completing the smaller slots faster and therefore offering a cleaner browsing experience.
Staff has been making good progress on replacing non-CC images, as well as fixing the broken discord links. If you have any usable image to replace a currently non-CC image, feel free to send it on our discord server!
MC_Crafter_24_7, helped by DivineAtlas, has started handing some of the pages they own from banned authors to other users. Expect some rewrites to start soon. If you're interested in any of the pages they own, you're free to contact him. You can find the current list here. The pages that have been given can be also found in the updated Custodian Policy.
We now have a guide to make a sandbox site, created by the marvelous Super-Robot14! A sandbox site has a lot of advantages regarding organisation and page count, so if you tend to start a lot of different Backrooms projects, you can make one for yourself!

Staff and GLMP updates!

On the GLMP's end, this month was marked by the demotion of four of our greenlighters due to inactivity for a long time. Fortunately, that does mean that all of our remaining greenlighters are active, so if you need a crit from them, feel free to ask them! You can find the list here, as well as the ways to contact each of them.

On staff's end, this month, jan Jejasa has replaced Poliacci as an admin thanks to his expertise and activity toward tech-related matters, and the admin role will allow him to work on those points more effectively. Maksus still remains on the team as a moderator, as his experience with staff remains extremely valuable despite his lower activity. ReyDay has also been promoted to moderator for his constant activity, especially on maintenance and community-related topics. MyrandFox also stepped down, as they lacked time to work on the wiki.

Featured pages - History, commentary, apocalypse and multiverse

This month's featured articles are filled with familiar faces showing the best of what they are good at in writing.

Gather your caving equipement, because we are going deep within the Backrooms, litterally and figuratively alike! With Level 669, Greggita Mahayfaio tells the tale of a deep cave which caused the demise of many people all across history, using many retrieved documents and historical pieces and taking the opportunity of fleshing out the past of the Backrooms in the Simulation Canon.

How long could the essay about the use of the color blue be? With Level 131, BlueSignet makes us ask ourselves the value of interpretation when reading a piece of fiction. Did the author mean something more by using this specific color, or was it merely a detail to be forgotten?

You're in for a real ride on this one. With Paradise 771, Delameuh continues with his Origins series, showcasing the ineluctable win of the Reverence in their attempt to come back to the past of the Backrooms… Unless all wanderer coalitions can team up this once and fight united for their lives. But will it be enough?
Sacred-Domain

Sometimes, the simplest things can be the gateway to something far more grandiose. With Phenomenon 30, Robert Goerman continues to explore the multiverse, showing us the mysteries behind what was thought to be only light flaws caught on cameras.

But that's not it just yet! We also have updated our art features! This month, we have

A render of a cursed and nonsensical room by Alfarex
An art of Ari Kolinski, a future Backrooms character by Super-Robot14
A peek into the insanity of the website itself by centurys lute
A representation of the Catmaster by scutoid studios
A logo for a future benevolent group by Les_catgirls
A render of a twisted and shadowy room by sderbz

Want to see them? Pay the Featured Art Archive a visit!

If you want to have a chance to see your art being featured, you can post in the backrooms-art channel of our discord server!

A look into the future

There's a lot you can expect in the next few weeks and months!

First, we are actively working with our international branches (as well as with new ones!) to bring you a new improved translation system. Hopefully this allows this wiki to discover other expansions of the lore by different cultures and countries!

We are also debating on the future of the GLMP, which isn't as needed to post new pages as it used to be. The case of the Critic Mentoring Program is also discussed, with possible ways to improve the way we passively train critics.

Discussions about a lore guide and a potential cohesive site canon are also ongoing, although they are still in their early stages.

You can also expect an improved disc system, with more clearly defined sanctions in the future.

Two components are currently/will be worked on, but for different reasons. While the Concord component is currently being fixed for official integration on the wiki, the classic level class is also getting some changes in the future, although nothing is set in stone right now.

And more events! Whether they are reoccurring or one-of-a-kind like roots2024, we want to see more activity on this wiki, and are working toward this goal.

Do you think staff should focus on something specific, or even something we have no plans on yet? Let us know!

I hope you liked this little report of the month! If you have any feedback about it, about the elements showcased, the structures or some suggestions about stuff to talk about, make sure to let me know!

And with that said, I hope to see you next month here as well!

‡ Licensing / Citation

page revision: 4, last edited: 08 Sep 2024 13:13

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