In Defense of The Backrooms Wiki(s)
Before I say anything else, let me first begin with a personal background:
I have been involved in the Backrooms community since April 2021. Not only that, but I have also produced content for the three main Backrooms wikis (Fandom, Wikidot and Liminal Archives), and thus have a perspective of all sides. I have arguably witnessed its lowest lows and its highest highs, so I am more than qualified to speak on this matter.
I am thoroughly sick and tired of the negative attitude that many express towards Backrooms “lore” – essentially any form of expansion beyond the original concept/themes. The proprietors of this sentiment, primarily liminal purists and Kane Pixels fans, spread slander and propaganda against the Backrooms wikis, without even bothering to do their own research. This meme is one of the most popular (and infuriating) examples:
While people are allowed to have opinions, the discourse around this matter has reached a toxic extent, such that I feel the need to address every fallacious argument made against the Backrooms wikis and stop the spreading of misinformation:
“Entities don’t belong in The Backrooms”
This point is entirely subjective. In fact, most who say this are likely unaware of the fact that the original Backrooms post references entities. And I quote:
God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you
The existence of entities is not unfaithful to the original Backrooms concept. In fact, it is part of it!
“The Backrooms can only be liminal/horror”
Again, this is subjective. While the original post does set a tone of liminality and horror, the concept itself is broad enough to accommodate other genres. At the end of the day, The Backrooms is a setting. And within a setting, any kind of story with any kind of tone can take place. An alternate dimension vaguely resembling normal reality does not need to be defined by a specific genre. And even still, liminality and horror continue to remain the dominant themes across the Backrooms wikis. That is not likely to ever change.
“The Backrooms Wikis are an SCP clone”
This point is frankly one of the most annoying ones. Yes, there is no doubt that the SCP Foundation is very influential in internet fiction and horror as a whole. However, that does not automatically mean that every collaborative writing project created after the SCP foundation is somehow a ripoff of it.
All parallels between the backrooms and the SCP foundation are nothing more than superficial. The only things they share in common are being collaborative internet fiction wikis attached to a vague “horror” concept. That definition also applies to creepypasta, at which point you can just as easily claim the SCP Foundation is a ripoff of creepypasta. Most backrooms wiki writers have not even read a single SCP article, nor otherwise consumed any kind of SCP lore.
The only concrete ties that the backrooms have with the SCP foundation is that the Backrooms Wikidot used some code from the SCP wiki as a base for their own site’s code when it was first made, and that an insignificant amount of SCP authors have interacted with the community in the past.
“Backrooms wiki writers are children”
As a 19-year-old, the most frustrating thing for me to hear from Backrooms wiki haters is the assumption that everyone who writes lore for The Backrooms are just children. This is not only false, but frankly insulting. Many wiki writers are in fact grown-ass adults, some of which are married. We even have a fucking 71-year-old writing for us. The minimum age limit to join most Backrooms wikis is 15, but even so, age should not be a factor in this discussion, as it has little bearing on maturity and writing ability. Some of the most talented writers in this community are in fact younger than me. To blame supposedly low-quality writing on the age of the writer is insulting to those over that age, and patronizing to those of that age.
“Early-wiki writing is representative of the modern wikis”
This may be the most widespread misconception. People’s false perception of the wikis may be based on their experience with reading the Backrooms Fandom wiki prior 2022. I will admit that at that point in time, the Chuck E. Cheese meme was in fact an accurate depiction of the Fandom wiki. It was not moderated at all, having been abandoned by staff, leaving people to run rampant and post bad pages. However, since the beginning of 2022, the fandom wiki has massively improved. Actual moderation was employed and there were many reforms in the rules and quality standards. Overrated pages were rewritten to be more deserving of their popularity, and the page count was purged down to, as of this writing, below 900. That is even less than the wikidot’s current page count of over 1300, which is much smaller than fandom’s previous page count. Speaking of which, most who have this perception are probably unaware of the existence of other wikis such as the Wikidot and Liminal Archives, the average quality of which were higher than fandom prior to its reformation. In any case, I implore you to actually (re)read the wikis for a more accurate perception. And don’t read the older pages, but the current ones, as they reflect the current standards of the wikis.
“The cringe children videos about The Backrooms are reflective of the wikis”
NO NO NO NO NO! I always get pissed whenever people imply that the wikis include things like mascot horror characters or things from other properties, because they fucking don’t. That is all stuff from YouTube and TikTok. If the fault for “ruining” The Backrooms lies in anyone, it’s the content creators who exploit its concept and the attention of children. The wikis existed long before that was ever a thing, and have nothing to do with it. All that the wiki writers wish to do is write stories within the setting of The Backrooms for fun, and as artistic expression.
“The wikis are just Kane Pixels fanfiction”
There is no basis in reality for this whatsoever. A concerningly large amount of people believe that Kane Pixels was the first person to create lore for The Backrooms, or in fact was the creator of the very concept. News Flash: HE ISN’T. Not only does the original Backrooms post on 4chan predate his work by years, but so do the three Backrooms wikis. The Fandom wiki was founded on June 2, 2019. The Wikidot was founded on March 28, 2020. Liminal Archives was founded on December 25, 2020. Kane Pixels’ first Backrooms video was uploaded on January 7, 2022. Case closed.
“The Backrooms should have never been expanded”
Honestly fuck off with this. I won’t even pretend to respect a take this idiotic. Your ability to even complain about The backrooms being ruined hinges on your very awareness of The Backrooms’ existence. If the lore was never developed, nobody outside that original 4chan thread would have ever known about The Backrooms. The wikis were what initially boosted the popularity of the Backrooms concept, and without them, there would have never been a Backrooms community to begin with. And Kane Pixels would have never created his Backrooms series. A concept like The Backrooms is not ruined by having lore, especially not if it is competently written. It can only benefit. While Kane’s interpretation has a story, it simply lacks that depth which the wikis have.
It is disheartening for me to see people devaluing these wikis, when there are people like myself who spend genuine time, effort and passion to write content on them, with rich storytelling and deep lore. I assure you this does indeed exist, if only you are willing to truly look for it.
TL;DR – The Backrooms was never “ruined”. It was always like this, and you lack a proper understanding of it. Stop trying to force it to be something that it never was. You are not entitled to a public domain concept that you did not create, and you have no right to get upset when other people create their own lore. There is no canon, and every interpretation of The Backrooms is equally valid/canon. If it truly bothers you, just fuck off and ignore it. Complaining will not magically fix what you are unhappy with, and I am certain you have more useful things you could be doing with your life. Leave us alone and let us write what we want, because we enjoy it and it makes us happy.
Also, watch this video by Broogli. It was made several months after I originally posted this, but it echoes all my points very well:
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