In Defense of The Backrooms Wiki(s)
Let me 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, 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 have been bothered by a certain behavior of many in the Backrooms community. There is a widespread, albeit outdated misconception around the Backroons Wikis. Its generally along the lines of the wikis “ruining” The Backrooms, or being “low quality”, or being an “SCP clone”, or being filled with “immature users”. The primary proprietors of this notion tend to be purists of the original copypasta, or cultish fans of the Kane Pixels interpretation. While I may not be able to convince such people otherwise, I at least hope to open the minds of those who are willing to listen.
First off, the wikis did not “ruin” The Backrooms. In fact, I would go as far as to say Kane’s interpretation did. There were no such complaints about this until after the beginning of 2022, which was after Kane released his first found footage video. This was what caused The Backrooms to blow up in popularity, which was what attracted all the children and all the childish content. When people talk about The Backrooms being ruined, it is this childish content that they are primarily referring to. Cringy fan animations did not exist before Kane, but you know what did? The wikis. Fandom, Wikidot and Liminal Archives had been around long before Kane Pixels ever created his videos, with the most recently created wiki being over 1 year older than Kane’s work. They were what initially boosted the popularity of the Backrooms concept, and without them, there would have never been a Backrooms community to begin with. The community may not have been perfect, but it was certainly in a better state before Kane thrust The Backrooms into the mainstream. The true fault for ruining The Backrooms lies in the content creators who exploit its concept and the attention of children. All that the wikis wish to do is write stories within the setting of The Backrooms for fun, and as artistic expression.
I will not pretend all the work is Shakespearean by any means, but it was certainly worse before. People’s outdated perception of the wikis is likely based on their experience with reading the Backrooms Fandom wiki before 2022 — after which was when it improved massively. Since then, actual moderation was employed, the standards have been raised much higher, popular pages with poor execution have been rewritten (cringe shit like the old partygoer lore no longer exists), and many articles have been purged, reducing the total amount below 1000, which is even lower than the page count on wikidot. Speaking of which, most probably don’t even know that exists. Before Fandom improved, a new wiki was made on wikidot, which had higher standards and actual moderation, as well as a voting system on articles. The writing there is much better. Some may think there is “beef” between the three wikis, but this has not been the case for over a year. The Wikidot home page even has a shoutout to the Fandom Wiki, and there are people like myself who are active members in all three wikis. There is no “true canon” either. Remember that The Backrooms as a concept is public domain. Every interpretation is equally valid.
And by no means are any of the wikis an “SCP ripoff”. Any similarity between the two is superficial at best (horror, wiki, lore). 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. In any case, I still encourage you to read the wikis again, just for a more accurate perception. And don’t look at the oldest pages. Instead, look at things like the wikidot’s enigmatic entity list, or tales, Etc.
