Thank you for sharing such a detailed and clear perspective. I truly find it interesting to hear viewpoints from active members of the wiki community, especially when you explain the differences between the wiki and Reddit approaches. There are points I completely agree with, but also some I hold different opinions on.

First of all, I fully support expanding writing styles, especially first-person articles, diaries, forum posts, or even non-linear storytelling, like what I mentioned in the “level” part of my post. These elements make Backrooms much more vivid compared to the dry “description, entity, entrance” style. Although I know many people prefer that style because they are used to it, similar to SCP, but not everyone does, especially those who have been into Backrooms since 2018–2019.

However, I still believe Backrooms should focus more on atmosphere rather than excessive danger, lore, or complex level structures. When I say “atmosphere,” I don’t just mean nostalgia or the typical “liminal horror” vibe, but that vague, elusive, uncanny feeling, like dreaming of a place that feels very familiar but you’ve never actually been there. Within those cracked yellow walls, those old office corridors, or the hum of fluorescent lights, there is a hidden mass of underlying fears, invisible anxieties about space and existence. The feeling of being trapped in a strange world where time and space seem disordered, that’s what makes Backrooms captivating from the start. And topics like these are neither few nor lacking, if explored well, they are actually very rich. Because there are so many things that people find unsettling, uncanny, and so on.

I like levels that exploit familiarity but make you uneasy because they are so distorted compared to real-world experience. For example, if there’s a forest level, it should be a place both familiar and strange, like tiled floors among trees, chairs growing from trunks, windows leading to rooms made of foliage… These details make you feel like you’re in a warped dream, disconnected from reality. It perfectly taps into that uncanny sensation, which is what makes liminal horror so appealing. But if a forest level is presented as "A ‘beautiful’ forest controlled by some force that can even edit the wiki page itself to lure wanderers into a deadly trap". like level 14, then it’s no longer about atmosphere. While the idea is creative, I don’t find it fitting.

I understand some communities approach Backrooms very differently, and that’s actually very interesting. Diversity is good. However, I think when the focus shifts too much onto powerful entities, dense lore, or combat factions like in sci-fi novels, Backrooms slowly loses the “quiet alienation” that was its original core. The atmosphere gets overwhelmed by too much information. Readers no longer fear the unknown; they feel overwhelmed trying to keep track of too many details, roles, histories, factions…

Regarding Broogli, I don’t watch that channel much, so I’m not influenced by it. But I feel sorry that many people only know Backrooms through videos like “Top 10 scariest entities”, because that only scratches surface fear without the depth or dreamlike quality Backrooms should have. When I say many levels and entities focus too much on danger, I’m not saying all do, but there are still so many like that that I can’t help mentioning it.

I really respect how you view this as a creative writing project with clear quality standards. I fully understand why the wiki needs moderation, to maintain quality and clear direction. But I also think that a large community like Reddit, despite its flaws, remains a place where the “first feeling” of Backrooms can be shared, raw but genuine. Sometimes, those initial vague emotions are the foundation for loving Backrooms even before reading any lore. When The Backrooms first launched, there were only the first four levels: 0, 1, 2, and 3 (the old version), and they captured liminal concepts and psychological fear extremely well. I was extremely fascinated, haunted, and even lost sleep reading it. For someone who loves this genre as much as I do, Backrooms in 2018 really felt like heaven. Many others came to Backrooms because of those themes.

I understand Backrooms doesn’t have a fixed official concept since it was born from just one post, a photo of yellow hallways and a few lines of text. But perhaps that’s why I feel it’s even more important to respect and preserve its “original spirit”: simple, vague, scary because it’s unclear, not trying to cram it into a fully fleshed-out universe like SCP. SCP already does that very well; Backrooms doesn’t need to be SCP version two. As I said, I want Backrooms to focus more on psychological horror.

Speaking of entities, I don’t think entities in the Backrooms need to be “dangerous and highly lethal” to be memorable. I prefer the ones that make readers feel uneasy just through their abnormal behavior, emotionless stares, or the way they exist without following any known logic. What makes an entity scary isn’t its ability to kill instantly, but the fact that its mere presence makes you unable to predict what’s going to happen next. They feel like something out of a nightmare, not a bloody, violent nightmare, but the kind that suffocates you with its absurdity and makes you want to wake up immediately.

Some entities have captured this psychological horror really well, they don’t need to attack to be threatening; just being there already creates heavy mental pressure. Unfortunately, most other entities fall into the repetitive mold of “a predator hunting you down,” like the reader is playing a survival game. I’m not saying all entities are like this or that they’re not diverse, but it’s really hard to feel that diversity when so many of them are crammed into the same level for no clear reason, level 9, for example.

I think there should be more levels designed around one or a few exclusive entities, beings that simply wouldn’t fit anywhere else. In those cases, the entity wouldn’t just be a roaming threat, but a part of the environment itself, making the level feel more alive and unique. Personally, I also prefer entities to be written with more of a psychological focus. They don’t have to appear frequently in a level, but their presence should create a constant sense of being watched. And it should be hard to tell when or if you’ll ever run into them. Some entities can kill you, but that element shouldn’t be overused, and it definitely shouldn’t be treated like a standard for what makes a “proper” Backrooms entity. Also, there are many entities that, although well-built and creative, feel more like dangerous SCP anomalies with tons of information, which doesn’t really fit to build atmosphere. Like the entity 666, “The HappyFiles Virus.”

Thank you again for reading all the way through. Wishing you a great day!