Scuttlebutt Page

Scuttlebutt! Synonyms include buzz, gossip, hearsay, noise, report, talk and tattle. The study of rumor can be traced back to 1940s, when psychological studies tried to discover the driving forces of rumors. Since then, story importance and information ambiguity have been intensively investigated for understanding rumor spreading. In 2381, the phenomenon still exist, and on this page, all writers are encouraged to add rumours they think might spread aboard the Theurgy! For example, it is recommended that if two characters end up romantically or sexually affiliated, the tryst is listed here, since scuttlebutt like that travels at warp speed on an isolated ship like the Theurgy.

When including any of the listed rumours below, there is no requirement to read the origin links, since the inherent nature of the rumour is the lack of information evaluation, or even the availability of it. That being said, there has to be some kind of origin with a smidgen of truth to it when you make a new rumor. Most importantly, just have fun with the entries!

Rumor Categories

According to CERT (Cross-topic Emerging Rumor deTection) as decribed in this paper, rumors aboard the Theurgy could be clustered in three categories of rumors.

• Curiosity Rumors: These rumors are best described as such of intrigue and very mild controversy. Example: "Did you hear Liam Herrold and Eun Sae Ji were a thing? But after they broke up, and she left on an away mission, he had a threesome in his quarters? Yeah, and when she returned, she was killed outside Nicander's holding cell by the Klingon that detonated the bomb in the Spearhead Lounge."
• Dread Rumors: These rumors convey fear about a potential negative event. Like "No one is confirming it... but what if the parasites are sexually transmitted? Isn't that why the Infested caused the outbreak of the Niga virus? What if that was the plan all along, and after the Niga Incident, we are all just waiting to hear voices in our heads?"
• Wedge-Driving Rumors: Wedge-driving rumors divide people groups, such as this false one from World War II: "I've heard that Department isn't helping with the repairs of the ship, holing themselves up and thinking they are better than the rest of us."

The Scuttlebutt List!

Add your entries with a brief description, a categorisation as well as a link to the origin event which might have caused the rumour to spread.

Scuttlebutt Aboard the USS Theurgy	Specs
Rumour Description	Category	Origin
"Did you hear Liam Herrold and Eun Sae Ji were a thing? But after they broke up, and she left on an away mission, he had a threesome in his quarters? Yeah, and when she returned, she was killed outside Nicander's holding cell by the Klingon that detonated the bomb in the Spearhead Lounge."	Curiosity	Link 01 Link 02 Link 03
"No one is confirming it... but what if the parasites are sexually transmitted? Isn't that why the Infested caused the outbreak of the Niga virus? What if that was the plan all along, and after the Niga Incident, we are all just waiting to hear voices in our heads?"	Dread	Link
"Anyone notice that Daniel Havenborn and K'Ren hooked up so soon after Deacon died? The way Daniel was looking at K'Ren after the last battle? And how they went straight to his quarters? Has she been cheating on Deacon all these months? Did Daniel sire her cub?"	Curiosity	Link
Victor vanVinter was once engaged to someone that he wrote actual letters to. This is backed up by when his personal effects were put into storage, they contained a decades worth of actual paper correspondence. The personal effects were later pulled out of storage upon his revival.	Curiosity	Link

Rumor Spreading Roles

In this section, a rumor spreading model, which considers rumor credibility, correlation between rumors and people’s lives and crowd classification based on personality, is proposed. Based on something called the SIR model and the hesitating mechanism, individuals can be divided into five classes according to the process of rumor spreading as follows:

• Steady Ignorant: This class includes people who do not know the rumor; if they hear the rumor, they prefer to contemplate it and seek confirmation before making decisions.
• Radical Ignorant: This class includes people who do not know the rumor; if they hear the rumor, they are most likely to believe it and spread it without contemplating it or seeking confirmation.
• Exposed: This class includes people who know the rumor but hesitate to believe it and do not spread it.
• Spreader: This class includes people who spread the rumor.
• Stifler: This class includes people who know the rumor but never spread it or stop spreading it.

Characters ought to belong to only one of the 5 classes, but may switch depending on the social relationship with the one to whom s/he speaks, or if they have personal history that correlate with the specific rumour.