“Does The Black Moon Howl?” is a dual-universal memetic catchphrase & community shibboleth at the SCP Wiki that is commonly associated with elevated ranks and security clearances. The phrase is seen in numerous SCPs, mostly as the signal initiation of a code or passphrase, to which authors vary the given answer.^[1]https://archive.vn/z2Kfl The phrase’s meaning is not established per canon, and differs depending on author preference.^[2]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-5468586/does-the-black-moon-howl^[3]https://archive.vn/mzFVO It is and has been a loved phrase for its crypticness and evocativeness since its inception in SCP-256 in 2008.^[4]e.g., https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-402809/thaumiel#post-1286470^[5]https://archive.ph/QNbYp#selection-6509.134-6509.159

“The Black Moon” is commonly alluded to in countless SCP articles, and at times is presented as a more defined character, usually as a cosmic antagonist.^[6]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4002^[7]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/tanhony-s-proposal-ii^[8]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5284^[9]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-7070^[10]https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Moon#Biography

Trivia & Quotes

• As of 2012, “DTBMH” is the motto for the O5 Command WikiDot; the SCP Wiki staff forum.^[11]https://05command.wikidot.com/ On July 22, 2012 WikiDot user, SCP author, and Administrator TroyL modified the O5 Command front page to replace the header text “Welcome to the O5 Command” with “Does the Black Moon Howl?”.^[12]https://05command.wikidot.com/, see rev. 7 & 8 From this date until Feb 16, 2017, the main page of O5 Command was used exclusively to collect humorous answers to the phrase.^[13]https://05command.wikidot.com/, see rev. 78^[14]https://web.archive.org/web/20170210140300/https://05command.wikidot.com/
• On /x/, the creator of the phrase said the following:”I HAD done a similar “story”(ie, computer terminal log) that explained the purpose of the Black Moon Howls, but the thread had gotten deleted. :(“^[15]https://archive.ph/QNbYp#selection-7897.0-7897.279 The above thread has not been located.
• Kain Pathos Crow, in recalling the above plot in 2011, stated: “But yeah, the original plot had something to do with videos sent back through time in order to warn the Foundation about an extradimensional race/disease/both that had arrived and started fucking things up by hybridising the human race. They appeared around Ayers Rock, and started spreading from there… That line is what the infected and the beasts would say. It appeared as graffiti, on headlines, in books, everywhere.”^[16]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-82878/scp-257-arc#post-1174650
• DrakeRunner, the originating author of the phrase, added to Kain Pathos Crow’s assessment in the same thread: “Kain Pathos Crow has the gist of things. A memetic phrase, that some of the nonspecific forces of hostility in the universe would react to. Not all, not a lot, just some.”^[17]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-82878/scp-257-arc#post-1417325 Interestingly, DrakeRunner returned to this comment in the following year and removed its contents.
• In 2014, a then-member of the SCP Wiki rewrite team submitted SCP-256, the article that initially introduced the phrase, for a review and potential rewrite. In the argument in favor of, the staff member cited the use of the phrase “Does the Black Moon Howl?” as part of its appeal, without recognizing it was the original.^[18]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-76884/scp-256#post-2107873
• SCP-2000 helped to re-popularize the Thaumiel object class.
• Wikidot author TroyL is helped re-popularize the phrase, via his Project Thaumiel hub/tale-series (2011— ). This hub starts out with an in-universe terminal console with input attempts to answer the question “Does the Black Moon Howl?”^[19]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/thaumiel In the discussion section, and according to the author, DrEverettMann recommended the phrase be included in the passphrase/password attempts, calling the exclusion of it from the original take a missed opportunity.^[20]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-402809/thaumiel
• “My my, now. This is fascinating. I pop in on SCP after a long time and I’m remembered far more than I thought… I’d like to say, that this has warmed my heart to see that not only have my contributions been remembered, but to be considered valuable and kept. SCP has gone in a different direction than when I first wrote these, and yeah, was why I dropped the “story”, but this really warms my heart. Its also really cool to see someone show me SCP, and then tell them I wrote a couple. :)” — DrakeRunner^[21]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-82878/scp-257-arc#post-1417325
• “”Does the Black Moon Howl” used to be chilling. Now, for me, all it conjures up are images of that Three Wolf Moon t-shirt. It is a laughably overused meme, both in and out of universe. If we got some context as to what the hell it actually meant, then I might actually care about it… DTBMH became so ubiquitous that they turned it into a joke. After reading half the responses on there, I could never take it seriously again.” — Ihp^[22]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-76884/scp-256#post-2107878