Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-36627132-20190412175855/@comment-25052433-20190412193449

If you really want to see the old style, there are many actionable ways you can go about it.

You can write some. Sure, some of the Quality Standards will prevent the second coming of the "Insert Cartoon Character" Kills Himself, or "haunted video games found at garage sales with labels missing and name written in black Sharpie" tropes that ran wild back in the day, and yes, the bank of readers here will probably question how the main character in that first person written story died at the end but was still able to post his harrowing final words online. The "You're Next" ending directed at the reader will probably generate more eye-rolls than shivers now, because authors have come and raised the bar.

Those orignal stories that made internet fiction pop and brought it so much attention, the Dead Barts and the Drowning Bens, will always be held in the hallowed halls of the classics. And they deserve that.

But here's what you seem to glossing over a bit in these types of blogs. The very authors that created those legendary online frights have moved on themselves. They either continued to advance their skills as writers began to take on more ambitious projects, or they accomplished what they wanted and were happy with it as it was, not feeling the need to continue writing in that style.

The Creepypasta Wiki's library of stories comes from indie-authors who either love to write simply for the craft, or are building their portfolio while receiving feedback and improvement in real-time. No one here gets paid to write stories on the Creepypasta Wiki. Most of the stories here are passion projects, with some exceptions when the authors are able to take their works to the next level. No one is writing online for free to fill anyone's specific want for content style. If you want that, commission it from someone. I'm sure there are writers out there who would take a paid gig to jam out a short story to fit your specifications.

But, the best thing I could suggest is what I said way up top. Write some yourself. If the Quality Standards here get in the way of what you want to create, go to any of the other fiction platforms online that don't really have QS in place. You might be able to post the stories themselves here, but a link on your user profile would be fine, which sort of serves the same function as linking your stories on your profile that are posted here anyway. It's all a mouse-click at the end of the day.

Or think a little bigger. Propose a writing challenge to Cleric of Madness with the theme being "Classic Creepypastas." Maybe for a competition purpose, some blacklisted tropes could be permitted just once. Hell, I'd support that idea. The authors here might like the chance to try their hands at some of the original concepts, since a lot of them (myself included) showed up after the QS banned a lot of the overused cliches.

Because otherwise what you're doing here with these sorts of blogs is telling unpaid writers who create for the love of writing and the enjoyment of reading that they aren't meeting your personal taste in online horror stuff, which can come across a little rude. I'm not saying that's your intent, but it can easily be the perception of others.

If you want to avoid the "corporate" end of things, start your own website. Because of course Fandom is a corporation. It provides a platform for all this stuff, free to the public, with users constantly demanding more of this or less of that or better whatever, so yeah, you're going to be limited on these sorts of platforms far more than you would with your own domain.

Anyway, that's my two pennies. While I'm sure that there are always ways to improve things, I can tell you this, (I'm going to sound like an old bastard here, but) when I was trying to become a writer back in the late 90's, there were no such resources like this. No place to build a resume or portfolio, to learn, grow and develop. To gain notoriety, network and promote. You were stuck with mailing printed manuscripts to strangers hoping for some sort of opportunity. You were stuck trying to afford editors or agents with nothing but a hope that you'd succeed and not go broke trying.

The life of an indie-author is still a brutal road, but it's a lot more paved than it used to be. So if you see a pothole, focus on filling it instead of just waiting for someone else to do it.