User blog comment:ArmadillooftheAges/Useless thoughts and opinions from an old user here/@comment-33904527-20190226215840/@comment-38454773-20190301084815

Regarding the maturity levels, I couldn't agree more. I was recently on an old user's profile (as of me writing this comment, they haven't been active for about three and a half years or so) and I believe they had some kind of position but I can't remember for the life of me what it was. But on their profile, they seemed to have chat logs or quotes from their friends and it was all making ridiculous comments about private parts or just cringeworthy old memes from back in the day over and over again. And I just think, "Really? This was considered 'normal' back then? I've been away from here longer than I thought."

But as NedWolfkin and I mentioned, the older Pastas, although most were pretty bad, they had this unique charm to them that the newer pastas cannot seem to replicate. They were written so sloppily and poorly but it gave them an authentic feel. Take, for example, "Smile Dog". It's an old Pasta and one of the first ones I ever read, but when I see how crudely-written it is and that little footnote at the end of the article saying Original author unknown, a cold hand runs down my spine. It just seems so genuine, like how NedWolfkin described it being one of those things you'd hear around a campfire or something. When I imagine an eerie atmosphere, I don't imagine neat and tidy, I imagine old, abandoned, bleak, and dark.

These neater, more polished Pastas just don't give me that creepy vibe like the originals because I feel like I know they're works of fiction. And this is just me, but it kind of bothers me when someone advertises their books to sell on their profile. I think, "Dude, I came here to read works that will unnerve me for fun, not for people to sell me their shit!" (pardon my language).

But back to the Pastas.

I mean, it's good in terms of quality, but it's missing that oomph that the originals had. That ambiguity was just so powerful. It's all just opinion, of course.