User blog comment:Supersatan25/What Makes Pasta Popular?/@comment-25052433-20150314052948

Oh trust me, we have all had the Jeff debate around here for quite some time, and most of us agree that it is a terrible story that wouldn't have lasted a day here by our current standards. So, to best answer your question, I will give you a few examples of how stories get popular. Whether they are good or not, is up to you to decide.

-Timing: With stories like Jeff the Killer, Squidward's Suicide and Sonic.exe, the success seems to be in the timing. A lot of the "classics" came out in a time when the idea of Creepypastas was sort of new, and a lot of folks were still discovering them. They became "ground floor" pastas and therefore became iconic to the genre.

-Hype and Sharing: Depending on how much the story gets passed around, copied, ripped off and spread has a lot to do with how popular it will become. Hype is also a big part of it. When Jeff the Killer came out, people raved about it and the story spread all over the internet. Good or bad, it was on everyone's news feed.

-Youtube: A good reading can make an average story really popular. Even if the story is bad, a reading from some Youtubers will get thouands of views in a few days and countless shares. This really helps spread a story.

-Art: Deviantart is a hotbed of Jeff the Killer fan art. When the art community gets on board, stories can develop all new dimensions just because a really great artist re-invents the concept visually.

Anyway, those are a few theories and ways that stories become popular. Hope this helped.