Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-2240864-20140924222143/@comment-5643552-20140925170905

Xelrog T. Apocalypse wrote:

What I just listed are both monster stories and "original style short stories," whatever the difference is. If this "Across the Border" did not result in an internet-wide explosion of popularity and dozens upon dozens of spin-offs then it does not qualify as a "Classic." Just as 90% of what's being suggested in this thread doesn't. This isn't about personal tastes or quality. Just popularity. I think both the monstrously popular pastas (Jeff, BEN, Slenderman, etc) and the "oldies but goodies" from sites like /x/ (Baby Dolls, Tulpa, Across the Border, etc) can be considered classics in their own way.

The ones you see at the top of the Classics category are extremely popular, yes, but popularity isn't necessarily a requirement, at least in my mind. To me, a pasta can also be considered a classic if (1) it is really old and/or written when creepypasta was a relatively obscure phenomenon, and (2) it is regularly reposted in creepypasta-related discussions to this day (thus surviving the test of time).

Also, it's important to keep in mind that the original purpose of this site was to archive all the "good" pastas from /x/; we should at least make some effort to distinguish those from the all the OC that currently makes up the vast majority of the content.