User blog comment:ArmadillooftheAges/Useless thoughts and opinions from an old user here/@comment-36627132-20190226034747/@comment-38454773-20190226200038

"Glad to hear more from you. As someone who has been around for around seven years now (as I've said in your talk page) I remember a lot of what you are saying, especially the avalanche of crappy My Little Pony pastas (the Spinpasta Wiki gets them by the handful!)."

Thank you, sir. Yes, those pastas were cringeworthy beyond belief. Like I said, I think the staff being fans themselves is what allowed them to appear so consistently. And people still write pastas based on MLP? I thought by now people would catch on and realize that they're laughably ridiculous and were just a fad several years later lol.

"I think newer novel-like Creepypastas have differentiated from the camp-fire urban legend genre it used to be."

You nailed it with this opinion, brother. So much of what made it creepy is the fact that it had this "Hey, let me tell you something really creepy that happened/I saw" feeling as opposed to that very "elaborate and rich" feel it has now. Actually, I'll be sincere, those pastas really bored me even back then. I dunno, I guess what I loved about Creepypasta was how short, sweet, to the point, and amateurish they were written as opposed to trying to create this lore with developed characters and intricate writing. It almost seems kind of smug compared to the "O.G." stuff. I'm not sure why, but that clunky style just seemed to add to the creepy aesthetic. The original style gave me the impression that it was someone who wrote it hastily because they were nervous about talking about it or as if someone who had not much experience as a writer was desperately explaining it as opposed to this beautifully-refined style that seems, as you said, more like an edited piece of fiction. In other words, the older stuff seemed more authentic even if it was completely fake.

You know what I think is a good comparison? The children's horror anthologies Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and the original illustrations. The initial publications from 1981-1991 had those absolutely horrifying but masterful illustrations by Stephen Gammell that still frighten many readers to this very day, even though the stories themselves were not scary at all in my opinion. But the 2011 re-release illustrations by Brett Helquist, known for his work on A Series of Unfortunate Events, were a colossal step-down from what readers originally loved about the books since they looked more jokey and almost whimisical compared to the faded, twisted, crooked, elongated, eerily black-and-white designs of the originals. Helquist's illustrations look more polished and refined, but that bone-chilling style of Gammell's is just infinitely scarier and grimier and has been giving children nightmares for decades.

I won't quote you on this, but I think most people know the stories involving dumb kids and the pastas. And I had never heard of news story with the girl and the BEN pasta, but I'll take your word for it. It's pretty sad that people cannot tell the difference between reality and fiction. Granted, these are kids, but even as a kid who grew up reading, watching, and playing over-the-top literature, movies/shows, and games, I never once thought about emulating any of it. Meh, that's just the way people are sometimes I guess.

Thanks for your comment though, friend. And I've read some of your blog posts, and I pretty much agree with everything you say, including your comments and comparisons between pastas of old and modern ones.