User blog:ImGonnaBeThatGuy/Deletion FAQ

Why did my story get deleted?
There's a lot of possible reasons:


 * Does not meet quality standards- This is the most common and also the broadest. This will be the deletion reason if your story has improper formatting, bad grammar, bad spelling, is nonsensical, silly or poorly told.


 * Unfinished Page- We do not allow unfinished pages. There are very rare exceptions, if enough of the story is there AND, more importantly, if the writing is quality. Otherwise, an unfinished page is deleted immediately.


 * Spin-off/Blacklisted Subject- We do not accept stories involving ANY creepypasta characters already in existence. Furthermore, we do not accept stories on a variety of subjects including, but not limited to, haunted video games, lost episodes, Pokemon, My Little Pony and ROBLOX. A full list of blacklisted subjects can be seen here: Spinoff/Blacklisted subject


 * Jeff the Killer Rip-Off- If your story hews close to the plot of Jeff the Killer, that is grounds for deletions. If your story is about a kid who is bullied, gets hurt, goes crazy, kills their family, kills their bullies, has a catchphrase, etc, it will be removed for being a Jeff rip-off.


 * Lack story/content- If your story is barely a story, then it will be deleted. Your story does not have to be long. Mother's Call and Bad Dream are perfect stories. They have a complete plot and effective endings. Compare those to Apple Company is Watching Us. Nothing happens. Also, if your story is mostly fluff, mostly just inconsequential material and then the ending, it may be deleted for this reason.


 * Cliched- If your story is almost indistinguishable from 100 other creepypastas, it will be deleted for this reason. For a list of the most common cliches consult this page: Creepy Cliches


 * Not Creepypasta- In general, we are very lenient about what we consider "scary" or "creepy." However, there is a limit. If your story is completely mundane, it will be deleted for this reason.

How can I find out SPECIFICALLY why my story was deleted?
Two ways:

1. ASK. It's that simple. Ask the person who deleted your story. Almost all of the people with the power to delete a story are willing to provide you a critique. Some have specific pages set up for it. Make sure you sign your message (USING THE SIGNATURE BUTTON IN THE TOOLBAR) and tell them the name of your story.

2. Deletion Appeal. Deletion Appeal is a place where your story will get a second look and has a chance to be restored. If your appeal is denied, the person who reviewed it will explain why.

Can I re-post my creepypasta?
No. That is against the rules. If you re-upload your story, you will receive a warning. If you do it again, you will be banned for one day. The ban length will double for each offense after that.

How do I get my creepypasta back on the site?
Deletion Appeal. This is a place for you to go and explain why you think your story shouldn't have been deleted. Then, your story will be reviewed by an admin and your request will be approved or denied. If approved, your story will be restored to the site.

If your appeal is denied, you can re-write your story and re-submit an appeal. Make sure you put a link to your revised story in your appeal.

Why do you have quality standards?
Because we want good stories.

Aren't your quality standards too harsh?
No.

In general, all we ask is that people write properly and tell a well thought out story that's not a mirror of 1,000 other creepypastas. Do you use proper grammar? Do you punctuate properly? Do you spell correctly? Does your story make sense? Does it feel like something that hasn't been done 100 time in the exact same way? Is the writing tight? If so, you should be safe.

Why don't you give people a warning their story will be deleted?
For several reasons:


 * You have all the time in the world to prepare your story before putting it on the site. There is no reason for us to give you extra time.


 * There is no guarantee that a person will be willing or even capable of revising their story to make it meet quality standards.


 * Any amount of time we give people to revise their work would be completely arbitrary. How long is long enough? A day? A week? People will still complain and make excuses. A zero-tolerance policy is clear-cut and allows for no wiggle room.


 * It's an inefficient system. This site is incredibly busy and we receive dozens of pastas every day. If we take the bad ones and set them aside, the site doesn't get cleaner. It just gets messier and it's a mess that we have to keep around and monitor. If you have a bag of trash what makes more sense: getting rid of it or keeping it around and hoping it will stop being trash? Meanwhile, you're filling up another bag of trash and soon you'll have two bags to deal with.

Why don't you let users decide whether a story is good or bad?
Three reasons:

1. We have over 10,000 pages on this wiki. We get dozens of new stories every day. The chances of someone reading your story is low. The chance of them commenting is even lower. The chances of MULTIPLE people reading and commenting is so unlikely that it's not an efficient system for judging quality.

2. This would be an easy system to cheat. Someone could just get their friends to come on and rave about the story.

3. Popularity DOES NOT equal quality. Think about how many popular things you hate and think sucks. Justin Beiber. . .Twilight. . .stuff like that. Immensely popular, but is it actually good?

Why don't you take the time to teach people to be better writers?
That is in no way the purpose of this site. There is nothing in our description that would lead anyone to believe that this is a place for people to learn to write. We don't for the same reason that Netflix doesn't send people headphones. It's not our business.

That said, we do offer ways for people to get better. We have a Writer's Workshop forum where you can get feedback on your story without it being deleted and several writing advice blogs.

Why did my story get deleted when there are worse stories still on the site?
Just because other bad creepypastas still exist does not mean your story isn't bad.

We have over 10,000 pages on this site. We have not combed through all of them, so there are still stories that we haven't gotten around to checking. It's easier to monitor new stories, then it is to go through old ones. New stories appear in the recent activity logs. Old stories usually have to be found by chance.

If you want to point out low quality work to us, that would be great.

Don't you care about people's feelings?
Honestly? No.

This is a privately run literature site. The administration of this wikia have established rules for people to follow. If the consequences for not following the rules causes someone's feelings to be hurt, then that's a shame. However, that's the danger of playing in someone else's house.

There are many sites where you can have your own, private little space. DeviantArt, Qoutev, sites like that give you a place where you can do whatever you like. This is not one of those places. If you're not comfortable with other people being able to decide the fate of your work, you should not come here.

We don't set out to hurt anyone's feelings, but we also don't tip-toe around so that it never happens. We don't force people to post their stories here. Everyone makes a conscious choice to display their work to the public and, by doing so, agree to our rules.

HAVEN'T YOU EVER HEARD OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH?!?!
Of course. However, it doesn't apply here.

This is a private site that is open to the public. Think of it as a restaurant. You can go into a restaurant and talk about whatever you want. That is, until you start screaming obscenities and racial slurs. Then, the restaurant management can ask you to leave. The restaurant is not bound by free speech any more than we are. If we don't like something, we can remove it.