I haven't been to creepypasta for a while--you know, busy working and stuff.
Lately, one of my friends told me about the Jeff the Killer Rewrite Constest, and the subsequent new Jeff story.
I went through the new story that very evening. I have to say that it is as good as it can possibly be with so many restrictions (Constest Rules) in place. The only question I have to raise is its amazing similarity to the original Jeff the Killer. After all, the author had stated himself that it is not an "original work", but rather a "retell" of the old story.
And now, WHY was the original Jeff the Killer deleted?
1, The idea of bullied kids going mad and killing people is simply SOOO cliché.
2, The the characters in the original story act in completely unreasonable ways--people NEVER call the police when they are abused in a manner that can only be described as CRIMINAL. Parents never cared about their children. Certain acts of street or school bullying are COMICALLY exaggerated to the extent that they might have been carried out by terrorists instead of bad kids.
And when I look at the new Jeff the Killer story, I found some of these conditions much improved, but not completely corrected.
Firstly, the storyline is STILL about abused kids breaking down and killing people--the cliché part remains untouched.
Secondlly, many of the characters still behaves in a strange, sometimes even absurd manner.
For example, Jeff's mom would rather believe strangers than her own son, simply to "blend in" with the new neighbourhood--a motive so trivial compared to her son's safety that it seemed almost like a joke. (Some internal mologue of the mother might explain this seemingly absurb situation, yet restrictions on the length of the story have made that impossible.)
Also, covering up crimes as severe as shooting another kid in the face with a FLARE GUN seemed all too easy--Jeff didn't even TRIED to speak up. It's not about whether his his parents believed him. Just think about it--one of your friend have just given you a horrible, life-threatening injury, and is lying to everyone about the truth of the incident. Wouldn't you at least TRY to tell the police what REALLY happened?
(Of cause, you might want to cover it up for him if you're really close buddies--but Jeff covering up for Randy? Now that's something I'd have a hard time imagining.)
Now, I'm not trying to accuse anyone of anything. The author of the new story is one of my favourite on creepypasta.wiki, and the Rewrite Contest is excellently organized.
What I'm trying to say is:
What exactly is the point of deleting a story, and then bringing it back without much fundamental change to its storyline? If it is deleted due to quality issues, then the new version should fix them. A retelling of the original tale with moderate changes might improve the situation a bit, but it won't solve the problem--not really.