Quality Standards

***DISCLAIMER:  The content and external links on this page have been adapted from the Creepypasta Wiki, and belongs to the admins there.  This wiki does not own this information in any form or fashion whatsoever.  The purpose of this page is to increase the quality of the creepypastas we receive overall. If you get mad at these rules, discuss your problem with an administrator.  Any cyber bullying will cause you to be blocked.***

## Unfinished Pastas

Any unfinished stories will go to this page. You will only upload your unfinished story to this site when it's actually finished.

## Trollpastas

Trollpastas have been against the rules since this wiki's start. So let us make this clear:

Do not post trollpastas here!

Trollpastas will be deleted. Period. To prevent your trollpastas from being deleted, post them on https://trollpasta.com instead.

## Knock-offs

Knock-offs have been against the rules ever since the wiki started. So, we will make one thing clear:

Do not make knock-offs of other stories!

Knock-offs are copycats of other stories and they are **NOT** original. These copycats are unfair to the authors of the original content. It doesn't matter if the knock-off follows the rules and standards, it will be deleted. **PERIOD.**

## Minimum Standards

1. Before you post your article to this site, you MUST have proofread and spell-checked the document. This includes, but is not limited to: the proper use of capitalization, spelling, punctuation, spacing, and paragraphs, and the avoidance of Overused Clichés. Most document editors, like Microsoft Word, have spelling and grammar check feature built-in. We suggest using that, then copying and pasting into source mode on the site to eliminate any possibility of formatting conflicts. Failing that, there's always SpellCheck.net. You may also use source mode in the wiki editor to spell check. As a side note, *ALWAYS* store a copy of your work locally on your PC or tablet, or on the cloud. This will save you a lot of trouble later if the story is found to not be up to quality standards.
2. If you upload a pasta that has the issues outlined above, you acknowledge that it can—and in most cases will be—deleted as soon as it is uploaded. Pages that are a single, massive block of text (Wall-o-Text) are hard to read. In short, they will be deleted. If you have questions with either of these violations, **kindly leave a message on one of the administrator's talk pages** and one of them will gladly help you out. We are trying to improve the overall quality of stories on the site and we need your help and dedication to do this, as a well-written story should be the author’s prerogative.
3. This is not to say you must upload pages without any mistakes or you will be banned. We all make mistakes, and we have more than enough qualified editors (including you!) to help out with minor tweaks!
4. Never use Scratch to make creepypastas. Scratch creepypastas will be deleted, period. Post them here instead.
5. EXEs are forbidden.
6. Endings with words starting with "My".
7. Crossovers are forbidden if the characters doing the crossover aren't all made by the same company.
8. Geo's World pastas are forbidden. Geoshea was known for being a pedophile, and we don't want to encourage that kind of disgusting behavior. We HATE pedophilia! Anyone found encouraging Geoshea's nasty behavior will be blocked and will not be unblocked at all.

## What We Generally Look For

* Your story should have a consistent plot and a decent, original plotline. Please note that if your story shares a similar premise to another story or uses a number of Cliches or Tropes, it will likely be deleted for not being up to our standards. This is extremely important. Your story could have impeccable grammar and meet every other rule, but if the story is riddled with plot holes and/or is very generic, we will have to delete it.
* Please do not capitalize every word (or entire phrases) as a means of conveying emphasis. Italics or exclamation points suit the same purpose and are generally viewed as being less gimmicky.
* There should be a ***good level*** of description. Too little description will make the story vague/bland/boring and too much detail can slow down the story and make it hard to keep reading.
* Avoid awkward phrasing. Make sure there's a flow. Read your story aloud to yourself to make sure everything rolls off the tongue naturally.
* If the formatting of the story breaks visual mode on the editor (Classic or not), it will be deleted. To prevent this, ***use the Source Mode on the editor*** and paste your story there (see above again). If needed, add a line break between paragraphs to avoid the resulting wall of text.
* Don't indent in Source Mode. Yes, in books every new paragraph is indented. However the wiki's format is quite different in that indentation isn't used. If you indent on here, your text will show up in an annoying box with a slider you have to use to read the story from left to right. This can make it difficult for stories to be read easily.
* It should be spelled correctly (already in there). Also, know the differences: "Your" (possessive) "You're" (You are). "There" (A place) "Their" (possessive) "They're" (They are.) "It's" (It is) "Its" (possessive).
* The story needs to be coherent. It should be consistent and readable. Now, many of you are saying "Wait, what if I want to have a more fragmented approach to telling my story, ala David Lynch or Quentin Tarantino?" Well then, go for it. Just make sure that things eventually come together.
* Stories that fail to capitalize proper nouns have homophone issues, multiple misspellings, grammatical issues (it’s/its, their/there/they’re, failure to use apostrophes in contractions, etc.) are likely to be deleted within a few minutes of being uploaded.
* As there are too many pieces of advice to give for each genre/style of story, authors interested in writing a story should visit the Writing Advice section as those guides can go more in-depth and be more effective than trying to cover everything here.
* If in doubt about your story, you should take it to the Writer’s Workshop and visit the Writing Advice section. The former will allow other users to help you troubleshoot and spot issues while the latter will help you with the finer points of writing.

## Questions to Ask Yourself While Writing

* Is this progressing the story?
* Is this interesting, engaging or making the story better in any way?
* Is this necessary to understand the story and/or will it come back later?