What is a Creepypasta?

A portmanteau of "creepy" and "copypasta", creepypasta is the offshoot genre of copypastas, text that is copied and pasted all over the internet. Inspired by folklore, urban legends, and chain mail, creepypastas are internet horror stories that are intended to be shared around the internet as if being told around the campfire. Although it's exact origins are unknown, the earliest mention of the term is in 4chan on July 6th, 2007, and the earliest known example is Ted the Caver, written in 2001, although it predated the term entirely, instead going by the term "hyperfiction", meaning fiction in the style of a hypertext document. The genre started off in anonymous boards like 4chan's /x/ board, dedicated to the paranormal, it then went on to spread to other forums like Reddit, and even ended up getting it's own dedicated websites like Creepypasta.com and the Creepypasta Wiki. Older stories were more grounded and believable, hightening the campfire story aura, and giving said stories context despite their out of context nature when being copied and pasted everywhere. Dedicated authors didn't exist before dedicated sites appeared, authors were either unknown, anonymous, in-universe characters, such as Ted, or vague personas. Although mostly writing, creepypastas can also come in the form of audio, video, games, or any other sorts of media.