Would this count as being published?

(A hypothetical question that sparked my interest)

I was reading up on publishing, mostly for online magazines and newsletters, and remembered a website I often read called CreepyPasta.com

The way thus website works is that anyone can submit a story via a Submissions Form. The owner of the site then filters through them and posts the ones he feels are good enough to be posted.

I was just wondering if this was something you could reference on a query letter etc.?

I looked over it real quick, and I'd say it doesn't count as being published. Functionally, the site is similar to YWS except in one aspect: the stories that appear are curated. If YWS did something similar, would that one difference mean you could say you were published on YWS? I'd say no.

For something online to be counted as published, I think you need to give up something or receive something in return (or both). If you gave up first-publication rights, then that definitely means it was published. If you receive monetary compensation or a copy of the magazine / journal it appears in (even if it's a pdf), then that means it was published. In the case of creepypasta, it doesn't look like you give up anything or receive anything other than appearing on the site.

That said, who cares? Are you a published author because your work appeared on creepypasta? No. But is your work "published" on creepypasta (published meaning that it appears there)? Yes. Always play yourself up. You can definitely say, "My story was published on..." and be completely truthful. In this case, I'd say something like: "My story was published on CreepyPasta, which is a supernatural literary journal accessible online with hand-curated content."

But, I'm also not quite sure bringing up previously published work in a query letter is a good idea. Check out these two resources on query letters:
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-edi ... ery-letter

The latter says:

[Don't] Include writing credits that aren’t meaningful. Unless you’ve had books published through a publishing house before or have had work appear in something prestigious, like The New Yorker, it’s best to not say anything.

Thank you very much Nate