When it comes to the nitpicky fans, sometimes they do make legitimate points. Case in point they're not wrong that things like the websites ain't what they used to be. (Even though ultimately, the website is just a marketing/info tool. It really doesn't matter once you're inside the event.)
However, there are definitely times where those fans are wearing rose coloured glasses to the past. Somewhere else someone made a comment about how imaginative the event was in the past, and used HHN 15 as a example. Their quote was as follows "Imaginative is being able to create 8 amazing ORIGINAL haunted houses, scarezones and even a live show whose story lines all coincide with each other (HHN 15)."
Yeah, 15 was clever in having mostly everything connected to a main overall story. But something really stood out in that quote.
8 amazing original haunted houses. Let's see, Body Collectors, Demon Cantina, Terror Mines, Where Evil Hides, The Skool, Blood Ruins and Cold, Blind, Terror. An' anyone who went to HHN 15 could tell you that line up was far from "amazing". For me there were more so-so/bad houses then great/good ones that year. Case in point.
Body Collectors - Easily the best house of the event, a HHN Classic.
Demon Cantina - Definitely a good From Dusk Til Dawn house. (Which also kinda challenges the original aspect of things since this was heavily inspired by FDTD.)
Where Evil Hides - A nice idea, but a so-so house.
Terror Mines - While amazing in concept, this house was a wild card in quality. It was truly dependant on weather or not you got the helmet or not. An' if you didn't have the helmet, it was also dependant on the nearby person who did.
The Skool - Definitely a miss, they didn't get this concept right until 2008.
Blood Ruins - This one went in the forgettably bad territory.
Cold, Blind, Terror - It was none of the above in the title, so this was terrible.
2 great/good houses and at least 4 so-so/bad houses, not a good line up. Also when you add in Terror Mines on either side, that's 7 houses, not 8. I know Where Evil Hides had two routes, but that was so they had a ADA accessable route, it was still the same house. The only other way they could count the number of houses as 8 is if they count Rat Race...that outdoor chain link maze in the Boneyard. If so, that doesn't help the house line up whatsoever since as Drubov mentioned in a particular video, that's something HHN wants you to forget!
It's one thing to remember the past, but you also gotta' acknowledge that not everything was golden in those iconic years. After all those "Best" years had the WORST houses the event has ever had.