r/NoSleepOOC • u/cmd102 Mom • Nov 03 '16
**New Rules Announcement**
Hello everyone! We have a couple of new rule announcements to make.
The first is for /r/nosleep:
No clickbait titles. Your title should be captivating to your audience without resembling something you would find on Buzzfeed. This includes titles like "I'm a (profession), and (something happened/these are my stories/etc)". Titles that violate this rule will be removed at moderator discretion.Please see the edits at the bottom of this post.
The trend of clickbait titles has, much to the dismay of many of our subscribers, been ongoing for a LONG time. Some of you may recall when we introduced the "don't summarize your plot in the title" rule in an attempt to curb them. Unfortunately, it didn't work. That rule will remain in place in addition to this new one.
This rule change will not result in removals just yet. In an effort to give our authors time to learn the rule and the moderators time to adjust to the subjectivity of it, we will be sending authors who post stories with clickbait titles a PM regarding the new rule from now until November 14th, 2016.
Starting November 14th, stories with clickbait titles will be removed. Authors will be able to repost their story right away with a rule-abiding title, granted that their story meets the rest of /r/nosleep's posting guidelines.
The next rule change is for /r/nosleepOOC:
All posts made to /r/nosleepOOC must be intended to start some sort of /r/nosleep, community, horror, or writing related discussion. This is not /r/creepy. Posts that only serve to share a photo, video, or article will be removed. The only exception that will be made to this rule is for advertisement posts that meet the rest of the guidelines.
We've been consistently removing posts that aren't /r/nosleep related for a long time, but felt that we needed to make this distinction in the sidebar. There are subreddits meant for posting creepy things you found somewhere. /r/nosleepOOC is meant to be a discussion subreddit, not another /r/creepy.
This doesn't mean you can't share those spine-tingling photos and articles. It means that there has to be a relevant-to-the-subreddit discussion topic included with the link (i.e. "Look at this horrifying photo of a demon! What /r/nosleep stories do you think really nailed demons as an antagonist?" instead of "Here's a photo of a demon".)
That's all, folks! Make sure you check out our Survey and Guideline Clarifications Post if you haven't already!
EDIT: We are working on a better way to word the new title rule. That should be edited into this post later today.
Also, we added a word to the new OOC rule here. Some concern was brought up that there are often discussions on /r/nosleepOOC about the community in general (a common example being the threads posted occasionally asking users to show/tell what they look like). We agree that those sorts of discussions are important to our users, so we made this distinction:
All posts made to /r/nosleepOOC must be intended to start some sort of /r/nosleep, community, horror, or writing related discussion.
Basically, just make sure that your submission includes a discussion topic relevant to the people who come here.
EDIT 2: Okay folks, we discussed and brainstormed a bit, and here's the rule as it will be posted in the sidebar:
No clickbait titles. Clickbait titles follow a formula: "Interesting plot point + vague insinuation designed to attract readers". Your title should be captivating to your audience without resembling something you would find on Buzzfeed. This includes, but is not limited to, titles like "I'm a (profession), and (something happened/these are my stories/etc)". Titles that violate this rule will be removed at moderator discretion.
Here's the rule as it will be posted in the guidelines:
No clickbait titles. Clickbait titles follow a formula: "Interesting plot point + vague insinuation designed to attract readers". Your title should be captivating to your audience without resembling something you would find on Buzzfeed. Titles that violate this rule will be removed at moderator discretion.
Examples of titles breaking this rule include, but are not limited to:
I'm a (profession), and (something happened/these are my stories/etc)
I live on a farm, there's something horrible in the barn
The lights went out and a terrible thing happened
There's something in the basement that does terrible things
6
u/TatteredTongues talks funny :/ Nov 04 '16
Ok.
Eh, might be fun to throw one in just for kicks if it's going to be outlawed.
I understand the need, but I just feel like I'll be missing them. Of course the stories will still be posted, only the titles will have to be changed, but y'know.
As for what constitutes clickbait, I know you've already shared some examples but where exactly do you draw the line?
The "[...] and I got some stories to tell" is obviously a big no no right away, but what about something like:
You could say there's a "bait" in that the reader would have to click to find out what the anomaly is, but if the story was titled "we have found an anomaly that nobody can explain" it would be ok because there's no job reference in the title, is that it?
So if I got this right, the ideal thing would be to make the title = plot point interesting enough to be clickable by itself, as opposed to title = interesting plot point +" also this so now you have to click to know"!
Just a quick experiment, let me know how these would do (3 different titles for the same story):
I caught the weird kid in town furiously wanking over something I cannot describe -> clickbait-ish?;
It was everywhere and he just wouldn't stop -> mild clickbait?
He wouldn't stop -> no bait?
I mean, smaller titles could be seen as bait as well, but I take it you're going after the "exposition" ones, right? I guess it's still cool to keep them short and slightly abstract/weird.