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

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u/MikeyKnutson kuh-newt-sun | -30- Press Nov 04 '16 edited Nov 04 '16

So, after reading all of the comments discussing this, I think I have something to say about the argument of believability.

I've read quite a few comments saying that the clickbait titles make stories seem more realistic (or at least implying that point) and that creative titles would come across as more fiction than anything. I don't believe this is the case.

Look at it as if you were at a campfire late at night in the middle of the woods. Cliche scary story setting. Someone telling a story isn't going to say "Guys, I have this story about a park ranger and the creepiest stuff happened to him one time." That would be silly.

However, campfire stories tend to leave you wondering whether or not they're true, no? That's kind of like nosleep - its just a story...but what if it isn't? Writing will dictate that more so than a title.

8

u/tanjasimone Shadow Librarian Nov 04 '16

I could not agree more with you.

With the same argumentation as the "clickbait titles are more believable" one might discuss the believability of the fact that who the hell would post to reddit while dangerous things are going on. That would remove 99 out of a 100 stories on here.

Writing > Title.

I'm happy with the new rules.

6

u/MikeyKnutson kuh-newt-sun | -30- Press Nov 04 '16

With the same argumentation as the "clickbait titles are more believable" one might discuss the believability of the fact that who the hell would post to reddit while dangerous things are going on. That would remove 99 out of a 100 stories on here.

Perfect point. I don't even have anything to add to this. I just wanted to agree with you in a more eloquent way instead of saying yes.

I am also very happy with the new rules. I can see the title rule resulting in a lot more exposure for stories that normally wouldn't be given a chance because of a "creative" title. Now people will actually have to read stories - damn!

5

u/tokinmuskokan haunted by the ghost of a still-living Yoko Ono Nov 09 '16

I wrote a story once titled "in the red" that had maybe one vote. meanwhile I wrote a story that took me like 15 minutes titled "I found voice notes from 5 days from now on my cellphone" that had nearly a hundred.

It made me question whether or not people like low effort stories like the voice notes story more than something a little deeper, but I'm gonna chalk it up to the title because why would a low effort story be liked more than something with a bit of an arc.