r/TheNightFeeling Jul 25 '22

The Downsides of Growth: A Sincere Request for Your Help to Make Sure /r/TheNightFeeling Remains a Special Place

921 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I’m Worchester, the creator and sole moderator of /r/TheNightFeeling. We've been growing a ton recently with more than 10,000 new subscribers joining in just the past two months. This growth has been amazing, but it has brought some real downsides I wanted to discuss.

As many people know, it’s common for subreddits to lose their “soul” as they grow larger. If you take a look at subs that were focused on a specific idea like /r/liminalspace, /r/creepy, and many other subs, you’ll see that they tend to lose what makes them special as more people join and submit generic content that doesn’t quite fit. I find this is particularly true for subs that focus on pictures.

I love /r/TheNightFeeling and the community here; it’s my favorite place on the internet. Its uniqueness is precious to me. It's a delight for me every time a new person gets excited as they discover this place dedicated to such a personal and obscure feeling. You can find a few examples of my favorite reactions here:

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As the creator and moderator, I can't help but see it as my duty to defend the "soul" of this precious little corner of the internet. I want it to remain a place that people get excited to discover and visit.

For that reason, I intend to become more strict in my moderation when removing pictures and videos that (in my view) don’t quite fit the feeling, including some at the top of all time of this subreddit. This may result in some hurt feelings. I've held off on removing a fair number of highly upvoted posts in the past out of concern that I'd offend the posters and those users who may have liked them. But, if this place is to remain unique, I don't think I can or should continue that way.

The Night Feeling is a feeling of peaceful melancholy, a feeling that makes you yearn and feel sad and hopeful at the same time. The reason /r/TheNightFeeling has the name "the night feeling" is because it's commonly felt at night. However, the key feelings are thoughtfulness, nostalgia, melancholy, and introspection, regardless of the time of day.

This is where I'd like to ask for all your help and support, users of /r/TheNightFeeling. Please report posts that don't contain/communicate the feeling, even if they're genuinely awesome photos of the nighttime. Getting a list of reports is useful for two reasons: It helps me discover posts that don't fit, and it also helps me feel more sure that a given removal decision is correct.

It's possible that some of you may not experience The Night Feeling and maybe joined simply because you like the pretty pictures of the nighttime. In that case, I'd highly recommend you check out subs like /r/outrun, /r/nightwalk, or /r/ImaginaryCityscapes. Or, of course, feel free to stick around to see submissions from our users.

I'd like to spend the next little bit showing images and text that really blast me with that feeling.

Two text posts:

Text Post

Text Post

Text posts are my favorite, by the way. I request more text posts from anyone who may have an experience or thought that they'd like to share!

And a few of my favorite images:

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I realize that this means that a significant part of the removal decision will rely on my own subjective opinion, but at this point, the choice is between a generic /r/TheNightFeeling and a night feeling that follows my judgment. I hope I've won enough trust from you all to make that call. Regardless, your reports will absolutely factor into my decisions.

If your post was removed by me in the past or in the future and I left a link to this post, I'd like to apologize for any bad feelings it may cause you. I highly encourage you to send me a DM if you'd like to have a conversation, and I'd be happy to oblige.

Thanks for being such a kind, compassionate, and thoughtful community. I hope we can maintain that spirit as we continue to grow. Wherever you are, I hope the stars are beautiful tonight.

-James Worchester


r/TheNightFeeling Mar 04 '22

Sleepless Night – pixel art by me

7.8k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 14h ago

Midnight Walk in the Rain

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2.2k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 13h ago

Saw this on r/kingofthehill and I thought it fit here

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592 Upvotes

King of the hill has some of the best night sky's


r/TheNightFeeling 1h ago

After spring festival, Japan

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Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 8h ago

The River, Perfectly Still

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189 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 46m ago

Seoul, a city where you can find beautiful nighttime peace among the vibrant lights

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Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 10h ago

Vacant

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133 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 1d ago

After the cherry blossom viewing

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1.7k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 20h ago

Wilmington, North Carolina

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490 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 17h ago

On a quiet walk

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254 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 6h ago

From the Eiffel Tower

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31 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 7h ago

Fog in the suburbs

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34 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 1h ago

Cold atmosphere

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Upvotes

15 / January / 2024


r/TheNightFeeling 22h ago

❗Late night walking

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336 Upvotes

❗Marks the spot

Walking along dark alleys to get home More - https://www.instagram.com/jesse_is_haunted


r/TheNightFeeling 4h ago

park

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9 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 21h ago

Full moon night in the interior of Brazil.

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175 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 21h ago

Back during the cold months

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136 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 20h ago

A place caught between waking and dreaming.

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102 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 1d ago

Warm Summer Nights

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233 Upvotes

This is O


r/TheNightFeeling 17h ago

Light axis ✨️

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53 Upvotes

27 / September / 2024


r/TheNightFeeling 22h ago

Lonely walk ✨️

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119 Upvotes

23 / May / 2023


r/TheNightFeeling 1d ago

Night stairs 3 by aleha_84

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758 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 1d ago

A Small Diner

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3.4k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 9h ago

Night in West Plaza

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10 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 16h ago

Nights in New Orleans

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31 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 21h ago

My kind of boulevard - Bucharest, Romania

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83 Upvotes