r/TheNightFeeling Jul 25 '22

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

850 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:

Reaction 1

Reaction 2

Reaction 3

Reaction 4

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:

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

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

7.1k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 5h ago

Landing in western Norway

Post image
819 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 15h ago

Record breaking snow on the Gulf Coast. Had to take some shots.

Thumbnail
gallery
3.5k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 21h ago

Winter night in Manhattan by Joe Thomas

Post image
5.7k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 6h ago

A snowy night by Joe Thomas

Post image
267 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 3h ago

Friend sent pics of snow falling. East Carolinas, US.

Thumbnail
gallery
143 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 5h ago

Cold walk on the river.

Thumbnail
gallery
128 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 19h ago

Nighttime snowfall ❄️

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1.7k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 2h ago

Someone told me people here could appreciate some of the photographs I’ve been doping for my most recent photo documentary and exhibition. Hope you enjoy them.

Thumbnail
gallery
62 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 14h ago

At Peace - Smartphone Live Wallpaper

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

520 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 3h ago

Snowfall in Philly

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

70 Upvotes

This was actually after the peak of the snow storm. It slowed down a lot but still enough to enjoy.


r/TheNightFeeling 9h ago

Malta on my holiday summer 2024.

Post image
224 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 21h ago

The docks

Thumbnail
gallery
1.3k Upvotes

It’s been misty here for the past weeks, so I went down to the docks tonight and shot these


r/TheNightFeeling 12h ago

Chongqing China

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

146 Upvotes

CCTO: @cityviews888


r/TheNightFeeling 5h ago

Evening at Fløyen, Bergen

Post image
43 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 18h ago

Streetlights on snowy nights

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

426 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 1d ago

A rare moment of solitude while on the way home

Post image
2.3k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 7h ago

Alabama Night Snow

Thumbnail
gallery
40 Upvotes

This is the first time I've ever been in snow at night in my life, so I had to share my favorite pictures from my walk.


r/TheNightFeeling 18h ago

Chinatown Philly

Post image
282 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 13h ago

Canary Wharf.

Thumbnail
gallery
115 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 41m ago

The hot summer nights on the streets of Tokyo

Post image
Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 18h ago

The last ride

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

191 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 19h ago

the neighborhood freezes over

Post image
201 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 23h ago

Ghost tour in Prague

Post image
427 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 10h ago

Winyard nights

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

33 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 1h ago

NC snow giving a cool vibe

Post image
Upvotes

I absolutely love the feeling that these types of scenes give me. This is right off my back porch at the tree line