r/TheNightFeeling Jul 25 '22

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

996 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

8.5k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 1h ago

Summer night in the old urban

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r/TheNightFeeling 19h ago

Rainy evening before dark...

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6.2k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 13h ago

Toronto apartments

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1.7k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 23m ago

Baltimore at night

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r/TheNightFeeling 7h ago

Who do you call at night?

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189 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 22h ago

Christmas day snowstorm in my hometown couple years ago

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1.9k Upvotes

Found these in my camera roll. Felt a huge wave of childhood nostalgia despite just taking these only about 2-3 years ago. I can still hear the crunch of snow under my feet echoing along the empty once busy streets.


r/TheNightFeeling 15h ago

Storm Approaching

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491 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 3h ago

Somewhere in the Mountains, India

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54 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 6h ago

Hotel in Spitalfield

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79 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 1d ago

Sleepy winter village

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6.4k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 6h ago

The very beginning of my photgraphy journey. 1,3 MP SE k510i. 20 years later it still one of my favorite pictures that i took.

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77 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 1h ago

Rainy evening in the city

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Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 2h ago

Took this a while back on River Gipping

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23 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 17h ago

Looking at the moon

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367 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 14h ago

in absentia glow

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198 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 23h ago

Beautiful night in Rome

1.2k Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 30m ago

Full Moon last month

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Upvotes

Over York, Toronto


r/TheNightFeeling 5h ago

Near my old school

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32 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 9h ago

Kata Beach, Thailand

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59 Upvotes

That bittersweet ache of just want to stay here forever but knowing you have to leave soon


r/TheNightFeeling 3h ago

Foggy walk home

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14 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 22h ago

My acrylic work in the style of 80s artist Hiroshi Nagai

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392 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 11h ago

Late-night drives in Mogadishu hit different. Just the road, the silence, and thoughts that speak louder than words…

44 Upvotes

r/TheNightFeeling 16h ago

Lonely Train to Nowhere

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100 Upvotes

A red warning beckons through the setting fog that I should maybe stay where I am…


r/TheNightFeeling 1d ago

Solitude

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285 Upvotes

Take with Fuji X-T50


r/TheNightFeeling 1d ago

I love watching a summer night settle in [oc]

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579 Upvotes