Unorganized Rant on NoSleep

So last night, I posted The White Wolf story on the NoSleep Reddit and it got removed. Why? Well, here's the message I was sent:

(Your submission has been removed from /r/nosleep.

Your post has been removed. /r/nosleep is the wrong subreddit for non-horror stories. Please try resubmitting to a more appropriate subreddit.)

I'm laughing about this as I'm thinking about it because it seems kind of ridiculous. Now granted, the story isn't super graphic or intense but I still think there's plenty of disturbing and/or scary content to make it a horror story. Here's my evidence:

Exhibit A: (However, the zoo started to decline in 1979 due to waning interest and signs of this began to show. Those who have visited the zoo at the time reported seeing dirty and poorly rearranged exhibits that involved putting predatory animals next to prey.) ~ Beginning of Paragraph 2.

Why This is Horror Content: While it's not overly scary, this part puts an image on the reader's head and can be seen as disturbing or uneasy.

Exhibit A1: (The zoo would soon be dealt another blow when, in the late 1980’s, the television show 60 Minutes had named Slater Park Zoo one of the worst zoos in America due to evidence of egregious animal abuse, especially regarding Fanny the elephant, who was kept in a tiny enclosure and chained up.) ~ End of Paragraph 2.

Why This is Horror Content: Just like with Exhibit A, this part paints a disturbing image in the reader's head. It also gives the reader more insight into the abhorrent and slum-like conditions of the zoo.

Exhibit B: (Beginning in April of 1991 however, reports of a white wolf had sprung up in Pawtucket and nearby cities. One of these accounts was made by a mother, who was attacked by the wolf while biking in a local park with her son. There had also been accounts of pets being attacked and in some cases, killed by this wolf. Because of these reports, the Slater Park Zoo strongly encouraged communities to call animal control if they spotted the wolf, as they not only thought it was the lost wolf pup, but that it also posed a threat to humans and pets. During this time, people all across northern Rhode Island started taking serious precaution against the wolf. For example, children and pets wouldn’t be allowed outside after sunset, some people carried small guns with them at all times, and all kinds of traps were set up in people’s yards and even near trash barrels. At one point, some people refused to leave their homes without accompaniment and there would even be people who called animal control over anything that resembled the white wolf, even if it turned out to be something completely different.) ~ Paragraph 4.

Why This is Horror Content: This paragraph demonstrates the threatening and aggressive nature of the wolf. It also shows the reader that the people of this area reacted to the wolf in a very paranoid and hysterical way and treated it as a giant threat to their wellbeing.

Now this is the most horror related content I could find in this story. But given how the story is only six paragraphs long, it's still quite a bit of content. Is the content effective? Well, that's up to the reader to decide. But to say that this isn't a horror story despite the abundance of horror related content is just kind of silly. On top of that, there is no explanation as to why it doesn't qualify as a horror story in the message. I read the "Quality Guidelines" of the Reddit and here's a couple of guidelines that stuck out:

1. "All NoSleep posts must be horror. For NoSleep, horror stories have a primary purpose to frighten, scare, or startle readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror."

2. "The inclusion of horrible events does not necessarily make a story horror. For this reason, certain topics, while they may be scary, are not allowed as the focal point of the story."

Notice how vauge these guidelines are. Notice how they don't include any examples to go along with these guidelines. While this may not seem like a big deal to everybody, it personally bothers me because providing examples and being specific can help the poster of a story clearly understand what they should do, especially if they're a first timer. Also, this grammar: (All NoSleep posts must be horror.)

Now you could argue that I could talk to the moderators about the guidelines. But I don't feel particularly comfortable doing that because one of their other guidelines, especially for comments, is:

"No debunking, disbelief, or criticism (constructive or otherwise). If the formatting is off, report the post and mods will address it." This is a major red flag, especially since it's a reddit that is dedicated to storytelling! Now I can understand not allowing comments that may be seen as harrasment and whatnot. But constructive criticism? That's just dumb! If that's a guideline you're honestly going to include, then don't be surprised when people don't feel comfortable giving feedback to the moderators.

You know, say what you will about the Creepypasta Wiki. Yeah some shitpastas get past the radar and sometimes having your pasta removed can be upsetting. But at the very least, the people who remove pastas at least try to respectfully explain why the story got removed and they may also provide some advice on how to make specific elements of the story more effective. Not only does this help the author understand what went wrong, but it also has a human touch to it. The other cool thing about the Creepypasta Wiki is that you have the option to appeal the deletion if you feel it's unjust, which is something r/nosleep didn't offer.

This guy! See this guy: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZVT7gsZ08o) He gets it!

If you want a good scary story reddit, look at this: (https://www.reddit.com/r/shortscarystories/)

Now this essay long... thing might seem like an extreme overreaction to a deletion but I'm a writer who's passionate about storytelling and I genuinely like to receive feedback to see what I'm good at and where I need to improve. This is why I post my finished or unfinished stories to various writing reddits, the Creepypasta Wiki, and other sites. So for me, r/nosleep is kind of insulting to me.  Though, in r/nosleep's defense, it isn't as bad as Wattpad as there are a couple of stories I like, such as The Second Floor in Japan, but that really isn't saying much.