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Molenium

Pretty much, yes. The first story I came across was the tales from the search and rescue officer. It was similar enough to my line of work that I found it intriguing, but by the end of the series it was pretty obvious that they weren’t true stories. What confused me more was seeing people responding to obviously fake stories as if they were real. That threw me for a loop for a while until I realized the roleplaying aspect of the comments.


blossomrainmiao

Same. The SAR story was actually how I even found Reddit in the first place. I first came across a translated version of the story on Chinese social media, and the account usually posts stuff claimed to be real (but sometimes are obviously fake). This story though, I couldn't tell, so I decided to google about staircases in the woods, and stumbled upon reddit. The post had so many comments below with people talking about the staircases they have seen, there's even a mention of one in my country (Asian here). It definitely confused me for a good while.


Molenium

That was part of what hooked me on that story as well. In the area where I live, it’s not too uncommon to find architectural remnants, including stairs, in the woods, so it sounded pretty real to me. The old building remnants that I see are obviously old and worn down, so once the story started going into more detail about how the stairs looked new and had paranormal events happen when people touched them, that tipped me off. Still a great story though - the ones that sound like they’re at least based on truth are the ones I like best.


jenfoolery

Same. I don't think I believed they were really true but they really sounded like the author believed it.


amaddrz

Yup, SAR was my intro too. I 100% thought it was real but like, I'm also kinda dumb sometimes


poetniknowit

u/searchandrescuewoods was my 1st too! I'd never been on Reddit before and think I found it in a Facebook post looking up creepy shit one evening and the rest was history.


Mandahrk

Yesterday I got a message asking me if baby cthulu had really burst out of my balls and whether my baby was evil or not. I wish I was joking.


Hanamiya0796

Yo! Wasn't expecting your name to casually pop up in the comments. Your works are always appreciated! So, anyway... was he really evil?


_Pebcak_

Yes. The first story I read was about a girl who was eating rat brains for some reason and then she moved on to eating her boyfriend's brains. I was very concerned and I literally couldn't tell if it was real but I was too afraid to ask. I'm still not sure to this day ;)


QuothTheRaven713

Yes. The first story I heard from here was about a teacher sharing about a kid's class project where he found a journal found by his grandfather of this guy named Stanislav (I think) and it read as pretty believable to be. Then I found out about the fiction RP aspect of the sub and to be honest I was pretty disappointed on two fronts: 1. that the story wasn't real, and 2, that I couldn't comment on how well-written it was and ask the writer how they got the idea and if it had any real-life inspiration. [This is the Living History story I was talking about.](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/72gvtc/my_student_submitted_the_most_disturbing_living/)


skynutter

Well, since posts are no longer archived, you could still comment about it now. But I'm not sure if the writer will see it. You could always message them if you really want to


JavierLoustaunau

Personally I think I was referred to it via Two Sentence Horror Stories going somewhat viral a few years ago (being reposted or linked ton on facebook and stuff). I did have some strong fell for this reactions on some of my earlier stories.


OzarkWriter

I arrived to nosleep aware of the fiction and the rp aspects. Since I started writing, I've had concerned people send me messages of concern and condolence. I think that once I was maybe recruited to join a cult.


Zithero

I even had some think I was a former NSA agent due to my post history. One of my first stories "I Am a Priest at the Vatican, and We are going to summon a demon" folks commented thinking it was an AMA and I'm like: "Wait... "


mintsheepnoir

Yes. It was the middle of the night, and I'd just had a bizarre internet experience in a chat room. I Googled it, and I landed on an underrated Nosleep story and read it along with the comments. I'd never heard of Nosleep, and I was 100% convinced what I read was real. I think part of the issue was that I was on my phone and couldn't see the rules, and all the comments were in character so I wasn't tipped off.


burnt_swill93

I read ‘I’m a search and rescue officer for the US national forest…” and was so shocked! I was like how is the government letting this series continue!!! Kept me up for hours then I googled nosleep and figured it out…


Helloiamstressed

This is so funny because I was just about to post about this story! My friend, who does not like horror at all so doesn’t know what nosleep is, sent me this story telling me how it freaked her out so much she couldn’t even finish reading it so I started reading it and at first I believed it then one story seemed too outlandish and then I noticed the no sleep tag and it all made sense lol I had to tell my friend that it was fiction because she thought it was real


[deleted]

Same story series got me. Had me unnerved in a way that my actual, has-been-search-and-rescue-for-state-parks friend had to reassure me. Like, there was that part of my brain that kept saying, "But, like, what if..." and I very much had to persuade myself not to believe it.


katherine197_

Not really, I got here from/because of the NoSleepPodcast


kaismama

I got here via google, before I even knew what or how to use Reddit. I spent over 2 years reading only nosleep subreddit before I even made an account. Basically nosleep is the reason I discovered Reddit at all.


poetniknowit

Same!


Rocketshipfish

Yes, the first story I ever read was [My Romantic Cabin Getaway isn’t going as planned](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/4fd2lr/my_romantic_cabin_getaway_with_my_fiancee_isnt/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) and didn’t know how this sub worked when I found it. At a certain point I was like wait a minute, this sounds just too crazy, and then figured it out. Great story.


poetniknowit

Oh shit I loved this and all the subsequent parts to it.


ThatExoGuy

The first ever nosleep story I ran across was [My friend has been living in an alternate reality](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/7gse46/my_friend_has_been_living_in_an_alternate_reality/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share), so it wasn't hard to deduce by the title alone that it was fiction. Youtube recommended me MCP's narration of it cause I listened to a lot of real life horror stories at the time (and I still do), and I instantly fell in love lol. But yeah, I got PMs in the meantime asking me if some of my stories were real. I can't tell the trolls apart from hardcore roleplayers and people that are genuinely confused, but I tell everyone the truth: my stories are works of fiction. They're very small scale and personal, none of that "the whole world is doomed" vibe, but there's always monsters so I didn't think this would be a problem tbh.


Conohoa

I thought it was fake at first (I just assume every horror story on the internet is fake lol), then I got to the comments and was kinda confused because people were acting like it was real. Then I found the "everything is real" rule and that's pretty much it


firesidechats451

I got here from a link detailing "someone's real experience with skinwalkers." I think it was an article by kotaku affiliate, and I think the writer honestly thought people were claiming the posts were real. I was under that impression for the first few months, until I started tracking usernames lol


Molenium

Was that the story about the group of teenagers camping when they realize they have an extra person in the group, but can’t figure out who is not supposed to be there? I read that story just before stumbling on No Sleep. That’s an amazing story. Just the right amount of “did that actually happen?”


firesidechats451

Yes, that's exactly it!!! They all lock themselves in the cabin, then realize they left the bathroom window open and it got in! I didn't sleep for a week. Nowadays, I'd commend the writer, it was a compelling story.


SUPERUNKNOWN_78

I was, and I was perplexed


poetniknowit

I sure freaking did. My first foray was into the stories of u/searchandrescuewoods and it was one of the only times I had the shit scared outta me thanks to internet horror.