# Surviving an "Eternal September" - How an Online Community Managed a Surge of Newcomers

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.08841 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.08841/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 28 May 2016.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Detecting Community Sensitive Norm Violations in Online Conversations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.04419/) (2021)
- [Toxicity Detection is NOT all you Need: Measuring the Gaps to Supporting Volunteer Content Moderators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.07879/) (2023)
- [Upvotes? Downvotes? No Votes? Understanding the relationship between reaction mechanisms and political discourse on Reddit](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.09540/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present a qualitative analysis of interviews with participants in the NoSleep community within Reddit where millions of fans and writers of horror fiction congregate. We explore how the community handled a massive, sudden, and sustained increase in new members. Although existing theory and stories like Usenet's infamous "Eternal September" suggest that large influxes of newcomers can hurt online communities, our interviews suggest that NoSleep survived without major incident. We propose that three features of NoSleep allowed it to manage the rapid influx of newcomers gracefully: (1) an active and well-coordinated group of administrators, (2) a shared sense of community which facilitated community moderation, and (3) technological systems that mitigated norm violations. We also point to several important trade-offs and limitations.