  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.
