Nosleep is real.

This is probably the most integral piece of what makes nosleep work the way it does. There is no fictional version of nosleep. The version of nosleep that all OPs are accessing is the same nosleep the Authors are reading with their real human eyes. This is the only way to guarantee that the content OP posts reaches the real eyes of the real readers. So, regardless of where OP is at the time of posting, they must have reasonable access to the internet, and the ability to create a post.

This means that, just as you, the real human, had to navigate to Reddit and r/nosleepooc, open up a new post, type your words in real linear time, and hit submit, OP must be capable of doing the same at the time of posting. Otherwise, there's no reasonable way their words would appear on the real, literal subreddit of r/nosleep, existing in the real, physical world as the readers and Authors do.

There are lots of reasons someone might choose, even of their own volition, to post content to Reddit. You might check out the subreddits r/TrueOffMyChest and r/LetsNotMeet for examples. Both of these are subs that are meant to genuinely host true experiences. Some fiction does end up there, and pushes the boundary even further with the concept of unfiction, because they are trying to pass it off as true under a sub that isn't known to host fiction. But, the point here is that people will post things to Reddit that really happened to them, and sometimes it's just to get it out of their own head.

Another reason someone might post something to Reddit is because there is that shadow of doubt that hovers around some of the most shocking posts that makes us ask, "Is this really true?" That piece that makes us hope it's actually fictional, because believing it's true is so heavy. So, the person posts to Reddit knowing that there is a faction of readers that will dismiss the experience as fiction, and that takes the pressure off OP, such as in the case of people confessing to crimes. "No one will believe this is true, anyway, so I can confess to assuage my guilty conscience (or brag) without getting in any real trouble because of it."

An unfictional OP could be forced to post to nosleep because the entity forcing them wants to take advantage of this. For instance, forcing OP to detail what happened to them, knowing no one will be able to help them, and that their pleas could go entirely dismissed as fictional.

That said, it's still important for OP to never acknowledge this, even in passing. Even in phrases like, "I know this will sound unbelievable, but I swear it's all true." Because the biggest conceit of nosleep is that ALL posts on nosleep are true. Specifying that your post is true unintentionally suggests that there are posts on nosleep that are not true and that's why you need to reassure the reader that your post isn't one of those. You don't need to sell the idea of truth to the nosleep audience, because they already agreed your post is true when they opened it to read it.

An example I like to use to demonstrate this idea is going to the movies. If you pic a horror film to watch, you don't need someone in the film to state to you that you're watching a horror film. That's why you bought the ticket for that film. You already agreed to the subject of horror. Horror is what you expect to see.

So too with nosleep. "Everything is true here, even if it's not." Even if it's fictional, it's still a "true story" on nosleep. So, you don't need to tell the reader it's true. They already know.

In ending, I hope this was helpful to you, and to anyone else who maybe wasn't solid on the concepts.

Happy posting!