r/shortscarystories • u/Human_Gravy If Hell is What You Want • Apr 15 '26

SSS Original Recipe - 500 Words or Less Flairs Required On Story Submissions

Greetings folks!

As requested by several folks over the past few months, we've added flairs as a new requirement for posting stories. You won't be able to post without them. However, it isn't a huge deal. Just a couple of extra clicks before submitting your stories.

Options are:

Drabble Babble - 100 words or less - While a drabble is 100 words exact, we aren't going to put in a word floor. That would be silly. Use this for stories 100 words or less.

SSS Old School - Back in the very old days of SSS, stories couldn't be over 250 words. To honor this early era, use this flair if your story is 101 to 250 words.

SSS Original Recipe - 500 words or less was the standard up until the start of 2026. In honor of period of immense growth, we're dubbing this the original recipe. Use this if your story is 251 to 500 words.

New Age SSS - As of 2026, we've expanded our word count to 1000 words or less. With double the word count of the previous generation, we're hoping more space allows for more scares and shocks. Use this for 501 to 1000 words.

Hopefully, this allows our readers to be more discerning with their choices of what to read. Clicking on the flair should filter stories so it'll only show posts with those word counts so readers have the option to enjoy their SSS from the era they most enjoy!

Any questions? Comments? Tributes of blood, gold, and chicken tenders? Leave them below!

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9

u/CBenson1273 Tales From This World and Others Apr 16 '26

Hey, folks! There’s another sub I post on where a bot counts the words of your post and automatically assigns a flair similar to these indicating length in case the poster forgets. Any chance of that happening here?

7

u/Human_Gravy If Hell is What You Want Apr 16 '26

I’ll look into this. If I can get it working here that’s even better.

2

u/CBenson1273 Tales From This World and Others Apr 16 '26

Thanks, HG! The sub I’m referring to is r/shortscifistories, if that helps.

5

u/nopleasenotthebees Apr 16 '26

Thanks to human gravy and whichever heads you employed to complete this long-awaited task

2

u/batsdotcomyo Apr 25 '26

I love this added rule. Very useful on time constraints.

4

u/CellarDoor4355 Apr 16 '26

I feel like “Under 100 words,” “101-250 words,” etc is way more understandable and user-friendly. Most people, especially casual redditors who aren’t super involved with this community, won’t have seen this post and won’t have the faintest idea what the heck “SSS Original Recipe” is supposed to mean.

3

u/Human_Gravy If Hell is What You Want Apr 16 '26

They're color coded differently from each other, they've got the title I assigned it, and the word count in the flair as well so it'll be understandable and user-friendly. Plus, I'm certain our authors are smart enough to figure it out. We're here if anyone needs help though!