Should there be a new term for extremely NSFL lost media?
Jul 11, 2025 14:33:52 GMT
MantleM likes this
Post by Cuddles on Jul 11, 2025 14:33:52 GMT
Inspired loosely by this thread, I was going to leave this as a reply but felt it was only barely related to the OP (especially now that I've sat and rewritten so much of it LOL), so I'm posting it separately. I would've felt bad if I'd ended up derailing their thread completely with something dark. Best to post it on its own!
Go check out their thread!
By "extremely NSFL lost media," I'm referring to things like death or suicide footage. I am using "extreme NSFL" as a placeholder term as I think we could probably come up with something better.
The idea of having a different term for it is something I've been thinking about since last year, ever since I had mentioned it in my reply on this thread here.
I actually wish there was a different term for cases like Christine's death footage, since "lost media" to me inherently implies some sort of search...
This thread in particular really made me think there should be a more obvious distinction between extreme and 'normal' NSFL, just look at the way the posters were attacked after having found completely SFW footage of Christine. Obviously there are other factors that lead to this reaction - namely that people only knew Christine because of her suicide - but I think maybe having a clearer distinction to boot may help prevent something like this from happening again.
They conflate lost media with searches, and only know her name from her suicide being sensationalized, ergo they see a LMW thread about her and assume that people want to find her suicide.
I doubt that having a new term would curb sensationalization of cases like hers entirely, but I would like it to be more immediately clear that the community does not approve of it or searches for extreme NSFL media. I think the fact that "lost media" immediately makes people think of a search does lend itself to being sensationalized though, through "top xx pieces of lost media that should stay lost" videos and "what's the darkest lost media?" threads. The taboo of it being death footage on top of the mystery of it being unavailable. I don't like it at all.
NSFL is too broad of a term as it is, I think, or at least how the wiki utilizes it. Just look at the wiki category. It's more than a little silly to have stuff like a flash game by The Onion in the same category as the Basement Tapes. Apples to oranges sort of comparison maybe, but still. It's shocking fictional content grouped in with real-life tragedies. Obviously in discussions themselves, NSFL tends to just refer to the extreme things I've outlined, but it's a strange way to categorize the wiki itself. In my opinion at least, don't take it too seriously as I am not familiar with editing the wiki itself!
I've never been able to think of a term that makes it obvious that it's (tangentially???) related to lost media/the community, but also that people aren't and shouldn't be looking for it. And something that isn't terribly wordy. I was thinking it should maybe stray away from using the word "lost" at all. Because again - it implies a search. Either that there should be one, or that there is one.
No matter how much you try and tell people searches are discouraged, they are going to hear "lost media" and think of searches. The fact that there ARE searches for some extreme NSFL lost media like lol superman does not help.
TL;DR, I'd like "extremely NSFL lost media" to have a new, separate term to help curb the misconception that we are interested in searching for death or suicide footage. Lost media is associated with searches themselves, and when applied to extreme NSFL implies that there should be or are searches for it. Should there be a new term? If so, what should it be?
Additionally, there is a problem with extreme NSFL cases being sensationalized, and I believe part of it is because of the link between lost media & searches.
I'd like to hear others' opinions on it. Sorry if it doesn't make much sense, or my formatting is odd and hard to read, or I just sit and repeat myself 20 times or something idfk. I'm happy to clarify anything if needed. I'm not very good at writing at length.
Let's be civil, please, I know NSFL media is a sensitive topic but I would like to be able to have a discussion without it devolving into arguments. Additionally please avoid in-depth discussion about specific NSFL cases, as iirc that is against the rules now and this is less about specific cases and more about what those specific cases could be referred to as.
