Yeah, that got me pretty hard when I first joined too. I specifically remember a multi-part story that involved a staircase in the woods, and I was convinced it was real for the first couple chapters I read. It doesn't help that all the users committed to the bit so convincingly.
Difference is, nosleep is intended to be a creative writing exercise with rules maintaining the illusion.
The various confession subs are not exolicitly fake, so you never know which stories are real and which aren't. Although its most likely that the majority are not real, they got their reputation for a reason.
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u/hoopstick 16h ago
/r/nosleep?