Reddit horror story heads to Hollywood, starring Sydney Sweeney

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A Reddit horror story is making the leap to the big screen, with Warner Bros. securing the rights to adapt "I pretended to be a missing girl so I could rob her family" into a feature film starring Sydney Sweeney.

The original story, posted on the r/nosleep subreddit, a community known for its chilling "creepypasta" tales, captivated readers with its dark premise. The plot centers on a young woman who infiltrates a grieving family by impersonating their long-lost daughter, with sinister intentions.

The r/nosleep community, which encourages users to treat the stories as real, has become a breeding ground for online horror. The term "creepypasta" itself is a nod to the internet phenomenon of "copypasta," highlighting the viral nature of these narratives.

Sydney Sweeney will not only star in the film but also produce it, while Academy Award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) will pen the script. Joe Cote, the Massachusetts English teacher who authored the Reddit post, expressed his astonishment at the project.

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OpenAI and Reddit strike up partnership

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OpenAI has secured a deal with Reddit for access to real-time content through their data API. This means discussions from Reddit can surface within ChatGPT and future OpenAI products. The financial terms haven't been disclosed, but it follows a similar arrangement Reddit made with Google earlier in 2024, reportedly worth US$60 million (around CA$82 million).

The partnership benefits both sides. OpenAI gains access to a massive archive of ongoing conversations, potentially improving the quality and relevance of responses in ChatGPT. Reddit, in turn, can leverage OpenAI's large language models to develop new AI-powered features for its users and moderators. OpenAI will also become a Reddit advertising partner.

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Reddit removes pre-2023 chats and archived messages from users' accounts

Reddit has angered its users again by deleting all chats and messages before 2023. The company said this was part of a new chat architecture it plans to implement, but many users were shocked to find their message logs gone without warning.

Mashable reported a work around that would require you to request your account data online, which might include old conversations. However, this is not as easy as accessing them before. Users were unhappy with Reddit’s lack of communication and transparency about the chat removal. The notice was announced in a changelog post shared on June 22. But the notice came after two other feature announcements, so it seems the users missed it.

This is not the only issue Reddit is facing, though. Some subreddits went dark to protest new policies that affected third-party apps like Apollo. Reddit also plans to phase out its coin system, which rewards exceptional contributors. This has worried long-time users who value the awards and medals that reflect Reddit’s culture.

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Reddit’s volunteer transcribers quit over API changes

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Reddit's volunteer transcribers are quitting over the company's API changes. The r/TranscribersOfReddit community, which provides accessibility features like alt text and captions for media posts, will shut down on June 30. That's a day before Reddit starts charging for API access.

The group says Reddit has failed to fix core issues with the platform and has shown a clear disregard for accessibility. It also says the third-party apps that Reddit will exempt from the API fees (like RedReader, Dystopia, and Luna) are not suitable for blind and visually impaired moderators.

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