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EternalShore

EternalShore

Hardworking Lass who Dreams of Love~ 💕✨
Jun 9, 2023
1,440
Before I start, I just wish to specify that all of this information was publicly available on Reddit, the Wayback Machine, or on this site~ :) I didn't wish to gather any information that may be considered private or sensitive whatsoever! >_<

alt.suicide.holiday was founded in late 1988 or early 1989, becoming the first pro-choice discussion group on the internet~ Being on Usenet, it was in decline by 2008~ Some users from ASH and its splinter groups did eventually make it to r/SanctionedSuicide and ofc, SaSu today~ :)

On December 6th, 2008, r/suicide was founded, altho there is nothing that remains of it~

On December 11th, 2008, jlai requested a "lifeline" and a reason to live. This was apparently one of many posts on r/AskReddit regarding reasons to live, altho this one gained a considerable amount of traction with about 200 upvotes and 392 replies~
In response, S2S2S2S2S2 founded r/SuicideWatch on December 16th, 2008~ It very quickly gathered a userbase, with 200 users joining in 3 days~

The community was primarily focused on recovery and helping others~ Although, there were goodbye threads, they usually involved users asking others to stay and not commit sewer slide~ By January 2010, the community was clearly pro-life, displaying the numbers for sewer slide hotlines in various countries, a link to metanoia.org, and another to r/depression~ Discussing right to die issues and methods were explicitly banned by May 2010~ Meanwhile, trolling was only explicitly banned by November 2010~

r/SuicideNotes was founded on October 12th, 2010~ Its content is rather obvious, although its first known post would not be made until March 5th, 2013~ It is worth noting that by September 2014, a user known as deadman5551 was a mod here~
r/Suicidology was founded by sunsunsun on May 10th, 2011 and primarily featured infrequent posts about the psychology behind sewer slide and grief in its initial years~ We'll see how they're doing later! hehe~

On March 3rd, 2013, r/SanctionedSuicide was founded by deadman5551~ :) Its name, Sanctioned Suicide, came from deadman5551's desire for it to discuss the right to die and hopefully lead to the sanctioning of sewer slide~ It received very few new members and would be inactive for a considerable period of time~

deadman5551 replied to quite a few threads on r/AskReddit, r/ChangeMyView, r/MorbidReality before running r/SanctionedSuicide and for the first bit of running it as well~ He had also posted on r/Childfree, r/gaybros, and r/MensRights~ The last time he posted on Reddit was in February 2023~

On April 10th, 2013, r/optingout (abbreviated as OO) was founded by contranigma~ It described itself as more promoting of free speech than r/SuicideWatch and r/Suicidology. There were many posts complaining about life, complaining about the presence of pro-lifers and their platitudes, and requesting information about methods including partners, illegal drugs, Hydrogen Sulfide, jumping, freezing to death, and how to cover up a sewer slide~ Its frequent discussions about methods were likely why it was banned by December 17th.

On January 11th, 2014, ReckonerA posted the 2nd post to r/SanctionedSuicide~ From then on, it would begin averaging about a post a day~ A few members from r/optingout did join r/SanctionedSuicide including DOCTOR_MIRIN_GAINZ and plonspfetew~

Of the first 8 posts, it should be noted that 2 featured videos (which will become a common theme), 1 mentioned nihilism, and another mentioned survival instinct~

In contrast to r/optingout which had practically no rules, r/SanctionedSuicide came with rules to presumably prevent it from being banned~ These included banning any post that contained personal information, banning images or videos of sewer slide and gore, and banning talking about methods (as that is what resulted in the end of r/optingout; you could still mention methods tho)~ It described itself as being more focused around philosophy (which manifested itself in discussing quotes) and discussion (which involved complaining about one's own troubles and others' with sewer slide, depression, and troublesome events), altho it warns those wishing to recover that it may be detrimental to that~ Pro-lifers (who still did show up) were warned to refrain from using platitudes, and those who were sewer slidal due to the troubles of the world or due to holding nihilistic views were described as the main audience for the subreddit~

In September 2014, deadman5551 specified how he enforced the rules, describing that he preferred to be hands-off but removed anything that was spam, off-topic, breaking the rules (Reddit's and his own), causing drama, and directly attacking other users~ He believed that the upvote-downvote system of Reddit could take care of the rest~ Apparently, there was also some backlash against him removing screenshots of dm's, so this was no longer considered to be personal information by then~
In spite of these clear rules, people still did write protests, advocating for being able to discuss methods, and some posts about methods were still made~

Links to the sewer slide hotline, r/SuicideWatch, r/Suicidology, and r/SuicideLaws were provided~ By October 2014, r/SuicideNotes and r/Antinatalism were added to this list~ By May 2015, a link to r/Misanthropy was added~ By February 2018, a link to r/PsychiatricFreedom was provided~ The subreddit's tab title was "Embracing the Inevitable."

By July 2014, the subreddit contained many users with atheist beliefs~ By October 2014, r/SanctionedSuicide already had goodbye threads and contained many users with nihilist and anti-natalist views~ By this point, users shared and criticized pro-life posts on other websites~ Additionally, there appears to have been an influx of users from 4chan at around this time, although criticizing this development was controversial~

By February 2015, documentaries and news videos about sewer slides were explicitly allowed~ Additionally, wins for the right to die community began to be posted and talked about on r/SanctionedSuicide~ In February 2015, r/SanctionedSuicide reached 1,000 members~ :)

By April 2015, misogynistic posts began popping up, altho these were heavily downvoted~ Additionally, memes, images, and videos (such as from cartoons and movies) featuring sewer slide became increasingly more prevalent starting then too~

From May through July of 2015, r/SanctionedSuicide went from having 25 posts every 13 days to having 25 posts every 3 days~ Although some users thanked the subreddit for giving them a reason to live (February), echoing the sentiments of many of us here today, others complained about it having not helped them feel any better (June)~ Many users expressed their creativity, writing poems and songs about sewer slide or methods including Nembutal~ I would share these, but unfortunately, they've been lost to time~ :(

In December 2015, the rules around spam were specified and codified~ Additionally, requesting private messages and sewer slide pacts was banned~ The ban on messages remained until it was removed by the next December~

Something I find particularly interesting is that in June 2016, there was a post titled "Jesus Saves"~ Since it got a bunch of upvotes, it was likely satirical~ By June 2016, r/SanctionedSuicide adopted the r/Naut theme, featured below~:


By December 2016, r/SanctionedSuicide settled on its own r/Naut theme, which featured a pretty gif of snowflakes during December and prominently displayed a quote from Patrick Stewart~ You can see it below~ :)

On January 23rd, 2017, deadman5551 addressed harassment, altho it is unclear what this harassment (pro-lifers or other pro-choicers) entailed~ By March 2017, "official unofficial chat threads" posted by the mods were announced~ According to the 4th thread, users could post links to Discord, Chatzy, and other sites~ There were probably 6 of these threads~ The first user discussion thread I found was also posted in March 2017~ Additionally, in March 2017, hahahawHY392928 stated that they would write a paper for school over r/SanctionedSuicide~ Considering that I'm writing about its history rn, I'd love to see it if they did! ^_^ I just hope that they weren't a minor and didn't draw undue attention to us~ >_< It should be noted now that minors weren't banned from the subreddit~

It is very likely that by May 2017 that there were at least 25 posts per day~

r/TrueSanctionedSuicide was founded on August 27th, 2017 by troop98~ It shared no moderators with r/SanctionedSuicide~ Spectazy, TheDemonPrince, Acadiaa, and Aiicc were added as mods prior to its dissolution~ :) It was formed due to members' dislike of meme posts and trolls that existed in r/SanctionedSuicide at the time~
Its rules varied some from r/SanctionedSuicide~ A major difference is that trolling was clearly banned~ Personal information was still banned~ While it claimed to ban discussion of methods, nearly every post available on March 6th, 2018, was about methods, so this rule was very likely laxly enforced~ Requesting/posting about self-harm or victims of sewer slide was also banned~ Harassment was also bannable~ Notably, there were no rules about spam~ In contrast to the more popular, r/SanctionedSuicide, there were about 25 posts per week~ It featured links to r/SanctionedSuicide, r/PsychiatricFreedom, r/SuicideNotes, r/Suicidology, and r/SuicideLaws~

On October 8th, 2017, encouraging sewer slide and inciting violence were finally explicitly banned on r/SanctionedSuicide~ :) While the ban on describing methods was meant to discourage encouraging sewer slide as well, there still were people who had encouraged others to commit sewer slide~ :(

At about 17:15 GMT, on March 14th, 2018, r/SanctionedSuicide and r/TrueSanctionedSuicide were unfairly banned by Reddit for "encouraging violence"~ :( Users mourned the loss of the 2 subreddits on r/Suicidology over the course of the following week~ On March 17th, 2018, the Sanctioned Suicide website came online through the efforts of Marquis and Serge, who invited the mods from r/SanctionedSuicide and r/TrueSanctionedSuicide to moderate here too, an offer which some of them took, becoming some of the first mods here~ :)

r/SanctionedSuicide's highest known membership count was 16,082 on March 6th, 2018~ r/TrueSanctionedSuicide's was 1,953 on the same day~ Below is a line graph of the number of members within r/SanctionedSuicide throughout its history~:

Below is a list of all known mods and how long they served r/SanctionedSuicide as far as I can tell from the Wayback Machine~:
deadman5551: 3 Mar. 2013-14 Mar. 2018
Senseless-Insult: 1 May 2015-27 Jul. 2016
thepastIdwell: 1 May 2015-3 May 2015
blanktextbox: 24 Mar 2016-14 Mar. 2018
2_0_0_6: 24 Mar 2016-17 Jul. 2017
BreakingBreakfast_: 27 Jul. 2016-30 Apr. 2017
_Alph3x_: 27 Jul. 2016-17 Jul. 2017
t4taylor: 27 Jul. 2016-17 Jul. 2017
exzact: 19 Dec. 2016-14 Mar. 2018
Kenqni: 21 Jun. 2017-14 Mar. 2018
Cynical-Skin: 17 Jul. 2017
anon22559: 24 Feb. 2018-14 Mar. 2018
MilkbottleF: 24 Feb. 2018-14 Mar. 2018

While this is the history of r/SanctionedSuicide, we do still have a few loose threads regarding the pro-choice movement on Reddit that I followed too~ :)
In the immediate aftermath of the bannings of r/SanctionedSuicide and r/TrueSanctionedSuicide, r/TimeToGo was established on March 14th, 2018, by Zoomalian as a pro-choice community~ Former members of r/SanctionedSuicide were swiftly invited~ In order to avoid getting banned, it was strictly moderated in spite of being pro-choice~ It banned encouraging/facilitating sewer slide, describing plans/locations, making pacts, talking about methods, representing sewer slide, hostility, drama, off-topic content, abuse, doxxing, and being a minor~ Rules were very strictly and perhaps overly enforced with complaints about it appearing here as early as April 15th~ Cross posts between here and there did occur early on into this site's history~

When Zoomalian left Reddit, the mods Viking_irl and I_Tonya used this as an opportunity to enforce even stricter rules (banning members for seemingly unfair reasons) and unmodding DF90, things they faced major backlash for on r/TimeToGo and here~ r/FreeToGo was established by nineisbrine by June 13th, 2018 as a protest to the actions of Viking_irl and I_Tonya, altho it was banned on October 24th for "encouraging violence"~ By July 2018, it was described by a user here as filled with pro-life platitudes, likely as a result of its desire to not get banned~ In spite of this backlash, r/TimeToGo continued with 4.4k members in September 2018~ Ultimately tho, their tight restrictions unfortunately couldn't stop Reddit from quarantining them on October 27th, 2018, a status r/TimeToGo retains to this day~ Activity there has diminished to where there hasn't been a single post there this year~

Likely beginning on April 29th, 2018, r/Suicidology featured increasing amounts of discussions about methods and venting about troubles due to light moderation by its mods, Dearon and UnDire, altho some posts were still removed~ I personally found one user's complaints in December 2018 to be very interesting~ kbo141 complained about the alt. groups being dead or filled with bullies, all of the "useful" subreddits being banned, and SS being ran by an incel and "having shady admin practices"~ Suicidology would have 6,758 members on September 13th, 2019 before getting banned shortly before April 17th, 2020 for "encouraging violence"~

r/SuicideNotes was banned between October 2018 and March 2019 (probably in November) for being unmoderated~

r/suicidalthoughts was around for a while, altho niche, between April 2019 and October 2021, although it was banned by January 2022 for being unmoderated~

Some related subreddits like r/SuicideWatch and r/SuicideLaws still remain today~ r/righttodie and r/PsychiatricFreedom remain today, altho there haven't been posts there in years~ r/TimeToGo remains quarantined and inactive~ Most happily of all tho, sanctioned-suicide.net remains today~ ^_^
 
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WhatCouldHaveBeen32

(O__O)==>(X__X)
Oct 12, 2024
307
I like documentaries like this.

I also learned sewer slide means suicide :D

I usually just tanked the ban and hard reset IP if I said the big danger word.

Suicide notes sounded interesting.

Edit: Checked it out with waybackmachine, for some reason I thought it would literally contain suicide notes; like the papers , someone finding and making collages of suicide notes in the form of papers.
 
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33K1LLM3

33K1LLM3

Pretty Girl, Sick Mind
Jun 28, 2025
93
This was very interesting. Really appreciate your effort into this, maybe you could could make one on the modern history of SaSu?

Also not criticism but it isn't nessesary to use sewer slide, you don't need to censor yourself, we are a site that actively discusses suicide and ctb, without the constraints of a pro life society. However if you want to do that, then you can do that, just don't feel like you need to redact anything you say about the issue.

Well done though <3
 
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psp3000

psp3000

Enlightened
May 20, 2023
1,623
alt.suicide.holiday was founded in late 1988 or early 1989, becoming the first pro-choice discussion group on the internet
at first I thought alc.suicide and talk.euthanasia were first (then ash branched off from it) but I am not sure as I cannot find the ASH FAQ page archive (the pink text one) at the moment or the page that mentioned alc.suicide
 
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EternalShore

EternalShore

Hardworking Lass who Dreams of Love~ 💕✨
Jun 9, 2023
1,440
I like documentaries like this.

I also learned sewer slide means suicide :D

I usually just tanked the ban and hard reset IP if I said the big danger word.

Suicide notes sounded interesting.

Edit: Checked it out with waybackmachine, for some reason I thought it would literally contain suicide notes; like the papers , someone finding and making collages of suicide notes in the form of papers.
hehe~ I'm glad you liked it~ ^_^
xDDD That was a kyuter idea for it tho ngl! :3 but nope, it's people typing up their last words and explaining their reasons~ It's somber, so I didn't wish to look into it much~ :(

This was very interesting. Really appreciate your effort into this, maybe you could could make one on the modern history of SaSu?

Also not criticism but it isn't nessesary to use sewer slide, you don't need to censor yourself, we are a site that actively discusses suicide and ctb, without the constraints of a pro life society. However if you want to do that, then you can do that, just don't feel like you need to redact anything you say about the issue.

Well done though <3
Thank you very much~ ^_^ Perhaps! hehe~ I assumed it was banned by the Wayback Machine, but apparently, it's not! >:3
I mean, I normally talk like that, even here, so I didn't even consider not wording it like that until I read WhatCouldHaveBeen's comment! xD I find it kyuter personally! :) Thank you for being understanding~ :)

at first I thought alc.suicide and talk.euthanasia were first (then ash branched off from it) but I am not sure as I cannot find the ASH FAQ page archive (the pink text one) at the moment or the page that mentioned alc.suicide
Here is a link to a.s.h.'s FAQ page~ :) It does not mention talk.euthanasia, altho it does mention alc.suicide~ however, its link to it is now dead~ >_<
altho, whoopsies in my original post! A.S.H. was founded in late 1987 or early 1988~ >_<

EDIT: Just adding some stuff here~ r/suicide was 18+ for all of its active existence (hence, why there were no archives of it from then)~ r/TimeToGo was also 18+ for its first few months~ There was also a 2018 copy of the PPH posted to r/suicidology in December 2018 I believe too~ :)
 
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InversedShadow

InversedShadow

Experienced
Dec 28, 2023
251
When Zoomalian left Reddit, the mods Viking_irl and I_Tonya used this as an opportunity to enforce even stricter rules
Sounds like a coup to me, followed by a strict regime that is unfair towards its own members.. atleast in the end, it all was for nothing tho since the sub got banned anyways and people didn't like this treatment - very fair!
Wish we could know the things lost to time.. but sadly it is inevitable that some things just end up like that
 
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EternalShore

EternalShore

Hardworking Lass who Dreams of Love~ 💕✨
Jun 9, 2023
1,440
Sounds like a coup to me, followed by a strict regime that is unfair towards its own members.. atleast in the end, it all was for nothing tho since the sub got banned anyways and people didn't like this treatment - very fair!
Wish we could know the things lost to time.. but sadly it is inevitable that some things just end up like that
I'd definitely say that their actions sounded to me like a coup too, yes! >_< now, whether it was good or bad is debatable tho~ >_< While what they did was certainly unfair from what I've read (I think they even censored on-subreddit criticism~ :/), it definitely kept their subreddit around (unlike r/FreeToGo and r/Suicidology) although Reddit still censured them anyways~ :/
tbh tho, I'm just glad that the SS community is here, so I don't have to get on such an awful platform like Reddit every day~ xDDD
 
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