Websites and Memes

[warcraftnerd321]

I said I was an avid 4chan browser, and that says a lot about me. I witnessed some of the memes rise. And that's what brings me here.
I hate how all these new sites steal memes.

Sites like Reddit and Funnyjunk are bad enough, but the worst is Know Your Meme. It takes away all the joy in a meme and explains them un-funnily. I don't get why people still likes these [censored] meme-stealers. Even 9gag is better than that.

Can someone explain why?

[SirSlaughter]

Maybe people like to have a meme explained. Sometimes you don't frequent the internet enough to know what a troll is, Or being rick rolled. Now at least most of the community from FJ have morals and don't sit there and troll a facebook page of a deceased girl for [censored] and giggles. Oh and how about all that crap about stalking people and sending hate mail and death threats?

Memes are memes. They come and go. it's like facebook, google+. myspace, tagged, ect. Not everyone uses the exact same thing. The communities are different. Same with forums. I chose to stay here rather than other forums due to community and organization. I like the way FJ has their layout in my opinion. It's easy to navigate and looking at the pics makes me giggle. That's all a meme is. Something to either troll someone with, Or to make you laugh.

I would put more, But I lost track of what the [censored] I was talking about in the second sentence (if you couldn't tell). Whatever, There will be plenty of people who will chime in. So don't worry there are people more qualified than I am here that will be happy to answer your question.

Let the flame war begin.

[bluespart]

Memes are nothing more then inside jokes that got around. The reason Know your meme is there is to try to keep all these joked archived and researched. Might seem pointless to you, but I quite like to discover the origin of a meme. You can do some pretty interesting discoveries in these moments.

The whole "stealing" thing seems silly to me. How can you steal an inside joke by explaining the how and why?

[AlfaWskyDlta]

Might seem pointless to you, but I quite like to discover the origin of a meme. You can do some pretty interesting discoveries in these moments.

I totally agree.

Memes are jokes, and jokes get around. They aren't property and cannot be stolen. If you don't like the way some sites use them, then don't visit them. They are only jokes, don't take them so seriously.

[TinyVoices]

About a year ago, I utterly loved memes, and couldn't get enough of many of them.

Today, in fact yes, today alone. I saw a troll shirt, a troll sweater, two nyan cat shirts, and someone asked me in art if I was drawing a meme face. Not to mention last week someone put up a poster in one of the hallways, with a Guy Fawkes mask picture on it, and under this it said "Disobey". Even the bullies of the internet are being dragged down.

I've come to find that a joke is funny, till you see it over 50 times in one week, without even trying.

Since before now I've only been to FJ and YT on any given day, I've never really seen too many memes get dragged down fast. But now I've almost entirely given up FJ (God damn it, admin), and it seems like saran wrap, or something. The winds are changing, apparently.

I honestly blame 9gag, Tumblr, and Facebook for this, though. But, I guess it was inevitable... It'll pass, yes. But before it does, I'll already be done with the internet. I've gotta grow out of it sooner or latter, right?

[Luca Fox]

Someone on the internet is doing something I don't like. There is no explanation.

[RobbieThe1st]

Someone on the internet is doing something I don't like. There is no explanation.

My kingdom for a mod point.

[Kilroywuzheere]

They are, in essence, inside jokes. For everyone in on an inside joke, the chances of is spreading increase by quite a bit. You typically only reference the inside joke when others in on it are around, or might be. With say, 10 people, the chances of the joke spreading are slim due to there being few people who will get it, and more often than not you'll just get a "Its a dumb inside joke" when you inquire about it.

4chan memes are a far bigger animal. Imagine half your school's in on a joke. Eventually the entire school's in on it because everyone keeps referencing it and due to how big it is, there is a much greater chance of someone explaining it to keep someone they like in the loop. You'll notice joke population doubled quickly. With 4chan, the people in on the joke are way more massive than the population of your school. They reference it outside of 4chan for secret lulz, now someone else is in on it in a small way. Maybe not entirely without research or explanation, but they know its a joke now. And then it spreads further. The more iterations a joke goes through away from its source the bigger the disconnect to the original inside joke. Until you eventually get to the point where the joke kinda resembles the old one but doesn't mean the same thing anymore.

tl;dr too many newfags spoil it all