Forums / Discussion / Meme Research

So someone felt the need to add Super Robo Jesus, This Cheeto, Goat-tan, and KYM-tan, to the KnowYourMeme entry as "Highlights" without really thinking if it was the smart thing to do. For the time being I just removed them all.

So here I'm making the thread I hoped never to make: Which of said injokes should be added to the entry?

My personal opinion is to cut it short to just KYM-Tan (and maybe Super Robo Jesus), due to her usage as a mascot like we can see in the NSFW and Spoiler warnings. The rest of the injokes, bluntly said, can kinda go fuck themselves because I don't believe they should get some form of official recognition.

None of them.

"KYM-Tan" didn't begin with KYM, and only has a presence here thanks to a few people who post it on everything. Community wise, it's really just annoying and not influential. It's been pointed out time and time again that it's not a meme, but those few people continue to spam to try to make it one. It doesn't deserve a mention any more than the other forced memes/in-jokes do on this site on any other site for that matter.

And if that doesn't get a mention, then neither does Super Robo Jesus.

Wow. Such serious. Very "go fuck themselves."

It was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek reference. This is the very shit other sites hate us for. Seriously. We go posting their "in-jokes" occasionally and the moment we go and post one of our own. Boom hidden/deadpooled. I mean seriously. SRJ, KYM-tan, and Cheeto have had a presence here longer than anyone in the thread thus far's asses, so it's pretty safe to say they're going no where soon.

Besides, I only included the section due to user suggestion and suggestion from the KYM Style guidelines.

• Highlights: Are there any running gags throughout the site? Has the site earned any achievements or awards?

Wow. Such serious. Very “go fuck themselves.”
It was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek reference.

It's very difficult to take you serious when you threat entries like a joke.

Besides, I only included the section due to user suggestion

Ah yes, this comment chain, with your "Hopefully it’s not too over the top. xD".

Highlights: Are there any running gags throughout the site? Has the site earned any achievements or awards?

And instead of running with achievements or awards, you use the highlights section to bring forward injokes that didn't shape the site into what it is today.

I don't directly mind adding the addition of running gags, but none of the injokes are running gags, because a running is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. The injokes on the other hand are just that, injokes, but without any repeated reference in our entries.

The closest to a running gag would therefore be Deadpool, but that only might be a running gag because users tend to spam him, which then doesn't make him a running gag because we don't use the character when deadpooling entries. The Goat for example is considered spam at this point, it has no official recognition within our entries. KYM-tan is only a mascot on the NSFW images, but that doesn't equal being a running gag either.

I also noticed a severe lack of external references in the Spread section and can you share your source on the "undisclosed, seven-figure amount"?

I agree with Harshwinny. There's no cause to put any of these in the galleries; things like the Goat had their limelight, and now should stay in their specified threads and the occasional image comment. We're also not a place for "tongue in cheek" uploads, as I have ranted about before; if the image is not a specific example of the article in question, it doesn't belong in the gallery.

@Deltamelon: We weren't talking about the image gallery. We were talking about the actual article itself. I did re-upload one image of KYM-tan to the gallery because I was going to use it, but I actually pulled one from elsewhere when I finished the final product.

It’s very difficult to take you serious when you threat entries like a joke.

Memes ARE nothing but jokes. I was attempting my best to follow standard procedures and guidelines, but apparently "No Fun Allowed." should be included in those guidelines.

Ah yes, this comment chain, with your “Hopefully it’s not too over the top. xD”.

Yeah. I'm just going to ignore that.

And instead of running with achievements or awards, you use the highlights section to bring forward injokes that didn’t shape the site into what it is today.

I did mention the 2 awards that we received down in the "spread" section because I felt it fit in better in that part. I don't really think you can say those two awards really "shaped the site into what it is today" either.

I also noticed a severe lack of external references in the Spread section and can you share your source on the “undisclosed, seven-figure amount”?

Okay, okay, I'll admit it. That big paragraph citing where we've been mentioned by all those big news chains was copied straight from our About page. What links to the actual news articles I did manage to pull up were salvaged from Wikipedia.

And the "undisclosed, seven-figure amount" was left from whoever previously added it. I did however cross-reference it to the Cheezburger article which goes more into detail about that.

According to Time magazine, a group of investors acquired the website in September 2007 for US $2 million.

I don't really know where that Time magazine article is though. I thought I had referenced that before.

Edit: Those words seem to come straight from Mashable which actually pulled that from Freebase.

Also, this thread is a duplicate. 17 people voiced their opinions here including you Random.

In their defense though, we commonly use website and fandom subculture entries to cover their in-jokes. So in that way, their suggestion is a good one.

Problem is that you really have to be certain something is a site-wide in-joke. Like Deadpool being used for rejected entries, or Super Robo Jesus. The Goat is still mostly restricted to a select number of users, and I Need Blood is already dying. The Cheeto is a doubt factor.

I'm personally in-favor of at least KYM-tan, SRJ, and Cheeto.

Goat-tan I was hesitant on, but in just over a year it's accumulated about 40 pics and spawned it's own threads. Still, yes it hasn't really taken off, but it did have it's day.

Cheeto brings up over 100 pics and 845 forum post in the database and believe it or not, was voted as a log-in picture. Hence why it occasionally still appears.

SRJ brings up about 75 images, so it's almost less notable.

KYM-tan is…well…just KYM-tan. She isn't admittedly used as much, but she's been mentioned often enough that I figured she deserved an include. If that's objectionable, well…let the voting commence.

Memes ARE nothing but jokes. I was attempting my best to follow standard procedures and guidelines, but apparently “No Fun Allowed.” should be included in those guidelines.

Memes can also be related to controversies and other stuff that doesn't directly makes them a joke. A meme is something that spread from person to person, something that isn't a joke can also meet those factors. But even if they are just jokes, articles documenting said memes therefore don't have to be yet. It appears you don't want to write a credible article, but instead rather have random fun with it.

And the “undisclosed, seven-figure amount” was left from whoever previously added it. I did however cross-reference it to the Cheezburger article which goes more into detail about that.

Might want to add some sort of source there, perhaps a quote, but at least something that indicates the number wasn't made up. The Time article works, given that we can retrieve it.

Also, this thread is a duplicate. 17 people voiced their opinions here including you Random.

That was a thread about a specific entry for the injokes, this thread is for the addition of injokes to the KYM entry. Different things. The other thread is also months old and already autolocked.

"…this thread is for the addition of injokes to the KYM gallery."

What?

Which of said injokes should be added to the entry?

"That was a thread about a specific entry for the injokes… "

Says who?

Kung Fu Cthulhu wrote:

I noticed that we had a page for our own website, and I started thinking that, since the page seems to be pretty empty, it could be a good idea to use it to explain some of the in-jokes that are on this site (after it is updated with more information relating to the website itself, of course).

The KYM Entry itself shouldn't even be considered a great place to store any image of those injokes, it just furthers encourage the new members to start using the old content that a lot of us just really dislike.

Injokes should never be considered for any recognition, it's not a meme, a subculture or an event in any stretch of the imagination.

It's in injoke, only those who get it, and mind you very few who know about it already hate it because it is constantly being misused and spammed, which you are promoting if you add it to an entry everyone takes seriously. You and many others using those certain injokes do not. People have a habit of fitting in by trying to reference them, I don't really enjoy that. Pretty sure the mods don't like that either when they have things to do.

So I misread that, my apologies, and the error in my post should be fixed now.

The past thread is however still autolocked. And if you look at that past thread, my general opinion was to be very judicious and discuss the addition first. You however thought it was a good idea to add them without any discussion and just wanted to make a tongue-in-cheek reference for fun.

↑ Again, I acted on user suggestion which had 3 upvotes at the time and now has 6. That seemed to be a positive indication that it should be added. After consulting the KYM Style guidelines, I believed that to be the right course of action. I knew that most of the in-jokes were controversial, but that is the normal with in-jokes. I clearly should have consulted the forums first since this does seem to be a touchy issue, but doesn't captain hindsight always have the perfect timing.

Anyone who says KYM-tan, This cheeto et al. aren't memes are wrong. If I draw a pic of a seal with beefy legs, and some other user draws the same seal in a funny situation, it's a meme. End of discussion.

The problem is KYM is a pretty small community so our in-jokes shouldn't be worth an article more than, say an in-joke on the penny arcade forums. Ideally we'd document all memes regardless of where they're from but that's not feasible.

Also

I agree with none of them being added as well. If, somehow, the impossible happens, and they become actually notable online, they might be worth mentioning. I don't see that happening*, but this is the internet, so maybe something crazy will happen. Still, we should do that after something has happened, not before.

Hang on, wait a minute. Why is something that I posted weeks ago part of this conversation all of the sudden? My stance on that idea that I proposed has since changed – I can see why the Mod Squad disagreed with it.

Well, now that I'm here, I might as well throw an idea out there. I think that a compromise could be made if a user uploaded pictures explaining what the so-called "KYMtheon" of in-jokes is about in the Image Gallery for the page – most likely done in the style of an actual KYM page. That way, it's acknowledging that these things had their time in the limelight while ensuring that the Image Gallery isn't flooded by other pictures of Circules or Killed People. Alternatively, there could just be a KYMtheon General thread in the "Just For Fun" area for that purpose (since the Goat thread has pretty much run its course) – there'd still need to be explanations for those that don't understand the jokes, but it'd probably be a little easier.

@Cute
Yeah you should have. But to let me ask this:
Do you see any injoke information on the FJ highlight? or 4chan, something awful, ED? All those highlights include the most known memes, controversies or events not just by their community, also known by other internet communities.

Fuck injokes. The only thing should be highlighted about KYM is probably Stop Their Scheme. At least it is reasonable and there are few things need be covered about this event.

@Jacob
He took our cheetos!

Jokes aside.. It is just a pretty popular random guy who uses that image as his avatar. I still don't see anything to document or even notice.

@Kung Fu Cthulhu
Totally unnecessary.

Again, I acted on user suggestion which had 3 upvotes at the time and now has 6. That seemed to be a positive indication that it should be added.

One comment with 3 upvotes is an indication to you that something should be added? I'm sorry, but that's just really poor decision making. You can't convince me that you actually believed that something like that can function as unanimous.

After consulting the KYM Style guidelines, I believed that to be the right course of action.

That train of thoughts is more understandable. But the KYM "memes" simply do not match up to the quality or spread that the submemes of well known websites have. Others have already explained this further.

And to quote one thing you posted in the comment section of the article:

Sure, we can’t have all little fun with this Tongue-in-cheek article

You actually believe that entry exists solely to humor ourselves and that it's therefore perfectly fine to have random fun with it. How is that credible?

@Cthulhu

Siding with Alex Mercer here, totally unnecessary.

As much as I do enjoy most of the in jokes here on KYM, as well as the "internal memes", they do not have a broad enough appeal or anything to spread elsewhere. The sources of stuff like Goat-tan don't really care anymore, and it was never that popular until around a year ago here, if even that long ago.

I think they are notable, but in terms of mentioning outside of where they have their own say, I feel it's unessisary. I don't see Goat-tan outside of /v/ or here, maybe it's on reddit? Have yet to see it though.

Super Robo Jesus is the most notable of any of these, and I feel it should have a mention simply because it is so common and has actually spread outside of KYM (albiet very limited). It's all on other people though, I'm not an activite contributor. I have things other than memes to work on.

Cute Master, you should know by now that the comments section on this site is not a community with good ideas, besides 3 upvotes is not really anything extraordinary

Like Alex said the issue with the injokes in question is that they have no relevance or spread outside of KYM, and by the precedent we've set with other articles those kinds of submemes aren't relevant to an article. Like I can say that the gotfraggon from gotfrag (rip) or teamfortress.tv is a meme on those sites but that doesn't make it memetic anywhere else, so via lack of spread it's unneeded in an article (not that either site is memetic, they're just competitive TF2 websites)

Our articles are treated like academic sources for memetic content in some situations now, being quoted in news articles, interviews, research papers etc. so yes, they really are "no fun allowed" now. They need to be taken seriously, and the page about us needs to be taken as seriously as the page about 4chan or reddit, because it's a summary of our memetic influence.

Even though I think we kinda have a right to document things that influenced our own culture as a community, I'm kinda in the boat where I would rather not have this material up for grabs for people looking to fit into our community.

Though again, because of the first point I find it hard to find a reason to completely disclude the content entirely. We don't need to acknowledge it in our articles, but it can't stop users from posting that content in the image section, as it is relevant to the websites culture to some degree.

Again, it's kinda a blurred line here of what is reasonable here for me. SRJ, KYM-Tan, Cheeto, and even examples of the communities shenanigans (so as long as they aren't user focused) I would allow into the galleries. Maybe even throw in a mention of KYM-Tan into the Entry itself because she did become popular enough to be represented as our Censor. But we can't pretend we actually have actually made anything widespread enough to be worth of being documented here.

@Natsuru

There are entries for Goat-tan, I Need Blood, and of course the all too familiar Super Robo Jesus.

They are all deadpooled, and they will all remain deadpooled for a very long time. But the galleries are still open, so users are free to upload content to them (having a designated place to move all the spam in other galleries to is the biggest reason I left them open).

There's also the "kymtheon" tag people still use for content related to KYM.

KYM-tan doesn't spawn enough new content imo to require a gallery, and the Cheeto kinda died down on that front as well. But with the thread locked, it can be consider to move one of the old Cheeto entries from hidden to deadpool (we have around 20 Cheeto entries hidden).

So I believe we already did enough to give these injokes a place of recognition by not hiding the entries instead.

Seems like everybody has pretty much the same stance as I do: Injokes from KYM should never be recognized

Since we're about documenting memes, I feel KYM can never produce its own memes. If we ever did, no matter how memetic the material, it would be labeled as cancer. Even if the process happened "organically," we simply cannot recognize them officially. It would mess with our whole reputation as a site for documentation of memes and ruin our image in the eyes of other meme-related sites (not that they don't already dislike us though).

And this is coming from me, someone who loves the KYM in-jokes. They have their place, but not in entries or any other official KYM stuff (other than the entries we set up just to have a place for the images to go so there wouldn't be spam).

KYM-Tan has a place: The website anthropomorphism entry. Most of our other in-jokes have deadpooled entries, and I see no need for more than that.

That being said, I think the edit to the KYM entry was meant well, and perhaps mods could loosen up a little.

@Brucker

Making this thread was my idea of being a bit more loose towards the idea. Although I'm not a fan of the spam that the in-jokes have become, I also heavily dislike the "I hate this, so it shouldn't be on KYM" logic that some follow with entries. And knowing that the in-jokes are still popular, I wanted to keep an open mind towards the idea regardless of my personal opinion, so I made a thread to allow discussion.

However, once I discovered that Cute Master saw the entire entry as a tongue-in-cheek joke, and not an entry to take serious, to me it no longer felt like the addition should be taken serious anymore either. As Twilitlord worded it nicely, KYM is used nowadays in academic studies and as a credible source, so a serious approach is required towards entries.

@Cute Master

You made a derp, but I believe we can come to the general agreement that the headers just don't work for the KYM entry. You had good intentions, and misunderstood the reason the entry exists, but it are the good intentions that count.

I had to deadpool entire entries I made myself in the past, entries which I at the time of creating thought were good ideas. But that's ok, it helped me to become more critical towarrds myself, and not accept every entry idea I come up with as good. So likewise to you, use this as a lesson to improve, and be more open to discussion.

If you still wish to discuss the matter further, you are free to PM me. This thread however, I think there is a general agreement, and the headers will remain gone, so this can be locked.