Weak Meme <---|---> Strong Meme

So today we posted an episode about Balloon Boy. There is a bit of controversy as to whether it is “really a meme” or not and, honestly, I think that debate is way too simple.

It’s shouldn’t be “Meme vs Not a Meme” but “Weak Meme vs Strong Meme.”

‘Balloon Boy’ is something I’d describe as being a Weak but Notable meme.

All the stuff that happened around it (image macros, Anonymous ordering pizzas, etc) was worth thinking and talking about (notable) but ultimately, ‘Balloon Boy’ wasn’t going to be a lasting meme (weak).

Know Your Meme understood this. Most of the rest of the Internet didn’t. A thousand blog posts were ready to declare ‘Balloon Boy’ THE GREATEST MEME OF ALL TIME OMG!’ as it was happening. They were short sighted. You were not.

As such, @Jamiedubs is thinking about adding a new feature that would allow you to grade memes on different aspects of their notability. For example:

Weak Meme <—-|———> Strong Meme

I think he has an idea for other sliders(?) as well. Either way, I wanted to see what you thought of this idea. Would you use it? Do you have ideas for other sliders?

Ooh, I like that. Nice idea – thumbs up from me :)

I like it. It reminds me of the hunt!

Maybe also peoples opinions on the meme.

Like: Lame Meme <—-|———> Wicked Meme

Maybe.

How would it work though? Is it going to be like an average of all people’s votes like the 5-star rating feature on Youtube? I’m pro for the idea, I’m just a bit confused about how the whole thing will work.

I don’t know if we should really be rating memes here. The entries should include enough background and information on the meme to the point where a simple slider is both unnecessary and redundant, dig?

I was thinking sort of like.

Your rating: Lame Meme <—-|———> Wicked Meme

Average rating: Lame Meme <—-——|—> Wicked Meme

EDIT: Lindell posted while I was typing he may just be right.

To be honest, I’ll be happy as long as someone cleans up the end couple of pages worth of memes and gives them some actual information. They’re really uninformative compared to lots of the recent entries…that was really off topic wasn’t it…

@Jostin I’m not sure if it should be an open voting thing as the sliders should represent something measurable. Otherwise, I assume, people would just vote up their favorite memes and vote down the ones they had probably never heard of. (And sorry, @Blubber, I think the ‘Lame’ vs ‘Wicked’ thing would fall out of bounds here.)

@Lindell I’d like for the entries to be able to stand on their own, but with even some of the best written entries on site, people still argue about their notability.

@drnic010 Not too off topic.

shoop da whoop

fail meme <——————-|> awsome meme

@yatta

So that means

great meme <———|——→ greatest meme

really wouldn’t work?

yes a strong vs weak meame option would be good.

i don’t agree though with any sort of rating system based on how “awesome” the meme is. Simply because this website is only documenting memes, we shouldnt really be advocating people to vote for their favourites or whatever.

I know for sure i’d vote for all my favourites and not care about the rest.

To be clear, there are submissions to the MemeDB that are not a meme, forced meme, or just completely not relevant beyond one person and three of their friends. Those memes should drown in a boiling pit of deadpool. (To help with that, check out @ChrisMenning’s King’s Supression post near the middle of this thread.)

But for the stuff that still counts, we need a way to better express and explain a entry’s notability. This slider is just one suggestion. I’d love to hear any others (including ideas for better written meme submissions.)

@Blubber

great meme <——|——> greatest meme

wouldn’t work but

braised ham <——|——> broiled turkey

might.

i think sliders isn’t such a good idea yatta… a like/dislike or strong/weak button would do just fine (in my opinion). sliders never made much sense (see youtube’s rating stars)

ya i like the stars one *

Nah, I don’t think so. Stars already bore me for I see them being used in every single place that allows me to rate something, same thing with thumbs ups and thumbs downs. At least this idea is unique. I like unique ideas.

A thumbs up/down system would work the best. If it was a 5 point rating system everyone just chooses 1 or 5…

that was actually my point… NOT to use a slider/star system. A like/dislike would work perfect!

That’s the same thing, virtually.

thumbs up, thumbs down and a percentage? i’d go for it.

do we even need a slider?
how about a meme section, and then a mini-meme section (for things like balloon boy which aren’t that popular, but still have potential)

Also, check out the zidane soccer meme in the deadpool, that needs put be atleast in the mini-meme section.

Zidane isn’t a meme. It is just viral.

Zidane is definitely a meme.

It’s just that it was such a huge event that I’m not completely certain it needed the internet to spread.

I didn’t notice the derivatives at first.

these debates seem a little endless, so why don’t we just make some kind of voting system and see how well it’s received? take the leroy jenkins approach.