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Hai.

What IS a meme?
A meme starts out as an idea. That idea is then expressed through some sort of medium, such as words, images, videos, or websites. When this idea is transmitted to another individual, it becomes a meme. That is all there is to it.

But the idea should not be subconscious. It should be able to be consciously imitated.

So isn’t everything on the internet a meme?
Most everything. Here's an example:

Person 1: LOL check out this video!
Person 2: Okay!

Person 1 has just transmitted a hyperlink to Person 2. That link is a meme.

How does Knowyourmeme determine which memes should be considered for confirmation?
Based on notability and impact.

So memes are notable once they are transmitted a lot, right? Like one of those hilarious Smosh videos!
Not necessarily. While the popularity of a meme is taken into account, that does not necessarily mean that it is notable.

Let’s use "Smosh" as our first example. Although Smosh may be a very popular Youtube channel, it is one of many, many Youtube comedy channels. It is true that they made a huge impact on the lipdub fad, but they do not really differentiate themselves from the rest of the Youtube celebrity crowd.

Let’s use "Magibon" as our second example. The internet was fascinated/captivated/disgusted by this girl. She became an internet phenomenon through her mindless staring, attempts to speak Japanese, and ridiculously huge eyes. That is why her entry was eventually confirmed.

Therefore, notability and impact are not based solely on the amount of views. Memes that are considered for confirmation should somehow influence internet culture in a noticeable way.

Then how do you define how “influential” a meme is?
This is where Kenyatta Cheese’s criteria from the FAQ comes into play:

Anyone who thinks that they’ve spotted a meme in the wild can submit an entry to the Internet Meme Database. Once in the MemeDB, entries are evaluated by the KYM community based on six primary concepts:
1) Viral Spread: search results, social media mentions, forum posts, route of spread.
2) Point of Origin: Find out where the meme first appeared and provide proof that it spread beyond its original subculture.
3) Derivatives/instances: Existing volume of spoofs, mashups, remixes, parodies, recontextualizations, and re-enactments. Is it mutating?
4) Appearance in Memetic Hubs: Websites and communities that have been made famous for spreading and culturing memes.
5) Organic / Forced Memes: Was the meme spread peer to peer or was it astroturfed? Even astroturfed phenomena can become memes.
6) Spin-offs / Sub-memes (Optional): Many memes spawn entire trees of sub-memes.

These six concepts are how entries are evaluated, and also help determine how influential the meme is. It should NOT be confused with the actual definition of a meme.

You should try to show evidence that the subject of your entry exhibits some of these traits.

Then aren’t very general topics, like e-mail, a meme?
Yes, but Knowyourmeme likes to keep its meme entries focused on more specific ideas. Try to use your best judgment on what is too broad of a concept. Good examples of specific memes are catchphrases, stories, images, videos, practices, and the like.

What is an IRL meme?
If you’ve been here for a while, you’ve probably heard the term, "IRL meme," thrown around a lot. "IRL meme" stands for "In real life meme" and implies that a meme is used more often "in real life" than online.

The problem with this phrase is that it is often used to describe memes that come from movies, television, books, etc. Movies and television shows are not "real life" either, people.

A better way to argue against an entry that you don’t believe is an "internet meme" is to simply state that it is not an internet meme.

So what's the difference between an internet meme and a non-internet meme?
If a meme is posted on the internet first (before being posted in other forms of media) and spreads primarily through the internet, it is an internet meme.

If a meme originates from places outside the internet it should fit into one or more of the following categories:
1) The meme is used differently on the internet than it is in other forms of media (for example, "Nice Boat").
2) The meme is referenced on the internet far more often than it is in other forms of media (for example, "Pool’s Closed").
3) The meme continues to be popular on the internet when it is not popular in other forms of media (for example, "???? PROFIT!!!!")
4) The meme becomes popular and propogates because of the internet (for example, "Crank That Soulja Boy")

In Conclusion…
Having reading this, I hope you will submit quality entries and also use the following phrases more carefully:

"This is not a meme."
"This hasn't spread to other sites so it's not memetic."
"It's not a meme because it has no derivatives."
"This is too much of an IRL meme."

EDIT: Some definitions have changed since this was posted, but, for the most part, are still accurate.

Unlike the above two posters, I understand this. Thanks for submitting this OGW. Also, this thread needs to be stickied.

Thank you, Ogreenworld! this really needed to be done a long time ago.

This should be required reading for every member, quite honestly.

Preparing Tenshi/Tomberry/Chris Menning style self-bump…

OGWBUMP

@Ogreenworld

Don't forget about Vlad-style Double Posting.

Nice write-up, Greenpeace. It helped clear up some questions I had about some deadpooled entries I've saw a few days back (drunk, but still saw them… I think).

Time for the MPATHG bump, courtesy of Camelot:

@Ogreenworld

Excellent post, there. It goes to show you really know what you're talking about.

Though, once again, it's not completely accurate.

Then how do you define how “influential” a meme is?
This is where Chris Menning’s criteria from the FAQ comes into play:

Anyone who thinks that they’ve spotted a meme in the wild can submit an entry to the Internet Meme Database. Once in the MemeDB, entries are evaluated by the KYM community based on six primary concepts:
1) Viral Spread: search results, social media mentions, forum posts, route of spread.
2) Point of Origin: Find out where the meme first appeared and provide proof that it spread beyond its original subculture.
3) Derivatives/instances: Existing volume of spoofs, mashups, remixes, parodies, recontextualizations, and re-enactments. Is it mutating?
4) Appearance in Memetic Hubs: Websites and communities that have been made famous for spreading and culturing memes.
5) Organic / Forced Memes: Was the meme spread peer to peer or was it astroturfed? Even astroturfed phenomena can become memes.
6) Spin-offs / Sub-memes (Optional): Many memes spawn entire trees of sub-memes.

These are things Knowyourmeme looks out for in determining which memes are notable enough and impact the internet enough to be confirmed. It should NOT be confused with the actual definition of a meme.

There are two things wrong with this part of your statement.

For one, this list wasn't made by Chris Menning. It was made by Kenyatta Cheese.

Secondly, that list wasn't exactly made to define how influential a meme is. These concepts, as it states in the quoted part, were originally made to explain to others what Know Your Meme's community expect to see explained in an article so as to deem if it could be confirmed or not. Though, I must agree that by figuring out how each of these concepts affected the meme, we can determine how influential that meme actually is to the online communities it has appeared on.

Otherwise, I find no other flaw.

Tomberry's powerbump.
In addition to what Jostin said, I suggest gladly linking to the KYM FAQ as well and, to nearly every stickied topic dealing with those issues.

@Jostin

Thanks, as always, I will fix the flaws.

EDIT: Can I still keep that list as helping to determine how influential a meme is? Because if memes are confirmed based on their notability, and memes are confirmed based on those 6 concepts, its (almost) transitive property that those 6 concepts measure notability (and you kind of agreed with me).

Anyway, I changed it so it doesn't say that "These are things Knowyourmeme looks out for in determining which memes are notable enough and impact the internet enough to be confirmed." but instead, "These six concepts are how entries are evaluated, and also help determine how influential the meme is."

@Tomberry

The message is already dangerously close to 5000 characters, so I really can't add links (I already had to cut down on a lot just to get this thread posted).

Great article! it's very useful, it took me ages to figure out what IRL meant and google didn't help much either!

I am now informed. Thanks for posting this.

I wish for this meme known as '"The Chriddof Meme"' to be confirmed. I do believe I have given enough information for such a person.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/chriddof#.TmvP1V3gQsE

i agree

Then how do you define how “influential” a meme is?

Spin-offs / Sub-memes (Optional): Many memes spawn entire trees of sub-memes.

Excellent

Well, when a meme and and admin love each other very much….

…actually, it mostly depends on different factors, like if it has spread among multiple websites and has gained reasonable popularity and such.

If they are good enough, they will catch on.
Simple as

I would think that several different factors determine a meme as well. I personally think that a good example of a modern meme is the Advice Animal series.

Out of curiosity, what would you consider those other factors to be? :o

Thanks! This actually cleared up a lot for me on how this site works.

Well, I think I misspoke in my earlier post, for which I'm sorry. I was referring to how memes ON THIS SITE get confirmed, now how a meme is a meme, because you had that covered. I'll start by saying that I think that site popularity is definitely a big factor in getting a meme confirmed. Some memes can be confirmed in hours if they generate enough site traffic, some memes take months and months to get confirmed because they are less popular than those that are frequently visited and commented on, and that images are added to a lot. Popularity and derivatives are, IMO, key factors to making a meme itself, I don't think anybody would disagree with me there. This site really isn't any different, other than the fact that this site is for documenting memes, not a hub for the creation of memes. I believe they're supposed to spread TO the site, not away from the site.

But I'm getting off-topic. How a meme gets confirmed on this site also depends on how well the entry was written. The example that appears on the Add an Entry page itself alludes to this: don't write your entry like Super Robo Jesus. A poorly written entry, not showing any proof of memedom, even stating that there are no known derivatives, thus, it was deadpooled. Well-written entries get confirmed more easily, because they make it easier for mods/admins to understand that the meme/person/event/subculture in question is indeed a meme/person/event/subculture. You see what I'm getting at?

Of course, that does have its exceptions. There are some completed entries that sit in the Submission box for months and months, which I guess sort of brings me back to my earlier statement that memes are confirmed based on popularity. Well, that's just one of the components I have in mind, which I think I made sort of clear.

Does having more editors help a meme get confirmed quicker? Depends. There are some pretty good entries I've seen with few editors that have been confirmed. On the other hand, entries with only one editor not considered meme-worthy are deadpooled. I think having more editors can easily be a factor, because the more editors there are helping out with making the entry was well-written as possible, the better chance it has of being confirmed. I would advise trying to get some of the top editors on the site into your entries, it will be worth it.

Hmm…I'll post more factors as I think of them. This is quite an interesting topic, thank you for bringing it up. Please reply if you have anything more to add. Thanks!

Ah, you raise a good point D:

I think I may have mistitled this entire thread, since what my post was trying to get at was:

The kinds of subjects/phenomena users should try to create entries about… are the ones that have traits that define notable memes.
Users should try to show that the subject of their entry exhibits these traits.

Actually getting it confirmed is a different story, since the process involves a lot of fact-checking, editing, and confirmation by admins and moderators.

That process is probably more suited to a different thread :T

Anyway, changed the title of the thread and a couple of things in the actual post.

edit: I think the new title is appropriate, although i had some trouble concisely wording what i was trying to get at.

very late edit [jan 3, 2013]: I just realized that the reason why this thread title was changed twice! was because I felt people didn't understand what I was trying to get at, and it was called "What is a meme?"
Then ann hiro and doda were all like "???" and "??!!!", and i felt obligated to change it u_u

If any forum moderator ever sees this, and feels like changing it to that original title, go ahead.
else, meh

Oh, OK. Yeah, come to think of it, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks!