There has been discussion about whether we need a new rule to more narrowly define what a “meme” is, in response to screenshots of other platforms, pictures of text, etc. being posted. Some good arguments for yes and no were being made in this thread over the weekend, and this isn’t the first time people have brought it up, so I want to open the question up to the community.

My personal approach to moderating content is pretty “light touch”, because I don’t want to stifle people having fun (this is a meme page after all), and heavy-handed moderation reminds me of the worst parts of reddit. I think the role of a moderator is to clean up spam, keep the community on the intended topic, and intervene if people are being harassed, but for mostly everything else, that’s what the up/downvote system is here for. So, the question becomes “Are screenshots of other platforms like Reddit, X, Bluesky ‘off topic’? Or, do they count as memes?”

Here are some things to consider:

  1. Is a meme anything that gets repeated or shared? (this is the broad definition, but not necessarily the norm in how it’s used)

  2. Does a meme require an attempt at humor?

  3. What about news? (What if a headline is funny?)

  4. Is an image required? Should a picture of text (not from another platform) be removed?

  5. Are we overthinking all of this?

Please let us know what you think. I’ll keep this post pinned for the week, and if there’s a general consensus, we can add a rule. Otherwise, we’ll just rely on the community upvoting or downvoting what it wants to see and making case-by-case judgment calls as we get reports.

  • untorquer@lemmy.world
    2·
    15 hours ago

    That’s not an expansion though. That’s just what it always has been(well before lemmy or even the idea of a memes board). The only filters are who is making the posts(few actually go through the effort), post activity (engagement, reposts, votes), and how you set your feed algorithm.

    Setting your algorithm to “new” was always going to yield a lot of random thoughts regardless of platform while “active” or “hot” would filter out the low engagement stuff.

    Limiting to “tied to established themes” or trying to set some form of overton window on what a meme is will only inhibit creativity, overwhelm moderation(what’s even established? Does it need to derive from something on kym? Reference it? Where to even start), and push people away.