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:
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Is a meme anything that gets repeated or shared? (this is the broad definition, but not necessarily the norm in how it’s used)
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Does a meme require an attempt at humor?
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What about news? (What if a headline is funny?)
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Is an image required? Should a picture of text (not from another platform) be removed?
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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.
I kinda personally agree that screenshots of someone making a joke isn’t a meme, that’s what !funny@lemmy.world and etc are for.
But I don’t think it deserves moderation. It’s not so egregious that it’s harming the community.
I dont think rules are needed but in the about could be added a section for meme types and their communities so that posters may find better places for their funny like !microblogmemes@lemmy.world
IMO, memes are internet folklore and should not be tightly regulated. Memes have a story to tell or a message to convey.
I don’t necessarily agree with screenshots of twitter posts being memes but many others do.
Allow memes in all their forms, whether there is 100% consensus or not. I believe tight regulation is what drove people away from other sites, such as Digg and later Reddit.
Well that’s my 2 cents. Thank you for reading.
Dan :)
There is a reasonable discussion to have about politics. (Not because they aren’t memes, but because it really annoys some people.)
For everything else, yes, people are overthinking it. How many people consistently come around here? Do we need to subdivide?
- Yes. A meme is a meme.
- No. Not all memes need to be funny or this would be !funny_memes
- news might be a meme I guess. Certainly some headlines and articles have become memes themselves.
- Non-text image… not really required, but it helps I guess.
- yes, absolutely.
I guess it depends what the community purpose is: should it be a breeding ground for potential new memes where some might hit and others miss? Or are only variations on well-established memes to be allowed?
(My 2¢: the light-touch moderation method is the correct one. You’re doing fine, no change needed)
The explosion of this type of garbage is a big part of what killed Reddit imo. Or at least when the decline became noticeable.
We stopped seeing memes and the front page was just twitter screenshot after twitter screenshot and then the video garbage came along and it just spiralled.
I personally think it’s worth limiting this kind of thing to avoid the same fate. Though at the moment I don’t see it as a problem because lemmy users don’t seem to be going overboard with this stuff. There’s some restraint and judgment in place at the moment but who knows how long that’ll last.
Yep - a screenshot of a twitter post is not a meme. Sorry internet.
There needs to be humour, and ideally there’s something visual beyond text.
Categorisation is a good thing - it means you can find what you want and avoid what you don’t.
I think it’s 5. for the most part. What could be done is forcing a mandatory tag like [TextOnly] or maybe the platform the screenshot is from [Reddit], [Twitter] etc. That way the people that don’t like those types of posts can just filter them out
I really like that idea, it can make both sides happy
Blanket banning social media screenshots would remove many posts which i would consider “valid” memes, so think that would be too much
#2 is highly subjective so that’s difficult to moderate
#3 i have seen headline posts that i would say qualify as memes so same goes for that as for social media screenshota
#4 same here, the alternative would be links, and i don’t want to have to open xitter to see a funny tweet
We have !microblogmemes@lemmy.world specifically for that kind of thing.
I’m not bothered too much by it, but since we have a dedicated space for that sort of thing, it makes sense to post them there rather than here.
I think this is actually a good argument for allowing them in that it confirms they are memes and do belong. memes is the broader category and should be more inclusive.
If I made !twittermemes@lemmy.world it doesn’t mean !microblogmemes@lemmy.world should cease allowing Twitter memes.
Are screenshots of other platforms like Reddit, X, Bluesky ‘off topic’? Or, do they count as memes?
I’m not a fan of them but they’re not something I would report as off-topic. But given the chance to voice an opinion on them, I’d say they’re more appropriate for the “people Twitter”-style social-media inception communities.
- Does a meme require an attempt at humor?
I would say yes. I don’t subscribe here to be preached at. But there’d be some potentially awkward judgement calls for the purposes of enforcing that.
- What about news? (What if a headline is funny?)
There’s !nottheonion@lemmy.world and similar for those and news/politics permeates everything. It’s nice to have a place away from that.
- Is an image required? Should a picture of text (not from another platform) be removed?
That’s a tough one. I’ve seen pictures of book text being presented, but that often (but not always) bumps up against #2 (attempt at humor)
Shamelessly stolen from wikipedia: “Two fundamental characteristics of internet memes are creative reproduction and intertextuality.”
I’m other words, memes have to derive substantial meaning from its overall positioning in Internet culture.
As an example, this post derives most of its context and meaning from horror movies, outside of Internet culture.
This meme, however derives its visual elements from a tv show, but these have been recursively co-opted by Internet culture, and is further embellished with internet-centric experiences (steam friend activity).
In a more hypothetical approach, imagine a news headline with the subtitle “I FUCKING KNEW IT!” A headline like “rising home prices linked to decreased fertility” would not really be a meme, but one like “tube breach causes historically large Internet outage” would. Both posts are materially similar, and either could be a meme in differing circumstances of Internet culture, but context is everything.
substantial meaning from its overall positioning in Internet culture.
This suggests memes should in some way be mainstream?
New memes don’t start popular and often don’t have positioning in culture. Assuming a meme has potential, that is built by reposting and is ubiquitously cross-platform.
Not necessarily. Something like a new advice animal or a deep fried meme can be entirely novel, but still derive meaning from the context of existing memes.
While every meme has to start from nothing, expanding the community scope to “any thought that can be shared” makes it so broad as to be meaningless.
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.
1.) No, a meme is not anything that is shared or goes viral. Then anything would be a meme.
2.) Generally speaking, yes, but I wouldn’t necessarily make it a requirement for the community.
3.) If it’s just the headline, no.
4.) Yes, to me, a meme has always been an image + text. An image of text only is not a meme. Text only is not a meme. I would say images of other posts are okay, so long as something is added to it that makes it substantially more than the post itself (so, the post is a part of the meme, but the meme also involves something added by the memer).
5.) No, not yet. Healthy discussion is always good.
IMO, its #5 (overthinking it). I just want to see funny shit, puff some air from my nose, hit the upvote button, and keep scrolling.
I couldn’t care less. But I still define a meme in my head as being an imagine that presents an idea, with text that presents a situation that you are relating to that idea. As in a meme with bad luck Brian or, chaos wolf, you see and read the words, but the image gives you context, or a “world” in which those words were intended to be read.
