I’m curious why you wouldn’t want one clearly labelled post a month: - You can ignore it - If it’s low quality you won’t see it anyway
You say that you want meme posts confined to Reddit, which suggests to me you don’t think they are the right sort of content for the forum. Is that the reason? If so, how are (suitable) memes different from short stories.
I’d expect people to react very different to memes, so I’m very open to being persuaded that having memes on the Forum is in fact a good idea. But my independent impression is that memes to some degree trivialize our message, and that insofar as there’s a place for them in the larger EA ecosystem, it is not on the Forum, which I see primarily as a place for conducting high-quality, high-fidelity intellectual discussion.
I really like your point and perhaps, in some sense, we should see this as something akin to “find a meme that Pablo might appreciate”—something that compress an EA message or discussion without trivializing or perverting it.
I think that’s quite hard—analogous to trying to produce a work of art using cheap materials and techniques any kid can dominate.
So my answer is that Facebook is where memes are made and reproduce, but we should have another place where they are selected—and perhaps it might be here, precisely because it’s a different environment.
Sorry to get into aesthetics, but maybe you could change people’s minds if you could show a meme that is as peculiar or poignant as (pseudo-)Hemingway’s “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” This might have an interesting effect on a new reader. Sometimes, comic strips can be like that.
But most memes end up just using a standard graphic format to display a very straightforward simplified message that is only interesting (and often trivial) for the in-group… they remind me of badges, flags, or slogans, and they soon become repetitive. This is not bad (I like it, indeed—that’s why I check the fb group daily), but it requires you to enjoy this particular practice as an in-group and to share the corresponding references. And it won’t make you look at things in another way.
Sometimes, though, I think a meme can express an original joke (not just a simple mockery of the out-group), and use the corresponding format to enhance its effect (usually through contrast – like having a very intellectual debate instantiated in the American chopper meme) – but the technique will soon be copied (like having a very intellectual debate in the American chopper meme). And perhaps a meme can be as creative as a good short story, though I can’t recall anything like that right now; that’s a meme that should endure.
Oh, I gave the post a double upvote ;) (But the Kangaroo meme got a downvote, sorry palz) (The Drake one is meta and cool, but it only makes sense for people who are already tired of seeing the usual Drake meme)
Can we discuss this a little?
I’m curious why you wouldn’t want one clearly labelled post a month:
- You can ignore it
- If it’s low quality you won’t see it anyway
You say that you want meme posts confined to Reddit, which suggests to me you don’t think they are the right sort of content for the forum. Is that the reason? If so, how are (suitable) memes different from short stories.
I’d expect people to react very different to memes, so I’m very open to being persuaded that having memes on the Forum is in fact a good idea. But my independent impression is that memes to some degree trivialize our message, and that insofar as there’s a place for them in the larger EA ecosystem, it is not on the Forum, which I see primarily as a place for conducting high-quality, high-fidelity intellectual discussion.
I really like your point and perhaps, in some sense, we should see this as something akin to “find a meme that Pablo might appreciate”—something that compress an EA message or discussion without trivializing or perverting it. I think that’s quite hard—analogous to trying to produce a work of art using cheap materials and techniques any kid can dominate. So my answer is that Facebook is where memes are made and reproduce, but we should have another place where they are selected—and perhaps it might be here, precisely because it’s a different environment.
Do you think the memes posted here trivialise our message?
Also Given that memes are a form of language that conveys ideas, isn’t it worth learning how to use them to spread our ideas faithfully?
Sorry to get into aesthetics, but maybe you could change people’s minds if you could show a meme that is as peculiar or poignant as (pseudo-)Hemingway’s “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” This might have an interesting effect on a new reader. Sometimes, comic strips can be like that.
But most memes end up just using a standard graphic format to display a very straightforward simplified message that is only interesting (and often trivial) for the in-group… they remind me of badges, flags, or slogans, and they soon become repetitive. This is not bad (I like it, indeed—that’s why I check the fb group daily), but it requires you to enjoy this particular practice as an in-group and to share the corresponding references. And it won’t make you look at things in another way.
Sometimes, though, I think a meme can express an original joke (not just a simple mockery of the out-group), and use the corresponding format to enhance its effect (usually through contrast – like having a very intellectual debate instantiated in the American chopper meme) – but the technique will soon be copied (like having a very intellectual debate in the American chopper meme). And perhaps a meme can be as creative as a good short story, though I can’t recall anything like that right now; that’s a meme that should endure.
Sure, but again, It’s one post a month. Also if those are the only memes you like only upvote those.
I guess I don’t disagree, but I still like this post.
Oh, I gave the post a double upvote ;)
(But the Kangaroo meme got a downvote, sorry palz)
(The Drake one is meta and cool, but it only makes sense for people who are already tired of seeing the usual Drake meme)