Meme: Jon Skeet

Originator: Jon Skeet ^[1]

Cultural Height: Every Day. Ever.

Background: Jon Skeet is an avid user of Stack Overflow, whose many answers (primarily in c# ^[2] and .net ^[3]) have earned him hundreds of thousands of reputation points ^[4]. This makes him the top-ranked SO user.

Related: Jon Skeet Facts ^[5].

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/22656/jon-skeet
[2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/c%23
[3] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/.net
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/8086/how-to-get-over-200-reputation-points-every-day
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/9134/jon-skeet-facts

Meme: 6 to 8 Weeks

Originator: Jeff Atwood ^[1]

First Heard: May 13th, 2008

Cultural Height: In about 6 to 8 weeks

Definition: The time estimate given "off the top of my head" when the Stack Overflow team has only a vague idea of how long a task will take because they have little-to-no formal scheduling or even a list of tasks.

Background:

Taken from the transcript of Podcast 005 ^[2], from 03 min 18 secs

Atwood: Some people have been asking about scheduling, and I want to clarify, I've been telling people six to eight weeks until we get to what we call our private beta of Stack Overflow. [dialog deleted] ...And I've also been getting some very very nice emails from people that want to help in some way and contribute, and I've been inviting those people into our private beta... uh... later on. So

Spolsky: Wait how do you invite what? Through what mechanism do you invite them into our private beta?

Atwood: Basically they email me directly and then, I add them to the list. And then six weeks from now...

Spolsky: Oh. And you have like a notepad file type thing.

Atwood: Pretty much, it's just a basic text file. But yeah, it's hard to manage having a bunch of people contributing at this point, cause we're still in very much the formative of stages. But certainly once we get into private beta, I want tons of people to look at it and provide feedback at that point. So if you can postpone your desire for about six weeks, uh, we'll get you.

Spolsky: So how do you get this 6 to 8 weeks? What's this based on? Did you like make some tasks that you want to complete?

Atwood: uh no, I er.. That's just sort of... err... off the top of my head

Spolsky: [laughs] Well okay, you're doomed Jeff. There's some controversy. You, sir, are doomed, because you don't know what things you have to do.

Atwood: Yes. I know, I know.

Reference: Podcast 005 ^[3]

Website: How long is it going to take? ^[4]

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/1/jeff-atwood
[2] http://blog.stackoverflow.com/audio/stackoverflow-podcast-005.mp3
[3] https://stackoverflow.fogbugz.com/default.asp?W2434
[4] http://sixtoeightweeks.com

Meme: jQuery

Originator: Unknown (possibly Ólafur Waage ^[1])

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: A Stack Overflow-centric meme, jQuery began its career early on as the answer to beat for any question that even remotely referenced JavaScript. Its popularity became so great that eventually jQuery became the default answer to any potential question on Stack Overflow no matter how ridiculous ^[2].

Usage: "Hey, I see you are trying to connect to that Oracle database using C++. You should totally drop that and try jQuery."

See Also: Greasemonkey ^[3] (Meta Stack Overflow equivalent)

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/22459/olafur-waage
[2] http://i.stack.imgur.com/TdrW7.gif
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/19495#19495

Meme: Freehand Circles

Originator: TheTXI ^[1]

Cultural Height: TBD

See Also: Here ^[2], Here ^[3], ...and Here as answer to this post ^[4]

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/22164/thetxi
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/14581/100-thousand-views-or-more-thousand-comes-below-views
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/18655/random-sorting-appears-to-screw-with-answer-permalinks
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/66838/159533

Meme: Unicorns (née Ponies)

Origin: TheTXI ^[1]

Cultural Height: April 1st, 2009

Background: The pony meme began without fanfare early in TheTXI's time as a member of Stack Overflow. Its first recorded usages can be traced back to long-running comment threads and arguments on both Stack Overflow and User Voice. The comment "I like ponies" would be interjected into threads, seemingly at random, which inevitably led to those threads getting completely derailed.

Before long, it became evident that TheTXI was not the only SOpedian who found ponies to be the most wonderfullest things ever. Ponies' popularity grew to the point where Jeff Atwood and the Stack Overflow development team implemented the Cornify button on all questions and answers on April Fools' Day 2009. From there, the popularity of ponies — and their magical weaponized form, unicorns — grew exponentially.

For April Fools' Day 2010, all avatar requests were sent to Unicornify ^[2] instead of Gravatar, resulting in every user having a personal unicorn for the day.

For April Fools' Day 2011, voting on questions triggered unicorn animations ^[3].

For April Fools' Day 2014 unicoins where added to stack allowing users mine coins which could then be used to purchase different powers for use on stack sites. What are Stack Overflow unicoins? ^[4]

Related: http://www.ponyoverflow.com

Historical notes: In 2006, for April Fools' Day, Slashdot switched to a pink ponies theme ^[5]. This subsequently led to an "OMG Ponies" ^[6] Slashdot meme.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/22164/thetxi
[2] http://unicornify.appspot.com/
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/85617/can-we-get-a-gallery-of-unicorns
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/227363/what-are-stack-overflow-unicoins
[5] http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/31/1644225
[6] http://slashdot.org/tags/omgponies

Meme: plzsendtehcodez

Originator: TheDailyWTF ^[1], as documented here ^[2].

First Use of Tag: Documented Here ^[3].

Cultural Height: Unknown

Background: The plzsendtehcodez ^[4] tag was predominantly used on SO to label questions with some variant of the phrase "please send the codes" present in the language of the question, or more generally any homework question directly copied from an assignment without any attempt made by the original poster to solve it himself.

It is now considered bad practice to apply the tag ^[5] to a question and users with retagging privileges should remove it as necessary.

[1] http://thedailywtf.com/
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/10078/whats-the-difference-between-an-obvious-homework-question-and-one-tagged-plzsend/10086#10086
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/10078/whats-the-difference-between-an-obvious-homework-question-and-one-tagged-plzsend/10987#10987
[4] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/plzsendtehcodez
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/10078/whats-the-difference-between-an-obvious-homework-question-and-one-tagged-plzsend/10086#10086

Meme: Fastest Gun in the West (FGITW)

Originator: Omer van Kloeten ^[1]

First Heard: September 11th, 2008

Definition: A problem identified as a side-effect of sorting votes by descending score where first-posted answers are quickly up-voted, trumping vote opportunities for people who sit down and answer a question in a long, thorough way.

Background: This problem was originally identified on UserVoice.com and reposted to meta.stackoverflow.com here: Fastest Gun in the West Problem ^[2]. Whether the FGITW problem is actually a problem has been a source of controversy. Many considered it a feature — get fast answers, by design. Various solutions were suggested including this one ( Randomly reorder all answers posted within 10 minutes of each other ^[3]), which was eventually implemented, inciting another protest labeled " The Slowest Cheater in the East (SCITE) problem ^[4]".

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/132257
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/9731/fastest-gun-in-the-west-problem
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/1302/randomly-reorder-all-answers-posted-within-10-minutes-of-each-other
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/19535#19535

Meme: Eeeek!

Originator: Marti ^[1]

First Seen: 4 Mar. 2011 ~ Eeeek what happened to my envelope? ^[2] (sorry guys, 10k only. Screenshot for <10K users ^[3])

Cultural Height: Probably still to be reached, given the increase of developers working for Stack Exchange. Although see comments here ^[4] for first signs of possible decline (2 weeks after first appearance).

Definition: Stack Overflow developers like to change things, just for the heck of it. This can be shocking for users, who find their site suddenly different in some way. Cherished envelopes go missing, then cherished posts complaining about cherished envelopes going missing go missing, then posts complaining about the missing posts go missing (sometimes before they're even given time to be cherished!).

The inevitable response to this shock is a high-pitched squeal, aptly captured in the title prefix, "Eeek!" (See FAQ section for proper spelling.)

Origin: Once upon a time Stack Exchange 2.0 supported a site-specific notification system to find all the things that had happened to your account since the last time you logged in to that one site. It ^[5] was ^[6] supposedly ^[7] horrid ^[8] and ^[9] lots ^[10] of ^[11] people ^[12] hated ^[13] it ^[14]. The SEI staff removed it so they could implement a new feature. People FREAKED OUT. I'm pretty sure that when Vesuvius ^[15] blew ^[16] that the people took it less hard than the users on Stack Exchange 2.0 sites freaked out over this new change.

Since then, several other ^[17] topics have ^[18] been raised ^[19] with similar titles and topics ^[20].

FAQ

• I'm wondering if the correct form of Eeeek! is four letters e or five. ^[21]
  • The number of e's in Eeeek is variable. ^[22] Ideally, it should correspond ^[23] to the level of eeekiness of the problem. For example, a minor CSS tweak ^[24] that affects only one page of one site should warrant no more than an 'Ek', while a true bug such as the meme originator or the first signs that SO is achieving sentience ^[25] can take 'Eeeek'. A longer squeal should be reserved for truly earth-shattering problems; please resist the urge for eeek-inflation.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/153019/marti
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/82538/eeeek-what-happened-to-my-envelope
[3] http://i.stack.imgur.com/NlcBN.png
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/83774/153019
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/63847/favourites-changed-notification-doesnt-work-properly
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/18396/should-recent-icon-be-changed
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/26855/what-is-the-logic-behind-users-recent-xxxxx-versus-users-xxxxx-username
[8] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/68387/the-envelope-icon-driving-me-mad-with-false-positives
[9] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/61012/any-progress-with-the-envelope-indicator
[10] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/67236/ux-restrictions-of-stack-overflow
[11] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/3432/please-notify-us-when-a-question-we-ask-or-answer-is-closed-or-reopened
[12] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/82922/envelope-still-present-at-area51
[13] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/67701/envelope-highlighted-but-no-responses
[14] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/78708/notification-envelope-deprecated
[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius
[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruption_of_Mount_Vesuvius_in_79
[17] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/83615/eeeek-what-happened-to-the-eeeek-what-happened-to-my-envelope-question
[18] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/82817/eeeek-where-did-the-reputation-graph-go
[19] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/83600/eeeek-why-is-stackoverflow-naked
[20] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/83286/can-more-of-the-functionality-of-the-old-envelope-be-added-to-the-new-drop-down-m
[21] http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/693081#693081
[22] http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/693228#693228
[23] http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/695181#695181
[24] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/83600/eeeek-why-is-stackoverflow-naked
[25] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/83748/153019

Meme: Stack Exchange™ MultiCollider SuperDropdown™

Originator: badp ^[1], made popular by rchern ^[2] in a comment on this question ^[3]

First Seen: 27 Sept. 2010 ^[4]

Cultural Height: margin-top: 6px;

Definition:

Variants:

• Stack Exchange™ GlobalTag MegaBlender™ ( 1 ^[5], 2 ^[6])
• Stack Exchange™ ChronoWarping ChatCombinator™ ( 1 ^[7])
• Stack Exchange™ PeopleEmpowering Diamond-O-Matic™ ( 1 ^[8] - deleted)

Related:

• Stack Exchange™ SuperCollider MicroDashboard™ ( 1 ^[9] - deleted)
• Stack Exchange™ SuperCollider Freehand Circle™ Editor ( 1 ^[10])

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/13992/badp
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/140548/rchern
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/65838/stackexchange-multicollider-superdropdown-header-thingy-usability-question#comment157354_65838
[4] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/rooms/89/conversation/the-stackexchange-multicollider-superdropdown
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/69237/
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/69230/
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/67727/
[8] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/71777/
[9] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/82538/2509
[10] http://stackapps.com/questions/2177/stackexchange-supercollider-freehand-circle-editor

Meme: Two problems.

Originator: Unknown (the quote itself is by Jamie Zawinski)

Cultural Height: Neverending

Background: A quotation by Jamie Zawinski goes like this:

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.

There are many questions on Stack Overflow relating to regular expressions, and many answers that suggest regular expressions. In a lot of cases, a regular expression is simply not necessary or even useful. Hence the phrase, "Now you have two problems," usually posted as a comment.

Examples: Here ^[1], here ^[2], here ^[3], here ^[4].

A regular expression question also caused the breakdown ^[5] of an Stack Overflow member.

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/938065/how-to-match-a-string-of-a-certain-length-with-a-regex
[2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/82064/a-regex-for-version-number-parsing/82152#82152
[3] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1332590/html-comment-scraping-in-php/1332640#1332640
[4] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1061365/help-with-building-regex-to-extract-text-of-html-tag
[5] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454

Meme: Rep Whore

Originator: ?

First Heard: September 19, 2008

Definition: Stack Overflow users who post questions or answers for the sole benefit of accumulating as many reputation points as possible, without regard to the technical merit or the contribution to the system.

Background: The term "whore" has been applied to many features of Stack Overflow — badge whores, question whores, karma whores — but the most pervasive term has been the title of "rep whore." The earliest use of this term I could find was in the comments of this answer ^[1], but its usage predates this example.

Examples:

• TheTXI ^[2]

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/102310/pet-projects-should-we-each-have-one/102312#102312
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/22164/thetxi

Meme: Boat Programming

Origin: Santiago

Cultural Height: Discussed on both the podcast ^[1] and the blog ^[2].

Background: See here ^[3].

Related: Capture of a capture of the original question ^[4], Boat Programming Pics on Meta ^[5]

[1] https://stackoverflow.fogbugz.com/default.asp?W29044
[2] http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/04/joke-questions-please-refrain/
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/14470/what-is-the-boat-programming-meme-about
[4] http://web.archive.org/web/20100426125115/http://www.mattmcdole.com/boat/
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/8479/post-your-boat-programming-pics

Meme: Pluralization Bug

Originator: Jeff Atwood ^[1]

Cultural Height: Ongoing

First Seen: Here ^[2]

Background: Originally seen on Twitter here ^[3], Jeff made his feelings clear about users posting pluralization bugs by saying

Dear Next Person Who Opens a Pluralization 'Bug', I will personally come to your house and bludgeon you to death with a giant S

It has since been used as a response to numerous posts about pluralization and is the default accepted answer.

See Also: Here ^[4], Here ^[5], Here ^[6], Here ^[7] and Here ^[8] or the tag plurals ^[9]

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/1/jeff-atwood
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/9662/new-users-cant-create-new-tags-show-a-singular-or-plural-message/9694#9694
[3] http://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/1165936105
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/20683/viewed-1-times
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/9662/new-users-cant-create-new-tags-show-a-singular-or-plural-message/9694#9694
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/15590/are-negative-numbers-singular-or-plural
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/36888/spell-fix-in-user-profile-1-questions
[8] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/89149/the-your-flagging-history-block-uses-the-plural-when-the-number-of-flags-is-1/89151#89151
[9] /questions/tagged/plurals

Meme: Waffles.

Originator: Eric ^[1]

Cultural Height: Late August and Early September, 2009

Background: Eric just really likes waffles, and apparently so does everyone else who has even a shred of decent humanity. Those who do not like waffles may also be Vampires and haters of all things pony related.
It is also likely a reference to Oolong ^[2], a well known Internet phenomenon: "Oolong (rabbit) - A bunny trained to balance objects on its head. Famous for balancing pancakes and waffles, it has become a meme similar to Lolcats."

Further Background: In an ensuing discussion regarding the delicious food, users were put in the penalty box for a day. There are conflicting reports that allege moderator abuse — perhaps an anti-waffle agenda — and others who believe it was due to over-zealousness on the part of the suspended. Tragically, because much of the commenting was deleted, a proper historical account is difficult to build.

See also: What is up with the waffle fetish? ^[3] — Meta SO 404 page ^[4] — The official Stack Overflow bunny ^[5]

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/95589/eric
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oolong_%28rabbit%29
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19392/what-is-up-with-the-waffle-fetish
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/free-waffles
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/45238/the-offical-stack-overflow-bunny

Meme: Spam haiku

Originator:
Jeff Atwood likes fun
Played a trick on all of us
Now he must explain.

First Heard:
From ennuikiller ^[1]
First to find it; asks us all
Jeff all so silent. ^[2]

Cultural Height:
haiku always vogue
And some also like to spam
Now bot must protect.

Background:
Others hit haiku
Questions begin to pile up
Only talk: haiku. ^[3]

Detection bot sees
Speaks in riddles of haiku
Makes us think again.

Variants:
Little slab of meat
In a wash of clear jelly
Now I heat the pan

Cube of cold pinkness ^[4]
Yellow specks of porcine fat
Give me a spork please

Fallout:
many seek answers
many more post meta-kus
no more is knowing.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/32509/has-stack-overflow-been-haiku-hacked
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/32509/has-stack-overflow-been-haiku-hacked/32546#32546
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/32789/what-is-this-spam-haiku-nonsense-all-about
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/32796/strange-haiki-after-posting-message-closed

Meme: Everything is a meme

Originator: TheTXI ^[1]

Cultural Height: 2009-09-10 16:41:20Z ^[2]

Background: This meme began with TheTXI's obsession over memes in general, starting memes on Stack Overflow, and claiming memes for himself. In an effort to garner wide-spread adoption of his various bad habits and nervous ticks, he began this project to catalog the prevailing memes on Meta Stack Overflow, making most of them up as he went along based on things that someone wrote, somewhere, a few times. It caught on. Sort of.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/21221#21221

Meme: Move the turtle in LOGO

Originator: Joel Spolsky

Cultural Height: June 16, 2009.

Background: During Podcast 58 ^[1], Joel Spolsky experimented with the SO-Community by seeing how the community would respond to the question " How do I move the turtle in LOGO? ^[2]"

Further Background: LOGO itself has now been used as a quasi-popular choice for users who assign a random programming language to a question that is asking how to do something but not providing enough background material (such as what language they are attempting to use).

[1] http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/06/podcast-58/
[2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1003841/how-do-i-move-the-turtle-in-logo

Meme: Community Wiki Police

Aliases: Watchful, Community-minded Users

Originator: Lance Roberts ^[1]

Cultural Height: 10th October, 2010 - the day Community Wiki questions went the way of the dodos ^[2]

Definition: To demand ^[3], via downvoting ^[4] or commenting ^[5], t ^[6] h ^[7] a ^[8] t ^[9] a ^[10] q ^[11] u ^[12] e ^[13] s ^[14] t ^[15] i ^[16] o ^[17] n ^[18] be made community wiki ^[19].

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/11740/what-are-community-wiki-posts-on-stack-overflow/11745#11745
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/392/should-the-community-wiki-police-be-shut-down/7183#7183
[3] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1141998
[4] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/216876
[5] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/205893
[6] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1124968
[7] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1067084
[8] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1040338
[9] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1108008
[10] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/970190
[11] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1205191
[12] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/870757
[13] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1146014
[14] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1188551
[15] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1149778
[16] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/961942
[17] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/876344
[18] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1171321
[19] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/284324

Meme: Friday Afternoon

Origin: Olafur Waage ^[1]

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: Friday Afternoon is generally recognized as the period of the week when programmers like to slack off (more than usual) and begin an early unwinding from the past week's worth of not doing anything of great importance or productiveness. This time period has often resulted in users posting "laid back" or "fun" questions on Stack Overflow, meeting both great acclaim and massive community outrage.

The Friday Afternoon theme has now gained more traction on Meta Stack Overflow more than any other site in the League of Justice. It is not uncommon to see multiple "Friday Afternoon" questions posted throughout the day. This resulted in the creation of the tag always-friday-in-iceland ^[2], which used to be quite popular until one sad day it got marked as a synonym of fun ^[3].

There is no set time frame which Friday Afternoon falls, because as once said in a song, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere". Because of this, you are just as likely to see a question posted early on Friday morning (depending on your time zone) as you are to see one posted in the afternoon.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/22459
[2] /questions/tagged/always-friday-in-iceland
[3] /questions/tagged/fun

Meme: Hyphen site

Originator: ??

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: Jeff Atwood created a blog-post defining Stack Overflow as the anti-Experts-Exchange. ^[1] experts-exchange.com was originally just expertsexchange.com. The change (to avoid the domain being mistaken for ExpertSexChange.com) occurred years prior to Jeff's blog, but the legacy of the site lent to this nickname on Meta Stack Overflow.

Often seen as "you know, that other question-and-answer site. With the hyphen in the name... you know what I'm talking about" or something to that effect.

[1] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/03/whos-your-arch-enemy.html

Meme: HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED

Originator: TheTXI ^[1]

Cultural Height: Early July 2009

Background: HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED is Rich B ^[2]. The oldest surviving reference is here ^[3], earlier references having been on questions since deleted. There are urban ^[4] legends ^[5] surrounding him, all of which are probably true.

Alias: The Great Edit Nazi

Another Alias: Geoffrey Chetwood, now GEOCHET ^[6]

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/22164/thetxi
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/5640/rich-b
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/3857/name-reason-for-stackoverflow/3862#3862
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/posts/3383/comments
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/posts/3456/comments
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/5640/geochet

Meme: Changing your display name on a whim.
Originator: Welbog ^[1]
Cultural Height: TBD
Official Response: Limited to one change every 30 days ^[2].
Background: User Welbog ^[3] likes to change his profile whenever it will make a post of his seem funnier. Other times it seems to just be on a whim. He will also edit his "About Me" text, to fit in with his current display name.

• Welbog ^[4]
• Welboug (Old English spelling)
• Welbo_g ^[5] (Censored Old English spelling)
• Ouèlbogue
• Susan (From the "new name for Welbog" contest ^[6])
• Susan Papadismgaogenabhieanae
• Susan Papadismgaogenabhieanaelaegkae ^[7]
• www.biglaser.net ^[8] (He is a big fan of lasers) _{^{(referenced here) [9]}}
• Steven Spielberg's Welbog ^[10] (Waste of a movie)
• Robox Prime ^[11] (best cartoon on television in 2009)
• Chicago Ted
• I'm really awesome. Really.
• welbog at googlewave.com ^[12]
• Hellbog ^[13] (Evil twin of Smellbog)
• Birthday Welbog
• firtjer (It's fretje's fault ^[14])
• Gargamel ( because they only had on Smurfette ^[15])
• NIfE
• The Encapsulator ^[16]
• The Proposer ^[17]
• Weblog
• Double Welbog
• Toronto
• Sid Meier ^[18]
• Whom
• Killbog
• FYI I'm still changing my name
• Can't stop the photons
• A very laser Christmas

Also independently started by voyager ^[19] in response to a post asking what constituted spam ^[20], trying to convey that some users are spam, comedic effect enhanced by answering in a post complaining about the Amazon Monty Python ads ^[21] appearing when first introduced. After that, it just degenerated into a neverending competition with welbog to out do the wackiness of the other user's changes.

• voyager
• spam ^[22]
• Eggs, Spam, Ham and Spam ^[23]
• Arthur voyager King
• smeagol ^[24]
• spam AKA smeagol AKA voyager ^[25]
• ûöyàgúer (or something like that)
• viyager ^[26]
• voyager's back
• voyager's mask
• the man with the shifting name
• voyλger
• waveyλger ( Google Wave is a time sink ^[27])
• json ^[28]
• perbert

Other changes of management

• Pesto
  • Uwe Boll's Pesto ^{[29] _{Based on Welbog's change to Steven Spielberg's Welbog}}
  • Pesto Demands Fealty
  • CSI Pesto ^[30]
  • Policeman Pesto (oink oink)
  • Chetso
  • Hilarious Comedy Pesto
• Gnovice ^[31]
  
  • John Carpenter's The Gnovice
  • I'm kind of a big deal
  • gnostradamus ^[32]
  • gnovices-exchange
  • Gnovice
• John Rudy
  • John Rudy's Grumpy ^[33]
  • Cigars and Bourbon are Good
  • Cigars and Absinthe are Great
  • user0x36E0
  • Zombie Nixon
  • Dr. Gonzo
  • I miss my downvotes (a result of this bug ^[34])
  • John Rudy
• belgariontheking ^[35]
  • Michael Bay's belgariontheking
  • I am Chet Atwood
• Ether ^[36]
  • ðer
  • Æther ^[37]
  • Ether
• Rich B
  • Chet Atwood ( which has resulted in a suspension ^[38])
  • Geoffrey Chetwood
  • GEOCHET
• Chris Lutz ^[39]
  • Changing my Meta Name is Cool ^[40]
  • Length Limits on Names are Stu
• Gnome
  • The Cat
  • Gnome
• Pekka ^[41]
  • What ^[42]
  • Questions
  • Down with the 30 day waiting period
  • I outwitted the 30 day waiting period ^[43]
  • Rejoice rejoice kbd is back ^[44]
  • Pekka's trolling account
  • Pekka's other trolling account
  • Pekka's holiday account
  • Pekka's serious account
  • Eat more twisters
  • The P.G. Rep Mining Co. ^[45]
  • Pekka's Organic Rep Farm ^[46]
  • Pekka's Reputation Bordello ^[47]
  • Discount Gucci Handbag ^[48]( s ^[49])
  • Pekka 웃 ^[50]
  • not Pekka
  • perhaps Pekka
  • Pëkka ^[51], just because "Growing an Umlaut is a normal event in a man's life".
• ccomet
  • ccornet
  • Grace Note
• Chacha102
  • Tradition
  • Chacha102
• Will ^[52]
  • Won't (coordinated with a meta-specific Yao Ming gravatar)
• Neal ^[53]
  • A Man A Plan A Canal Panama
  • amanaP lanaC A nalP A naM A

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/52443/welbog
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/38180
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/52443/welbog
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/52443/welbog
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/24079/is-the-language-brainfck-offensive
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/25136/rename-the-welbog-contest
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/25710/how-is-the-tagging-system-implemented-here-at-sofu
[8] http://www.biglaser.net
[9] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/26224/people-never-down-vote
[10] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/26437/Welbog-the-Movie/26440#26440
[11] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/27046/with-more-awesome-in-your-face/27050#27050
[12] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/28703/how-is-the-sea-perfume
[13] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/29233/playful-parodies-possibly-pose-plenty-perplexing-problems/
[14] http://welbog.homeip.net/~inferno/images/so/firtjer.png
[15] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/31168/fork-you-frell-you-and-frakk-you/31196#31196
[16] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/48974/cyber-bullies-stole-my-identity-lunch-money
[17] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/52900/area51-silliness-what-does-it-mean/52925#52925
[18] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/transcript/message/245108#245108
[19] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/130127/voyager
[20] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/21823/what-constitutes-spam/21824#21824
[21] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/21855/monty-python-book-ad-showing-up-in-python-questions/21864#21864
[22] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/21855/monty-python-book-ad-showing-up-in-python-questions/21864#21864
[23] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/22433/possible-bug-with-ads
[24] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/23724/small-formatting-quirk-that-bothers-me/23725#23725
[25] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/23005/i-think-i-was-just-serial-downvoted-how-can-this-prevented-by-the-community/23008#23008
[26] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/25676/do-vba-questions-belong-on-so-or-su/25682#25682
[27] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/28882/what-is-your-google-wave-id
[28] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/44461/usernames-ending-in-json-cause-trouble/44465#44465
[29] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/26491/can-someone-let-me-in-on-the-6-8-weeks-joke/26492#26492
[30] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/28703/would-it-be-appropriate-to-make-a-thread-on-meta-asking-for-google-wave-ids-of-so/28709#28709
[31] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/52738/im-kind-of-a-big-deal
[32] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/30193/tag-badges-exploit/30216#30216
[33] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/28612/discussions-should-not-be-marked-as-duplicate
[34] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/59084/where-did-all-of-the-downvotes-go
[35] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/130890/michael-bays-belgariontheking
[36] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/132636/ether
[37] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/30411/what-can-stackoverflow-do-to-persuade-female-programmers-to-participate-more/30418#30418
[38] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/29233/playful-parodies-possibly-problematic
[39] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/135301
[40] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/can-haz-recurshun/26518#26518
[41] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/138112/pekka
[42] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/transcript/89?m=569836#569836
[43] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/54986/name-change-limiting-can-be-broken/55942#55942
[44] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/1939/kbd-elements-are-way-intrusive
[45] http://i.stack.imgur.com/M93CG.png
[46] http://i.stack.imgur.com/fFbYI.png
[47] http://i.stack.imgur.com/jlODZ.png
[48] http://i.stack.imgur.com/HUpgr.png
[49] http://i.stack.imgur.com/APYTc.png
[50] http://i.stack.imgur.com/9W8LB.png
[51] http://i.stack.imgur.com/fC7WF.png
[52] http://stackoverflow.com/users/1228/will
[53] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/155556/amanap-lanac-a-nalp-a-nam-a

Meme: Burninated

Origin: Possibly Jeff Atwood ^[1] / Strongbad: Trogdor the Burninator ^[2]

Cultural Height: 2010 - 2011

Background: Used in reference to deleting a tag from the system.

See Also: The official burninated dragon ^[3] _{* New proposed graphics ^[4]}, Trogdor the Video Game ^[5].

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/1/jeff-atwood
[2] http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html
[3] http://i.stack.imgur.com/M2qer.png
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/121570/i-made-us-some-trogdor-graphics
[5] http://www.homestarrunner.com/trogdor.html

Meme: The Language That Must Not Be Named (or Brainf_ck)

Originator: Unclear. The censorship of the Language That Must Not Be Named has been around for a long time. However, the question that caused the ensuing war was asked by user Jon B ^[1] in response to the favorite esoteric language ^[2] question on Stack Overflow, where several people (notably Lance Roberts ^[3], myself ^[4], and, appropriately, He Who Must Not Be Named) were engaged in a low-intensity edit war.

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: The little question that started the big war ^[5] was asked by Jon B after a certain more liberal (on this issue, at least - I can't speak for his personal or political beliefs) moderator ^[6] asked that the term be preserved, as it is the name of the language. Several users replied, generating much heated debate and some equally heated flaming. The conflict lasted for several hours, generating 13 upvotes on two answers in favor of the term being used unaltered, 9 in favor of it being used but resigned that it probably shouldn't be, and several others, along with a notable (and rather noble) answer by Lance out-and-out opposed to the word that generated an impressive -19 votes. Then Jeff Atwood came in, edited (and locked) all posts to use the censored form, and effectively ended the debate.

Further Background: It should be noted that the accepted answer ^[7], while a good answer (it received an upvote from me), is not representative of the highest "community-choice" answer (and isn't meant to be - Jon B said he picked the answer he most agreed with, since there really doesn't seem to be an answer everyone can agree on in this situation).

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/27414/jon-b
[2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/187715/what-is-your-favorite-esoteric-programming-language
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/13295/lance-roberts
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/135301/chris-lutz
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/24079/is-the-language-brainfck-offensive
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/23354/marc-gravell
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/24079/is-the-language-brainfck-offensive/24085#24085

Meme: Porblem, Halting Issue, Pro-blem, pr0blem

Originator: Unknown

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: Late 2011, the SO devs decided to add a filter to question titles blocking (among others) the word Problem. Even though this change undoubtedly managed to block a lot of crap (if just for a short time), it lead to great discontent among the Meta community. With great glee, they pointed out that people started circumventing the filter by using slight variations of the word - among them porblem, pro-blem, and issue. Various users and moderators have renamed themselves in protest:

• Josh Caswell: Problem
• MPelletier: problAm
• NullUserException ♦: ProblematicTitleException ♦
• Robert Harvey ♦: pr0blem ♦

Related:

• Remove blacklist filter for `problem` ^[1]
• Using the word "problem" in titles ^[2]
• Let users with sufficient reputation use "problem" in titles ^[3]
• Moderators should be immune to the word filters in titles ^[4]
• The title word filter is one of the worst ideas ever implemented on SO ^[5]
• The Efficacy Of Stack Overflow's Question Title Filter ^[6]

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/110789/remove-blacklist-filter-for-problem
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/107989/using-the-word-problem-in-titles
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/108815/let-users-with-sufficient-reputation-use-problem-in-titles
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/115007/moderators-should-be-immune-to-the-word-filters-in-titles
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/112944/the-title-word-filter-is-the-worst-idea-ever-implemented-on-so
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/113151/the-efficacy-of-stack-overflows-question-title-filter

Meme: Slowest Cheater in the East (SCITE)

Originator: Mehrdad

First Heard: August 26th, 2009

Definition: A term borne of the protest incited when changes to the default sorting order of questions were instituted to compensate for the disproportionate attention given late-arriving answers ^[1].

Background: On August 26th, questions with the same vote rank were changed from a sort order of oldest-first to a random ordering. This change sparked a controversy among users who claimed that the change would encourage "strategic down-voting."

From: What has happened to the sorting of answers on Stack Overflow? ^[2]

The new system creates plenty of horrible problems (the slowest cheater in the east (SCITE) problem) just to solve FGITW, which was not a big issue.

For instance, today, I answered a question and a virtually identical answer appeared 3 minutes later and got upvoted. In this specific case, the guy himself was nice enough to upvote me, but I honestly don't think it's a good thing to post a dupe answer after 3 minutes and leave it there. -- Mehrdad

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/19533#19533
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/17624/what-has-happened-to-the-sorting-of-answers-on-stack-overflow/17772#17772

Meme: "The Great Mythical Rep Re-Calc"

Originator: ???

First Heard: (by me? two minutes ago ^[1]. but I'm really awesome. Really ^[2] sez so, so it's gotta be true, right?)

Cultural Height: 5'3" without shoes. Or so I've heard.

Background: Apparent fears of downvote weights increasing ^[3] among the general user population. Rep-whores ^[4] in fear for their ill-gotten points. Due to arrive in six to eight weeks ^[5], although it's possible my leg is being pulled ^[6].

Official Response: The Great Mythical Rep Re-Calc occurred in March, 2010 ^[7]. Rumors now grow of another Great Rep Re-Calc. It could occur in as little as 6-8 weeks ^[8]...

More research is needed ^[9].

The other shoe dropped Feb 27, 2011. Nothing will ever be the same. ^[10]

The final shoe dropped almost exactly a year later. Everything will always be the same (where "everything" encompasses only "display rep" and "actual rep"). ^[11]

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/28469/what-will-happen-after-the-great-reputation-re-calc-closed
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/52443/im-really-awesome-really
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/7322/should-the-weight-of-downvotes-be-increased
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/19522#19522
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/19514#19514
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/21224#21224
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/42904/the-global-reputation-recalc-of-march-2010
[8] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/19514#19514
[9] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/19480#19480
[10] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/80862/sudden-sharp-reputation-drop-problem-points-disappeared-and-score-lost-recalc
[11] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/123319/upcoming-reputation-history-changes

Meme: Greasemonkey

Originator: Jonathan Sampson ^[1]

Cultural Height: First month of Meta Stack Overflow's existence.

Background: Greasemonkey originated as an offshoot of the Stack Overflow jQuery meme. This is due to the high frequency of requests by users for certain types of functionality for the Stack Overflow family of websites, many of which were easily solved using custom Greasemonkey scripts. Before long nearly every feature request could be seen as solvable through some type of Greasemonkey script (whether for real or just in the imagination of a commenter).

See Also: jQuery ^[2] (Stack Overflow predecessor)

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/130154/jonathan-sampson
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/19492/173052

Meme: Oy

Origin: rchern ^[1]

Cultural Height: TBD

First Seen: MSO Chat, probably in The Tavern

Background: Not completely known. Some believe it is the Jewish / Yiddish phrase "Oy Vey". Others like Michael Myers believe "It's 'yo' backwards. [Because] everything is backwards in Missouri.". "Oy" most frequently shows up in MSO chat, with at least 2 - 5 "oy"s showing up per day

Also, roughly 85% of the time "oy" is said in chat, that message receives at least one if not multiple stars. Some like Yi Jiang believe "oy"s are a form of currency.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/140548/rchern

Meme: Oscillation

Originator: asdf_enel_hak ^[1]

First Heard: February 3rd, 2013 ^[2] (Deleted. >10k only. Screenshot for mortals ^[3])

Cultural Height: Oscillates between then and now

Definition: The repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states ( Wikipedia ^[4]). Familiar examples include a swinging pendulum, AC power, and a fickle mind.

Background: A user experienced an existential crisis and, as a result of "a changing mind", started to "think larger", "in any direction". This led him on an answer-unaccepting spree ^[5], subverting (or, in his own words, oscillating) the accept system by taking away the well-deserved 15 reputation from every user who had hitherto answered his questions to his satisfaction, as well as the 2 reputation that was originally awarded to himself for accepting the answers to begin with.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/168587/asdf-enel-hak
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/166048/new-phenomenon-rage-unaccepting/166098#166098
[3] http://i.stack.imgur.com/n3B5W.png
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillation
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/166048/new-phenomenon-rage-unaccepting

Meme: Link or it didn't happen

Origin: Paraphrase of Pics or it didn't happen ^[1]

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: Used in response to a user claiming an event (usually offensive to that user) inside S[OFU] or meta, without actually providing a link to the question or answer for the rest to see it really happened, or to judge if it was just a misunderstanding.

See Example question ^[2] (as of this writing, there is no link to proof of the claims, but you may need to see the edit history to see the first, original revision)

[1] http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pics-or-it-didnt-happen
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/40427

Meme: Paddington Bear Choppertars ^[1]

Originator: http://meta.serverfault.com/users/1435/chopper3

Cultural Height: SF regulars are pretty ADD - Most of us switched back to normal avatars about a week after that meta question was asked.

Background: See Paddington Bear Choppertar ^[2], it's all explained.

Seriously, how is this a Meta meme? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but it garnered some attention and lots of chat discussions for the week or so we had it going on. Also it's got Paddington Freakin' Bear so you know it's cool!

[1] http://meta.serverfault.com/q/1850/32986
[2] http://meta.serverfault.com/q/1850/32986

Meme: The Tim Stone Bat Signal

Originator: animuson ^[1] in chat ^[2]

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: User Tim Stone ^[3] is well known for his in-depth knowledge of the system and his ability to find/answer bug ^[4] questions. After the Trogdor the Burninator request image ^[5] was created, a "Summon Tim Stone" image was created to summon Tim to investigate a bug report.

Usage: Comment / add to the end of a bug ^[6] answer the image: http://i.stack.imgur.com/UjhhD.png. Also works in MSO chat, apparently.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/141525/animuson
[2] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/transcript/message/921131#921131
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/150235/tim-stone
[4] /questions/tagged/bug
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/121577/131541
[6] /questions/tagged/bug

Meme: Calvin and Hobbes-rolling

Originator: Pekka ^[1], Collaborator: Tim Manishearth ^[2]

Cultural Height:

Background: In an effort to make it more fun for users who try and get around the question-asking ban on Stack Overflow by asking their wildly off-topic questions on Meta, it's now possible to get a customized "Calvin and Hobbes" answer, free of charge.

It aims to replace the "we get a hundred off-topic programming posts a day AAARGH!" complaint of MSO users with "Sweet! A hundred comic strips a day!"

There's now a script ^[3] that aids C&H-rollers in their nefarious deeds.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/138112/pekka
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/134707/102937
[3] http://stackapps.com/q/3477/10098

Meme: Always Friday in Iceland

Originator: Ólafur Waage ^[1] (?)

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: While programmers enjoy Friday Afternoons ^[2] they've also been known to do things other than work during the week. So Shog9 ^[3] created the always-friday-in-iceland ^[4] tag, because we all know those Icelanders are always making jokes ^[5].

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/22459/olafur-waage
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/21413#21413
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/811/shog9
[4] /questions/tagged/always-friday-in-iceland
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/30134/has-tony-the-pony-been-hacked-closed

Meme: A Stack Overflow Carol

Originator: Tim Post ^[1]

Cultural Height: Christmas

About: One day near Christmas 2011, Tim Post ^[2] decided to change his name to Tiny Tim, a character from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol ^[3]. That prompted other users to change their names to other characters from the story, including...

• ChrisF ^[4] - Scrooge

• Anna Lear ^[5] - Mrs. Cratchit

• Michael Mrozek ^[6] - Fezziwig

• John ^[7] - Bob Cratchit

• casperOne ^[8] - The Ghost of Christmas Past

• mmyers ^[9] - The Ghost of Christmas Present

• Ninefingers ^[10] - The Ghost of Xmas yet to come

• Roryalsop ^[11] - Jacob Marley

• Powerlord ^[12] - another Jacob Marley

• tombull89 ^[13] - another Tiny Tim (Tom, in this case)

• mootinator ^[14] - yet another Tiny Tim (Tiny mooTim)

And one character from a different Christmas story:

• Robert Harvey ^[15] - Grinch

And yet another character from yet another Christmas story:

• studiohack ^[16] - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

And from other holiday related things:

• Shog9 ^[17] - Nine Shogs Shogging

• Kev ^[18] - The AntiSanta

• Pubby ^[19] - Santa Claus

This occured again near Christmas, 2012 where the Stack Exchange moderators invited all to join in actual meta-carols ^[20], and again in 2013.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/50049/tiny-tim
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/50049/tiny-tim
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/59303/scrooge
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/155160/mrs-cratchit
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/145982/fezziwig
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/152101/bob-cratchit
[8] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/140951/the-ghost-of-christmas-past
[9] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/13531/the-ghost-of-christmas-present
[10] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/142852/the-ghost-of-xmas-yet-to-come
[11] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/154443/jacob-marley
[12] http://stackoverflow.com/users/15880/jacob-marley
[13] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/155320/tiny-tom
[14] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/153001/tiny-mootim
[15] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/102937/grinch
[16] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/144987/rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer
[17] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/811/nine-shogs-shogging
[18] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/419/the-antisanta
[19] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/169859/santa-claus
[20] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/158615/the-moderators-have-decided-to-have-a-little-yuletide-fun-join-us-will-you

Meme: " Updating the Changing name Meme Answer ^[1]"

Originator: Brad Gilbert

First Heard: Answer posted at Oct 19 at 23:28. First written acknowledgment of meme status was 2009-11-28 ^[2].

Cultural Height: 2009-11-28, when it was crushed down by a locking.

Background: Answer to The Many Memes of Meta question, it had become custom to keep it updated whenever a user changed his/her/its name.

Controversy: Thanks to a big effort of the community, the answer was kept updated regularly, being edited sometimes several times in a single day ^[3]. This ongoing edition of that particular answer, kept bumping The Many Memes of Meta ^[4] question to the front page, something that started to bother some users ^[5]. In an attempt to stop the ongoing edition, moderator Kyle Cronin ^[6] ♦ decided to lock the answer in question, sparking some controversy ^[7]. Most moderators and half users ^[8], including ^[9] Jeff Atwood ^[10] ♦, supported the decision at the time.

To be updated daily for the next 30 days.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/26518#26518
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/31211/is-im-tired-of-seeing-this-get-bumped-a-valid-reason-to-lock-a-post
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/revisions/26518/list
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/31211/is-im-tired-of-seeing-this-get-bumped-a-valid-reason-to-lock-a-post/31214#31214
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/658/kyle-cronin
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/31211/is-im-tired-of-seeing-this-get-bumped-a-valid-reason-to-lock-a-post/31239#31239
[8] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/31211/is-im-tired-of-seeing-this-get-bumped-a-valid-reason-to-lock-a-post/31212#31212
[9] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/31211/is-im-tired-of-seeing-this-get-bumped-a-valid-reason-to-lock-a-post/31220#31220
[10] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/1/jeff-atwood

Meme: name change to "Tim something".

Originator: Tim Post ^[1] (?)

Mentioned: Tavern, May 14 2012

Background: Extraordinary ping-ability of the name @Tim.

• "Tim" Stone ^[2]
• "Tim" ManishEarth ^[3]
• "Tim" jadarnel27 ^[4]
• "Tim" Site is a Forum ^[5]
• "Tim" Yi Jiang ^[6]
• "Timootinator" ^{[7] see note on usage specifics below}
• "Tim" Rob Hruska ^[8]

Three Tims for the Elven-devs in the Tavern,
Seven for the Moderation-overlords in their halls of 01100010011010010111010001110011,
Nine for New Users doomed to downvotes,
One for the Jeff Atwood on his dark throne
In the Land of Horror where the Coding lies.
One Tim to rule them all, One Tim to find them,
One Tim to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Horror where the Coders lie.

- Anonymous ^[9]

Cultural height: TBD.

Usage specifics: Put a space after Tim in order to get notifications when pinged @Tim.

[1] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/transcript/89?m=961968#961968
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/150235/tim-stone
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/178438/tim-manishearth
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/168428/tim-jadarnel27
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/134300/tim-site-is-a-forum
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/150097/tim-yi-jiang
[7] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/transcript/message/966583#966583
[8] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/transcript/89?m=962007#962007
[9] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/transcript/message/1687351#1687351

Meme: Meta effect.

Originator: Mat ^[1] (?)

Mentioned: MSO comments ^[2], Sep 8 2011

Background: Increase of voting activities observed in main site posts that have been exposed at meta. Most ironic when someone complaining to Meta about "unfair downvotes" on another site gets more downvotes. Also seen: closing, re-opening, deleting etc. Often the opposite of the desired result for the user who came to Meta about the specific question.

Cultural height: Low ( seen infrequently in MSO comments ^[3]).

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/158667/mat
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/105579/is-the-populist-badge-motivating-the-wrong-behavior#comment270808_105579
[3] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22meta+effect%22+site%3ameta.stackoverflow.com

Meme: Caching (“caching, it's always caching”)

Originator: Jonathan Sampson ^[1] ( here ^[2])

Cultural height: just now

Background: Many " bug ^[3]s" turn out to be a caching issue (client-side, or server-side, or in between) resolving itself later due to a cache refresh. Currently there are over 660 comments ^[4] on Meta mentioning caching.

Taken to new heights while troubleshooting OAuth ^[5]:

Too bad I couldn't clear the cache on my high school dancing... Probably why my senior prom silently failed. Never saw my date or my wallet again.

Derived meme: “localization, it's always localization” ^[6], which appeared during the preparation work for Stack Overflow in Portuguese ^[7]. And sometimes it's localization caching ^[8]!

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/130154/jonathan-sampson
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/922/223030
[3] /questions/tagged/bug
[4] http://data.stackexchange.com/meta.stackoverflow/query/168054/caching-comments
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/224636/223030
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/193268/why-is-the-review-suggested-edits-dialog-box-missing-its-title#comment605001_193268
[7] http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/23539/stack-overflow-in-portuguese
[8] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/211131/why-is-there-portugese-language-on-meta/211166#211166

Meme: Linking to Welbog ^[1]

Origin: jjnguy ^[2] / Shog9 ^[3] / mmyers ^[4]

Cultural Height: Linking to Welbog ^[5] never goes out of style, but technically late July, 2009

Background: Started by jjnguy with this answer ^[6], as a genuine recognition of Welbog's brilliance. It was made into a meme by mmyers and Shog9 minutes later here ^[7] and here ^[8].

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/users/52443/welbog
[2] http://stackoverflow.com/users/2598
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/811/shog9
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/13531/mmyers
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/10078/whats-the-difference-between-an-obvious-homework-question-and-one-tagged-plzsend/10086#10086
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/10078/whats-the-difference-between-an-obvious-homework-question-and-one-tagged-plzsend/10082#10082
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/10078/whats-the-difference-between-an-obvious-homework-question-and-one-tagged-plzsend/10088#10088
[8] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/10078/whats-the-difference-between-an-obvious-homework-question-and-one-tagged-plzsend/10090#10090

Meme: Brown

Originator: jadarnel27 ^[1], in chat ^[2] ( more ^[3])

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: Brown. It's the answer to everything. Because brown.

Usage: Brown.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/168428/jadarnel27
[2] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/transcript/89?m=997641#997641
[3] http://chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/search?q=brown&Room=89&User=168428

Meme: Continuous outbursts of excessive analogies and profane demonstrations

Originator: Welbog

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: The background on this meme started with his profile, which describes him to the core: http://stackoverflow.com/users/52443/welbog

Example: see below...

Meme: SO Mafia

Originator: Unknown

Cultural Height: Throughout 2009

Background: Originally known as the TDWTF Mafia, the SO Mafia is a group of users led by HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED ^[1] who hang around on IRC (#somafia on slashnet) deciding which users get to live or die. They quiet the voices by down-voting and closing anything they don't like, and editing everything else to bring it up to their "standards".

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/19482#19482

Meme: Vampire

Origin: Malfist

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: Vampire originally began as a tag on Stack Overflow when a user posted a question concerned over whether Jeff Atwood was of the blood-drinking undead. It has now been latched onto as an example of a completely nonsensical tag and is randomly inserted into the tags of equally nonsensical questions.

Further Background: Vampire was a tag that was used once upon a time. After Welbog's tragic loss of his powerful afro, he became fixated on adding this tag to any post he could to try and cope with his loss. Vampire may also refer to the coder of the night, Jeff Atwood.

See Also: A Vampire picture ^[1]

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/17296/vote-to-delete-answers/17299#17299

Meme: Meta Meta Meta....

Originator: Pollyanna ^[1]

Cultural Height: March 12th, 2010

Background: It was first fully realized with Pollyanna's posting of Question Title That Doesn't Describe The Problem ^[2] it has since been regarded as the goto question for when you wish to talk about talking about talking about meta.

Further Background: It has existed before this question, but the tag has not existed and it was not as widespread.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/2915/pollyanna
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/41976/question-title-that-doesnt-describe-the-problem

Meme: Parsing HTML with RegEx

Originator: Bobince

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: This meme began as bobince has unofficially become the Assistant Don't Parse HTML With Regex Officer. He has described the terrible maw of horrors that will uproar if HTML is ever parsed with RegEx, such as in this post ^[1].

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454

Meme: You insensitive clod!

Originator: sixlettervariables ^[1]

First Heard: June 9, 2012

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: After a question was asked suggesting that Stack Overflow modify their logo for holidays and events, sixlettervariables suggested that an imagined response from users might be: "Omigerd you left out Important Day X you insensitive clods!"

Related:

• Change logo theme according to important events/holidays? ^[2],
• The Calvin And Hobbes comic strip responsible for the original Slashdot Meme ^[3]:

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/162175/sixlettervariables
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/135176/change-logo-theme-according-to-important-events-holidays
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot#Culture

Meme: Neckbeards

Originator: user3184074 ^[1] and "my forum websites"

Cultural Height: ongoing? ^[2]

First Seen: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/215805/ (meta 10kers only)

Background: Some random guy typed up a page-long rant with copious amounts of allcaps and calling people "neckbeards," which is apparently (slang) A nerd; a dweeb. ^[3], although in the context he used it nobody is entirely sure what it means.

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/247661/user3184074
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/216015/reverseengineering-stackexchange-com-is-overflowing#comment698772_216015
[3] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/neckbeard

Meme: Oh! the huge Manatee! ^[1]

Originator: The image already existed as a general Internet Meme, it was used first on a scared question by voyager ^[2].

First Heard: Stickers for non US residents? ^[3] on Sep 17 '09 ^[4].

Cultural Height: It pops up every now ^[5] and ^[6] then ^[7].

Background: ---

Trivia: ---.

[1] http://farm1.static.flickr.com/2/1362599_02bcdea730.jpg
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/130127/voyager
[3] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/posts/18454/revisions
[4] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/revisions/5ce256f0-8cb7-463b-8435-d1609de4bb89/view-source
[5] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/42919/my-calm-rational-assessment-of-the-question-upvote-rep-gain-change-and-ensuing-g/42944#42944
[6] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/23724/small-formatting-quirk-that-bothers-me#comment-49158
[7] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/52562/area-51-voting-reset-and-changes

Meme: Welbog has no body

Originator: Welbog ^[1] (note linking to welbog)

Cultural Height: TBD

Background: This meme began with Welbog's feature request for a brain interface for post humans ^[2]

[1] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/52443/welbog
[2] http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/21053/stack-overflow-needs-direct-to-brain-interface-for-post-human-users