Talk:Forum fads and in-jokes

Separate pages
Do these actually need separate pages for explanation? If it can be explained in a few sentences, I'd suggest not linking the term. --Guppymomma 14:20, 13 August 2005 (PDT)
 * I guess some of them don't need a separate page, but there are some that have a vast history or fan following behind them. Those might need their own page, but the others can be unlinked.--Zyborg22 14:25, 13 August 2005 (PDT)

O rly
From the "O rly" section of this page:


 * o rly is also considered the most harsh response to a post. A "Double Dog Dare" if you would imagine.

I actually had to look up what a "Double Dog Dare" is, and while I found quite informative articles on the subject, I don't see how my imagination would assist me in understanding how a "O rly" would result in a dare. I guess this is just a figure of speech I'm not familiar with. Can someone come up with another way of describing this? --Jerub 2005-08-16T09:22:16+1000


 * Fixed. ;-)  --Barrister 17:12, 15 August 2005 (PDT)


 * Since "o rly" is here, should we add "zomg", "1337", "lol", etc? This is a really stupid thing to appear on a YPP forum fads page. I'd delete the section but I have a feeling it would return. Let it be known, however, that this is just stupid. --Adramolek 22:42, 1 March 2007 (PST)

Have these owls been used on Y!PP forums? Or is it something that have been used on other forums? --Kinocha 17:59, 23 July 2006 (PDT)
 * I've never seen them used on the YPP forums, this doesn't seem to be part of the forum fad to me. Darkaardvark 18:01, 23 July 2006 (PDT)
 * Reverted. --Barrister 22:04, 23 July 2006 (PDT)

Forum links
Can I ask why the links to original threads I had added were removed? Is there a reason I shouldn't put in threads? Nice to know for next time :) --Lizzie 19:05, 15 August 2005 (PDT)


 * They're still there. However, I have changed them to footnotes (to save space and because I like footnotes). If there's a reason you think that they should be normal links instead of footnotes, then feel free to change them back.--Zyborg22 19:08, 15 August 2005 (PDT)


 * I agree with the footnoting. Much easier to read, but yes to Lizzy, the reference is important, and rather useful. I'd like to see more, but my Faulkstoning isn't working just now.  19:21, 15 August 2005 (PDT)


 * Oh wow, I'm completely blind. I didn't see the footnotes. That's a great idea :) How would I do that? --Lizzie 19:21, 15 August 2005 (PDT)


 * Template talk:fn has directions :) --Guppymomma 19:26, 15 August 2005 (PDT)

More stuff?
Didn't we have something like Rusty Bloody Spikes (tm) too? I seem to recall something like that when I first joined the forum. Now knowledgeable enough to write about it, through. --VPeric 03:31, 17 August 2005 (PDT)
 * I'm pretty sure there was something like that, but I don't really know enough about it to write anything on it. Speaking of that, would "Seal of Approval", "Ur Mom!", Forum Shot, Highly Uncalled For (Warning: seizure-inducing pics above and below the linked post) and "Can I Gun" count as fads?--Zyborg22 08:37, 18 August 2005 (PDT)
 * Rusty Bloody Spikes (tm) was used a long time ago, Beta testing and early '04. All else I know is that Homullus started it, I believe.

What about 'wat?' Sort of goes along with 'O rly?' but it's not mentioned here. Should it be? --Feegle 13:32, 25 August 2005 (PDT)
 * I think "wat?" should go in the "O rly?" section, since they are very similar. Then again, I guess you could say the same thing about "I heartily endorse..." and "Seal of Approval".--Zyborg22 16:26, 30 August 2005 (PDT)
 * Wasn't there a mini fad over the cheap avatars that Stevedave made for a while? And is it worth having a note about the now frowned upon use of Booched! And the subsequent removal of its use via the community. Featherfin
 * I remember Stevedave's avatars. I think I still have mine.  I think it counted as a fad: the thread was 20 or so pages and he made an avatar for almost every single forum "regular"

I'm clearly missing something with 'gunwhales,' as used here, but I don't know if it's an in-joke or merely people not knowing what gunwhales are. --Feegle 13:54, 31 August 2005 (PDT)
 * The gunwhale used on the forums is different than a real-life gunwhale. I haven't seen the version of the gunwhale used on the forums anywhere else, so it could probably count as an in-joke. While I'm here, would Piplicus's Post of the Day, the "Social Puzzle", "Search-Fu" and "Ramirojr is the essence of the forums" count as in-jokes?--Zyborg22

The "gunwale" (RL) is basically the wood board on the ship that keeps the guns on the ship. The "gunwhale" (game) refers to a mythical beast with guns coming out of its body; the first reference on the forum was (as I recall) from a typo that got carried away with sillyness, and now lives on.

Alas, I was not able to get a ship renamed to "Unloaded Gunwhale" when I tried. :-)

Grape shot and chain shot are listed under Commonly Discussed Ideas, and forum shot is included as a forum fad/injoke. What about the lowly paint shot? Is it significant enough to be included? If it is added, where should it go? - Japin

Booched!
As an avid boocher, I need to think of some way of rewording the bit about links not being provided. :( --AtteSmythe 13:48, 17 August 2005 (PDT), a sad panda

I Heartily Endorse...
This fad was recently used in this post, but the wiki has it listed as a retired fad. Would that one post pull the fad out of retirement, or does it take more to do that? Furthermore, should the "Seal of Approval" fad should be combined with the "I Heartily Endorse..." fad or should it have its own section?--Zyborg22 09:04, 18 August 2005 (PDT)
 * I don't think so. It was unofficially retired when Rubby decried the language "Trite and meaningless." I also don't think that Pip's post of the day certificates qualify as a fad, but perhaps as an In joke. Hmmm...--Heygabe 13:14, 18 August 2005 (PDT)
 * I never thought that it was "retired" by any means; I would still use it if I didn't keep forgetting its exact wording, and I was about to duplicate it if I hadn't checked my watchlist beforehand. The phrase is a nice way to combat the lack of posts in a thread due to the thread being about an undeniably good idea.  AySz88^ - ^  15:43, 18 August 2005 (PDT)
 * I'm also pretty sure that What you are looking for is Adventure Islands isn't 'retired' just because the image was changed; that in itself doesn't mean that people don't use the phrase anymore. I can't specifically recall the last time someone used it though, but for some reason I think it's still being used whenever appropriate. AySz88^ - ^  09:45, 19 August 2005 (PDT)
 * Because apparently the image was returned anyway, I'm going to un-retire the fad. AySz88^ - ^ 16:08, 22 August 2005 (PDT)
 * I'm seeing at least one use of "I heartily endorse...." in Game Design per day lately; I really don't think it's dead either. AySz88^ - ^ 18:31, 31 August 2005 (PDT)

Pseudocode
Pseudocode could probably be an upper level categorization of some of these, which might help cut down on the airyness of the page layout. HEre's what I mean:

Psuedocode
Many forum users have more than a passing famililarity with programming languages, and this often leads them to structure arguements and game design suggestions in somewhat criptic ways. In particular, users are apt to whip up largely imaginary code based on vague programming principles to demonstrate how to accomplish a design or interface goal.

Postcount ++
An expression referring to a meaningless post, which simply increases one's post count. It comes from the operator, found in many programming languages (e.g. C, C++, Java, etc...), which increases a variable's value by 1 (in this case, Postcount).

Fun > Realism
In Game Design, this is posted in response to a post which gives realism as a reason for a game change and which the poster feels the change would result in less fun.

X!=Y
This expression might be considered pseudocode. "X!=Y" expression would be read "X is not equal to Y" meaning that the poster wants to, sarcastically or otherwise, emphasize the distinctions between two subjects. This expression is used typically in real life vs. game play discussions. (For example: "Realisim != Fun" and "Your personal playing habits != The Rest of the World.")

Fixed
Alright, I tried to fix the "Fixed" entry.

I wanted to put "in italics" in there, in italics, of course; that wasn't hard.

Then, I decided to try putting "Quote" in front of that -- after all, you fix something by putting the edit in italics, and having the original quoted.

Wiki wanted to turn the quote into a single long line, without linebreaks. Now, I'm happy that I stumbled onto a quoting mechanism by accident, but since it won't wrap lines, it seems to have no actual usage.

No edit was made, since I couldn't figure out how to properly edit (and I figured a bad edit was worse than no edit.)

TMBTC (No identification of who made the change or contribution by default?)


 * Does "Fixed" have a specific meaning in non-serious discussions? If so, I think it should be mentioned in the article.--Zyborg22 07:48, 2 September 2005 (PDT)


 * You can bypass the parser by typing &lt;/nowiki> around the text. (&lt;nowiki>ing the nowiki tags took a long while to figure out. :p) AySz88^ - ^  11:16, 5 September 2005 (PDT)


 * I think I might know what you did. Did the quote happen to look anything like this?:

Sample quote text.


 * If so, you can force the text to wrap by putting  at the point that you want the text to go to the next line, like this:

There is text below this text. There is text above this text.


 * Zyborg22 11:00, 17 September 2005 (PDT)

+10 boots of bilging?
I thought they were +10 boots of bilging, not +5... --Ihope127 17:36, 8 September 2005 (PDT)
 * First mention appears to be +6 boots of bilging, back in December 2003. They grew a life of their own, and there are loads o' different modifiers applied now.--Vurogj 18:03, 8 September 2005 (PDT)

Fads and In-Jokes That Can Be Found in Other Places
I think that, instead of having another section for these, we should just include this information in the sections of the in-jokes that can be found in other places. This way, we can be more specific as to where else these fads can be found.--Zyborg22 08:52, 19 September 2005 (PDT)

Sad Panda
Updated the Sad Panda entry, after recovering from the shock of seeing that nobody else knew the reference. I included a link to the South Park entry on the Wikipedia, I considered a link to the script for the particular episode but decided that even I want these pages to be more family-friendly than that. - Kargach, 20 September 2005, 11:51 AM EDT

Reorganize?
As there seems to be lots of origins to these obscure terms, perhaps we should split the terms up into those with origins on the forums themselves and those which have origins outside of the forums such as "Sad Panda" and "O Rly". AySz88^ <font color=FF6633>- <font color=FF3300>^ 14:31, 24 September 2005 (PDT)
 * I don't see why this would be a problem.--Zyborg22 14:51, 27 October 2005 (PDT)
 * It was a suggestion as to one way to reorganize the terms. That is, we can seperate unique YPP in-jokes from general obscure terms.  AySz88<font color=FF9966>^ <font color=FF6633>- <font color=FF3300>^  19:10, 27 October 2005 (PDT)
 * Actually, I meant that I don't see why that would be a bad idea. Sorry for the confusion.--Zyborg22 06:12, 28 October 2005 (PDT)

Reveulition
Was Fandango really pleased with what NF had done? Because if I recall correctly, he was rather unhappy and ticked about it.--Gloraelin 17:25, October 4, 2005 (PDT)
 * According to one of his forum posts, he was disgusted that they were "using his message to keep people down, instead of allowing them to be free", as he put it. Then again, maybe the article was referring to this post.--Zyborg22 16:20, 5 October 2005 (PDT)
 * He appeared to be pleased to learn of the flag's creation, and displeased at what others told him the flag was doing. Fandango himself does not appear to be well-informed enough to decide whether he actually likes NoFan, but based on his famous post, that would be par for the course. --AtteSmythe 10:55, 28 October 2005 (PDT)

When Does Something Become A Fad?
For future reference (and because there are a few people using robot-themed avatars on the forums), how many people must use a statement or an avatar before it becomes a fad? If this is a relatively large number, then should "Piplicus' Post of the Day" be removed as a fad?--Zyborg22 14:51, 27 October 2005 (PDT)

Sea Cucumber
Isn't this now a retired fad, since it was rendered null with the implementation of the MVNforum? --Piplicus 20:56, 1 January 2006 (PST)
 * I believe it is. I went ahead and moved it to the "Retired Fads and In-Jokes" section.--Zyborg22 13:44, 10 March 2006 (PST)

Account name vs pirate name?
When referring to people on the forum, should we use their account names or a particular pirate they identified themselves with? Account names are closely connected to forums, but some are known more for their pirates. Mlik 10:14, 10 March 2006 (PST)

Blame Llama
I'm not so sure that 50 PoE fee is fictional. Should probably ask Llama. --Thunderbird 15:19, 25 March 2006 (PST)
 * The fee is not fictional - it's payment for services rendered. I don't have a link handy, however. --AtteSmythe 11:26, 27 March 2006 (PST)

Anyway, now that I have your attention...
I might add this on tonight, as it is a new growing fad for a subject heading to say something totally irrelevant to what the actual thread is about. So far I have seen various threads with this. Here's the original discussion link. --Cloak' 00:12, 28 April 2006 (PDT)

Poking fun at specific pirates
Although this page is meant to record a bit of forum history, I don't think it's meant to permanently stab at a person, especially if they find it hurtful. A quick read through of the article shows that most of the things involving specific pirates tend to be of an informational bent or of a laugh with them sort of joke. There are however two that I see meant to poke at individuals. In light of that, I'd like to remove the Muffbeard piracy in conspiracy and also the Juvenile Highly Uncalled For sections. Any comments on this proposal? --Guppymomma 20:05, 12 June 2006 (PDT)
 * That sounds fine to me. --Eurydice 20:08, 12 June 2006 (PDT)
 * Should we unblock D4rk0n3, then? I mean, this doesn't really excuse vandalizing a page after being told not to, but...The third time (s)he did actually try to make a point (I would suppose she simply didn't realize the presence of talk pages; by the time I got to leaving him/her a note on his/her talk page, it was too late.  Mrh?


 * At the risk of looking like the Y!PP forums greenie that I am, what is the reference on the Muffbeard one? I saw the quote popping up in various places, and always thought it was cute, but I didn't realize there was something personally offensive in it.  Is there a story here someone could elaborate on?  Ditto for Highly Uncalled For. --Emufarmers 20:35, 12 June 2006 (PDT)


 * The block is not up for debate here. While I know you are just trying to be more informed, the wiki isn't the place to ask about gossip.  --Guppymomma 20:49, 12 June 2006 (PDT)


 * To take Guppy's comment further, the validity of what he was removing from the article is beyond the point. What got him banned was his decision to steamroll past direct and explicit instructions from an administrator not to do what he was doing. There's a process to get questionable content removed from pages. Tagging with NPOV, discussing it on the talk page, whatever else. Repeatedly deleting it despite admin warnings to the contrary is not one of them, and that's why he's blocked. --Ponytailguy 21:09, 12 June 2006 (PDT)


 * Having reread the actual original proposal, I'd support striking those two specific entries. --AtteSmythe 16:04, 13 June 2006 (PDT)

Personally, as someone who had this in his Sig for a time I fail to see the big issue here. I think if you play in the forums, the history you make is the history you make. There is alot of unpleasant history on the wiki for people. To be honest, I think this is a bit of PC rearing its head. At the same time, I can also see Guppy's side of it as well. Perspectives among different people, etc. But, I think by and large, we should not let politics, and other people's poor choices dictate what history is written, or erased from the wiki. The signature line was very tame, considering the circumstances at the time. As for a permanent stab, the forums are there for all to see, each and every day. The sig's have all changed now, but alot of the tarting remains.

In addition to that, if you look at the pattern of Muffbeard's behavior today, he was not looking to "delete hurtful things"...he made a downright concerted effort to remove all trace of his name in the wiki. I really think that angle needs to be considered here. Either way, Fads/Jokes is really a minor page in the whole of the wiki, not many people even know of it, I believe. So, in the end, whatever you decide would be fine with me. I say this as one of the participants of the joke.--Igniknot 20:51, 12 June 2006 (PDT)


 * In general, I like to think that the Terms of Service, specifically the section on Behavior & Harassment, still apply to the YPP hosted wiki. Regardless of the method that Muffbeard took to remove things from the wiki, the two sections I have mentioned are not meant to make the targeted pirates a happy incorporated part of the forum community.  They're meant to poke fun at them in a not kind way.  It has nothing to do with any sort of being PC.  It has to do with being a good human being.


 * Please note that I have not asked to remove the bit from your pirate article. --Guppymomma 15:53, 13 June 2006 (PDT)


 * So can we see this removed? Seems like it was agreed on that it could be removed? Just checking in. --Idol 11:10, 26 June 2006


 * Yeppers. --Guppymomma 13:26, 26 June 2006 (PDT)

Everyone wants to be a pirate avatars
I've been seeing quite a few of these lately. --Thunderbird 16:42, 19 July 2006 (PDT)
 * And it appears that I'm blind, it's already here. --Thunderbird 16:43, 19 July 2006 (PDT)
 * I did that... It was only when I clicked preview that I saw the original section.--Angelbeaver (talk) 17:46, 19 July 2006 (PDT)
 * Me three. I was looking under 'B' for 'Because everyone wants to be a pirate'... --Sagacious (talk) 17:48, 19 July 2006 (PDT)

complainspam
Per Shark's request and Piepi's text, I'd like to put the following somewhere. Fad and in-joke, or short article in Category:Terminology? "Complainspam refers to the use of one or more appeals to the OMs in order to secure a gameplay or political advantage that would not be available to the player without OM intervention. It includes protesting an action taken by another in hopes that the other player will be disciplined or stopped, or appealing to the OMs to undertake a specific course of action. Often complainspam implies an element of duplicity, where relevant information is withheld from the OM in question in hopes that the OM will act as the complainer wishes based on partial but misleading information, or an imputation of malicious motives that is unwarranted. Complainspam equally refers to appeals made via routes other than the /complain function, such as petition and /tell."

Added to the complain page, and created a redirect from complaingspam->complain--Therack 02:38, 17 November 2006 (PST)

I personally don't believe it belongs on a page related to the /complain function, since the concept is much larger than that. I believe Attesmythe's two options better reflect the meaning and context of the term. ~ Sweetiepiepi

More postcount++
Come on now. Postcount++ exists on just about every forum on the internet. Does it -really- need to be mentioned here? Why not add "trolls" and, say, "search before you post" just for consistency's sake? Like "o rly", I'd remove it but I have a feeling it would come back. --Adramolek 22:47, 1 March 2007 (PST)
 * I'd disagree because a lot of forum users here wouldn't use any other forum and therefore might not have seen the term before? --Lizzie 02:48, 2 March 2007 (PST)
 * That's an assertion you can't really make, that many YPP forum users don't use other forums. And in any case, we are not responsible for teaching YPP players about the internet. And as I said, if a lot of forum users here truly don't use any other forums, then should we explain "trolls" and other common forum terms as well? What about "moderators"? Or "threads"? Consistency is key, right. Why not just remove all that kind of stuff and link to the Wikipedia [internet fads] page. It's just as inane as this article is on it's way to becoming. There's always [internet forum terminology] too. --Adramolek 12:33, 2 March 2007 (PST)
 * "Sniped" is another one that could go away, for the same reason. And "his noodly appendage": again, should we start documenting -all- references to, well, anything really, just for consistency? This is not specific to our forums, and really doesn't have much to do with them at all. --Adramolek 11:11, 10 March 2007 (PST)

Canadians
It seems that a new (old) trend has swept the Shore Leave forums, this being making joke threads about the Canadians. I think it might be worthy of mentioning on this page. Mystery09 20:07, 16 October 2007 (PDT)

FTW and FTL
I suggest adding in a section that explains the meaning and usage of "FTW" and "FTL" as they are common amoing the forums. I don't want to add anything on before I hear a few opinions, but I think it's a little confusing for some people. Expanding the Yppedia, FTW!

Other avatar fads
What about some of the other avatar fads? For example, ringer island taxes.

"Not threatening" as a new fad?
So, I've been wondering about adding Slimbottom's whole

"Not threatening

I will do actions"

because I've seen that used a number of different times since the original post was made. I have seen it in Parley, GD, I think TTQA plus some of the ocean event forums as well. --glor, as usual 03:32, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

Full of the (*) Avatars
Apparently these are now going beyond the OMs (I know Addyrielle had one for a bit). Should we note this one? --Thunderbird 01:56, 26 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Lol - Lovely Apollo makes them! =D I knew this would become a forum fad! hehe -- Adrielle ♥ =) 03:47, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

redirect from "tropes" (Y/N) ??
these days, many netizens ;-) use the word "tropes". should we add a redirect from "tropes" to the fads/in-jokes page? -- Franklincain 14:40, 22 May 2012 (PDT)
 * Well, our standard is to use singular nouns for page titles here, but a redirect hurts nothing and helps quite often, so I say go ahead and do it!