User:Actreal/featured article contest/Forum fads and in-jokes
Any internet community lasting longer than a week collects and creates its share of in-jokes and fads. The Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates Forums are no exception.
Whether they have been created by local forum tarts or brought from other internet communities, these in-jokes and fads quickly spread throughout the forums by a humourous version of natural selection - survival of the most amusing.
To players who have found Puzzle Pirates recently, it can be very difficult to understand the meanings of such phrases as: Sea cucumber, HWFO, and The New Corner Fries. Even Azure Ocean veterans may not be able to recall exactly when some of these phrases were first used!
A picture can be used to tell a thousand words, and this maxim holds true on the YPP forums, as many fads are graphical in nature. The image above is often used by forum-goers as a reference to Nemo's infamous forum retort: What you're looking for are Adventure Islands.
There are many avatar artists plying their trade on the YPP forums. However, only some artists' styles become so popular that "everyone" has to have one of their avatars. The Everyone Wants to be a Pirate, Even... series of avatars originated by Salmon is a well-known example.
