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I remember when I first began to frequent Meta there were jokes galore. And the moderators seemed pretty lax with humorous questions (and sometimes answers).

Then, something changed and Jeff began to lock and delete joke questions, and even joke tags.

Why exactly did such a change occur? Is it because at the time the change occurred, Area51 was just starting up and they needed to create a more serious environment for area51 questions? Or is it just that Jeff is becoming a grumpy old man? Or maybe Stack Overflow itself is becoming more mature and serious?

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  • 43
    Although it's always Friday in Iceland, it's apparently no longer Iceland in Meta.
    – Greg Hewgill
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:09
  • 9
    I blame TheTXI and Pesto. They set the standards too high.
    – mmyers
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:10
  • 3
    Also, most of the funny stuff happens in chat nowadays.
    – mmyers
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:11
  • 2
    See also: Meta is becoming a sad and depressing place.
    – Shog9
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:12
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    @Shog: But that post is over a year and a half old! Could it be that... no, that's impossible... but maybe... maybe people are romanticizing the past? Not that I'm pointing fingers, no sir...
    – Aarobot
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:15
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    @Mic who said I'm wishing for it. I was just going to propose we open a meta.meta.stackoverflow.com :D and I remember the change was sometime in like April or so of 2010.
    – Earlz
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:19
  • It's because Jeff and other mods starting insta-closing such questions for a short period of time, sending everyone who participated the message that it was no longer permitted.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:24
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    Perhaps Meta has the same level of funny that it always had, and your standards have just gone up?
    – Aarobot
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:57
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    possible duplicate of Question title that doesn't describe the problem
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:57
  • 5
    That's stone cold, @Polly.
    – Aarobot
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 21:01
  • @Shog9 Page not found :C
    – Jason Plank
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 21:13
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    @Jason: it's funnier that way. For me at least.
    – Shog9
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 21:14
  • @Shog9, The link Meta is becoming a sad and depressing place seems to be broken.
    – Pacerier
    Commented Apr 26, 2015 at 13:53

5 Answers 5

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At some point Meta was starting to get an Eternal September of joke questions, because many new users were coming in and seeing "Hey, this place is a cool hangout!", and tried to be part of it, often just quoting overused memes for the umpteenth time and not realizing that while Meta does instead have its very own kind of humor, it was always based around the idea of having a support community, and the occasional joke might also have a purpose of keeping the community, well, sane -- and not go crazy with the hundredth "Where did my rep go" question.

This joke overflow (in which, I'm afraid, you also had your part) got on quite a few people's nerves, reducing the tolerance threshold.

I think meta is still a fun place (even if some of the crazyness may have moved to chat), but maybe the humor has grown up a bit.

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  • 9
    An astute observation! Also, WAFFLES.
    – Shog9
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:59
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    Ahem, meta.stackoverflow.com/users/142114/george-edison but yes, I definitely had my part as well... it was probably my manic tag creation that started the whole closing question bit anyway. but I doubt I'm that important.
    – Earlz
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 21:55
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    +1 for "some of the craziness has moved to chat"
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 22:11
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    @Earlz: I totally agree. I admit that I completely got carried away with the memes (in the early part of last year). But I think we've all grown up a bit since then.
    – uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
    Commented May 30, 2011 at 17:25
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I take full responsibility. About 6 to 8 weeks ago I had my Freehand Circles (if you know what I mean) flattened in a tragic Waffle iron incident. Right after that, the Turtle in LOGO was trampled by a thundering herd of Ponies and Unicorns. I tried to call for help, but the Community Wiki police didn't arrive in time. They weren't the Fastest Gun in the West that day. I guess they should have tried jQuery.

Also, all of this took place on a Boat... On a Friday... In Iceland.

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    You somehow just summarized every meme of meta in one paragraph.
    – Earlz
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 21:59
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    I think I'm going to be sick...
    – Aarobot
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 22:08
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    @Aarobot: Yeah... I definitely got that "too much of a good thing" feeling after writing that. I'm not proud.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 22:40
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    @Earlz Jon Skeet unhappy, plzsendthecodez oy's the rep whore, monkey mafia pending recalc, scite the unnameables, multicollide everything
    – abel
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 18:36
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I, for one, welcome our new reduced-humor overlords. An occasional joke is fine, but when I first came to MSO, all the in-jokes and memes were interfering with the actual purpose of the site.

This actually reminds me of what happens to small shops. When they start out, the founder works in the store, knows all the customers and employees, is fine with letting people say "oh, I'll come back and pay tomorrow," &c. People like the place because it has character and a nice sense of community.

Then as the business gets larger, the founder gets stuck in some corporate headquarters building, and new people start to think of him as just some suit, not the friend who hired and worked with them. More stores open, and each location is a cold, sterile clone of the others, staffed by people who just need a job and don't really know the customers. Before you know it, the place is Wal-Mart.

When you "first began to frequent Meta," the place was a small store where people came to hang out more than to actually buy stuff. To be honest, I think we've settled into a nice happy medium place now.

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  • 3
    Meta - we're the BestBuy of support sites!
    – Shog9
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:21
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    Why does big have to be boring?
    – abel
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:29
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    @abel - Because the progression ends up being Funny --> Big --> Goofy, and no one wants to be goofy.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:34
  • @Pollyanna Aw! Then Goofy can be funny only once a year I guess. Sad.
    – abel
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 19:43
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    You forgot to mention when all the teenagers with their skateboards and baggy pants start coming in at 2 AM and stealing stuff. The founder can only shake his fist for so long before it's time to put up the "no skateboarding" sign and start packing double-barrel heat behind the counter.
    – Aarobot
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:47
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    The next time I have to endure something unpleasant, I'll close my eyes and go to my happy medium place :)
    – user50049
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 21:10
  • @Aarobot, yes, we all know about Diago.
    – Pops
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 22:08
  • @Pop: I was thinking of bobince, but that works too.
    – Aarobot
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 22:14
  • @Aaro it was my understanding that bobince preferred tree pruners. (In fact, that's another thing I can pin on you today.)
    – Pops
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 22:27
  • I thought that interfering with the purpose of the site was the purpose of the site? "In lieu of Red Tape."
    – user291305
    Commented Dec 16, 2016 at 14:48
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I left, and took my humor with me (which wasn't a lot)! Also Jeff hates me and my moon language.

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    MOON. PEOPLE.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Feb 21, 2012 at 14:01
0

I thought I asked a funny question today, but people took it personally/seriously and voted it into submission.

That kind of behavior can kind of make a person want to seek their LOLZ elsewhere.

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    Technically, this is not a place to seek LOLZ. So I would expect that most if not all, people would rather seek lolz elsewhere.
    – jjnguy
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:23
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    I did not find your question humorous, unfortunately, and your follow up comments strongly suggested that people should be taking you seriously. Further, in general, sarcasm is not as well accepted as humor as many people might want it to be.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:27
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    I blame the lizard for that, criticizing my knowledge of CS. And, it wasn't asked in sarcasm. To replace all the stack exchange users with robots as a feature request sounds funny to me.
    – Peter Turner
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:30
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    When I first saw that question, I assumed it was a joke. But then you implied in a comment that only the last two sentences were in jest, so I was under the assumption that you did have a real problem with the concept.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:49
  • I got the impression that your question was, as @Pol put it in his own answer, a "serious question gussied up with funny". You said flat-out that the tail end of your post was facetious, which implied that the rest of your post wasn't a joke. Trust me, I'm quite well-acquainted with the "ha-ha-just-joking-except-serious-but-only-kinda" style of discourse, but it only works if (a) you're internally consistent and (b) don't give yourself away by over-stretching the metaphor. Otherwise people will just ignore the jokes, like I did, and assume the rest to be serious.
    – Aarobot
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:55
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    P.S. We have a [fun] tag which you should use if your question is really intended to just be a joke. Of course, people will still downvote it into oblivion and vote to close if it isn't actually funny, so use that tag at your own risk.
    – Aarobot
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 20:56
  • Hey, @PeterTurner has an approximation of pi rep: 3.14E2 ;-)
    – Jürgen A. Erhard
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 0:19

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