Inside jokes

When you spend enough time with a group of friends, or in a community, or as a part of a fandom, eventually you start to form some inside jokes and references. Which is cool, it helps to form a sense of companionship and continuity, carrying things from the past forward with you as you continue to grow. But it is also weirdly amazing just how much this can happen, regardless of what kind of community it is that you're a part of.

This is a thing that's more or less always existed, but in recent years a new word has come about for it: "meta." On the internet, things are described as being meta so often that the word has virtually lost meaning. And I think it does have a meaning, and it does have a place, but people have started to push past that. There are some really cool communities out there that you can find, with absolutely fascinating origins and purposes, that have been ruined by being filled with nothing but meta inside jokes.

And some place have figured out how to balance that. This conversation in my head got started because I was looking around where I normally get prompts from, and I found a surprising number of meta prompts, relating back to the community that made the prompts in the first place. Those meta prompts were some of the highest rated, but when looking at the newer and more current ones, they actually weren't that common. Which is good - it's nice to join together from time to time like that, and have a good time based around where you are.

Meanwhile, I've found a community before that's based around making high quality gifs, and some of the early examples are incredible. But looking at the newer stuff, people are actively criticized and rated lower if the gif the submit isn't just a joke about how their community only makes gifs about themselves. I could understand putting in small hints or jabs at themselves in the background, but every single submission? You're basically just telling people that if they're new and don't get the jokes, they're not allowed to be there.

And that's not the point of a community. The point is to have a space around which people can come together and talk about the things they like, and is always willing to include new people if they are interested in the same thing. Inside jokes aren't bad, especially if you help the newer members to understand and appreciate them. But if the joke is that there's a joke about jokes based on jokes, just... What the hell are you even talking about anymore?