Redditors launched a world war over the weekend, fought with upvotes and propagated with nationalistic image memes.
It was all a good-natured joke, of course. No one was hurt—except people who think this kind of meme party is the cancer that’s killing Reddit.
The war appears to have begun Saturday night when a British redditor posted this image:
That was a veritable call to arms for bored redditors across the world who jumped into the battle. Dozens of similar images quickly marched to the top of some of reddit’s largest sections.
In the comments, redditors kept up the faux-world war conceit going:
“My only regret is that I have but one upvote to give for my country,” redditor beardedwizard wrote.
“Can’t tell if I should upvote because I’m american, or downvote because these posts violate intergalactic law,” jaico wrote.
What was the point of it all? The same point of any meme: some easy Internet laughs.
It’s yet another indicator, however, that reddit’s largest sections, or subreddits, are increasingly nothing more than image boards, front ends to image-hosting site Imgur.
But this behavior is actually explicitly prohibited in r/pics. The rules state that you’re supposed to respond in the comments thread, not post an entirely new picture.
In fact, this latest meme party comes after BritishEnglishPolice, a moderator of reddit’s largest picture section, r/pics, quietly announced that section’s moderators would soon begin strictly enforcing its rules (on Reddit, sections are essentially owned and controlled by users, who have free reign to control them however they see fit).
That means next time redditors launch a global image party, it may be nipped in the bud.
But r/pics is one of the most free-wheeling sections on the site, with nearly a million subscribers, and this weekend’s antics show just how much redditors really like their image memes.
When the moderator of Reddit’s live question and answer section shut the section down last month, redditors launched a site-wide campaign against him, and even hounded him at his work. He eventually relented and reopened the section.
If the r/pics moderators are beginning to lay down the law, we may see another reddit user revolt — and moderator witch hunt.
We’ll also, no doubt, see a whole lot of angry image memes.