Re:What's the Best App for Making Memes?
by whalesalad on Thursday August 02, 2018 @05:48PM
(#17675747)
This is great. There is a huge opportunity to create an app to create modern-day memes. They all have certain aesthetics. Many of them follow templates that are correlated with the content. Some earn their cred from simply having a certain over-compressed JPEG vibe. I'll admit I am addicted to surfin memes. My wife and I will sit for hours in silence, passing them back and forth and just laughing constantly.
So, to all the folks here saying GIMP or MSPaint and call it a day ... you are missing the boat. The modern-day instagram/twitter memes are an entirely new vector of communication. The bar is getting lower, it will get lower, and there is a way to capitalize on this.
One day soon an app will exist that will allow you to make memes the same way instagram allows you to tap one finger and make a photo look like it was taken on a polaroid camera. If you do it right to where you can produce content like heckoffsupreme, sonny5ideup, tanksinatra, middleclassfancy, gayvapeshark, etc... with a few taps and some original verbage you'd make a killing.
Also super glad to see heckoffsupreme get an honorable mention. They are some of the best, no doubt.
Re:What's the Best App for Making Memes?
by calhoun137 on Thursday August 02, 2018 @06:45PM
(#17676096)
I do not disagree with you that there is a huge vacuum in the market for a good meme making app and that this will be extremely profitable for whoever gets it right and is able to execute and build a large user base.
That being said, as someone who has been making memes for 6+ years I can tell you hands down no mobile app will ever compare to the power of photoshop, or GIMP for that matter. Even if it was possible for a mobile app to do everything photoshop can do, the small screen size and touch screen interface is a huge issue that can't be solved without plugging a mouse + keyboard into a tablet, at which point, just use a computer.
There is an interesting phenomenon that the younger generation is so enamored with mobile apps and devices that many of them don't realize how certain use cases/work flows simply are always going to be way better on a desktop or a laptop. I would characterize your comment as saying its possible to profit off of the ignorance of a certain subset of today's 15-25 year old's when it comes to this fact.
I know there are so many brilliant people in this generation who are going to be sick nerds one day. But lots of others only interact with computers via their phones and don't even realize how silly they are being by refusing to make memes on a laptop.
Re:What's the Best App for Making Memes?
by calhoun137 on Thursday August 02, 2018 @07:26PM
(#17676290)
What's really funny is that all the time I put into learning how to make meme's and animated gif's caused me to accidentally do a lot of professional graphic design work for my company. As a programmer who works in early stage startups, I have found having the skill set to be able to work with tools like GIMP to be invaluable. Sometimes dealing with artists can kinda be a pain and its nice to be able to just make this stuff myself and skip all the back and forth.
Re:What's the Best App for Making Memes?
by calhoun137 on Thursday August 02, 2018 @06:35PM
(#17676044)
"some memers have found the current suite of mobile applications so lacking that they choose to create their memes on desktop computers instead. “On your phone, you’re never going to be able to do as much as you could as on a computer,” says Noam, who memes under the account @listenintospitandgettingparamoredon.
Ronnie, who memes under the handle @mspainttrash, is part of a group of meme makers that works exclusively in MS Paint."
Finally I thought, a voice of reason! Someone is going to mention GIMP or photoshop. But then they go straight for MS Paint and then totally ignore the idea of using a desktop to make memes and go right back to the "problem" that you need 4 apps to make a shitpost. LOL! Someone tell these kids about GIMP please
Re:What's the Best App for Making Memes?
by Nadya on Thursday August 02, 2018 @06:22PM
(#17675972)
I'm an ancient meme historian. I specialize in memes before memes became dank.
The definition transitioned from "viral internet jokes" to "image intended to be funny". Some memes are just edited screenshots of Twitter posts or other viral images. "Text intended to be funny" is a subset of memes referred to as "greentext"; due to 4chan quotes being used for storytelling and the text being green.
The transition period went from Image macro --> Demotivational Posters --> Trollface/Rage Comics --> 4 panel comics --> Memes. This took place over the time period of 2004-2009 and really took off with sharing images over Twitter as the ability to get a viral image became easier.
Re:What's the Best App for Making Memes?
by Nadya on Thursday August 02, 2018 @07:15PM
(#17676235)
Sometime in 2014 a Reddit post became popular using the gnome child from Runescape [0]. This was likely the first dank meme and a catalyst for what was to come. Using Google Trends [1] you can even identify that late 2013 a few people were already looking for dank memes, but it wasn't until late 2014 when memes started becoming dank.
The dankest they ever were was in October and November of 2016 - they've become less dank over time but the economists over in /r/memeeconomy keep their eyes out on /r/dankmemes for the latest and dankest memes to add to their portfolios.
It's a thriving industry with lots of karma to be had - it takes experts to identify a dank meme before it is ripe.
"The term "image macro" was first coined in Something Awful[2] in 2004. In the forums, users could summon a number of default image macros using simple commands like [img – macro], for example, timelines, "Aces!" and "Captain Obvious to the Rescue!" images. The name is derived from the computer scientific definition of a macro: a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence should be mapped to an output sequence according to a defined procedure. The earliest definition of an image macro was submitted by SomethingAwful forum user Eclipse[3] on February 12th, 2004."
Hell, you could consider print advertising to be a form of image "macros". We need a better name that is descriptive or at least doesn't sound so abstract and far removed from the virality/humor aspect.
I'm making a bet that the future of memes are short videos that tell more of a story than a simple image macro. Hopefully I can turn SuperAnimo into an app someday but right now it's just a buggy website no one uses. It's still my favorite project though - so I'll keep plugging away at features and maybe one day I'll get some users.
Re:What's the Best App for Making Memes?
by 6cd6beb on Thursday August 02, 2018 @05:36PM
(#17675672)
Photoshop. or Gimp.
I mean it's superimposing text, possibly at different fonts, sizes, angles; then combining various images, again possibly at different rotations, and then applying filters.
Tools exist for this.
A "meme making app" made sense when it was just top and bottom text over an image, but these people are basically saying they want a heavyweight image editor.
Re:What's the Best App for Making Memes?
by soared on Thursday August 02, 2018 @05:56PM
(#17675801)
You think elementary schoolers and other non-techies are going to either pay $15/mo for photoshop or delve into the ux dungeon that is Gimp? Not a chance.
So, to all the folks here saying GIMP or MSPaint and call it a day ... you are missing the boat. The modern-day instagram/twitter memes are an entirely new vector of communication. The bar is getting lower, it will get lower, and there is a way to capitalize on this.
One day soon an app will exist that will allow you to make memes the same way instagram allows you to tap one finger and make a photo look like it was taken on a polaroid camera. If you do it right to where you can produce content like heckoffsupreme, sonny5ideup, tanksinatra, middleclassfancy, gayvapeshark, etc... with a few taps and some original verbage you'd make a killing.
Also super glad to see heckoffsupreme get an honorable mention. They are some of the best, no doubt.
That being said, as someone who has been making memes for 6+ years I can tell you hands down no mobile app will ever compare to the power of photoshop, or GIMP for that matter. Even if it was possible for a mobile app to do everything photoshop can do, the small screen size and touch screen interface is a huge issue that can't be solved without plugging a mouse + keyboard into a tablet, at which point, just use a computer.
There is an interesting phenomenon that the younger generation is so enamored with mobile apps and devices that many of them don't realize how certain use cases/work flows simply are always going to be way better on a desktop or a laptop. I would characterize your comment as saying its possible to profit off of the ignorance of a certain subset of today's 15-25 year old's when it comes to this fact.
I know there are so many brilliant people in this generation who are going to be sick nerds one day. But lots of others only interact with computers via their phones and don't even realize how silly they are being by refusing to make memes on a laptop.
This made me smile
Ronnie, who memes under the handle @mspainttrash, is part of a group of meme makers that works exclusively in MS Paint."
Finally I thought, a voice of reason! Someone is going to mention GIMP or photoshop. But then they go straight for MS Paint and then totally ignore the idea of using a desktop to make memes and go right back to the "problem" that you need 4 apps to make a shitpost. LOL! Someone tell these kids about GIMP please
The definition transitioned from "viral internet jokes" to "image intended to be funny". Some memes are just edited screenshots of Twitter posts or other viral images. "Text intended to be funny" is a subset of memes referred to as "greentext"; due to 4chan quotes being used for storytelling and the text being green.
The transition period went from Image macro --> Demotivational Posters --> Trollface/Rage Comics --> 4 panel comics --> Memes. This took place over the time period of 2004-2009 and really took off with sharing images over Twitter as the ability to get a viral image became easier.
Now's my chance to ask a professional: when did memes become "dank"? Mid-2012?
The dankest they ever were was in October and November of 2016 - they've become less dank over time but the economists over in /r/memeeconomy keep their eyes out on /r/dankmemes for the latest and dankest memes to add to their portfolios.
It's a thriving industry with lots of karma to be had - it takes experts to identify a dank meme before it is ripe.
[0] https://vgy.me/lCZkJ0.png
[1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%...
"The term "image macro" was first coined in Something Awful[2] in 2004. In the forums, users could summon a number of default image macros using simple commands like [img – macro], for example, timelines, "Aces!" and "Captain Obvious to the Rescue!" images. The name is derived from the computer scientific definition of a macro: a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence should be mapped to an output sequence according to a defined procedure. The earliest definition of an image macro was submitted by SomethingAwful forum user Eclipse[3] on February 12th, 2004."
Hell, you could consider print advertising to be a form of image "macros". We need a better name that is descriptive or at least doesn't sound so abstract and far removed from the virality/humor aspect.
Even if that's a sufficient and satisfactory explanation, it doesn't address either the claim of TFA, or parent's question.
What app do you use to traverse socially ... ?
Text overlaid on an image is not inherently a meme - even if the bot that made it shares it on instagram.
Memes have always been short and simple
Language is defined by usage, not by what you think is correct.
I'm making a bet that the future of memes are short videos that tell more of a story than a simple image macro. Hopefully I can turn SuperAnimo into an app someday but right now it's just a buggy website no one uses. It's still my favorite project though - so I'll keep plugging away at features and maybe one day I'll get some users.
I mean it's superimposing text, possibly at different fonts, sizes, angles; then combining various images, again possibly at different rotations, and then applying filters.
Tools exist for this.
A "meme making app" made sense when it was just top and bottom text over an image, but these people are basically saying they want a heavyweight image editor.