(no subject)

[chrisvenus]

I was just browsing someone's journal (which I've never browsed before) and I read an entry which I know I've seen before -- verbatim -- in someone else's LJ. I don't remember that entry being attributed to anyone else at that time, nor does the one I just read give credit to the other author.

Plagiarism? In LJ? Yipes.

Comments

heh, not bad

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Still, I won't fall for that meme.

I'm still trying to get more people to put "dippadoom" into their interests, I want to beat Marmite!!

Re: heh, not bad

[chrisvenus]

its not a case of falling for it. I just thought it was quite funny so put it in my LJ. :) And I would add dippadoom but I'm not a big fan myself. No offence but I'm a) not a big dip person and b) not a big garlic person. I think you see where my problem is. :)

Re: heh, not bad

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

<rant>

Look, how many times do I have to explain this ?

Memes are the selectable units of evolving behaviours. This thing isn't a meme, because the copies don't vary. On top of which, nobody's going to put the joke in their LJ more than once, so even if the thing did vary there wouldn't really be any notion of selection because each LJ user will either use the first version they see or no version at all.

</rant>

Re: heh, not bad

[chrisvenus]

*nod* I think I see what you are saying. Care to give an example of a meme to clarify? My understanding was that a meme was just an idea that spread. I didn't think evolution had to come into it, jsut an idea going around. If it changed form or not was irrelevant (though obviously more interesting if it did change form).

I've just looked at www.dict.org that has some definitions of meme and one does discuss ideas mutating and recombining to form new ideas. It implies that they *can* though, not that they *must* to be a meme. Besides, I would think that this could mutate since anybody could see it and think of a better implemenation or combine it with another meme.

I dunno. I never really followed memes much. I jsut call things memes if it seems right. :) Generally though I don't think it ever seems right. :)