Talk:copypasta

Definition needs work

Our sense 1 needs work. As written currently, it could apply to any copied block of text, e.g. a paragraph that I temporarily copied while editing a document. But in reality, copypasta has a cultural function: it's stories, memes, something like "xeroxlore". Equinox ◑ 22:37, 17 November 2019 (UTC)

 Done Added "serving as a story or meme". Equinox ◑ 01:08, 12 June 2023 (UTC)

Pasta

If this a blend, shouldn't it be copy +‎ paste +‎ pasta? – Jberkel 15:09, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

RFV discussion: June–September 2023

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copypasta

Sense 2: Internet slang: "An error in a software application caused by the copying and pasting of erroneous code." I have only heard of sense 1 (the meme-type story), but if this sense is real, does it really mean an error? e.g. "I saw a copypasta on my screen" (an error message) or what? I'd guess the intended sense is something more like mojibake (in which case the def needs rewriting), but I've never heard of it anyway. Equinox ◑ 01:10, 12 June 2023 (UTC)

I think yes, “an error message”, something to be copied and pasted to be searched; the user obviously does not know at least in the first place whether the error is “caused by the copying and pasting of erroneous code”, again people are very loose about claiming causalities. Fay Freak (talk) 10:01, 12 June 2023 (UTC)

In this Hackernews thread of 14-11-2018 some vaguely remember such a sense of copied and pasted code causing a mess, allegedly the origin of the sense of something repetitive serving a meme or story. Indeed I don’t know why our first gloss restricts the sense to “serving as a story or meme”. Programming code always could be copypasta, no? And error messages are programmed. Fay Freak (talk) 10:17, 12 June 2023 (UTC)

@Equinox: I added a bunch of citations from Usenet, I'm pretty sure it's just code/docs that've been copy and pasted (with some specific references to "copypasta errors") so I've rewritten the gloss appropriately. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 13:10, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

RFV-passed. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 08:14, 14 September 2023 (UTC)