We will use this post and its comment thread for some needed reminders or clarifications. They will probably get reposted to Site Comments. If you have comments or responses to these, feel free to use either of those threads for replies. Thanks
1) LOL and OY submissions automatically approved
We’re trying to promote the understanding of LOL and OY collection posts that they are reader-driven ideally. And apart from correcting duplications or filtering the not-safe-for-family, the editors are not going to be judgey about whether we think a sent-in comic is really funny or not, really a good wordplay or not. It’s more like anything-goes.
Comics I Don't Understand 
2) Classifications of cartoon send-ins actively sought
The classifications of cartoons we are mainly interested in receiving currently are:
CIDU — Comics you didn’t understand (duh). You don’t see a joke there or think you see where it is intended but just don’t get it. Not just a glaring mistake by the cartoonist (we can find some special place for those OOPSES!). And it’s fine if you sense the point you are missing must be due to some allusion to something you’re not familiar with — the editors will also see if it remains mysterious to them, and if so and it’s published as a stand-alone, commenters may help.
LOL — Comics you consider really funny! And that’s just by your subjective judgement. Any cartoon sent in under a LOL rubric will be used! The editors will not evaluate whether we also consider it highly funny. (But not totally automatic — don’t flood us with more than a handful at a given week; and no objectionable material.)
OY — A good old-fashioned “groaner” of a pun. Or really clever word-play, even if not precisely somebody’s definition of “pun”. And that’s just by your subjective judgement. Any cartoon sent in under an OY rubric will be used! The editors will not evaluate whether we also consider it highly punful or highly clever as wordplay. If we think it more a matter of funny, we may transfer it to LOL. (But posting will not be totally automatic — don’t flood us with more than a handful at a given week; and no objectionable material.)
These accept-anything-sincerely sent by readers policies are just carrying over something CIDU Bill was trying to use.
Yes, there will still be editor-selected OY and LOL cartoons in with the reader-sent ones.
Currently we are not looking for SYNCHRONICITY or EWWWW cartoons. It’s fine if a CIDU or LOL or OY has some EWWWW-ish aspects, but we just want to steer clear of “let’s see how disgusting these cartoonists can get!”
I think Bill generally posted all the LOLs he received and probably most of the OYs (unless he lost them by mistake), but the time until a comic got posted could very widely, depending on how long the current backlog happened to be. He was a little more selective about CIDUs: if he saw the answer he usually sent that back as an explanation of why he wasn’t going to post it. Bill was extremely selective with Ewww and Arlo material, not wanting to post anything that readers might find truly offensive.
Thanks, Kilby.
I don’t think there is much difference from that in the current practice, and in the notes posted here.
But we just don’t see many LOLs and OYs being sent in. The current postings are meant to help readers over potential reluctance to send things in because they don’t like the feeling of having their sense of humor evaluated. I’m even trying to avoid “submit” and “submissions” and talk about “send-ins”.
@ Mitch – Another possibility would be to use the word “share”.
P.S. @ everyone else – I think I can summarize the entire meaning of this post in three short words:
@ Mitch – “ The current postings are meant to help readers over potential reluctance to send things in because they don’t like the feeling of having their sense of humor evaluated.”
The simplest solution for that problem would be to offer readers the option of not having theirs names attached to the comics they have submitted. That way, no one else will know whose sense of humor is being evaluated. This applies in particular to CIDUs: some people may simply not want to admit that they were the one who didn’t “get” a particular comment. It would probably be easy to add an “anonymity preferred” checkbox to the new submission form.
After Mitch mentioned that “Currently we are not looking for Synchronicity or Ewww cartoons“, I gave the subject some thought, and decided that I agree on both counts. The case against “Ewwww” is clear, and has been explained above. The issues relating to Synchronicity are more complex, and could stand some discussion. My apologies to CIDU readers if this seems too long. This is just my own opinion, and has not been “vetted” or approved by the editorial team:
Bill’s original conditions for the “Synchronicity” category were very strict: the two comics had to have been published on exactly the same date, and they had to be addressing the same topic. A mere duplication of a word or a visible object was usually not enough to qualify. Some people (including me) felt that this was a little too restrictive, since it ruled out weekly strips, not to mention the occasional coincidence with a syndicated re-run or undated webcomic.
However, after these standards were (somewhat) relaxed, it led to the situation that some “synchronicity” comics appeared for no other reason than the coincidental topic, and not on their own merits. Personally, I believe that this just isn’t enough justification for a post, especially since such coincidences happen all the time. For this reason, I would retire the “Synchronicity” category, but at the same time retain the “Synchronicity” tag.
Here’s how this could work:
For each submission, the primary comic has to have its own reason for being worthy of a post (in other
words, an LOL for the Sunday Funnies, or a pun for the Saturday OYs, but especially just any plain old CIDU that needs an explanation).
If there is a similar comic that might add to the discussion, it can of course be included (and it doesn’t have to have the same date), but the mere presence of a second comic would not be sufficient reason to post the first. If the primary comic is worth posting on its own merits, it gets placed in an appropriate post. If the secondary comic is a worthwhile addition, it may be included too, and the “synchonicity” tag may be used to denote its presence, but first at least one of the two comics has to qualify for a post on its own.
====
As I said above, that’s just my opinion. Everyone else is welcome to join in on the discussion.
Thanks for defining CIDU, LOL, and OY. (I had wondered about OY, at times.)
Personally, I get a kick out of seeing different comics handle the same joke or punchline SYNCHRONOUS-ly, especially when it’s not due to some special occasion. (And I did enjoy most of the Schultz tributes that I saw.)