# It's NOT Gaudere's law! Or we fail at the internet! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 28, 2009, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407 "2009-10-28T07:03:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/41 "2009-10-30T11:08:02Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I dunno. I saw it on Fark before I got here. But it died out quickly there. And it was in 2005 or so, so it’s not like the Dope couldn’t have been the origin. I bet there’s a tiny, specialist Academic discussion board somewhere with a handful of members who sit around adjusting their leather-elbowed tweed jackets and congratulate themselves for having the “cite?” meme all to themselves, FWIW. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/42 "2009-10-30T11:40:22Z")
Didn’t “Gotcha Ya” originate here, and has spread beyond? ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/43 "2009-10-30T12:17:12Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Didn’t “Gotcha Ya” originate here, and has spread beyond? I’m not sure. The earliest I can find for “Gotcha Ya” is January 12, 2000 on the Usenet group alt.rasap. When was “Gotcha Ya” first employed here? Also the goat/sheep thing is not original to us. I know it had been floating around rec.humor.oracle.d during the ninties whenever a new priest had been selected. Before that, it had been seen in “Revenge of the Nerds.” ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/44 "2009-10-30T13:51:41Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Well, I found out it’s NOT “Gaudere’s rule” she shamelessly stole it from [Skitt’s Law](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6408927/Internet-rules-and-laws-the-top-10-from-Godwin-to-Poe.html) who ever Skitt is. I think Skitt’s Law is just a rehashnig\* of [Muphry’s Law (1992)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law) - This post Muphry compliant. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/45 "2009-10-30T14:18:58Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > I therefore suggest Euty’s Law : Within any closed group of people on the internet, every internet law will eventually develop and be claimed as original. > > I feel sure someone has already thought of that. 😃 I hereby propose the simpler version, or Malthus’ Law: “There are no original internet memes or laws - not even this one”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/46 "2009-10-30T14:22:52Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Yeah it seems like half the internet communicates only in memes now. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/47 "2009-10-30T14:34:55Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > I’m not sure. The earliest I can find for “Gotcha Ya” is January 12, 2000 on the Usenet group alt.rasap. When was “Gotcha Ya” first employed here? [2001](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=80870), apparently. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/48 "2009-10-30T14:40:48Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. You forgot the 0.5 multiplier. Or the integer divisor of 2. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/49 "2009-10-30T16:43:29Z")
Having used it in a post the other day, I realized that I’m the only one here that I’ve seen who agrees with a quote from an earlier post with a single-word “sentence” thusly: > [@tumbleddown](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Something astoundingly brilliant and wonderful. > > This. The word “this” is an even shorter version of QFT or I totally agree _somewhere_ on the internet that I’ve spent time, in order to absorb it, but it wasn’t here and I don’t know where it was! ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/50 "2009-10-30T17:35:06Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > The word “this” is an even shorter version of QFT Shift-T-h-i-s-period Shift-Q-F-T How can this be? ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407/51 "2009-11-02T16:52:40Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Shift-T-h-i-s-period > > Shift-Q-F-T > > How can this be? I meant it’s, gosh, there’s not a term to apply to this, but when you _read_ QFT, your brain automatically parses it out as “quoted for truth” (once you know what it means, of course) whereas your brain parses “this” as, well, “this.” So while yes, it is more to type, it’s contextually shorter, while conveying the same general idea, is what I think I’m getting at. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-gauderes-law-or-we-fail-at-the-internet/515407.md?page=2)