Tech Watch: Could you be an Imgurian?

imgur.com

Do you enjoy pictures of adorable baby animals? Are you an Internet meme junkie? If you answered "yes" to this questions, and you do not yet know what Imgur is; be prepared to have a new favorite destination on the Internet.

Imgur (pronounced image-er) was launched four years ago as an easy to use image-hosting site, but to many users, it is much, much more. If you ask me, or any of my friends, it is the best place to spend/waste time on the Internet. Imgur is packed with viral images and memes submitted by an extremely friendly, compassionate, and hilarious community of users.

Imgur can be considered a social news site, meaning it relies on crowd-sourcing to shape focus on content, humor, support, and discussion in a bottom-up fashion. The crowd-sourcing is controlled by a feedback system comprised of upvotes and downvotes. This is a simple voting system meant to inspire and encourage witty captions, comments, and content. The best ones are featured at the top, while not so great ones are pushed to the bottom.

Here are some reasons why you should explore Imgur:

Imgurians – The user base which makes up the online community that is Imgur! The community is close knit and has accepting and encouraging views that are always in the best interest of other users. The site comes together to help create awareness and support social egalitarianism. Examples include encouraging users going through social and physical quandaries.

Original Content – Imgur is a great place to discover, showcase, and promote content created by the users. If you are a niche artist who is struggling to get visibility with you work, Imgur may provide the opportunity you need. Users also seem to feel safe submitting it here, as though they are only exposing themselves to a group of close friends. The community is not out to discourage.

Viral Encyclopedia – Worthwhile viral images all in one place. If something worth seeing was featured on reddit, or Digg; you will see it on Imgur. This will help you save time and be ahead of your friends. Browse Imgur daily, and next time one of your friends asks, "Did you see the new Nicolas Cage meme?" your answer will be, "Of course."

Adorable Animals – If this is your thing, you are not alone. Imgur loves them as well and delivers in plenty – including cats, dogs, panda bears, or any other baby animal. Another common occurrence is a giraffe because one also serves as the site's mascot. His name is Imguraffe and he was posted by Imgur executives on April Fool's Day – unexpectedly he was overwhelmingly embraced and adopted by users.

To enhance your browsing experience here is a brief glossary of the commonly used lingo and acronyms of Imgur:

OC (original content): Content created and uploaded by a user

TIL (Today I learned): Normally appears in a caption or comment followed by a witty observation.

The feels": representing emotion, normally indicated that someone is holding back tears.

Banana for scale: Often times a banana will be included in a photo to provide perspective on the size of an object.

MRW (My reaction when): Also usually appears as a caption or comment.

While I asked you to visit this site and do some exploration, I warn you that it can be addicting. One of the biggest faux pas a user can make is to repost a photo that was previously submitted – and yes these get noticed.  With that being said, it is a great way to kill time while perusing the internet and become more aware of social rights, baby animals, artists, and other assorted hilarity. With roughly a billion image views per day, I am sure you will be able to relate with someone, and something on Imgur.
 

Brennan Donnelly can be contacted at Epic@ErieReader.com.