Poe's law

English

Alternative forms

• Poe's Law

Etymology

Formulated in 2005 by a user named “Nathan Poe” on the website christianforums.com, originally in the context of creationism.

Proper noun

Poe's law

1. The observation that, on the Internet, without a clear indication of the author's intent, it is impossible to tell the difference between sincere extremism and a parody of extremism.
   • 2013, Scott F. Aikin, Robert B. Talisse, Why We Argue (And How We Should) […] , Routledge, →ISBN, page 130:

     If you accept Poe's Law, you hold that religious believers are indistinguishable from their parodies.

   • 2017 June 5, Emma Grey Ellis, “Can't Take a Joke? That's Just Poe's Law, 2017's Most Important Internet Phenomenon”, in Wired‎^[2], →ISSN:

     But because the internet has changed in innumerable ways since 2005, expanding and accelerating all the while, Poe's Law applies to more and more internet interactions.

   • 2018, Whitney Phillips, Ryan M. Milner, The Ambivalent Internet […] , John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 121:

     It's not just digital media tools that amplify the ambivalence of humor online. The familiar combination of context collapse and Poe's Law is equally impactive.

See also

• context collapse