Gatekeeping Memes

Posts tagged with Gatekeeping

Come Here, But Don't Deviate From The Path

Come Here, But Don't Deviate From The Path
The Linux community's split personality disorder in full display! When Windows users can't upgrade to Windows 11 because their 5-year-old CPU doesn't have TPM 2.0, Linux users are standing there with open arms and cardboard signs: "Welcome refugees!" But dare to mention you're going back to Windows (or commit the cardinal sin of preferring Ubuntu over Arch), and suddenly those same friendly faces transform into lightning-shooting judgment machines. Nothing says "freedom of choice" quite like the freedom to choose exactly what the community approves of.

The Mythical "Real Dev" Hardware Requirements

The Mythical "Real Dev" Hardware Requirements
Ah yes, the mythical "Real Dev" – that legendary creature who apparently needs a NASA supercomputer to run VS Code. Nothing says "I'm a serious programmer" like convincing yourself you need specialized hardware for "heavy compiling" when cloud services have been handling this for years. The gatekeeping is strong with this one! "Real devs use different machines" – meanwhile the person who wrote this is probably compiling their Hello World program on a gaming rig they convinced their parents was "for school." Pro tip: The best code is written on whatever device you have when inspiration strikes. Some of the world's most successful software was built on "consumer products" by "codemonkeys" who were too busy shipping to worry about their dev cred.

There's A Reason Pre-Builts Exist

There's A Reason Pre-Builts Exist
The PC building evangelists strike again! That special breed of tech enthusiast who somehow turns "I built my own computer" into a personality trait. They lurk in forums, waiting to pounce on any innocent parent asking about buying a pre-built gaming PC for their kid. Look, not everyone wants to spend their weekend watching 47 YouTube tutorials on proper thermal paste application or risk destroying a $500 graphics card because they got too enthusiastic with static electricity. Sometimes people just want a computer that works without becoming an honorary electrical engineer. Pre-builts exist for a reason. They're the "I just want to eat the damn cookie" option in a world full of people insisting you need to mill your own flour first.

I Know What You Are

I Know What You Are
The CS freshman starter pack is brutally accurate! They write "Hello World" once and suddenly have 4 programming languages on their LinkedIn. Their entire development environment consists of VS Code and GitKraken because the terminal is "scary." Their idea of deployment? Submitting assignments through Canvas. They'll spend hours hunting for that missing semicolon while sharing Boromir memes, and their entire personality revolves around the Minecraft-inspired "noob vs pro" dichotomy. The gatekeeping begins before they've even built anything substantial!

The Four Horsemen Of Stack Overflow Responses

The Four Horsemen Of Stack Overflow Responses
The four horsemen of Stack Overflow responses! You ask a simple question and get hit with "Sounds like a skill issue" or my personal favorite: "This problem wouldn't exist if you knew what you were doing." Meanwhile, the same developers who refuse to help are furiously bookmarking other people's answers for their own projects. The digital equivalent of throwing someone into the deep end while screaming "just swim better!" Nothing says coding community quite like gatekeeping basic knowledge behind a wall of condescension.

Stop Using The Word "Bricked" If You Don't Know What It Means

Stop Using The Word "Bricked" If You Don't Know What It Means
The tech community's version of natural selection: watching newbies confidently throw around terms like "bricked" without realizing they're essentially announcing "I permanently destroyed my device" rather than "it's temporarily not working." Nothing quite like the silent judgment of seasoned engineers watching someone declare they've "bricked" their laptop because the battery died.

Initialize Vibe Coding

Initialize Vibe Coding
Ah yes, the mythical "real programmer" – that elusive creature who apparently codes everything from scratch using nothing but pure brain power and cosmic vibes. Meanwhile, in reality, the rest of us mortals are over here frantically Googling syntax, copying from Stack Overflow, and begging AI to fix our broken code at 3 AM. The gatekeeping is strong with this one! Next thing you'll tell me "real programmers" only code on punchcards while standing barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways.

The Newbie Asking For Help On X

The Newbie Asking For Help On X
Asking for coding help on social media is like walking into a jungle full of predators. The cat (newbie) innocently asks about hunting mice (solving a simple problem), but gets bombarded with increasingly dangerous suggestions from the "experts." First the leopard dismisses the original approach entirely, then the tiger suggests deer (a completely different framework), and finally the lion recommends buffalos (an enterprise-level solution to a beginner problem). This is exactly what happens when you ask how to center a div and someone tells you to rewrite your entire app in Rust with a microservices architecture. The escalation is both hilarious and painfully accurate.

Just Read The Docs Bro

Just Read The Docs Bro
OH. MY. GOD. The absolute DRAMA of asking a simple coding question online! 💀 Left side: innocent newbie with puppy eyes asking for help in Python. Right side: the AUDACITY of these keyboard warriors telling you to "read the docs" like they were born understanding recursion! But PLOT TWIST! Bottom panel shows the rare unicorn who actually helps AND explains, getting a simple "thanks" while the rage-faces continue their existential meltdown about how you're "not a real programmer." The true heroes of StackOverflow are outnumbered by documentation-worshipping gatekeepers who'd rather die than explain a simple for-loop to a beginner. Heaven forbid someone asks how to center a div!

All I Did Was Ask A Question

All I Did Was Ask A Question
The developer food chain in its natural habitat. Stack Overflow: "Closed as duplicate" (without linking the original). Reddit: "Go Google it lmao" (while downvoting you to oblivion). Hacker News: "This is not an appropriate forum for questions" (followed by a 5-paragraph rant about how you're using the wrong language). 4chan: "KYS nooder" (somehow the most helpful response because at least they're honest about their contempt). Finding programming help online is like asking directions in four different countries where everyone hates tourists.

Real Programming Must Be Painful

Real Programming Must Be Painful
Ah, the eternal Python vs "real programming" debate! The stick figure is lamenting that Python doesn't make you "cool like a real programmer" while his friends completely ignore him—one's jamming on a guitar, another's coding import numpy as np , and the third is actually building something useful. This perfectly skewers the gatekeeping mindset that equates programming difficulty with value. Meanwhile, the Python user is quietly being productive with scientific computing libraries while the purist is stuck complaining about language superiority. The irony is delicious—the person claiming others aren't "real programmers" is the only one not creating anything!

Name The 7 Layers Or Else

Name The 7 Layers Or Else
The classic "name all the bands" gatekeeping, but make it networking. Every CS student has that moment of panic when someone asks about the OSI model and suddenly you're frantically trying to remember if it's "Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away" or "All People Seem To Need Data Processing." Meanwhile, the gun just represents the networking professor's grading policy.