Gatekeeping Memes

Someone finally said it. While everyone's out here calling themselves "coders" and doing "coding bootcamps," there's this one person who had to remind us that the proper term is "programming." Because apparently "coding" has become the TikTok-ified version of what we do—like calling yourself a "content creator" instead of "unemployed with a Ring light." The suggestions for "not-vibe-coding" are pure gold though. "Boomer coding" hits different when you realize half of us still write code like it's 1995. "Chewgy coding" for that millennial energy of over-engineering everything. "Trad coding" for when you refuse to use frameworks and insist on writing everything from scratch. And "Coding with capital C" is just chef's kiss—because if you're gonna gatekeep, might as well go full grammatical pedant. But the reply? *Chef's kiss intensifies.* Declaring "coding" an infantilizing word and anointing "programming" as the noble profession is the kind of pretentious energy that makes you simultaneously roll your eyes and nod in agreement. We're not just slapping semicolons together, we're *engineering solutions*. Or at least that's what we tell ourselves at 3 AM debugging a null pointer exception.

Oh. My. God. The AUDACITY of this programmer! 💅 When asked to name every computer ever (the ultimate "prove you're an engineer" challenge), this absolute GENIUS just wrote a for loop to rename them ALL to 'ever' instead! It's like being asked to name all 50 states and responding "I hereby christen them all 'Bob'." The sheer MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE is sending me to another dimension! This is what happens when you challenge a programmer to do something impossible - they'll find the most technically correct yet utterly useless solution possible. Engineers don't memorize lists, honey - they AUTOMATE their way out of your ridiculous gatekeeping! *hair flip*

The bar is so low it's practically a tripping hazard in hell. Front-end dev says don't put a language on your resume after a 15-minute tutorial, and someone replies "at least wait until you've written hello world." That's like saying "don't call yourself a chef until you've successfully boiled water." The gatekeeping is real, folks, but so is the imposter syndrome that makes us think we're React developers after watching half a YouTube video.

The perfect representation of the open source community's split personality. On one side, you've got the enthusiastic advocates with their step-by-step guides and "beginner-friendly" labels. On the other, you've got the gatekeepers with their "DON'T contribute" warnings and... wait, is that a Soviet hammer and sickle? Nothing says "our code belongs to everyone" quite like communist symbolism thrown into the mix! The reality of open source: 50% welcoming community trying to build their GitHub résumé, 49% terrified maintainers who don't want you touching their perfect code, and 1% people who somehow turn programming into political theory. And they wonder why newbies get confused!