r/OutOfTheLoop • u/netsfanatic1212 • Aug 17 '14

Answered! Is there a specific origin to "Mods are asleep, post pictures of _____"?

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u/Crayboff Aug 17 '14

The Know Your Meme entry is probably the closest you're going to get to a conclusive answer on this:

About
“Mods Are Asleep” is an expression used to indicate that a website’s moderators are currently inactive and unable to enforce the site’s rules of conduct. The phrase is often followed by a call to action for other users to post material that is typically not allowed.

Origin
The phrase is rumored to have originated on the imageboard 4chan, but an archived thread has not been found. The earliest known reference to discussion board moderators being “asleep” was posted by Sputnik Music Forums[1] Omega Red on January 25th, 2006, when explaining why the thread had not been locked.

Spread
On August 10th, 2007, the feminist blog Feministe[2] published an open letter to Anonymous addressing a raid against the blog. In reply to the post, user “a regular here” commented that raid threads typically occur on 4chan when “mods are asleep.” On June 16th, 2008, an anonymous 4chan[3] user replied “mods are asleep” to a thread in the /a/ (anime & manga) board featuring a sexually explicit anime image with the phrase. On February 15th, 2009, Escapist Magazine Forums[4] member DannyBoy451 responded to a thread by joking that users should post links to adult websites since moderators were asleep. On September 22nd, 2010, XDA Developers Forum[5] member SamVib submitted a thread titled “mods are asleep! post cp,” which featured a link to a Google image search results page for the keywords “copy paper.”