# What is Meta?
**URL:** https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298
**Category:** General Yo-Yo
**Created:** [April 15, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298 "2019-04-15T18:09:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Phantisee86](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/Phantisee86)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/1 "2019-04-15T18:09:20Z")
Forgive me if this has been covered, but I couldn’t find good results from searching. (Meta is too close to Metal, and it is not in the one glossary post).
I see this word being used a lot, but I have yet to get a good understanding of what it means.
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### Author:  [@andy569](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/andy569)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 6:17pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/2 "2019-04-15T18:17:06Z")
Competitive meta is what types of tricks and style is currently relevant in the competition scene.
Some people use it to talk about what type of tricks are currently relevant or popular in general though. Not necessarily in competition but just in general, on social media, etc.
Think of how the best characters used most often at competition in any given game is that game’s meta
Or if you play any TCGs, the top decks are that games meta
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### Author:  [@YoYoExpertGarrett](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/YoYoExpertGarrett)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/3 "2019-04-15T18:29:01Z")
most effective tactic available
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### Author:  [@zslane](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/zslane)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/4 "2019-04-15T18:34:11Z")
I didn’t realize it was an acronym. Should be spelled M.E.T.A. in that case (or META at the very least). But people are lazy, and so we get confusion as a result. Feh.
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### Author:  [@andy569](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/andy569)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 7:22pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/5 "2019-04-15T19:22:51Z")
It’s not. It’s short for metagame. It just so happens that that acronym actually kind of makes sense
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### Author:  [@MarkD](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/MarkD)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/6 "2019-04-15T19:25:22Z")
Yeah, it’s a backronym, but it helps describe how the word is typically used for games/competitions.
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### Author:  [@zslane](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/zslane)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/7 "2019-04-15T19:33:03Z")
It’s confusing because _meta-_ is just a prefix, not a word, but it gets used as shorthand for different actual words depending on context. I just wish people would stop being so lazy and just type/say the entire word they are actually using (e.g., _metagame_ in this case).
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### Author:  [@andy569](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/andy569)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/8 "2019-04-15T19:42:03Z")
But it takes twice. TWICE. 200%! TWO. TIMES. as long to type metagame than it does to type meta. I don’t even know how much time I’ve saved in my life typing meta instead of metagame.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/9 "2019-04-15T20:16:48Z")
Meta
> (of a creative work) referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.
>
> “the enterprise is inherently “meta,” since it doesn’t review movies, for example, it reviews the reviewers who review movies”
Relative to _these forums_, “meta” would be discussion about the discussion itself, for example “don’t recursively full quote 5 other posts and put ‘thanks’ at the bottom”. :wink:
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### Author:  [@zslane](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/zslane)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/10 "2019-04-15T20:24:20Z")
I think it is more accurate to say that _metadiscussion_ is (self-referential) discussion about the discussion itself. Basically discussion that operates at a level “above” the context of the primary text. A synonym of _metatextual_.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/11 "2019-04-15T20:40:52Z")
Right and not-meta would be discussion about **actual yo-yos and how they play** versus… discussing how the discussion works. Just so everyone has more examples :wink:
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### Author:  [@andy569](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/andy569)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 12:02am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/12 "2019-04-16T00:02:51Z")
Dv888 is pretty meta on these forums
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/13 "2019-04-16T00:04:52Z")
That’s not really meta, that’s a community in-joke.
> **[In-joke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-joke)**
>
> An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke with humour that is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest. It is, therefore, an esoteric joke, only humorous to those who are aware of the circumstances behind it.
> Typically, inside jokes use a reference in the punchline to imply that which is associated with the reference. Often, this reference refers to the punchl...
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### Author:  [@Moxxic](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/Moxxic)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 12:42am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/14 "2019-04-16T00:42:45Z")
I was always curious how yoyo tricks become meta. In card games and such, it makes sense because there are new cards and strategies. What evolutions in the yoyo competition scene cause meta tricks to arise?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 1:16am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/15 "2019-04-16T01:16:12Z")
“meta” in this case would be discussing how to create new yo-yo tricks, like… what’s your process for coming up with a new trick, how do you know if it’s even a “trick”, what makes it unique amongst other tricks, how do you determine if someone else made that trick first, and so on.
To some extent discussing how to manufacture yo-yos is a bit meta as well.
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### Author:  [@smileypants707](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/smileypants707)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 1:28am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/16 "2019-04-16T01:28:36Z")
This concept _still_ breaks my mind. Like, I hear what you’re saying, and it kiiind of makes sense, but I just can’t make sense of the way the term is used.
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### Author:  [@JohnnyJ](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/JohnnyJ)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 9:20am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/17 "2019-04-16T09:20:28Z")
> [@andy569](#):
>
> Dv888 is pretty meta on these forums
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> That’s not really meta, that’s a community in-joke.
@codinghorror although you seem to be correct on its usage grammatically, the way @andy569 used it accurately reflects how it’s commonly used in internet slang.
It seems like anything that’s trademark to the object of discussion is considered meta.
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### Author:  [@\_Z1](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/_Z1)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2019, 10:41am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/18 "2019-04-18T10:41:50Z")
“optimized yoyoing” in terms of the yoyo-world.
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### Author:  [@hobbygod](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/hobbygod)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2019, 10:55am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/19 "2019-04-18T10:55:31Z")
It’s basically the current trick trend, or tricks that click the highest in competition. Right now if you go on a lot of high level yoyoers insta like Remy, keiran, etc, you’ll probably see some type of insane suicide trick, and some kind of 360 whip thingy.
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### Author:  [@edhaponik](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/edhaponik)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2019, 11:18am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-is-meta/301298/20 "2019-04-18T11:18:14Z")
In a yo-yo context, “meta” always reminds me of the Anti-Yo YWET, which was an acronym for “yo-yoers will eat themselves” (itself a reference to the band Pop Will Eat Itself). Initially I assumed that to refer to the community killing itself by exclusivity or something. But Kiya explained to me that it’s actually the idea that yo-yo players will subsist on the increasingly rarefied content/style and use that inspiration to evolve. I think that was pretty prescient and we’ve seen that play out in the decade since the YWET.
We tend to dilute ideas to their competitive/tactical significance, so “meta” gets confused with “how to win”, but it describes any time you’re reflecting on where yo-yoing is or where it’s going stylistically. This thread itself is pretty meta. It’s thinking about “how the thing is done” and how that is always in flux.