Eternal September
/ɪˈtɜːrnəl sɛpˈtɛmbər/
UncommonThe ongoing state of any internet community flooded with new users who never fully absorb its norms.
Carries real historical weight among people who remember pre-mainstream internet. When someone says a community is in its eternal September, they mean the culture is permanently diluted, not just temporarily noisy.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | reddit has been in eternal september since 2012, maybe earlier | Reddit's culture was permanently diluted by mainstream user growth years ago. | |
| 02 | the eternal september of twitter happened when celebrities joined en masse | The cultural shift on Twitter is traced to a specific influx of mainstream users. | x, 2022 |
| 03 | this is just eternal september. every community goes through it eventually. | The pattern of new users overwhelming a culture is universal and expected. | |
| 04 | learned about eternal september today and it explains so much about the internet | The concept provided a framework for understanding how online communities decay. | x, 2023 |
Use it when
- Describing a community that has lost its culture to a flood of new users.
- Referencing the historical event to explain how internet culture fragmented.
- Explaining why a once-niche community feels watered down.
Do not use it when
- You just mean a community is popular or has a lot of new users.
- You mean a temporary spike in activity, not a permanent cultural shift.
Origin and context
Coined by Dave Fischer in 1993. Each September before that year, Usenet veterans would endure a wave of new university students who needed time to learn the culture. In September 1993, AOL gave its millions of users access to Usenet, creating a flood that never ended. Fischer wrote that 'It's September 1993 forever now.'
- First seen
- 1993
- Confidence
- high
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/eternal-septemberUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0