Gem and Coal — Diamond with soyjak face next to bearded wojak holding a chunk labeled Coal

Gem and Coal

2020slang / image macrosemi-active

Published October 19, 2026

Gem and Coal are slang terms for high and low quality posts that took hold on 4chan's /qa/ board and later Soyjak.party, where 'gem' flagged a rare good post worth bumping and 'coal' marked a dud. By 2021, the vocabulary had grown into a stable of Soyjak image variants showing characters hoarding gems or pulling coal alarms, which Soyjak communities on X carried onto other sites after Soyjak.party's decline.

soyjak memes slang memes 4chan memes imageboard memes internet slang origin memes

Overview

Gem and Coal work as a two-word rating system on imageboards. A 'gem' is a post considered funny or genuinely original enough to deserve a bump, and 'coal' is the opposite, a lazy or stale post that gets ignored or ridiculed5. The pair fit neatly into Soyjak culture because they let posters react with a single word plus an image, instead of writing out why a thread was worth saving.

Typical Soyjak variants show the same jokes in visual form. One widely shared GIF on SoyBooru shows a Soyjak excitedly mashing a 'bump' button after spotting a gem6, while another shows a stubble Soyjak yanking down a lever on a 'coal' alarm when a bad post appears7. By May 2021, posters were already stacking the two together, as in a /qa/ image showing a gem buried beneath a mound of coal3.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan /qa/ (origin) / Soyjak.party and X (spread)
Date
2020

The phrase 'bumping this gem' was already a /qa/ habit by March 2018, when posters used it to flag threads they wanted kept alive1. Gem and coal did not pick up as Soyjak-centric image reactions until 2020, when posters started pairing the words with Wojak and Soyjak edits. An early /qa/ thread from July 15th, 2020, shows 'bumping this gem' being written alongside a Soyjak reaction image2. A /qa/ post from December 7th, 2020, used 'coal' as a dismissive label for a bad thread, cementing the opposite half of the pair5.

No single creator is tied to the slang. It grew out of /qa/'s everyday posting style, then got absorbed by Soyjak.party users who treated the two words as a rating shorthand for everything crossing their boards5.

How It Spread

Through 2021, gem and coal Soyjaks turned into a running bit across /qa/ and Soyjak.party. On May 30th, 2021, Soyjak.party users mocked a /qa/ poster who had grandly defended their 'certified gem threads' and complained that a mid thread did not belong 'in the gem folder,' quoting the line back as a self-serious joke about the vocabulary itself4. A May 24th, 2021, /qa/ post leaned into the visual gag with a Soyjak image of a single gem buried under coal3.

Use of the terms kept going into late 2021. On August 31st, 2021, an anonymous /qa/ user replied to a 3D-rendered Soyjak thread with a gem Soyjak as approval8. Over the same stretch, SoyBooru archived the stock image variants that still circulate, including the bump-button gem GIF6 and the coal alarm GIF7, which gave later posters a ready-made set of reactions to drop in.

After Soyjak.party's decline, the vocabulary moved with the community onto Twitter / X and smaller Soyjak sites, where members of the Soyjak scene still use 'gem' and 'coal' as quick quality tags on posts5. The archived SoyBooru variants became the main carrier of the format outside the original boards.

Timeline

2018-03

The phrase 'bumping this gem' is already in regular use on 4chan's /qa/ board as a way to flag worthwhile threads.

2020-07-15

A /qa/ post pairs 'bumping this gem' with a Soyjak reaction, an early example of the slang fusing with Soyjak imagery.

2020-12-07

A /qa/ post uses 'coal' as a dismissive label for a bad thread, giving the slang its negative half.

2021-05-24

A /qa/ post shows a Soyjak image of a single gem buried beneath a mound of coal, formalizing the visual pairing.

2021-05-30

Soyjak.party users mock a poster bragging about 'certified gem threads' and a 'gem folder,' turning the vocabulary into self-aware comedy.

2021-08-31

A /qa/ user replies to a 3D Soyjak thread with a gem Soyjak as approval, a common usage pattern by this point.

How to Use This Meme

Typical usage is to reply with 'gem' plus a Soyjak reaction when a post is actually good, or 'coal' when it is bland or recycled. Posters often attach one of the common Soyjak variants, such as the bump-button GIF for gems6 or the coal alarm GIF for a dud7. The words also appear as a judgment on whole threads, with users writing lines like 'certified gem thread' or dumping a post into 'the coal folder'4.

Frequently Asked Questions