# Gem and Coal
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.
## Origin
The phrase 'bumping this gem' was already a /qa/ habit by March 2018, when posters used it to flag threads they wanted kept alive[1]. 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 image[2]. A /qa/ post from December 7th, 2020, used 'coal' as a dismissive label for a bad thread, cementing the opposite half of the pair[5].
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 boards[5].
- **Platform:** 4chan /qa/ (origin) / Soyjak.party and X (spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2020
## 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 ridiculed[5]. 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 gem[6], while another shows a stubble Soyjak yanking down a lever on a 'coal' alarm when a bad post appears[7]. By May 2021, posters were already stacking the two together, as in a /qa/ image showing a gem buried beneath a mound of coal[3].
## How to Use
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 gems[6] or the coal alarm GIF for a dud[7]. 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
### What is Gem and Coal?
They are paired slang terms from 4chan's /qa/ board and Soyjak.party, where 'gem' tags a rare good post worth bumping and 'coal' tags a bad or stale one[5].
### Where did Gem and Coal come from?
'Bumping this gem' was in use on /qa/ by March 2018[1], and gem and coal Soyjak reactions picked up on /qa/ and Soyjak.party in 2020[2].
### What does Gem and Coal mean?
A 'gem' is a post considered funny or original enough to deserve a bump, while 'coal' is a lazy or unoriginal post that gets dismissed, with Soyjak variants backing up each label[3].
### How do you use Gem and Coal?
Posters reply with 'gem' or 'coal' plus a matching Soyjak, such as the bump-button GIF for a gem[6] or the coal alarm GIF for a dud[7].
### Is Gem and Coal still popular?
The slang moved with Soyjak posters onto Twitter / X and smaller sites after Soyjak.party's decline, with SoyBooru archiving the common variants[5].
## References
1. [https://desuarchive.org/qa/search/text/gem/end/2020-06-01/page/5/]()
2. [https://desuarchive.org/qa/thread/3308816/#q3310195]()
3. [https://desuarchive.org/a/thread/222743711/]()
4. [https://desuarchive.org/qa/thread/4453199/#q4454003]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/gem-and-coal]()
6. [https://soybooru.com/post/view/160]()
7. [https://soybooru.com/post/view/7367]()
8. [https://desuarchive.org/qa/thread/4960034/#q4969676]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/gem-and-coal
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