Signs are meant to inform you. Direct you to the nearest toilet. Remind you not to hand-feed the lion. But some raise more questions than they provide answers. And you can find them on the Facebook group 'Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Signage.' Or 'UUU Signage' if you like acronyms.
"'UUU Signage' is a part of the larger 'Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular' community," the group's 'About' section says. "We are interested only in pictures you have taken yourselves of signage that is funny, incompetent, wholesome, amazing, or otherwise interesting in some way."
Passive aggressive office notes, ridiculous bumper stickers, these folks have it all. So we at Bored Panda decided to explore their content a bit deeper. Continue scrolling and check out what we saw!
More info: Facebook
#1 Unsuccessful Bc I Counted Them And Only Saw 17
Image credits: Amy Le
#2 Not Sure Who The Masculine Back Men Are
Image credits: Kari Lucas
We managed to get in touch with the administrators of 'UUU Signage' and they were kind enough to tell us about the inner workings of the group.
Currently, 'UUU Signage' has 410,000 members. "We never wanted it to be this big," they told Bored Panda. "We started out as a small corner of the UUUniverse, even though some people refer to Signage as 'the original group.'"
"The UUUniverse began with a now-archived group known as 'Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Memes' which spawned a community that went on to form many groups. There's one for just about every topic, including UUU Cats Refurmed, UUU License Plate Spotting, UUU Cook, and even very niche groups such as UUU Standpipe Spotting!"
#3
Image credits: Lita Lotus
#4 Spotted In Local Brewery Restroom
Image credits: Morgan Lindsay
#5 Thems The Rules!
Image credits: JC O'Connor
The admins said these splinter groups' membership usually consisted of people from the UUUniverse. However, for whatever reason, UUU Signage exploded in popularity and began reaching a wider audience.
"Membership requests have only increased exponentially since then," they said. "The important thing to remember is that 'Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular' is more of a 'brand' than actual criteria for submitted content. We welcome all contributions as long as they comply with our rules, which are pretty straightforward"
"As far as the community itself, we moderate pretty strictly when it comes to join requests. We have a set of questions that lay out very clearly what the group is about and what we will tolerate," the admins explained. "If a potential member doesn't answer all of them, or fails to answer them to our satisfaction, we deny their request for membership. This helps keep out potential trolls and spam bots, too. We don't have any statistics but we get thousands of join requests daily and we deny more than we admit."
#6 Saw This Today At The Grocery Store
Image credits: Alexa Elena
#7 So... What Did I Eat
Image credits: Morgan Sabrina Guarino
#8 Found In A Local Shop. Idk Kinda Useful For Me.. I Did Leave A Tip For The Cause
Image credits: Taylor Alois
#9 The Talent
Image credits: Ash Solomon Mills
Facebook communities this big often become chaotic breeding grounds for trolls, and some slip into 'UUU Signage' even with its strict admission policy. However, the chances of them causing any trouble are minimum, since they get kicked out the second they show their true colors. "We get plenty of trolls and we moderate pretty strictly. We have zero tolerance for any sort of bigotry," the admins said.
"We shut down arguments as soon as we see them and mute people who participate in them (regardless of what side you’re arguing for). We preemptively close comments or delete posts with topics that we know from experience will make people argue. Over time, we've put rules in place to help prevent people from sucking the fun out of the group (by ruining jokes by repeatedly explaining a sign when no one asked, or dogpiling the OP for not knowing something, etc.)."
#10 I Definitely Trust This Font
Image credits: Chris Burge
#11 July 4, 2011, On A Lamppost In My Neighborhood. I’m Still Confused 11 Years Later
Image credits: Pam Barger
#12 Took On My Way To Our Local Breakfast Spot
Image credits: Dawn Watson
#13 Better Stay Away. These Rum And Cokes Are Ruining Lives
Image credits: Christina Joy
Some of the most common issues within the group are: 1) people not reading the rules and then being surprised when they get suspended or blocked from the group for breaking those rules, and 2) people who want to debate politics and/or insult each other in various ways, which is related to the first one.
"We also run a separate group, Signage Help Desk, where we invite members and even ex-members to post everything from technical questions to the inevitable 'Why did I get banned/muted?' Members seem to get angrier with being muted than being outright banned so we get a lot of people asking why. We also get a lot of members asking why their particular post was deleted and we are happy to offer them an explanation, although they are not always receptive to our answers," the admins explained.
#14 Spotted In The Wild!
Image credits: Jennifer Reed Eisensmith
#15 Found On My Pot (Purchased In China)
Image credits: Lea O'Callaghan
#16 I Deliver Pizza And Drive By This Sign Every Day Near The Hospital. It's On Someone's Front Lawn About A Block Away. It Perplexes Me
Image credits: Daniel Bell
#17
Image credits: Alexandra Isabelle
From toilets to stadiums, as you can see, the signs that get featured in this group come from a lot of different places. "With [so many] members, it's hard for us to pinpoint any particular member or location as a frequent contributor because they do come from all over," the admins said. "We don't allow 'viral content' – the pictures of the signs must be taken by the person who posted the image."
"If we did not have this rule, the group would be overrun by people sharing images they either 'found in the wild' or just plain didn't take themselves. This helps keep the content fresh and avoids people spamming the same 'funny sign' they found on Reddit or The Chive that day." And that is precisely why the group has caught our eye. It's original. Not just another content recycling 'factory'.
#18 This Was At The Memorial City Mall In Houston, Texas On My Lovely Birthday Back In September Of 2020
Image credits: Winnie Futral
#19 And I’m Proud To Be An American Where At Least I Know I’m Free
Image credits: Ali Hough
#20 These Soda Flavors Are Getting Out Of Control
Image credits: Tom Murdock
#21 Just Gave Me A Chuckle On My Walk
Image credits: Dana Scott
"Target has a sign on their individually priced bananas that reads 'Banana's by the each' (the apostrophe was eventually corrected) that had been posted dozens of times," the admins remembered one of the classics. "By around the 20th or so time we had seen it, we were so sick of it that we decided that we would delete future posts of it on sight. Later, we discussed applying this principle more broadly to curate the group and keep the content fresh."
"We named this policy the 'Bananas by the Each Referendum.' Now we maintain a list of signs that we've seen too many times that are now considered 'bananas' and we delete them if we see them. This prevents the group's content from consisting of the same pictures over and over again and keeps it fresh."
#22 Behave!
Image credits: Aubrey Megan Worrell
#23 At My Office
Image credits: Christopher Lee
#24 Popular With Everyone Except The Human Wastage That Don’t Like To Pay For Their Items
Image credits: Kimberly Jade
#25 A Storm Blew Over My Porch Sign This Week And I Set It Back Up Without Paying Attention. Walking To My Front Door Just Now I Realized The “O” Is Now Hidden Behind The Crate
Image credits: Heidi Larsen
'UUU Signage' was created all the way back in 2014, however, while a lot of similar groups get shut down by Facebook for various violations, this one continues to thrive. Now that you've heard the amount of love and attention the admins pour into their work, it becomes kinda obvious why.
"We encourage use of the 'report to admin' feature which allows us to find and remove problematic content quickly," they said. "Contrary to the popular rumors, use of the feature does not get groups shut down. In our experience, the groups that find themselves getting repeatedly shut down and forming backup group after backup group are the ones with admins who ban and bully people for trying to help."
"We don't tolerate bigotry or hate speech or people being huge jerks to each other. We don't like the 'drag OP' culture of many other large groups. We don't care for the concept of 'dirty deleting' and we are happy to delete gross comments rather than having some weird compulsion to preserve someone's bigotry forever." In the vast sea that is Facebook, such dedication is hard to come by. And you can definitely tell when someone cares about what they do. It shows, first and foremost, in quality.
#26
Image credits: Amanda Morgan
#27
Image credits: Courtney Eirlys
#28
Image credits: Josh Klauder
#29
Image credits: Mary Mae Jackowski
#30 Ok Then...
Image credits: David Jacobsen
#31 Work With Royalty, Somewhere Else
Image credits: Charles Topping
#32 Useless, But Very Popular And Successful In My Book
Image credits: Amber Hamilton
#33 Added A Sticker To Cover The Businesses Phone Number But Excuse Me What Does This Mean
Image credits: Ashley Linn
#34 Sign On The Door Of The Storage Shed In The Bar That I Work At. We Call It "The Crying Shed." If You've Worked Food Service, You Know. (Admittedly, This Sign Gets Lots Of Laughs And Attention So It's Actually Pretty Popular Lol)
Image credits: Haley Smith
#35 On The Back Window Of A Van Which Was In Front Of Me At A Red Light
Image credits: Robin Brock Broyles
#36 Only In Las Vegas, A Sign For A Sign
Image credits: Greg Schuette
#37 My 8yo Wrote This On Our Fridge. But What Does It Mean??
UPDATE: yeah she has butt worms and didn't know how to tell me. Pray for us.
Image credits: Maddy Doug
#38 Zoom In For Chaos
Image credits: Liz Boccolini
#39 Spotted In Melbourne, Australia. I Should Add, I’m In Agreement With This One, I Don’t Think It’s Unpopular
Image credits: Michael Sabell
#40 Clothing Label In Thailand
Image credits: Chloë Carter
#41 Prob'ly.... Definitely Successful...
Image credits: Michelle Davis
#42 Spanish Spanish Spanish
Image credits: Finn Poe
#43 I Have No Words....
Image credits: Lachlan McDonald
#44 Spotted In Conyers, Ga
Image credits: Rachel Madison Ussery
#45 Outside Of A Bar Down The Street From Me
Image credits: Jaden Schievelbein
#46 Thanks For The Warning, I Guess.
Image credits: Robyn Bingham
#47
Image credits: Tori Hardeman
#48 Darn I Can’t Just Touch People
Image credits: Amanda Mitchell
#49 ... And Then Enjoy "Buying" Things With Your "Cash"
Image credits: Lindsay Bosel
#50 Seen Today At An Antique Store
Image credits: Naomi Smith
#51 Found At Target This Morning
Image credits: Cheyenne Nawrocki
#52 It’s The Professionalism For Me…
Image credits: Emily Galowitz
#53 Spotted Today In Manchester, UK
Image credits: Rita Ochoa
#54 Weird Facts While Pumping Gas
Image credits: Amanda Grill
#55 Unpopular With Me
Image credits: Abigail Williams
#56 I Want To Argue But I'm An Ally...
Image credits: Amber Vaughn
#57 Nice Calendar!
Image credits: Erin Dawes
#58 Upcycling At Its Finest!
Image credits: Janet Schmidt
#59 Pretty Sure That Statistic Is Wrong (Found In Utah, Unsurprisingly)
Image credits: Shel Cizadlo
#60 When You See It
Image credits: MJ Love
#61
Image credits: Geoffrey Poole
#62
Image credits: Geoffrey Poole
#63 It's The "Managment" For Me
Image credits: Tania Parker
#64 Uhhh, What? Can Someone Explain??
Image credits: Brent Roberts
#65 I Hope They Don't Livestream It.
Image credits: Calcious Lalo
#66 Cool Cool Cool Just Normal Things.
Image credits: Riley Hart
#67 Hope This Belongs Here. Behind The Industrial Washer And Dryer At The Plant I Work At
Image credits: CeCe Wesley
#68 Spotted Today In Ouarzazate, Morroco
Image credits: Rita Ochoa
#69 Unpopular With Dq, The Nursing Home, And Me. Shame!
Image credits: Katelin Vincent
#70 Does This Make Anyone Else Super Uncomfortable?
Image credits: Rachael Stratton
#71 I Wouldn't Carve It Into Wet Cement To Tell The Next Generations But Yeah, They're Pretty Good
Image credits: Gwin Condon
#72 Come For The Beer, Stay For The Nice Ass Carpet
Image credits: Rachel Hannah Smith
#73 This Hangs In The Bathroom At My New Job. Funny But Useless
Image credits: Lisa Kowalewski
#74
Image credits: Danny Michel
#75 Thank You For The Motivation Apd
Image credits: Aaron P Landrum
#76 In The Fridge At Work...
Image credits: Alexia Maneschi
#77 In My Friends Neighborhood In Bossier City, Louisiana
Image credits: Torey Pleasant
#78 Left Overnight By My 14 Year Old Son. Popular With Me Because Who Doesn’t Love A Polite Teenager? Unpopular With The Cat Because He Can’t Read And Drank Out Of The Toilet
Image credits: Sam Ródenas-Weir
#79 On The Side Of A Country Road In Upstate New York
Image credits: Amy Booth
#80 At Our Local Mexican Restaurant That We Go To Weekly
Image credits: Raquel DeMoura Barrett
#81 "Hey Bro, What's Your Street Name Again?" "Oh, It Doesn't Have One..."
Image credits: Jay Lewis
#82 At A Local Drive-In
Image credits: Daniel W. Bigler
#83 Meat Coats Dillons In Lawrence, Kansas
Image credits: Cimmy Redmond
#84 "Take This Lettuce, It Is My Body"
Image credits: Levi Savusa-Lilly
#85 Jesus Trusted Women ...
Image credits: Lakisha Sparrow
#86 2 Vanity Plates > Fixing The Fucked Up Corner Of Your Car
Image credits: Cinda Quil
#87 Been Waiting A Year For This To Come Back... Taken From A Public Sidewalk On A Public Road, Situated Between 2 Public Schools, And Less Than A Mile From A Fire Station
Image credits: Aaron Christie
#88 Very Confused
Image credits: Shaun Morris
#89 Consolation To All Unable To Go Shopping On The Holiday
Image credits: Dane Drutis
#90 The Spelling Of “Italeigh” On This Sign Is Unpopular With Me
Image credits: Joseph Shafer
#91 Apparently The Sign Before This (Bottom Left) Was Unsuccessful In Order For This Gem To Be Made
Image credits: Macy Trussov
#92 Cell Phones Make Eye Contact
Image credits: Paul LaForge
#93
Image credits: Jon Conant
#94 Had To Do A Double Take... Bonus Points For Self-Awareness, I Guess
Image credits: Jonathan Bradley
#95 One Night In Abject Fear, Not Feeling Welcome At All. Especially Worried That We Might Have Power Ded Substances Without Knowing It
Image credits: Stephen Pollard
#96 Mm No.. That’s Not It Either
Image credits: Amanda Wilson
#97 Seen At Taco Bell Yesterday. All For Being Kind, Just Wondering Where These Free Handouts Are
Image credits: Brandon Richter
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