https://www.reddit.com/r/196/comments/17ee71i/why_is_this_sub_called_196_what_is_the_lore_about/

195 was a similar meme sub with the same rule, created by friends who lived in apartment 195. Eventually it shut down due to only having one active mod and becoming pretty popular, to the point it was too much effort to keep it going. It shut down 420 weeks after creation, nice.

196 was created to carry on the sub 

The 420 weeks thing might not be just a coincidence though as implied- someone else added:

the main concept was that the sub was gonna be shut down after 420 weeks

I've answered this before! Always fun to share.

195 was a general dump anything and everything subreddit. Went on a for a long while like 5+ years, started buy a guy and his roommate matt. Suddenly like 2018 a message appeared sticked to the top that said "social experiment completed" and the sub was locked. People moved to both 196 and 197. At the end of 195 it shifted more twords right wing bigotry type memes and screenshots. 196 added a rule to the only rule, bigotry screenshots were restricted to Saturdays which filtered out a lot of hateful content and the void of which was filled with positive more uplifting screenshots and memes. Without the fear of opening up a post and having it be the most bigoted take on something and calling it a meme the posters were able to put out their pride without the fear of hate in return.

The users who wanted to post the bigoted memes went to 197 since they were restricted to Saturdays only. Helped create a divide in 195s two posting groups and overall make 196 the place to be.

No idea. For real. No fucking idea.

Sometimes I don't click on the community because then I'd be held hostage and have to scramble and find a post from under the couch.

I just miss the wizard orbs