A Reddit user who has spent every day of the last eight months posting photos of his roommate asleep has declared the 'end of an era' after the roommate finally moved out.
The user - 'whynotbeme2' - posted his first picture of his roommate Ian sleeping on 17 October 2011. He posted the strange photo on a sub-Reddit called - you guessed it - Pictures of Ian Sleeping.
Almost every day since the user has published a photo of his roommate asleep - to the delight of the subReddit's readers, and the internet at large.
The forum quickly gained a weird type of absurdist fame - being declared the site's subReddit of the day on 8 June.
In an interview to mark the occasion, whynotbeme2 said that "there was probably something deep and poetic" about his roommate's sleep,
"Unfortunately, I'm kinda lazy and shallow, So I decided to crowdsource my philosophical musings, and post photos of his slumber to the internet. He thought it was funny, so he agreed to it and was one of the first subscribers," he said.
Even a brief controvesey involving the user publishiung photos of Ian and his girlfriend - which were later removed - the section of the site has remained popular.
But on 1 July, the meme finally came to an end.
In a post named 'the end of an era', whynotbeme2 posted a picture of an empty corner.
Ian had moved out.
Reddit's users were bereft.
"When I saw this post my heart broke," said one. "It's like graduation day. You know deep down you may never see some of these people again, but you refuse to believe it until the ceremony is over and everyone waves goodbye. We're all still here, but Ian is gone. Forever".