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4chan

File:4chan-frontpageapril.jpg4chan's main page as of April 1st, 2007
Type of site	Imageboard/TextBBS
Available in	English
Owner	"moot"
Created by	"moot"
URL	4chan.org
Commercial	No
Registration	No

4chan (四葉, Yotsuba, four leaves) is an English language imageboard, based on the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel. On 4chan, many pictures (generally related to anime, manga and popular media) are posted and discussed.

Site description

4chan was founded as a project by "moot", a member of several anime forums. The site soon attracted anime fans from around the world and has grown greatly since its creation, eventually surpassing Futaba Channel in traffic.

The site is divided into discussion boards, image and upload boards, and drawing boards. Currently, there are 35 different image boards, with topics ranging from anime, weapons, and photography to real and animated pornography. Eight of these were "trial boards" until January 9, 2007, when all but one, Sports, were upgraded to permanent boards, with Sports being discarded. On February 15, 2007 the site added two new trial boards, Paranormal, and Traditional Games. The site's other boards include an oekaki board, an Artwork/Critique board, an upload board that is used for the uploading and discussion of Flash movies, and 19 text-based discussion boards. The discussion boards were once hosted on a separate site called "world4ch" (pronounced world four channel) until they were integrated into 4chan using the subdomain dis.4chan.org. The discussion boards were initially created by 4chan's administrators and hosted on world4ch as an homage to the defunct world2ch, which itself was a site created during as an earlier attempt to create an English version of 2channel, a popular anonymous Japanese BBS.

Because 4chan is provided to its users free of charge and consumes such a large amount of bandwidth, the site's financing often becomes an issue. To avoid long periods of downtime caused by a severe lack of funds, such as the four "deaths" that plagued the site during its first year of existence, the 4chan staff regularly requests donations. However, there have been numerous problems relating to the receipt of funds through several different online payment services. These services include: PayPal, YowCow, and the Authorize.net payment gateway. Historically, a large contributing factor to these problems had been the presence of pornographic imageboards on 4chan, since such content violated many service providers' Terms and Conditions agreements.

RULES 1 AND 2 FAGGOT

NOTHING TO SEE HERE!

Anonymity

4chan is an anonymous BBS that does not require the user to supply any personal information, such as a name or email address, before being able to post messages. Unlike most web forums, 4chan does not have any kind of registration system (for the boards within 4chan that use nicknames). Any person can use any nickname to his or her liking, making it possible to post under the name of someone else by simply entering their name into the posting form, however most users post anonymously and without a username. In place of registration, 4chan has provided tripcodes as an optional form of authenticating a poster's identity. As the concept of anonymous posting is a defining feature of Futaba-like imageboards, the use of tripcodes generates controversy amongst 4chan users. Many posters who use them risk being singled out and ridiculed, often with the use of derogatory terms such as "tripfag". As anonymous posting causes posts to be attributed to "Anonymous", a running gag on 4chan is the idea that Anonymous is in fact a single person, or the true name of the posters.

Moderators will generally post without a name even when performing bannings or posting information. In this case, the post is attributed to "Anonymous ## Mod" (though even mods are sometimes known to simply post as "Anonymous"). The primary exception is when 4chan's founder "moot" posts information relating to changes in the site, though it is also possible for "moot" to post anonymously.

Memes

4chan has given birth to a number of Internet memes, a select few of which have become popular enough to spread outside of 4chan and become widely recognized Internet phenomena. For example, some memes have affected the work of several webcomic artists. Notable examples of webcomic artists that have been influenced by such memes include Josh Lesnick of the webcomic Girly, Ghastly of Ghastly's Ghastly Comic, and Dave Cheung of Chugworth Academy. These cases of influence also serve to demonstrate 4chan's broader impact on the online community. A detailed list of these abundant catchphrases, memes and wordfilters can be found at the CHANCHAN wiki, or through WIKICHAN wiki.

Many of these memes have taken the form of image macros; a user posts a picture, and others add text or edit the picture in other ways. . Due to an overwhelming proliferation of image macros inside of 4chan's imageboards, they were banned from use on 4chan in early 2005 - though this does not apply to the Random board, /b/.

Another popular form of meme is "copypasta" (a variation on copy and paste, originally found on 2channel as "kopipe"). This meme consists of the text of a previous post, usually a rant or boastful claim, continually reposted by users other than the original author. Variations on this theme involve edits to the original text to make it conform to any of a number of textual memes.

See also

• Imageboard
• Futaba Channel
• 2channel
• Image macro
• List of Internet phenomena
• Internet meme
• Yotsuba, 4chan's unofficial mascot.

References

1. "Alexa traffic rankings". Alexa. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
2. "Alexa traffic rankings". Alexa. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
3. ^ "4chan News Archive". 4chan. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
4. "4chan Blotter". 4chan. Retrieved 2007-02-16.
5. Cite error: The named reference 4chanFAQ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. "Girly #387". Josh Lesnick. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
7. "Ghastly's Ghastly Comic - "Filler Strip."". Chris Cracknell. Retrieved 2006-08-23.
8. "Whoa! Ghastly extracurricular comic found?". Posted on ComicGenesis Forums. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
9. "Chugworth Academy #215". Dave Cheung. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
10. Cite error: The named reference 4chanTOS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

FUCKIN THING KEEPS COMING BACK!