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| File:4chan109.png4chan's main page as of January 9th, 2007 | |
| Type of site | Imageboard/TextBBS |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | "Moot" |
| Created by | "Moot" |
| URL | 4chan.org |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | No |
4chan (Japanese: Yotsuba, lit. "four leaves" Channel) is an English language imageboard, based on the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel. On 4chan, many pictures (generally related to anime and manga) are posted and discussed.
Lulz.
Controversy
Lulz
Lulz
Hal Turner Raid
In December of 2006 and January of 2007, individuals who identified as /b/tards "raided" Hal Turner in a DDoS attack, taking his site offline and racking up thousands of dollars of bandwidth bills, according to Turner himself.
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. 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.
The /b/ board differs from the others in that it uses "forced anonymous", removing the name and subject fields from the posting form, however, emails are left in the form and are clickable in posts in the timestamp area.
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 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.
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
References
- Cite error: The named reference
jerseyjournalwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - Cite error: The named reference
4chanFAQwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - "Girly #387". Josh Lesnick. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
- "Ghastly's Ghastly Comic - "Filler Strip."". Chris Cracknell. Retrieved 2006-08-23.
- "Whoa! Ghastly extracurricular comic found?". Posted on ComicGenesis Forums. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
- "Chugworth Academy #215". Dave Cheung. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
- Cite error: The named reference
4chanTOSwas invoked but never defined (see the help page).
External links
- The 4chan imageboard