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Revision as of 10:55, 21 June 2004 by 24.193.255.240 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)4chan (YO-tsu-ba) was an English language version of the infamous Japanese Futaba Channel. On 4chan, many pictures from around the world, mostly from anime and manga are posted and critiqued. There are also discussion forums in the style of 2ch. Most notably, due to bandwidth concern and growing international leeching, Japanese computer users cannot access the site without permission.
On June 20th 2004, at 11:35 PM, 4chan officialy closed down after several attacks, lack of funding, and lack of motivation from the founder.
Image boards
The 4chan website consists of several image boards which each carry a short code consisting of one or more letters as well as a descriptive name. Image boards currently present on 4chan include:
- /a/ - Anime
- /b/ - Random
- /c/ - Cute
- /d/ - Hentai/Alternative (for more unconventional erotica)
- /h/ - Hentai
- /l/ - Lolicon
- /p/ - Photo
- /s/ - Sexy Beautiful Women
- /u/ - Yuri
- /w/ - Wallpaper
- /y/ - Yaoi
- /cm/ - Cute Male
The "Random", "Photo" and "Sexy Beautiful Women" boards are broader in scope then the more restrictively themed boards such as "Lolicon", "Yaoi" and "Yuri". "Photo" is reserved for photographs rather than CG imagery or edited photographs. "Sexy Beautiful Women" contains both nudity and nonnude photographs, often from photo books and thus typically of Asian women, although all ethnicities are allowed as long as the rules are taken into account.
In particular "Random", which allows some degree of commentary akin to light trolling, is treated with some derision as its chatter is often inane, and unlike other boards less tightly moderated. The category is also uncomfortably vague for some as it may contain internet shock site imagery quite randomly amongst otherwise tame and funny images, especially since the siphon board for the arguely most extreme art (/g/ for "Guro-" or "Grotesque") was trimmed off.
The "Cute Male" board was spawned as a preemptive solution to both content too softcore for the Yaoi board and the (arguably sexist) outcry against male characters in the Cute forum.
Many fans are vocal in keeping posted pictures apporpriate to boards, especially to even traffic content and avoid incuring anger among forums (Lolicon vs Cute, whose content spills over occasionally, debates are the most common.) A now tongue-in-cheek commentary to misposting a picture inapropriately is gb2/.
Famous memes/characters
Like most message boards, it has its own range of in-jokes, although many image-based gags are permutations from 2chan such as WAHA Suzuran and the OS girls. Most others are based on existing characters from anime and manga. One common image meme is to post a picture with a character holding up a sign, a television screen, or some other blanked out area. It is then photoshopped accordingly.
- Yotsuba is also the name of a manga and its titular character, an energetic if dim little girl with four green pigtails, who is sometimes joked to be the site's spokeswoman.
- Bridget from the fighting game Guilty Gear is famous among the boards for purportedly unintentional gender confusion, causing debates as to what forums he should be allowed into (he was one joked to be /d/'s spokesman, despite being an otherwise normal male). Although offically explained as a boy raised in disguise as a female nun and with a recent desire to become more masculine, he is heavily featured in shoutacon and futanari doujinshi, usually in a bottom role, even with girls.
- Ayanami Rei is sometimes treated with derision when appearing, especially in floods, which were banned for a whole month in reponse at one point. Inspired the mocking cry of ZOMG ITS REI! to pictures of any bluehaired characters.
- Anonymous is the default tag for posts without name fields. Although a name field can be constantly changed, many posters use the same name (and also a coded tagline to reduce replicated name confusion) and feel using "Anonymous" is lazy, typical of posters who are embarrased in being in some forums, or cowardice to hide behind while trolling or being overtly critical in debates. Thus a vocally annoying Anonymous is typically treated with more derision than usual.
Demise of 4chan
On 6/20/04, 4chan was shut down. The site was drawing a massive amount of bandwidth, which moot could not pay for himself, and the site suffered a lack of monetary contribution, partly out of user apathy and partly because paypal suspended the donation account. The final nail in the coffin was an assault by the Gay Nigger Association of America across the entire site.