Difference between revisions of "4chan"
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== Common Terms == | == Common Terms == | ||
| + | : /b/: The "Random" board on 4chan. It is the site's most popular board. | ||
; /b/tard: A person who actively participates on the random board called /b/. | ; /b/tard: A person who actively participates on the random board called /b/. | ||
; newfag: A person who is new to 4chan and unaccustomed to its culture and behaviors. | ; newfag: A person who is new to 4chan and unaccustomed to its culture and behaviors. | ||
Revision as of 03:24, 11 November 2011
4chan is an internet image board that was founded by moot (Christopher Poole) on October 1, 2003. Its community is best known for fostering internet subcultures, creating internet memes, and organizing internet attacks.
Contents
Background
4chan launched on October 1, 2003 as a place to post pictures of and discuss anime and manga; an English-language version of the popular Japanese website 2chan. Contributors do not have to be identifiable, and most users post anonymously. The random board, also known as "/b/," is 4chan's most popular and notorious due to its low regard for rules, creation of popular internet memes such as rickrolling, pedobear, and lolcats.
"Anonymous"
4chan's boards thrive on the ability for users to post anonymously.The term "anonymous" or "anon" is a widely used self descriptive term and username on 4chan due to a perceived sense of community created by sharing an identity. Although membership of anonymous originated in the imageboard 4chan, Anonymous has spread into the realm of the real world, collaborating on many events such as picketing and hacking important government databases. A study examined and discovered that 90% of all posts on the board were from anonymous users.
4chan Activities
4chan users have been the source of numerous controversial internet attacks as well as real world attacks. They are known for pulling off some of the highest profile collective actions and attacks on since the history of the internet. One of the first attacks, which are done strictly for "the lulz", was a mass log-on to the social networking site "Habbo Hotel" and the organization of a mass blockade of swimming pools in the game, spamming the chat with internet sayings, and forming into the shape of swastikas.
Hal Turner
Between December 2006 and January 2007, 4chan collectively attacked Hal Turner's website and prank called his radio show. This caused Hal Turner's website to go down and creating thousands of dollars worth of damage.
Sarah Palin Email Hacking
In 2008, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was the target of an attack by 4chan user David Kernell. Palin's email account was hacked into resulting in the leaking of Palin's private emails.
Steve Jobs Heart Attack
In October of 2008, a hoax story was submitted to iReport.com claimed that the CEO of Apple Inc (Steve Jobs) had suffered a heart attack resulting in a significant drop in stock price of Apple Inc.
Common Terms
- /b/: The "Random" board on 4chan. It is the site's most popular board.
- /b/tard
- A person who actively participates on the random board called /b/.
- newfag
- A person who is new to 4chan and unaccustomed to its culture and behaviors.
- oldfag
- A veteran of 4chan who knows about old memes, customs, and threads.
- moralfag
- A person who goes against the norms of 4chan and tries to prevent harm to others.
- whiteknight
- See moralfag
- troll
- A person who deliberately acts naive in order to incite others.
- lucker
- A person who reads threads, but does not contribute to them.
- lulz
- A bastardization of the internet acronym “lol,” meaning to laugh out loud.
Ethics and Controversy
As an imageboard, 4chan has many sub-forums that contain specialized posts relating to the specific topics (e.g. video games, anime, photography). Despite the categorization of posts, the random board, /b/, is all inclusive, containing posts that relate to content that could be on other boards.
Because /b/ has no set topic, users post a variety of images, ranging from shocking gory images, male and female nudity, and even child pornography. Commonly referred to as "CP", users joke about the topic by posting pictures Chris Hansen of To Catch a Predator and Pedobear as a way of fostering simultaneous acceptance and rejection of the topic - so as to comply with the US government's age of consent law.
External Links
An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community
