9GAG
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9GAG is social networking website that focuses primarily on memes and image sharing for "fun." The site is set in Hong Kong, but hosted in the United States. Launched in 2008, the content of the website is image based and centers around popular memes and rage comics. The site uses the same style of image sharing that sites such as 4chan, reddit, and Funnyjunk do, but is different by allowing people to post content with their Facebook accounts. Similar to Facebook. 9Gag has a “like” system on individual posts.[1]
Contents
Features
Browsing
Users may browse 9GAG on either the "Fun" tab or the "Fast" tab. The fun tab shows the images and uploaded information on a vertical scrolling page with 9 "gags" per page, hence the name of the website. The fast tab allows users to browse through images one by one. There is also a "random" and "search" option for browsing.
Categories
Default on the 9GAG website is the "What's Hot" tab, featuring the most popular images voted on by the users of 9GAG. There is also a "Trending" and "Vote" page, where user-uploaded material can be pushed up to more recent pages so that they appear in the front of the website.
Safe Mode
Safe Mode is automatically turned on when browsing the site, which blocks out "Not Safe For Work" (NSFW) labelled images that may be inappropriate or offending to some viewers. Users must create an account and log in to the website in order to turn off Safe Mode.
Social Networking
9GAG is synced with social networking sites such as Twitter and Tumblr so that users may browse the "What's Hot" images, or the most popular memes at the time, from outside sources. The site itself is also embedded with Facebook usability; users may log in and comment via Facebook, as well as share images with others.
Mobile Access
The site itself runs in a mobile version when browsing from a mobile electronic device. Applications have been developed for iOS and Android based smartphones in order to browse in a more mobile and user friendly fashion.
Rules for uploading pictures
As posted to the users of 9GAG:
- UNFUNNY content will get your account suspended. 9GAG is a community of FUN ONLY.
- Respect originality and creativity. Try using Google Images to find the origin of the post.
- Think of a descriptive or creative title, instead of “LOL”, “True”, “:)”
- Search for dupes before posting. Post with 9GAG watermark will be removed
- “Get this to the Hot page” is worse than “Like this / Press L” and both will be removed
- No blogspam - Many, many sites just recycle pics from other side and put ads on it.
- If you would hesitate to show the content to your coworkers, your mum, or Uncle Bob, please mark it as NSFW.
- NSFW posts will be removed if not marked as such.
- [Fixed] posts should be added using the “Fix this post” button
- Make sure you have checked our 9 Rules[1]
Feud with 4chan
In late 2011, 9GAG users claimed to be the creators of some images and memes that originated on the site 4chan, and this caused a conflict between the users of both sites. 9gaggers began to call themselves as the “legion”, an obvious reference to Anonymous. The noticeable watermark at the bottom of every image taken from 9gag was also a factor, as it implied that 9gag had created the image.[1]
On December 21st, 2011 4chan members planned a raid on the 9GAG website that would involve posting gore, porn and other inappropriate materials to the newest uploads section of the website, while another team was to perform DDoS attacks on the web server. 9GAG users formed "The 9gag army” in retaliation and responded to 4chan by saying: “The 9gag army is coming for you 4chan.”[1] The new army had a few main purposes. It had spies the would inform 9gag users about the attack, such as day that 4chan would attack and what they wanted to do with the website. The 9GAG army also requested the other members for extra "back-ups" in the voting page, to avoid that inappropriate content such as gore and porn reaches the hot and trending pages.[1]
This feud caused that the developers of 9GAG interfere. They made some changes in their website such as that the user needed to be logged in, in order to view the vote page and have access to other features.
Aurora Shooting Hoax
On July 19, 2012, a gunman opened fire on to the audience at the premier of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Night trilogy, killing 14 people. Soon after the attack, rumors surfaced that the man had posted about the attack some weeks prior on 9gag, and that 9gag users had egged the poster on and essentially caused the attack. However, it has been confirmed that the image that circulated around the site was fake.[1]
See Also
9GAG Website
9GAG on Wikipedia
