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4chan 

4chan
Official 4chan logo

The main page of 4chan.org as of March 1, 2008.
URL http://www.4chan.org/
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Imageboard
Registration No
Available language(s) English, Japanese
Owner moot ("Christopher Poole")
Launched October 1, 2003

4chan is an English-language imageboard website based on the Japanese-language Futaba Channel. Launched in 2003, its boards are based primarily around the posting of pictures and discussion of Japanese comics and television shows. Its members have also been responsible for the formation and popularization of many Internet memes such as lolcats and rickrolling. The Guardian describes 4chan as "at once brilliant, ridiculous and alarming."[1]

The site and its userbase have received attention from the media for a number of reasons, including posts containing terrorist threats against schools and sports stadiums, attacks against Hal Turner on his Internet radio shows, distributed-denial-of-service attacks against eBaum's World and taking part in Project Chanology. The site has influenced popular culture, such as through the promotion "Chocolate Rain", and through subversion of Google's Hot Trends.

Contents

History

4chan was started in 2003 by 15 year old "moot" ("Christopher Poole"), in his New York bedroom. He initially intended for the site to be a place to discuss Japanese comics and television shows. It was intended as an American counterpart to the Futaba Channel boards, also known as 2chan, which were popular in Japan. moot purchased the server space for 4chan using his mother's credit card.[2][3] According to The Toronto Star, moot's inspiration for the site also came from the Something Awful forums, where he was a poster.[4]

In 2005 the lolcat internet meme was started on 4chan as "Caturday", Saturdays on which users would post pictures of cats, eventually adding image macros relating to the day's theme.[5][6] The "Caturday" theme was broken after one user posted a cat saying "I can has cheezburger?", and received a reply of the same cat in a different pose saying "Do not want!".[4] At this point the meme changed from "Caturday" related captions, to any caption, and its popularity increased greatly.[4] 2005 also saw the introduction of the "duckroll". This meme began with moot changing the word "egg" to "duck" in every post made. This developed to 4chan users linking to an image of a duck of wheels, a concept that would follow in rickrolling.[7]

More new memes would be developed by 4chan, such as "So I herd u like mudkips", a meme involving a phrase based on Pokemon, which resulted in numerous YouTube tribute videos.[4] Rickrolling, an extension of duckrolling involving Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up",[1] came as a result of a 4chan user linking to Astley's video, rather than a duck image, when providing a prank link supposedly pointing to the Grand Theft Auto IV demo. Astley told the Los Angeles Times he found the meme "bizarre".[7][8]

In July 2008, 4chan succumbed to a series of DDOS attacks. On a July 22 blog post, moot said there was little the site could do about a DDOS attack of the magnitude 4chan received.[9]

Layout

The activity of 4chan takes place on discussion boards, image and upload boards, and drawing boards. There are numerous different image boards, generally covering topics related to Japanese culture.[10][11] 4chan once hosted discussion boards on a separate domain called "world4ch", but these were later moved to the dis.4chan.org subdomain.[12]

Because 4chan is provided to its users free of charge and consumes a large amount of bandwidth, its financing often becomes problematic. 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.[13] However, there have been numerous problems relating to the use of several different online payment services,[13] including PayPal, YowCow, and the Authorize.Net payment gateway. The pornographic content hosted on 4chan violated the terms of services of various payment receiving services and so they refused to allow 4chan to use their services.[13]

/b/

Example of a thread on /b/, where posters attempt to "get" a post with a reply number ending in 53.
Example of a thread on /b/, where posters attempt to "get" a post with a reply number ending in 53.

The "random" board, /b/, follows in the design of Futaba Channel's Nijiura board. It is by far 4chan's most popular board.[14] According to Gawker.com, /b/ is summarised as a board where "people try to shock, entertain, and coax free porn from each other". Encyclopedia Dramatica's definition of the board as "the asshole of the Internet" is also cited.[10] Certain post numbers, such as 12345678 and 22222222, and every millionth post, are sought after, with a large amount of posting taking place to "GET" them.[15]

/b/ is known to officially have a "no rules" policy, save for a ban on certain illegal content, such as child pornography, invasions of other websites, and under-18 viewing, all of which are inherited from site-wide rules. This "no rules" policy applies to administrator and moderator actions as well, meaning that users may be banned at any time, for any reason, including no reason at all.[16]

The humor of /b/'s many users, who refer to themselves as "/b/tards",[17] is often incomprehensible to newcomers and outsiders, and is frequently characterized by intricate inside jokes and black comedy.[17] Gawker.com's Nick Douglas said of the board, "reading /b/ will melt your brain".[10]

Anonymity

4chan consists of a collection of imageboards which allow users to post anonymously without having to provide any form of identification.[4][18] Unlike most web forums, 4chan does not have any kind of registration system. On boards the poster can use any nickname to his or her liking, making it possible to post under the name of someone else by simply entering his or her name into the posting form.[19] In place of registration, 4chan has provided tripcodes as an optional form of authenticating a poster's identity.[20] As making a post without filling in the "Name" field causes posts to be attributed to "Anonymous," a running gag on 4chan is the idea that Anonymous is in fact not a single person, but a collective whole of 4chan.[21] Moderators will generally post without a name even when performing moderation actions. In this case, a "capcode" is used, attributing the post to "Anonymous ## Mod", though moderators will post without the capcode at times.[22]

Media attention

eBaum's World attacks

Main article: eBaum's World controversy

In 2006 eBaum's World hosted an image of Lindsay Lohan from YTMND. As a result, users of 4chan, YTMND, Something Awful and Newgrounds participated in an attack against the site including a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, and flooding of the website's chat room, forums and technical support. The attack caused the forums to go offline for an unknown period of time.[23]

NFL bomb threat hoax

Main article: Jake Brahm

On October 18, 2006 the Department of Homeland Security warned NFL officials in Miami, New York City, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland, and Cleveland about a possible threat involving the simultaneous use of dirty bombs at stadiums in those cities.[24] The threat claimed that the attack would be carried out on October 22, the final day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.[25] Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security expressed doubt concerning the credibility of the threats, but still warned the relevant organizations as a precaution. The games proceeded as planned but under a higher level of security awareness.[26]

The threats came to light in the national media after Jake Brahm admitted to have posted the threats on 4chan, and on forty other websites.[25] FOX News reported that he argued the posts should not have been taken seriously as "I would never take anything posted on 4chan as fact".[27]

On October 20, 2006 Brahm turned himself in to federal authorities. He was charged with fabricating a fake terrorist threat and was taken into custody by police.[28] On February 28, 2008, Brahm plead guilty to the federal charges. On June 5, 2008 he was sentenced to six months in prison, six months house arrest, and ordered to pay $26,750 in restitution.[29]

Hal Turner

In December 2006 and January 2007, users of 4chan and other websites "raided" white nationalist Hal Turner, taking his site offline through DDOS attacks, and costing thousands of dollars of bandwidth bills according to Turner. They also prank called his phone-in radio show. In response, Turner sued 4chan, 7chan, and other websites in court over copyright infringement; however, he lost his plea for an injunction and failed to receive letters from the court.[30]

"Chocolate Rain"

"I move away from the mic to breathe in" became a meme oft-repeated on 4chan after its appearance in the video. Tay Zonday told MTV "I just figured that if I didn't mention it people would wonder what I was doing".
"I move away from the mic to breathe in" became a meme oft-repeated on 4chan after its appearance in the video. Tay Zonday told MTV "I just figured that if I didn't mention it people would wonder what I was doing".[31]

Links to the YouTube video of "Chocolate Rain", a song by Tay Zonday, were posted on 4chan on July 11, 2007.[32] Zonday believes it was this posting that led to the popularity of his song; he told website HHNLive that "I'm pretty sure the "Chocolate Rain" attention started as a joke at 4chan.org".[33] The Age reported that 4chan posters urged each other to "swarm" the video on YouTube and thus increase its ranking.[34] The video has become an immensely popular internet meme, resulting in covers by John Mayer and Green Day drummer Tre Cool.[35] The portion of the song in which Zonday turns away from the microphone, with a caption stating "I move away from the mic to breathe in", became popular and has been repeated on 4chan regularly,[32] as well as inspiring numerous remixes.[36]

KTTV Fox 11 news report

On July 26, 2007, KTTV Fox 11 News based in Los Angeles, California aired a report on "Anonymous", calling them a group of "hackers on steroids", "domestic terrorists", and collectively an "Internet hate machine". The report covered an attack on a MySpace user, who claimed to have had his MySpace account hacked into by "Anonymous", and plastered with gay pornography images uploaded by the hackers. The MySpace user also claimed a virus written by "Anonymous" hackers was sent to him and to ninety friends on his MySpace contact list, crashing thirty-two of his friends' computers. The report also featured a former "hacker" who had fallen out with "Anonymous" and explained his view of the "Anonymous" culture. In addition, the report also mentioned "raids" on Habbo Hotel, a "national campaign to spoil the new Harry Potter book ending", and threats to "bomb sports stadiums".[37]

According to Slashdot writers, the story focused mainly on users of "4chan, 7chan and 420chan". The writer claimed that the report "seems to confuse /b/ raids and motivational poster templates with a genuine threat to the American public", adding that the "unrelated" footage of a van exploding shown in the report was to "equate anonymous posting with domestic terror".[38]

Pflugerville High School terrorist threat

The Pflugerville threat.
The Pflugerville threat.

Around midnight on September 11, 2007 a student posted photographs of mock-pipe bombs and another photograph of him holding them while saying he would blow up his high school at 9:11 a.m. on Sept. 11. Users of 4chan[39][40][41][42][43] helped to track him down by finding the perpetrator's father's name in the Exif data of a photograph he took, and contacted the police. He was arrested before school began that day.[44][45][46][47]The whole thing turned out to be a hoax; the "weapons" were toys and there were no actual bombs.[48]

Melbourne gun threat

Jarrad Willis, a 20 year old Melbourne man, was arrested on December 8, 2007 for posting a statement on 4chan stating "I am going to shoot and kill as many people as I can until which time I am incapacitated or killed by the police". The post, which was accompanied by an image of another man holding a shotgun, uploaded by Willis, threatened a shopping mall near Beverly Hills. The post and image were later deleted off the site.[49][50] Willis was later charged with creating a false belief; a violation of Australian law.[51]

Links to Project Chanology

See also: Project Chanology

4chan has been labeled as the starting point of the Anonymous meme by The Baltimore City Paper,[52] due to the norm of posts being made with the "Anonymous" moniker. The State News reported that Anonymous was "a loose coalition of Internet denizens" that congregated on 4chan.[53] The National Post's David George-Cosh said it has been "widely reported" that Anonymous is associated with 4chan and 711chan, as well as numerous Internet Relay Chat channels.[54]

Through its association with Anonymous, 4chan has been associated with Project Chanology, an organization that holds worldwide protests against the Church of Scientology. On January 15, 2008 a 4chan user posted to /b/ suggesting participants "do something big" to the Church of Scientology's website. This resulted in the Church receiving, by its reports, more than 6000 threatening phone calls. Unlike previous Anonymous attacks, this one was characterized by 4chan inside jokes, such as Rickrolls and Guy Fawkes masks. The raid drew criticism from some 4chan users who felt it would bring the site unnecessary attention.[52]

moot's identity

moot, the founder and owner of 4chan, had his alleged real-world identity—"Christopher Poole"—revealed on July 9, 2008 in The Wall Street Journal.[2] On the same day, Lev Grossman of TIME interviewed him and described him as "one of the most powerful people on the Web".[3] The Observer called moot "the most influential web entrepreneur you've never heard of".[55]

moot grew up in New York City, United States, and started 4chan in his suburban New York bedroom in the year 2003. He intended 4chan to be an American equivalent to the Japanese imageboard 2chan, where he could share his fascination with manga and Japanese television.[2] moot told TIME "My personal private life is very separate from my Internet life ... There's a firewall in between."[3] He has spoken at conferences at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3] On July 10, Grossman wrote that there was a 5% chance that Christopher Poole was not moot's real name, but a reference to several 4chan inside jokes.[56]

Google Hot Trends subversion

On July 10, 2008, the swastika symbol (卐) was at the top of Google's Hot Trends list—a list of the most popular search terms in the United States—for several hours. It was later reported that the HTML numeric character reference for the symbol had been posted on /b/, with a request to do a Google search for the string.[57]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Sean Michaels (2008-03-19). "Taking the Rick". The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  2. ^ a b c Jamin Brophy-Warren. "Modest Web Site Is Behind a Bevy of Memes". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  3. ^ a b c d Lev Grossman (2008-07-09). "The Master of Memes". TIME. Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  4. ^ a b c d e Jerry Langton (2007-09-22). "Funny how `stupid' site is addictive". The Toronto Star. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
  5. ^ Paul Richards (2007-11-14). "Iz not cats everywhere? Online trend spreads across campus". The Daily Pennsylvanian. Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  6. ^ Sharon Steel (2008-02-01). "The cuteness surge". The Phoenix. Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  7. ^ a b "The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream". FOX News (2008-04-22). Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  8. ^ David Sarno (2008-05-25). "Web Scout exclusive! Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  9. ^ moot. 4chan Status. BlogSpot. Accessed 2008-07-26.
  10. ^ a b c Nick Douglas (2008-01-18). "What The Hell Are 4chan, ED, Something Awful, And "b"?". Gawker.com. Retrieved on 2008-07-15.
  11. ^ "FAQ - What is 4chan?". 4chan. Retrieved on 2008-07-15.
  12. ^ "FAQ - What were 4channel and world4ch?". 4chan. Retrieved on 2008-07-15.
  13. ^ a b c "4chan News Archive". 4chan. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
  14. ^ moot (2008-07-11). "/b/ by moot". 4chan. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  15. ^ "FAQ on GETs". 4chan. Retrieved on 2007-03-14.
  16. ^ "4chan - Rules - /b/ - Random". 4chan. Retrieved on 2006-08-18.
  17. ^ a b Julian Dibbell (2008-01-18). "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers". Wired. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  18. ^ "FAQ - How do I post anonymously?". 4chan. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
  19. ^ "FAQ - Can I register a username?". 4chan. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
  20. ^ "FAQ - How do I use a "tripcode"?". 4chan. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
  21. ^ "FAQ - Who is "Anonymous"?". 4chan. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
  22. ^ "FAQ - What is a capcode?". 4chan. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
  23. ^ Christopher Boyd (2006-01-09). "Lindsay Lohan causes massive DoS war". Vitalsecurity.org. Retrieved on 2008-01-20.
  24. ^ "Wisconsin Man Is Charged in Fake NFL Stadium Threats". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-20.
  25. ^ a b Roy Mark (2006-10-20). "Man Charged in Internet Bomb Threats". InternetNews.com. Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  26. ^ Pierre Thomas (2006-10-16). "NFL Stadium Threat: Officials Skeptical But Issue Warning". ABC News. Retrieved on 2008-07-21.
  27. ^ Associated Press (2008-06-05). "Ex-Grocery Clerk Gets 6 Months for NFL Stadium Attack Hoax". FOX News. Retrieved on 2008-07-21.
  28. ^ Ronald Smothers (2006-10-20). "Man, 20, Arrested in Stadium Threat Hoax". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-07-27.
  29. ^ Sharon Gaudin (2008-06-16). "Man gets six months for posting terror threat online". PC World. Retrieved on 2008-07-21.
  30. ^ "Harold C. "Hal" Turner v. 4chan.org". Justia (2007-01-19). Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  31. ^ Gil Kaufman (2007-08-13). "'Chocolate Rain' Creator Talks Of Life Beyond His 15 Minutes Of Fame". MTV. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  32. ^ a b "Thread 32640395". 4chanarchive.org. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  33. ^ HHNLive Staff (2007-07-30). "Make It Rain: Tay Zonday". HHNLive. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  34. ^ Matthew Ricketson (2008-07-16). "YouTube research shows picture is changing rapidly". The Age. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
  35. ^ Mathew Ingram (2007-08-15). "Who is Tay Zonday?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  36. ^ Garth Montgomery (2007-08-01). "Chocolate Rain goes huge". The Daily Telegraph. news.com.au. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  37. ^ "FOX 11 Investigates: 'Anonymous'". MyFOX Los Angeles. KTTV (FOX) (2007-07-26). Retrieved on 2007-08-11.
  38. ^ "Miang", CmdrTaco (ed.) (2007-07-28). "AC = Domestic Terrorists?" (News summary). Slashdot. Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  39. ^ "4chanarchive - Thread 39101047". 4chanarchive.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  40. ^ "4chanarchive - Thread 39103157". 4chanarchive.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  41. ^ "4chanarchive - Thread 39148206". 4chanarchive.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  42. ^ "4chanarchive - Thread 39168208". 4chanarchive.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  43. ^ "4chanarchive - Thread 39189537". 4chanarchive.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  44. ^ "Pflugerville Student Arrested After Posting Bomb Threats". KXAN (2007-09-12). Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  45. ^ "Police Investigate Bomb Threat at Pflugerville High School". Fox Television Stations, Inc (2007-09-11). Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  46. ^ "Teen arrested for threatening to blow up school". TWEAN News Channel of Austin, L.P. d.b.a. News 8 Austin (2007-09-11). Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  47. ^ "Juvenile arrested in Pflugerville H.S. bomb threat". KVUE.com (2007-09-11). Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  48. ^ "Letter from Pflugerville Highschool". Pflugerville High School. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
  49. ^ Associated Press (2008-12-08). "Australian Police Arrest Man Who Threatened to Attack Los Angeles Mall". Fox News. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  50. ^ Fiona Hudson, Liam Houlihan (2007-12-09). "Student faces jail over online joke". The Herald Sun. news.com.au. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  51. ^ Associated Press (2007-12-09). "Student arrested after threats to attack campus". CNN. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.
  52. ^ a b Chris Landers (2008-03-02). "Serious Business", Baltimore City Paper. Retrieved on 2008-07-13. 
  53. ^ James Harrison (2008-02-12). "Scientology protesters take action around world". The State News. Retrieved on 2008-07-13.
  54. ^ David George-Cosh (2008-01-25). "Online group declares war on Scientology". National Post. Retrieved on 2008-07-13.
  55. ^ David Smith (2008-07-20). "The 20-year-old at heart of web's most anarchic and influential site". The Observer. Retrieved on 2008-07-20.
  56. ^ Lev Grossman (2008-07-10). "Now in Paper-Vision: The 4chan Guy". TIME. Retrieved on 2008-07-24.
  57. ^ David Sarno (July 12, 2008). "Rise and fall of the Googled swastika". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2008-07-14.

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