4chan and/or "/b/" and why it is what it is
 

alot of people find that 4chan, or any of the *chans are a marvel of sociology, where people can say what they really feel without fear of reprecussion or judgement. i however disagree.

what was once a website to discuss anime has become the hairy, uncleansed, bloody asshole of the internet. how is it at all people expressing what they're really thinking? last time i was there might have been in '05 and there was nothing but tired memes being used over and over and guys who were looking for, and finding the massive tittyboard and pissing contest over who can outdo who with shock value that is the majority (but not all) of the content on 4chan.

what does TFP think about 4chan etc? please dont use memes, or reference any of the 'rules' i was once a /b/tard and that shit just isnt funny/cool anymore. i liked /b/, then i found out that it is possible to access boobs away from the internet.

The internet is great inasmuch as there is a place for everyone.

In otherwords, it keeps the trash away from here.

It's simple: /b/ is the collective id of the internet. That doesn't make it miraculous or amazing, it just is. It's an expression of a facet of human nature. You go to GMH or charity type sites and see the collective expression of good, you go to /b/ and you can see people letting out all those things they'd never do if they weren't anonymous and free of any real consequences.

Finding /b/ amazing in any way is like putting an object shaped like a toilet in a secluded area at a concert and then being amazed when people use it for what it looks like in massive numbers. /b/ is just people doing what they feel like doing at that given moment on a massive scale. Maybe a lot of people get pissed someone's hurting a cat and bragging about it so they bust the guy, maybe they decide it would be hilarious to spam the australian government with goat porn.

an accurate summary of /b/:

http://images.encyclopediadramatica..../c9/Theory.jpg

That being said, I really hope they don't find us by the title and destroy TFP.

it seems like its treating a symptom of youth addicted to internet though, instead of the root problem. i dont think it is people doing what they want at all, but rather finding solace in a community that has social strata even though people claim to be "anonymous" there are honorable mentions in some archives, moot, and snacks among them.

i just dont see any redeeming quality on the-site-which-will-not-be-named.

i guess i just wish people wouldn't be as mentally sick as /b/ makes me believe they are

Ok don't equate /b/ with the rest of 4chan. The rest of 4chan can have some pretty normal discussions, and tends to stay relatively "normal" insofar as their topic goes. /b/ is it's own creature and as long as it stays up it's own vile crusty orifices the rest of 4chan really doesn't care what it gets up to.

/b/ is anonymity. That gives confidence to a great number of people. Having no personal repercussions on their actions gives them a false sense of entitlement-"Well nothing's going to happen, so why not?"

I've been in IT for many years, cut my teeth on fortran and cobol, IMS with DL1 (DLI) queries. Been through it all since those early days, and headed up a project to investigate the potential for providing internet access to our consulting group. We finally decided on a stand alone desk top, which was not on the internal network and was dedicated to a dial-up access through Netscape (If I recall correctly).

Yet I find that the speed of development and critical mass of non-IT professionals who are actually programming and self-servicing the computer world to be astounding. It's as if the use of this technology has gone viral (to borrow a phrase).

In this light, can somebody please provide this idiot with a guide to what 4chan and /b/ are? I assume that 4chan is a forum, similar to TFP, what is /b/?

Yeah, I'm largely clueless but I think someone earlier described it as a juvenile toilet of memes and amateur porn.

I understand it as an old fashioned "image board" from the good old days of the internet, where people can post whatever they want anonymously and for no reason at all.

4chan is here - 4chan

/b/ is here - /b/ - Random

4chan is huge and there's all sorts of everything, mostly useless, on there and on /b there's usually nothing but the worst kind of moronic chaos.

Here's a screen I just got off of it

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1288701109

What does it mean? Absolutely nothing.

There's a wikipedia about it here.

I hope that helps!

yes! I may do some exploring myself. Thanks. shoulda wiki's it in the first place...

Why do I get the feeling we'll never see Leto again?

Don't be such a Negative Nancy. His body's bound to wash ashore sooner or later.

or at least my feet...

seriously, dont get into it. that shit will change your life and make you so misanthropic its not even funny.

/b/ is a microcosm of the internet: 49% porn 40% nonsense, 8% sheer terror, and 1% enlightenment.

I must add that the old phrase "what has been seen can not be unseen" definitely applies to /b/. If you spend an hour there, you will most likely see things that you wish you hadn't.

i spent 30 mins perusing both. lost interest. Am back here. Actually, spent time watching Rocky Horror Glee and the Leafs losing cause first, then came back here.

That's only 98%

2% memes

---------- Post added at 11:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 PM ----------

just to let you know Leto, you'll go back before the end of the next 24 hrs, and you'll be hooked and we'll have to dredge your body from the sewage and bacteria-teeming pipe of hobo feces and dog urine that is /b/

Challenge!

I stand by my math. Only about 98% of the internet is categorizable anyway.

No, the site isn't hosted in Canada

well Leto, be honest, have you been back?

Honestly? no i haven't. I think I have the perfect antidote. I don't have enough available time due to hockey. Watched the Leafs/Caps game last night. went out and played in our men's league at 10 PM, and the night before I was at my son's game.

Wait, what was that playing the background of Leto's post? Was that a sad trombone?

Yes, yes it was.

Glad to see you still have time for TFP, Leto. And that you're still, um, be-feeted?

---------- Post added at 08:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 AM ----------

And on a serious note:

4Chan and/b/ are being investigated by the Feds

I forgot, I practiced my trombone too.

In general, people involved in the legal system have an understanding of how the Internet works anywhere from one to two orders of magnitude below Ted Stevens. 4chan is figuratively (and arguably literally) the anus of the Internet (think dinosaur-style brain in the ass,) but they deserve credit for having a software mechanism in place that checks hashes of posted images against a database of known child porn images and prevents them from being posted while automatically reporting the IP address and any other available identifying information directly to the FBI. As soon as admins become aware of anything new, they add it to the filter and report whoever posted it.

Never been to the site, but... lemme get this straight: you can only post illegal stuff that nobody else has posted before and that the admins find issue with on a board that posts total filth? That sounds legit. And it's a nice CYA move on their part. "Yeah, we work with law enforcement all the time."

Uh-huh.

Stories like this make me leery of even going near Reddit.

Actually kiddy porn and attacking the site directly are basically the only things that'll ever get you banned from 4chan so it makes a perverse kind of sense that they'd be pretty good at dealing with it.

Illegal stuff that hasn't been programmed into the filter can't be automatically deleted, it has to be flagged by an admin. As soon as that happens, the report goes to the FBI.

/b/ was first the creative outlet and eventually turned into the collective ego of a bunch of pubescent geek boys. Others are lured in by the "cool" postings there and are ridiculed, blackmailed and hacked after a brief seduction period when the new friends want out.

Hence, young girls who were stupid enough (allowed themselves to be bullied) to send questionable photos to someone they thought they could trust would suddenly find their private photos posted on that very board. Threats only upset them and they threaten and hack the victims when they can.

While I understand the site creator's mission, I think it's gone way too far. I haven't seen it in a couple of years, but still ain't feeling much love for it.

I find the most fun fun I derive from this conflagration is when I seasonally stumble upon reading an Encyclopedia Dramatica post, (or twelve) and thereby learn some funny, not-really-useful history to the way some internet articles, memes, and doings have evolved. I don't know of, or use 4chan, other than its "/RS" (rapidshares) search engine. I like Encyclopedia Dramatica, but I do realize it is like 4chan-"proper" (cyber-wearing a tuxedo-t-shirt) and so i don't invest too much of my time there for that reason.

But, it seems every once in a while, offshoots of whatever goes on there go forth and spread into new trendings on the net some weeks or months later, thereby spreading laughs, oohs and ahhs.

That creator guy, also, the founder of the Cheezburger Network of 2 dozen or so meme-specific sites and weblogs - he used the idea of taking the unrefined gems of 4chan, and marketing them to the popular masses for the laughs, and towards his profit. He's like an internet hero, I guess, and it's all thanks in part because he's an artist, and he "stole" (shifted) ideas from 4chan, and they have since become quite popular (LOLcats, FAILblog, Photobombs, etc.).

They used to be a non-administered, anything goes, anti-authoritarian anarchist type of board when it is/was good. Maybe it was because they didn't have as many moderators or were too small and not mainstream. It still is good from time to time. They 'go after' certain people for doing bad things or trying to get away with doing something. You don't want to piss them off. It might be religions, governments, puppy tossers, or something else that pisses them off, but they at least do something.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2010/...taunts_7-y.php
(read the comments)

Part of me thinks it is an escape from dealing with reality. An Internet 'fight club' of sorts. And I do think that the Internet is too heavily moderated, and becoming too heavily 'controlled' by governments and corporations. It is one thing to have a secure network for business transactions, e-mail, and social media. But, we need a place to discuss things, to complain about things, and to bring up issues without our real life identity being known, or fear of losing jobs, prison, or fear of repercussions.