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4chan
Official 4chan logo
File:4ch.gif4chan's main page as of 2007-07-24
Type of siteImageboard/TextBBS
Available inEnglish
Owner"moot"
Created by"moot"
URL4chan.org
CommercialNo
RegistrationNo

4chan is an English language imageboard based on the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel. This imageboard is based primarily around the posting of pictures (generally related to anime, manga, and popular culture) and their discussion.

Origins

4chan was founded as a project by "moot", a member of the Something Awful forums. His website soon attracted anime fans from around the world and has grown greatly since its creation, eventually surpassing Futaba Channel in traffic (according to Alexa Internet).

Layout

The activity of 4chan takes place on discussion boards, image and upload boards, and drawing boards. Currently, there are thirty-five different image boards, covering topics ranging from anime, weapons, and photography to real and animated pornography. Eight of these were "trial boards" until January 9, 2007, when all of them except the sports board were upgraded to permanent boards; the sports board was discarded. On February 15, 2007 the site added two new trial boards called Paranormal and Traditional Games.

Other boards include an oekaki board, an Artwork/Critique board, an upload board that is used for the uploading and discussion of Flash movies, and nineteen text-based discussion boards. The discussion boards were once hosted on a separate site called "world4ch" (pronounced world four channel) until they moved to the subdomain dis.4chan.org. The discussion boards were initially created and hosted on world4ch as an homage to the defunct world2ch, which itself was a website intending to be an earlier attempt to create an English version of 2channel.

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. However, there have been numerous problems relating to the use of several different online payment services, 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.

/b/

The "random" board /b/, based on the Nijiura board of Futaba Channel, is by far 4chan's most popular board. This was confirmed by statistics released by 4chan staff, as well as the post count; As of August 4, 2007, /b/'s post count has surpassed 35,000,000 posts whereas most of the other boards have yet to break 250,000. Only five other boards (/a/, /co/, /v/, /r/, and /s/) have accumulated more than 1,000,000 posts (/a/ and /v/ having over 4,000,000). After /b/'s 31,000,000th post was made on June 16, 2007, it took only 9 days to accumulate another 1,000,000 posts on /b/, meaning /b/'s posting rate has now attained an average of more than 111,000 posts per day. Certain post numbers, such as 12345678 and 22222222, are sought after, with a large amount of posting taking place to "get" the number.

The humor of /b/'s many users, who refer to themselves as "/b/tards," is frequently characterized by intricate inside-jokes. As a result, newcomers often find posts incomprehensible. In addition, /b/ is known to officially have a "No rules" policy, save for a ban on certain illegal content, such as child pornography and invasions of other websites, both of which are restricted by site-wide rules that also apply to /b/.

Anonymity

4chan is an anonymous BBS that does not require the user to supply any personal information, such as a name or email address, before being able to post messages. Unlike most web forums, 4chan does not have any kind of registration system. Any person 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. Nonetheless, most users post anonymously. In place of registration, 4chan has provided tripcodes as an optional form of authenticating a poster's identity. As the concept of anonymous posting is a defining feature of Futaba-like imageboards, the use of tripcodes generates controversy among 4chan users. Many posters who use them risk being singled out and ridiculed, often with the use of derogatory terms such as "tripfag." As anonymous posting causes posts to be attributed to "Anonymous," a running gag on 4chan is the idea that Anonymous is in fact a single person or the true name of the posters.

Moderators will generally post without a name even when banning users or posting information. In this case, the post is attributed to "Anonymous ## Mod" (though even mods are sometimes known to simply post as "Anonymous"). The primary exception is when 4chan's founder "moot" posts information relating to changes in the site.

Controversy

Blocks in the UK

Access to /b/ was blocked to customers of NTL, BT Broadband and UK Online in early June of 2006. For some users, access to /r/, /s/, and /t/ was also affected. While moderators attempt to remove instances of illegal content as soon as possible, as well as ban the individuals responsible for them, the prevalence of such content has led systems like Cleanfeed to blacklist the site. The 4chan TOS and FAQ also state that illegal material (e.g. child pornography, posting of personal information, invasions of other internet communities, etc.) will not be tolerated, and will be punished appropriately. Moderators have also recently taken stronger measures against illicit content. For example, on July 12, 2006, a reporting system was implemented on all of 4chan's image, upload, and oekaki boards, allowing any user to 'report' a post that contains illegal material, or material that violates 4chan's terms of use. On August 23, 2006, the moderators of /b/ began enforcing previously neglected rules regarding sexually suggestive pictures of under-age teenagers, invasions of other websites, and posting of personal information. Infractions would now result in bans applied to the original poster and anyone posting in the thread, whether he or she supported the content or not. Many users of /b/ responded by attacking /b/ with automatic floods and spam. Shortly afterwards there was a hard disk failure on one of 4chan's servers, causing most of the boards to go down.

Some suspect that the blocks are related to the efforts of the Internet Watch Foundation; however, the "IWF-led block" theory has several discrepancies. Firstly, the internet service providers (ISP) that continue to block /b/ are BT Internet and NTL, with UKOnline appearing to have removed its restriction after a few weeks. Secondly, the IWF themselves confirmed that "no part of the URL for the site 4chan.org is included in our live database." Investigations by 4chan users have revealed that BT's support teams claim to have no knowledge of a block on any part of the URL 4chan.org. Finally, the BT block on /b/ has evolved, with new workarounds redirected to the ban page or a nondescript 404 within mere hours of being discovered. These blocks also have an erratic nature, apparently having been suddenly lifted, but reinstated days later, only to be lifted again within an equally short time period. However, some of the perceived inconsistencies in this theory are directly contradicted by claims made by 4chan's staff and other sources. For example, on August 5, 2006, while being filmed during a 4chan panel at Otakon in which he was fielding questions from the audience, moot, the owner of 4chan, stated that the blockings of /b/ and some of the other boards have indeed been a result of the Cleanfeed system. /b/'s front page has also been removed from Google search results due to a notice sent by the IWF to Google.

NFL bomb threat hoax

File:Jakebrahmthread.jpg
The original threat posted on September 18, 2006 by 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. The threat claimed that the attack would be carried out on October 22, the final day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security expressed doubt concerning the credibility of the threats.

Later on October 20th, Jake Brahm turned himself in to federal authorities. He was charged with fabricating a fake terrorist threat and was taken into custody by police. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The threats came to light in the national media after they were reposted on 4chan's /b/ more than forty times by Brahm between September 18 and October 19 of 2006.

In fact, this threat was originally posted on a website called The Friend Society. The site crashed due to a high volume of traffic incurred after CNN posted a link to it. It was reposted on 4chan for reasons unknown and soon became associated with that site.

Hal Turner

In December of 2006 and January of 2007, individuals who identified themselves as /b/tards "raided" white nationalist Hal Turner, taking his site offline and costing thousands of dollars of bandwidth bills according to Turner. Turner retaliated by sending an email to 7chan, multacom, and multicom a "formal legal notice of criminal activity in violation of several federal laws." He also sued 4chan, 7chan, and other websites in court over copyright infringement; however, he lost the case.

Fox 11 report

On July 26, 2007, Fox 11 News in Los Angeles, California aired a report on "Anonymous," calling users of *chan imageboards a group of "hackers on steroids". The report covers an attack on a MySpace user, who claimed to have had his MySpace account hacked into by "Anonymous", and plastered with explicit images of a homosexual nature uploaded by the hackers. The MySpace user also claimed that a virus written by "Anonymous" hackers were sent to him and to ninety friends on his MySpace contact list, crashing thirty-two computers. Fox 11 also covered "raids" on Habbo Hotel and "a campaign to spoil the new Harry Potter book ending", and the previously mentioned NFL bomb threat hoax.

It is most likely this report is directed towards users of 4chan, 7chan and 420chan, due to a high level of involvement by both websites in activities shown in the video. Although Fox does not explicitly mention 4chan, it does implicate similar sites. The news piece made reference to "secret websites", whereas 4chan and similar imageboards (420chan's Invasion board /i/ is clearly shown) are not private and are available to view publicly.

See also

References

  1. "Alexa traffic rankings". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  2. "Alexa traffic rankings". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  3. ^ "4chan News Archive". 4chan. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
  4. "4chan Blotter". 4chan. Retrieved 2007-02-16.
  5. "4chan FAQ on GETs". 4chan. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  6. ^ Winston, Ali (2007-01-08). "'Hate Host' is hacked". Jersey Journal, The. Retrieved 2007-01-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "4chan's Rules". 4chan. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
  8. ^ "4chan FAQ". 4chan. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
  9. ^ "BT / NTL /b/ Block - Stuff we know". 4chan. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
  10. "BT / NTL /b/ Block - Stuff we know.-Reply #86". 4chan. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
  11. "BT / NTL /b/ Block - Stuff we know.-Reply #127". 4chan. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
  12. "BT / NTL /b/ Block - Stuff we know.-Reply #126". 4chan. Retrieved 2006-08-18. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  13. "http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.htm - Google Search". Google Search. Retrieved 2006-10-14. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  14. "Child pornography complaint concerning Google search". Chilling Effects Clearinghouse. Retrieved 2006-10-13.
  15. "Man charged with stadium bomb threat hoax". ABC News. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  16. "Man Charged in Internet Bomb Threats". InternetNews.com. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  17. Smothers, Ronald (2006-10-20). "Man, 20, Arrested in Stadium Threat Hoax". The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
  18. "Knucklehead Nabbed In "Dirty Bomb" Hoax". thesmokinggun.com. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  19. "Wisconsin Man Is Charged in Fake NFL Stadium Threats". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  20. "New Attack on America, Be Afraid". CBS News. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  21. "Cyber foes find ways to silence hate-talk radio host". freep.com. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
  22. "Hal Turner Retaliates For Attack On Radio Show". Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  23. "Harold C. "Hal" Turner v. 4chan.org". Justia. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
  24. "FOX 11 Investigates: 'Anonymous'". Fox Television Stations, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
  25. "Miang", CmdrTaco (ed.) (2007-07-28). "AC = Domestic Terrorists?" (News summary). Slashdot. Retrieved 2007-07-30. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)

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