149-509: Encyclopedia Dramatica ( ED or æ ; stylized as Encyclopædia Dramatica ) is an online community website, centered around a wiki , that acts as a " troll archive" and its community members frequently participate in harassment campaigns. The site hosts racist material and shock content ; as a result it was filtered from Google Search in 2010. The website's articles lampoon topics and current events related or relevant to contemporary internet culture in an encyclopedic fashion. It also serves as
298-531: A " snarky Misplaced Pages anti-fansite". Shaun Davies of Australia's Nine Network called it "Misplaced Pages's bastard child, a compendium of internet trends and culture which lampoons every subject it touches." The site "is run like Misplaced Pages, but its style is the opposite; most of its information is biased and opinionated, not to mention racist, homophobic, and spiteful, but on the upside its snide attitude makes it spot-on about most Internet memes it covers." This coverage of Internet jargon and memes had been acknowledged in
447-465: A "favourite target for critics, who accuse Anonymous of propagating hate," for allowing alleged members of the group to sometimes use the website as a platform . Through this association, Encyclopedia Dramatica received incidental coverage when actions by members of Anonymous led to the arrest of an alleged pedophile, when they demonstrated against Scientology in London; when a member of the group broke into
596-424: A 14-year-old girl's address up on a page cause some dipshit got mad at her and made an article. But if you dress up like a fox and wear diapers and then take pictures of it? That's fair game, sir. In a September 2011 interview with The Daily Dot , Moore defended his community's belief in free speech . In January 2013, a video game created by user "gizmo01942" came to the attention of the media. The game, Bullet to
745-591: A 4-track remix album of Kanye West 's The Life of Pablo titled The Death of Pablo to /mu/, claiming it was based on a recurring dream from one of the board's users. A role-playing game based on Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea , designed with help from the board's users, received coverage from Polygon and Pitchfork . /pol/ (" Politically Incorrect ") is 4chan's political discussion board. A stickied thread on its front page states that
894-456: A Nice Life . Prominent music critic Anthony Fantano began his career on /mu/ and developed a significant following there. Some artists, like Zeal & Ardor and Conrad Tao , admitted to posting their music anonymously on /mu/ to get honest feedback, as well as find inspiration from the board. In particular, Zeal & Ardor said their sound, which mixes black metal with spirituals , came from suggestions by two users. Andrew W.K. did
1043-428: A Q&A with the board's users in 2011, causing the servers to crash from the increased traffic. Death Grips seeded various clues on /mu/ in 2012 about their then-upcoming albums The Money Store and No Love Deep Web . A rendition of " Royals " by Lorde appeared on /mu/ in 2012 before its official release, although she denied ever writing on the board in 2014. Singer Lauren Mayberry shared on Twitter in 2015
1192-480: A barrier, people become novices and participate in community life. After contributing for a sustained period of time, they become regulars. If they break through another barrier they become leaders, and once they have contributed to the community for some time they become elders. This life cycle can be applied to many virtual communities, such as bulletin board systems , blogs , mailing lists , and wiki-based communities like Misplaced Pages. A similar model can be found in
1341-407: A chance to reach a new group of consumers in online communities, but to also tap into information about the consumers. Companies have a chance to learn about the consumers in an environment that they feel a certain amount of anonymity and are thus, more open to allowing a company to see what they really want or are looking for. In order to establish a relationship with the consumer a company must seek
1490-430: A character theory for analyzing online communities, based on tribal typologies. In the communities they investigated they identified three character types: Online communities have also forced retail firms to change their business strategies. Companies have to network more, adjust computations, and alter their organizational structures. This leads to changes in a company's communications with their manufacturers including
1639-404: A collection of butterfly knives and a locker full of porn." Wired describes /b/ as "notorious". Each post is assigned a post number. Certain post numbers are sought after with a large amount of posting taking place to "GET" them. A "GET" occurs when a post's number ends in a special number, such as 12345678, 22222222, or every millionth post. A sign of 4chan's scaling, according to Poole,
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#17328910336061788-445: A common public place where members can meet and interact, and sustained membership over time. Based on these considerations, it can be said that microblogs such as Twitter can be classified as online communities. Dorine C. Andrews argues, in the article "Audience-Specific Online Community Design", that there are three parts to building an online community: starting the online community, encouraging early online interaction, and moving to
1937-486: A company must understand the dynamic and structure of the online community to be able to establish a relationship with the consumer. Online communities have cultures of their own, and to be able to establish a commercial relationship or even engage at all, one must understand the community values and proprieties. It has even been proved beneficial to treat online commercial relationships more as friendships rather than business transactions. Through online engagement, because of
2086-464: A downloadable archive of Encyclopedia Dramatica's content the next day. Besides this archive, fan -made torrents and several mirrors of the original site were subsequently generated. Based on these archives, the site has repeatedly gone offline and come back under new domain names. Between 2013 and 2024, the website was hosted under various top level domains : .rs , .ch , .es , .se , .wiki , .online , .top , .win and .gay . As of October 2024,
2235-558: A fear of criticism or inaccuracy. Users may withhold information that they do not believe is particularly interesting, relevant, or truthful. In order to challenge these contribution barriers, producers of these sites are responsible for developing knowledge-based and foundation-based trust among the community. Users' perception of audience is another reason that makes users participate in online communities. Results showed that users usually underestimate their amount of audiences in online communities. Social media users guess that their audience
2384-543: A former Labour councillor. In 2017, a suit was launched against the website seeking US$ 750,000 for alleged copyright infringement . The "life-threatening" suit is by millionaire Jonathan Monsarrat. Monsarrat's suit was dismissed in December 2017, with the judge ruling that the three-year statute of limitations for copyright infringement had expired before the lawsuit was filed. Online community An online community , also called an internet community or web community ,
2533-522: A hub of Internet subculture , its community being influential in the formation and popularization of prominent Internet memes , such as lolcats , Rickrolling , rage comics , wojaks , Pepe the Frog , as well as hacktivist and political movements , such as Anonymous and the alt-right . 4chan has often been the subject of media attention as a source of controversies, including the coordination of pranks and harassment against websites and Internet users, and
2682-559: A junior moderation team, called "janitors", who may delete posts or images and suggest that the normal moderation team ban a user, but who cannot post with a capcode. Revealing oneself as a janitor is grounds for immediate dismissal. Gianluca Stringhini, an associate professor at Boston University College of Engineering , said in August 2024, "The only moderation on the platform appears to be for clearly illegal content, such as child pornography . Everything else remains untouched." 4chan has been
2831-561: A link to a thread on /mu/ about her band 's song " Leave a Trace " to showcase what online misogyny looks like. An alleged unreleased Radiohead song, titled "Putting Ketchup in the Fridge" and "How Do You Sit Still", was initially reported as genuine by NME and Spin until CNN revealed it was a hoax promoted by the board's users. The board has been acknowledged for sharing rare music recordings and unreleased materials, as well as finding albums thought to be lost. Notable examples include
2980-405: A manner described variously as "coarse", "offensive", "obscene", "irreverent, obtuse, politically incorrect ", "crude but hilarious", and "crude and abusive". The material is presented to appear comprehensive, with extensive use of shock-value prose, drawings, photographs and the like. The emotional responses are then added to the articles, often in similarly derogatory or inflammatory manner, with
3129-857: A member via a specific site and thereby gain access to specific content or links. An online community can act as an information system where members can post, comment on discussions, give advice or collaborate, and includes medical advice or specific health care research as well. Commonly, people communicate through social networking sites , chat rooms , forums , email lists, and discussion boards, and have advanced into daily social media platforms as well. This includes Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , Discord , etc. People may also join online communities through video games , blogs , and virtual worlds , and could potentially meet new significant others in dating sites or dating virtual worlds. The rise in popularity of Web 2.0 websites has allowed for easier real-time communication and connection to others and facilitated
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#17328910336063278-438: A minority of Misplaced Pages users contribute regularly, and only a minority of those contributors participate in community discussions. In one study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University , they found that "more than two-thirds (68%) of newcomers to Usenet groups were never seen again after their first post". Above facts reflect a point that recruiting and remaining new members have become a very crucial problem for online communities:
3427-514: A mobile device in the United States. Researchers and organizations have worked to classify types of online community and to characterise their structure. For example, it is important to know the security, access, and technology requirements of a given type of community as it may evolve from an open to a private and regulated forum. It has been argued that the technical aspects of online communities, such as whether pages can be created and edited by
3576-570: A month for their services in 2015. By May 2022, that fee had risen to $ 4,400 a month. The submitted documents also revealed RapeApe lamenting that 4chan was "getting the shaft" over the Buffalo terrorist attack and his attempt to persuade the advertising platform Bid.Glass to reverse their exit from the website. Poole kept his real-life identity hidden until it was revealed on July 9, 2008, in The Wall Street Journal . Prior to that, he had used
3725-521: A papal visit. 4chan has been labeled as the starting point of the Anonymous meme by The Baltimore City Paper , due to the norm of posts signed with the "Anonymous" moniker. 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 (IRC) channels. Through its association with Anonymous, 4chan has become associated with Project Chanology,
3874-500: A popular gathering place for the controversial online incel community. The "beta uprising" or "beta rebellion" meme, the idea of taking revenge against women, jocks and others perceived as the cause of incels' problems, was popularized on the subsection. The perpetrator of the Toronto van attack referenced 4chan and an incel rebellion in a Facebook post he made prior to the attack, while praising self-identified incel Elliot Rodger,
4023-484: A proof inspired by the proof from the anonymous 4chan user, both of which are recognized as significant advances to the problem. /v/ is 4chan's video games board. The board has spawned multiple Internet memes, most notably the NPC Wojak in 2016 (derived from the gaming term non-player character to describe those who do not think for themselves or make their own conscious decisions). The "paranormal" board, /x/ ,
4172-743: A question and answer session at the ROFLCon summit in October 2011, DeGrippo was asked why Encyclopedia Dramatica was closed and replaced with Oh Internet. She replied: "We were unable to stop the degradation of the content. It just kept getting longer and longer and dumber and dumber and less and less coherent over time." She also explained why she had not released the site as an archive, saying that she "didn't want to", and suggesting that this would have made her personally responsible for any DMCA and privacy violations that it contained. She also stated that hosting Encyclopedia Dramatica caused her to have troubles involving
4321-594: A repository of information and a means of discussion for the hacker group known as Anonymous . Encyclopedia Dramatica celebrates its subversive " NSFW " " troll site culture " and documents internet memes , events such as mass organized pranks, trolling events called "raids", large-scale failures of internet security, and criticism by those within its subculture of other internet communities which are accused of self-censorship in order to garner positive coverage from traditional and established media outlets . The site hosts numerous pornographic images, along with content that
4470-639: A role in the cycle of social networking, such as: An article entitled "The real value of on-line communities," written by A. Armstrong and John Hagel of the Harvard Business Review , addresses a handful of elements that are key to the growth of an online community and its success in drawing in members. In this example, the article focuses specifically on online communities related to business, but its points can be transferred and can apply to any online community. The article addresses four main categories of business-based online communities, but states that
4619-451: A seemingly endless supply of twisted, shocking views on just about every major human tragedy in history. In 2006, "a well-known band of trolls" emailed Encyclopedia Dramatica's creator, DeGrippo, demanding edits to the protected (i.e. locked) article describing them. After she refused to do so, the trolls ordered taxis, pizzas and escort services, and sent death threats and threats of rape to DeGrippo's apartment. Encyclopedia Dramatica became
Encyclopedia Dramatica - Misplaced Pages Continue
4768-597: A self-sustaining interactive environment. When starting an online community, it may be effective to create webpages that appeal to specific interests. Online communities with clear topics and easy access tend to be most effective. In order to gain early interaction by members, privacy guarantees and content discussions are very important. Successful online communities tend to be able to function self-sufficiently. There are two major types of participation in online communities: public participation and non-public participation, also called lurking. Lurkers are participants who join
4917-572: A sense, virtual communities may fill social voids in participants' offline lives. Sociologist Barry Wellman presents the idea of "globalization" – the Internet's ability to extend participants' social connections to people around the world while also aiding them in further engagement with their local communities. Although online societies differ in content from real society, the roles people assume in their online communities are quite similar. Elliot Volkman points out several categories of people that play
5066-898: A set of values, sometimes known collectively as netiquette or Internet etiquette, as they grow. These values may include: opportunity, education, culture, democracy, human services, equality within the economy, information, sustainability, and communication. An online community's purpose is to serve as a common ground for people who share the same interests. Online communities may be used as calendars to keep up with events such as upcoming gatherings or sporting events. They also form around activities and hobbies. Many online communities relating to health care help inform, advise, and support patients and their families. Students can take classes online and they may communicate with their professors and peers online. Businesses have also started using online communities to communicate with their customers about their products and services as well as to share information about
5215-424: A shared communication environment, relationships formed and nurtured, a sense of belonging to a group, the internal structure of the group, common space shared by people with similar ideas and interests. The three most critical issues are belonging, identity, and interest. For an online community to flourish there needs to be consistent participation, interest, and motivation. Research conducted by Helen Wang applied
5364-414: A site admin on Encyclopedia Dramatica (posting under the name AlGore) and had an obsession with mass shootings. The website received mainstream media attention after Jason Fortuny used Encyclopedia Dramatica to post photographs, e-mails and phone numbers from 176 responses to a Craigslist advertisement he posted in 2006, in which he posed as a woman seeking sexual encounters with dominant men. The incident
5513-402: A site is SixDegrees.com , set up in 1997, which included a friends list and the ability to send messages to members linked to friends and see other users associations. For much of the 21st century, the popularity of such networks has been growing. Friendster was the first social network to gain mass media attention; however, by 2004 it had been overtaken in popularity by Myspace , which in turn
5662-489: A thread on /x/ created on 12 May 2019, where the users were asked to "post disquieting images that just feel 'off'." There, the first photo depicting the Backrooms was uploaded and another user commented on it with the first story about the Backrooms, claiming that one enters the Backrooms when they " noclip out of reality in the wrong areas". After the 4chan post gained fame, several Internet users wrote horror stories relating to
5811-406: A truly successful one will combine qualities of each of them: communities of transaction, communities of interest, communities of fantasy, and communities of relationship. Anubhav Choudhury describes the four types of community as follows: Amy Jo Kim's membership lifecycle theory states that members of online communities begin their life in a community as visitors, or lurkers. After breaking through
5960-454: A type of mob mentality where the idea that "none of us is as cruel as all of us" minimizes the actions they take individually: One cannot reason with a multitude , let alone appeal to its conscience . If any of its members are not susceptible to reason or conscience —the province of the ego ideal , and therefore of the divide that characterizes subjectivity —then the trolling will proceed. On December 16, 2008, Encyclopedia Dramatica won
6109-409: A virtual community but do not contribute. In contrast, public participants, or posters, are those who join virtual communities and openly express their beliefs and opinions. Both lurkers and posters frequently enter communities to find answers and to gather general information. For example, there are several online communities dedicated to technology. In these communities, posters are generally experts in
Encyclopedia Dramatica - Misplaced Pages Continue
6258-416: A way to identify with how individuals interact with the community. This is done by understanding the relationships an individual has with an online community. There are six identifiable relationship statuses: considered status, committed status, inactive status, faded status, recognized status, and unrecognized status. Unrecognized status means the consumer is unaware of the online community or has not decided
6407-637: A worldwide protest against the Church of Scientology held by members of Anonymous. On January 15, 2008, a 4chan user posted to /b/, suggesting participants "do something big" against the Church of Scientology's website. This message resulted in the Church receiving threatening phone calls. It quickly grew into a large real-world protest. Unlike previous Anonymous attacks, this action was characterized by 4chan memes including rickrolls and Guy Fawkes masks . The raid drew criticism from some 4chan users who felt it would bring
6556-424: Is ephemeral , as threads receiving recent replies are " bumped " to the top of their respective board and old threads are deleted as new ones are created. Any nickname may be used when posting, even one that has been previously adopted, such as "Anonymous" or "moot". In place of registration, 4chan has provided tripcodes as an optional form of authenticating a poster's identity. As making a post without filling in
6705-454: Is "most closely associated" with /pol/, although only it features predominant Alt-Right beliefs; /pol/, like other boards, has been prominent in the dissemination of memes, in cases, featuring coordination to disperse Alt-Right sentiments. /pol/ "increasingly became synonymous with 4chan as a whole". The Southern Poverty Law Center regards /pol/'s rhetorical style as widely emulated by white supremacist websites such as The Daily Stormer ;
6854-509: Is 27% of its real size. Regardless of this underestimation, it is shown that amount of audience affects users' self-presentation and also content production which means a higher level of participation. There are two types of virtual online communities (VOC): dependent and self-sustained VOCs. The dependent VOCs are those who use the virtual community as extensions of themselves, they interact with people they know. Self-sustained VOCs are communities where relationships between participating members
7003-404: Is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may feel like home, consisting of a "family of invisible friends". Additionally, these "friends" can be connected through gaming communities and gaming companies. Those who wish to be a part of an online community usually have to become
7152-445: Is a significant overlap between user bases of /mu/ and music site Rate Your Music . The board's culture has inspired many online music communities and meme pages on social media that emulate /mu/'s posting style. Publications such as Pitchfork and Entertainment Weekly noted the board played a significant role in popularizing various music artists, such as Death Grips , Neutral Milk Hotel , Car Seat Headrest , and Have
7301-479: Is a subject of jokes on /b/. Christopher Poole told The New York Times , in a discussion on the moderation of /b/, that "the power lies in the community to dictate its own standards" and that site staff simply provided a framework. The humor of /b/'s many users, who refer to themselves as "/b/tards", is often incomprehensible to newcomers and outsiders, and is characterized by intricate inside jokes and dark comedy . Users often refer to each other, and much of
7450-489: Is also known for its pervasive clickbait advertisements, in addition to its having almost none of the rules expected on other similar communities. Ninemsn described Encyclopedia Dramatica as Misplaced Pages's evil twin. It's a site where almost every article is biased, offensive, unsourced, and without the faintest trace of political correctness. A search through its archives will reveal animated images of people committing suicide, articles glorifying extreme racism and sexism, and
7599-532: Is dedicated to discussing topics regarding unexplained phenomena , the supernatural , and non-political conspiracy theories . /x/ was initially launched in January 2005 as 4chan's general photography board; in February 2007, it was repurposed as a paranormal-themed board. Many of the earliest creepypastas (Internet horror -related legends) were created on /x/. The idea of the Backrooms gained popularity thanks to
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#17328910336067748-511: Is defined as an aggregation of individuals or business partners who interact around a shared interest, where the interaction is at least partially supported or mediated by technology (or both) and guided by some protocols or norms". Digital communities (web communities but also communities that are formed over, e.g., Xbox and PlayStation) provide a platform for a range of services to users. It has been argued that they can fulfill Maslow's hierarchy of needs . They allow for social interaction across
7897-461: Is encouraged by the site's total anonymity and the absence of an archive". Douglas cited Encyclopedia Dramatica 's definition of /b/ as "the asshole of the Internets [ sic ]". Mattathias Schwartz of The New York Times likened /b/ to "a high-school bathroom stall, or an obscene telephone party line ", while Baltimore City Paper wrote that "in the high school of the Internet, /b/ is the kid with
8046-426: Is formed and maintained through encounters in the online community. For all VOCs, there is the issue of creating identity and reputation in the community. People can create whatever identity they would like to through their interactions with other members. The username is what members identify each other by but it says very little about the person behind it. The main features in online communities that attract people are
8195-565: Is misogynistic, racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic and homophobic. On April 14, 2011, the original URL of the site was redirected to a new website named " Oh Internet " that bore little resemblance to Encyclopedia Dramatica. Parts of the ED community harshly criticized the changes. On the night of the Encyclopedia Dramatica shutdown, regular ED visitors bombarded the 'Oh Internet' Facebook wall with hate messages. The Web Ecology Project published
8344-575: Is not available, except for staff, and users typically post anonymously. As of 2022 , 4chan receives more than 22 million unique monthly visitors, of whom approximately half are from the United States . 4chan was created as an unofficial English-language counterpart to the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel , also known as 2chan, and its first boards were originally used for posting images and discussion related to anime. The site has been described as
8493-482: Is that an individual will participate in an online community. Establishing a relationship between the consumer and a seller has become a new science with the emergence of online communities. It is a new market to be tapped by companies and to do so, requires an understanding of the relationships built on online communities. Online communities gather people around common interests and these common interests can include brands, products, and services. Companies not only have
8642-451: Is when an online community has not relevance to a person. The faded status is when a person has begun to fade away from a site. It is important to be able to recognize which group or status the consumer holds, because it might help determine which approach to use. Companies not only need to understand how a consumer functions within an online community, but also a company "should understand the communality of an online community" This means
8791-542: The New Statesman , on Language Log , in C't magazine, and in Wired magazine. According to Sherrod DeGrippo, As long as something wasn't submitted as illegal or an abuse complaint, I didn't even see it. Wikis are something that you either closely, closely monitor and manage, or you just let it go. Predating sites like the former Cheezburger Network (now known as Know Your Meme ) by several years, Encyclopedia Dramatica
8940-529: The lulz " (for laughs), a phrase that it qualifies as "a catchall explanation for any trolling you do." The targets of this trolling come from "every pocket of the Web", to include not only the non- corporeal aspects of Internet phenomena , (e.g. online catchphrases, fan pages, forums and viral phenomena ), but also real people (e.g. amateur celebrities, identifiable internet drama participants and even Encyclopedia Dramatica's own forum members). These are derided in
9089-638: The Bass diffusion model , originally conceived by Frank Bass to describe the process by which new products get adopted as an interaction between innovative early adopters and those who follow them. 4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature , cooking , weapons , music , history , technology , anime , physical fitness , politics , and sports , among others. Registration
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#17328910336069238-467: The FBI . From April 2011, Ryan Cleary hosted a fork of Encyclopedia Dramatica at encyclopediadramatica.ch. Members of this project gathered text and images from Google's web cache and other backups, and a script was created to upload cached information. On June 21, 2011, Scotland Yard arrested Ryan Cleary based on alleged connections to online attacks on Sony . The arrest temporarily disrupted operation of
9387-497: The People's Choice Winners category for favorite wiki in Mashable 's 2nd Annual Open Web Awards, with wikiHow as the runner-up and Misplaced Pages coming in third. In December 2008, a message on Encyclopedia Dramatica asked for donations and claimed that the website was under attack and had lost its advertisers. In January 2010, the Encyclopedia Dramatica article Aboriginal was removed from
9536-493: The Stormer ' s editor, Andrew Anglin , concurred. /pol/ was where screenshots of Trayvon Martin 's hacked social media accounts were initially posted. The board's users have started antifeminist , homophobic , transphobic , and anti-Arab Twitter campaigns. Many /pol/ users favored Donald Trump during his 2016 United States presidential campaign. Both Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr. , appeared to acknowledge
9685-511: The URL encyclopediadramatica.com was redirected to "Oh Internet", an entirely different safe-for-work website that DeGrippo had created. The name "Oh Internet" is meant to convey "Oh, Internet, you are so crazy!" DeGrippo stated that "Shock for shock's sake is old at this point [...] ." Some regular users of Encyclopedia Dramatica were displeased by the change and attacked the website's official Facebook fan page with "hate messages and pornography". In
9834-505: The " rickroll " was born. A link to the YouTube video of Tay Zonday 's song " Chocolate Rain " was posted on /b/ on July 11, 2007, and then subsequently circulated by users, becoming a very popular internet meme. 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 an oft-repeated meme on 4chan and inspired remixes. Fellow YouTuber Boxxy 's popularity
9983-519: The "Name" field causes posts to be attributed to "Anonymous", general understanding on 4chan holds that Anonymous is not a single person but a collective (hive) of users. Moderators generally post without a name even when performing sysop actions. A "capcode" may be used to attribute the post to "Anonymous ## Mod", although moderators often post without the capcode. In a 2011 interview on Nico Nico Douga , Poole explained that there are approximately 20 volunteer moderators active on 4chan. 4chan also has
10132-454: The "early, more childish," humour, as evident by the likes of Project Chanology ; trolling underwent a so-called "golden age" that took aim at American corporate media. In January 2011, Poole announced the deletion of the /r9k/ ("ROBOT9000") and /new/ (News) boards, saying that /new/ had become devoted to racist discussions, and /r9k/ no longer served its original purpose of being a test implementation of xkcd 's ROBOT9000 script. During
10281-466: The "raids" organized on /b/ on Encyclopedia Dramatica, which acted as a "troll hall of fame " when used this way, has been seen by some scholars, among them Liam Mitchell of Trent University , as acting as a way to assuage the guilt that trolls feel for harming their victims and being confronted with evidence of this harm. By celebrating on Encyclopedia Dramatica, and archiving that which would make an individual member guilty, trolls collectively engage in
10430-471: The 20 most-trafficked websites were community-based sites. The amount of traffic to such websites is expected to increase as a growing proportion of the world's population attains Internet access. The idea of a community is not a new concept. On the telephone, in ham radio and in the online world, social interactions no longer have to be based on proximity; instead they can literally be with anyone anywhere. The study of communities has had to adapt along with
10579-489: The 2010 instance of ED and who has been wanted by the Australian Human Rights Commission since. DeGrippo reportedly "came to hate" Encyclopedia Dramatica. She had hoped that ED would return to its roots and focus on LiveJournal drama. Furthermore, according to her, Encyclopedia Dramatica never turned a profit during the time she owned it, due to its content putting off advertisers. On April 14, 2011,
10728-405: The 4chan.net domain, prompting Poole to move the site to its current domain at 4chan.org. On March 1, 2004, Poole announced that he lacked the funds to pay the month's server bill, but was able to continue operations after receiving a swarm of donations from users. In June 2004, 4chan experienced six weeks of downtime due to PayPal suspending 4chan's donations service after receiving complaints about
10877-400: The 4chan.org domain in December 2023 for unknown reasons, and 4channel.org now redirects to 4chan.org. In a 2020 interview with Vice Media, several current or past moderators spoke about what they perceived as racist intent behind the site's management. They alleged that a managing moderator named RapeApe was attempting to use the site as a recruitment tool for the alt-right, and that Nishimura
11026-591: The Backrooms. Many memes were created and shared across social media, further popularizing the creepypasta. American model Allison Harvard first gained notoriety in 2005 as an Internet meme on the /x/ board where she became known as Creepy Chan. Known for her large eyes and peculiar interests like fascination with blood, photos she posted on her blog were widely circulated on the board. She gained mainstream notoriety in 2009 and again in 2011 by appearing on America's Next Top Model . She would visit /x/ after new episodes of America's Next Top Model would air to see what
11175-680: The Head of the NRA , was controversial because the player could take aim and shoot at members of the National Rifle Association of America . In February 2015, Muhammad Sex Simulator 2015 , another video game by the same user, attracted further controversy because of the recent Charlie Hebdo shooting . On December 7, 2017, 21-year-old William Atchison opened fire at a high school in Aztec, New Mexico , killing two before committing suicide. Atchison had been
11324-588: The Technology Acceptance Model to online community participation. Internet self-efficacy positively predicted perceived ease of use. Research found that participants' beliefs in their abilities to use the internet and web-based tools determined how much effort was expected. Community environment positively predicted perceived ease of use and usefulness. Intrinsic motivation positively predicted perceived ease of use, usefulness, and actual use. The technology acceptance model positively predicts how likely it
11473-431: The United States, but European services like VK , Japanese platform LINE , or Chinese social networks WeChat , QQ or video-sharing app Douyin (internationally known as TikTok ) have also garnered appeal in their respective regions. Current trends focus around the increased use of mobile devices when using social networks. Statistics from Statista show that, in 2013, 97.9 million users accessed social networks from
11622-540: The ability to attach files, embed YouTube videos, and send private messages is now commonplace. As of October 2014, the largest forum Gaia Online contained over 2 billion posts. Members are commonly assigned into user groups which control their access rights and permissions. Common access levels include the following: Social networks are platforms allowing users to set up their own profile and build connections with like minded people who pursue similar interests through interaction. The first traceable example of such
11771-404: The alias "moot". In April 2009, Poole was voted the world's most influential person of 2008 by an open Internet poll conducted by Time magazine . The results were questioned even before the poll completed, as automated voting programs and manual ballot stuffing were used to influence the vote. 4chan's interference with the vote seemed increasingly likely, when it was found that reading
11920-468: The anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in nonchronological order. Shortly after, an anonymous user responded with a mathematical proof that argued viewers would have to watch at least 93,884,313,611 episodes to see all possible orderings. Seven years later, professional mathematicians recognized the mathematical proof as a partial solution to a superpermutations problem that was unsolved for 25 years. Australian mathematician Greg Egan later published
12069-420: The attraction of writing and contributing. This, coupled with the fact that organizational culture does not change overnight, means creators can expect slow progress at first with a new virtual community. As more people begin to participate, however, the aforementioned motivations will increase, creating a virtuous cycle in which more participation begets more participation. Community adoption can be forecast with
12218-637: The block, stating that it was because "we didn't keep up our end of the nic.ch user agreement contract stating that we had to keep a mailing address and phone number in Switzerland." Moore told an interviewer for The Daily Dot in July 2011: People take themselves too seriously, they can't laugh at anything. We make fun of everything. I make fun of skinny white computer nerds, but I am one. When asked about "abusive content", Moore stated that he removes it when he sees it, then further explained: I'm not going to leave
12367-429: The board's intended purpose is "discussion of news, world events, political issues, and other related topics." /pol/ was created in October 2011 as a rebranding of 4chan's news board, /new/, which was deleted that January for a high volume of racist discussion. Although there had previously been a strong left-libertarian contingent to 4chan activists, there was a gradual rightward turn on 4chan's politics board in
12516-524: The business. Other online communities allow a wide variety of professionals to come together to share thoughts, ideas and theories. Fandom is an example of what online communities can evolve into. Online communities have grown in influence in "shaping the phenomena around which they organize" according to Nancy K. Baym's work. She says that: "More than any other commercial sector, the popular culture industry relies on online communities to publicize and provide testimonials for their products." The strength of
12665-432: The communities will eventually wither away without replacing members who leave. Newcomers are new members of the online communities and thus often face many barriers when contributing to a project, and those barriers they face might lead them to give up the project or even leave the community. By conducting a systematic literature review over 20 primary studies regarding to the barriers faced by newcomers when contributing to
12814-424: The community to be useful. The recognized status is where a person is aware of the community, but is not entirely involved. A considered status is when a person begins their involvement with the site. The usage at this stage is still very sporadic. The committed status is when a relationship between a person and an online community is established and the person gets fully involved with the community. The inactive status
12963-414: The controversial Sad Satan video game. "[A] significant and influential element of contemporary internet culture", 4chan is responsible for many early memes and the site has received positive attention for its association with memes. This included " So I herd u liek mudkipz " [ sic ], which involved a phrase based on Pokémon and which generated numerous YouTube tribute videos, and
13112-581: The design of Futaba Channel's Nijiura ("Random") board. It was the first board created, and has been described as 4chan's most popular board, accounting for 30% of site traffic in 2009. Gawker 's Nick Douglas summarized /b/ as a board where "people try to shock, entertain, and coax free porn from each other." /b/ has a "no rules" policy, except for bans on certain illegal content, such as child pornography , invasions of other websites (posting floods of disruptive content), and under-18 viewing, all of which are inherited from site-wide rules. The "no invasions" rule
13261-421: The e-mail account of former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin , and when a member of Anonymous claimed credit for an attack on the virtual Second Life headquarters of former presidential candidate John Edwards . The convergence of Encyclopedia Dramatica with the anti-Scientology campaign of Project Chanology was noted by technology journalist Julian Dibbell. The celebration and archival of
13410-427: The early days of the website, Poole hosted meetings from 2005 to 2008 in various locations to promote it, such as Otakon , that popularized some of the first 4chan-related memes. Additionally, a lolicon board was created at /l/ (Lolikon), but was disabled following the posting of genuine child pornography and ultimately deleted in October 2004, after threats of legal action. In February 2004, GoDaddy suspended
13559-429: The early-mid 2010s, with the fundamentalist approach to free speech contributing. The board quickly attracted posters with a political persuasion that later would be described with a new term, the alt-right . Media sources have characterized /pol/ as predominantly racist and sexist , with many of its posts taking an explicitly neo-Nazi bent. The site's far-reaching culture of vitriolic and discriminatory content
13708-416: The field who can offer technological insight and answer questions, while lurkers tend to be technological novices who use the communities to find answers and to learn. In general, virtual community participation is influenced by how participants view themselves in society as well as by norms, both of society and of the online community. Participants also join online communities for friendship and support. In
13857-586: The first letter of the first 21 candidates in the poll spelled out a phrase containing two 4chan memes: "mARBLECAKE. ALSO, THE GAME ." On September 12, 2009, Poole gave a talk on why 4chan has a reputation as a "Meme Factory" at the Paraflows Symposium in Vienna, Austria , which was part of the Paraflows 09 festival, themed Urban Hacking . In this talk, Poole mainly attributed this to the anonymous system, and to
14006-676: The first to find a satisfying way of representing electronic chatter on-screen." Fan communities in platforms like Twitter , Instagram , and Reddit around sports, actors, and musicians have become powerful communities both culturally and politically. Discussions where members may post their feedback are essential in the development of an online community. Online communities may encourage individuals to come together to teach and learn from one another. They may encourage learners to discuss and learn about real-world problems and situations, as well as to focus on such things as teamwork, collaborative thinking and personal experiences. Blogs are among
14155-423: The form of a weekly post dedicated to them and a corresponding theme. In 2005, the installment of a word filter which changed "egg" to "duck", and thus "eggroll" to "duckroll", across 4chan led to a bait-and-switch meme in which users deceitfully linked to a picture of a duck on wheels. This was then modified into users linking to the music video for Rick Astley 's 1987 song " Never Gonna Give You Up ". Thus,
14304-418: The general user base (as is the case with wikis ) or only certain users (as is the case with most blogs), can place online communities into stylistic categories. Another approach argues that "online community" is a metaphor and that contributors actively negotiate the meaning of the term, including values and social norms. Some research has looked at the users of online communities. Amy Jo Kim has classified
14453-448: The greatest attractions towards online communities is the sense of connection users build among members. Participation and contribution are influenced when members of an online community are aware of their global audience. The majority of people learn by example and often follow others, especially when it comes to participation. Individuals are reserved about contributing to an online community for many reasons including but not limited to
14602-551: The immediate area offline. This has led to a range of popular sites based on areas such as health, employment, finances and education. Online communities can be vital for companies for marketing and outreach. Unexpected and innovative uses of web communities have also emerged with social networks being used in conflicts to alert citizens of impending attacks. The UN sees the web and specifically social networks as an important tool in conflicts and emergencies. Web communities have grown in popularity; as of October 2014, 6 of
14751-424: The information shared and made accessible for further productivity and profits. Because consumers and customers in all fields are becoming accustomed to more interaction and engagement online, adjustments must be considered made in order to keep audiences intrigued. Online communities have been characterized as "virtual settlements" that have the following four requirements: interactivity, a variety of communicators,
14900-417: The introduction of new ways for information to be exchanged. Yet, these interactions may also lead to a downfall of social interactions or deposit more negative and derogatory forms of speaking to others, in connection, surfaced forms of racism, bullying, sexist comments, etc. may also be investigated and linked to online communities. One scholarly definition of an online community is this: "a virtual community
15049-466: The killer behind the 2014 Isla Vista killings . He claims to have talked with both Harper-Mercer and Rodger on Reddit and 4chan and believes that he was part of a "beta uprising", also posting a message on 4chan about his intention the day before his attack. /sci/ is 4chan's science and mathematics board. On September 26, 2011, an anonymous user on /sci/ posted a question regarding the shortest possible way to watch all possible orders of episodes of
15198-516: The lack of data retention on the site ("The site has no memory."). In April 2010, Poole gave evidence in the trial United States of America v. David Kernell as a government witness. As a witness, he explained the terminology used on 4chan to the prosecutor, ranging from "OP" to " lurker ". He also explained to the court the nature of the data given to the FBI as part of the search warrant , including how users can be uniquely identified from site audit logs. The "random" board, /b/ , follows
15347-554: The major platforms on which online communities form. Blogging practices include microblogging , where the amount of information in a single element is smaller, and liveblogging , in which an ongoing event is blogged about in real time. The ease and convenience of blogging has allowed for its growth. Major blogging platforms include Twitter and Tumblr , which combine social media and blogging, as well as platforms such as WordPress , which allow content to be hosted on their own servers but also permit users to download, install, and modify
15496-474: The new technologies. Many researchers have used ethnography to attempt to understand what people do in online spaces, how they express themselves, what motivates them, how they govern themselves, what attracts them, and why some people prefer to observe rather than participate. Online communities can congregate around a shared interest and can be spread across multiple websites. Some features of online communities include: Online communities typically establish
15645-879: The one side, newcomers can bring online communities innovative ideas and resources. On the other side, they can also harm communities with misbehavior caused by their unfamiliarity with community norms. Kraut et al. defined five basic issues faced by online communities when dealing with newcomers, and proposed several design claims for each problem in their book Building Successful Online Communities . Successful online communities motivate online participation . Methods of motivating participation in these communities have been investigated in several studies. There are many persuasive factors that draw users into online communities. Peer-to-peer systems and social networking sites rely heavily on member contribution. Users' underlying motivations to involve themselves in these communities have been linked to some persuasion theories of sociology. One of
15794-410: The online community should not be viewed as "merely a sales channel". Instead it should be viewed as a network for establishing interpersonal communications with the consumer. Most online communities grow slowly at first, due in part to the fact that the strength of motivation for contributing is usually proportional to the size of the community. As the size of the potential audience increases, so does
15943-413: The online community's power is displayed through the season 3 premiere of BBC's Sherlock . Online activity by fans seem to have had a noticeable influence on the plot and direction of the season opening episode. Mark Lawson of The Guardian recounts how fans have, to a degree, directed the outcome of the events of the episode. He says that "Sherlock has always been one of the most web-aware shows, among
16092-427: The online handle "moot". Poole had been a regular participant on Something Awful 's subforum "Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse" (ADTRW), where many users were familiar with the Japanese imageboard format and Futaba Channel ("2chan.net"). When creating 4chan, Poole obtained Futaba Channel's open source code and translated the Japanese text into English using AltaVista 's Babel Fish online translator. After
16241-421: The only active mirror of ED is edramatica.com. Encyclopedia Dramatica was founded in 2004 by Sherrod DeGrippo, also known by the online pseudonym "Girlvinyl". DeGrippo joined LiveJournal in 2000 and became enthralled by the behavior of some of its members: People were accessible and it was bidirectional. Voyeurs and exhibitionists were able to interact in a way that was normalized. That's why I started ED. It
16390-418: The open source software projects, Steinmacher et al. identified 15 different barriers and they classified those barriers into five categories as described below: Because of the barriers described above, it is very necessary that online communities engage newcomers and help them to adjust to the new environment. From online communities' side, newcomers can be both beneficial and harmful to online communities. On
16539-416: The outside world, as fags . They are often referred to by outsiders as trolls , who regularly act with the intention of "doing it for the lulz", a corruption of " LOL " used to denote amusement at another's expense . A significant amount of media coverage is in response to /b/'s culture, which has characterised it as adolescent, crude and spiteful, with one publication writing that their "bad behavior
16688-453: The passes to go towards supporting the site. On January 21, 2015, Poole stepped down as the site's administrator, citing stress from controversies such as Gamergate as the reason for his departure. On September 21, 2015, Poole announced that Hiroyuki Nishimura had purchased from him the ownership rights to 4chan, without disclosing the terms of the acquisition. Nishimura was the former administrator of 2channel between 1999 and 2014,
16837-399: The posting of illegal and offensive content as a result of its lax censorship and moderation policies. In 2008, The Guardian summarized the 4chan community as "lunatic, juvenile [...] brilliant, ridiculous and alarming". The majority of posting on 4chan takes place on imageboards , on which users have the ability to share images and create threaded discussions. As of August 2022 ,
16986-454: The publication that Good Smile obtained partial ownership in the website as compensation. In October 2016, it was reported that the site was facing financial difficulties that could lead to its closure or radical changes. In a post titled "Winter is Coming", Hiroyuki Nishimura explained, "We had tried to keep 4chan as is. But I failed. I am sincerely sorry", citing server costs, infrastructure costs, and network fees. On November 17, 2018, it
17135-402: The purpose of provoking further emotional response. Adherents of the practice assert that visitors to the website "shouldn't take anything said on Dramatica seriously." Articles at Encyclopedia Dramatica were particularly critical of MySpace as well as users on YouTube , LiveJournal, DeviantART , Tumblr and Misplaced Pages. In The New York Times Magazine , journalist Jonathan Dee described it as
17284-514: The resulting drama. Unflattering photographs of Williams were spread on the web, and Williams considered this to be harassment. He threatened legal action, traveled to Portland, Oregon, in order to speak to LiveJournal's abuse team, and reported the alleged harassment to a local TV news station. DeGrippo created Encyclopedia Dramatica in order to "house some information from livejournal and some drama about hackers Theo de Raadt and Darren Reed." Encyclopedia Dramatica characterized itself as being "In
17433-434: The rituals and stages of online community interaction and called it the "membership life cycle". Clay Shirky talks about communities of practice, whose members collaborate and help each other in order to make something better or improve a certain skill. What makes these communities bond is "love" of something, as demonstrated by members who go out of their way to help without any financial interest. Campbell et al. developed
17582-544: The same fictional universe . A stand-alone wiki was created in January 2008 on the EditThis wiki hosting service to display the SCP articles. The EditThis website did not have moderators, or the ability to delete articles. Members communicated through individual article talk pages and the /x/ board. /x/ was the first place where the 2015 viral video 11B-X-1371 was posted. The board also contributed to investigating and popularizing
17731-435: The same day, Facebook deleted its Operation Payback page, and Twitter suspended Operation Payback's account. An anonymous source told Gawker that the Encyclopedia Dramatica article was deleted as the result of court orders. In June 2020 it was reported by Canary Mission that Andrew "weev" Auernheimer is both the " weev " who " Zoombombed " a March 2020 chat for Jewish teens, and the "Joseph Evers" who owned and co-created
17880-543: The same year, the /soc/ board was created in an effort to reduce the number of socialization threads on /b/. /r9k/ was restored on October 23, 2011, along with /hc/ ("Hardcore", previously deleted), /pol/ (a rebranding of /new/) and the new /diy/ board, in addition to an apology by Poole where he recalls how he criticized the deletion of Encyclopedia Dramatica and realized that he had done the same. In 2010, 4chan had implemented reCAPTCHA in an effort to thwart spam arising from JavaScript worms. By November 2011, 4chan made
18029-403: The search engine results of Google Australia , after a lawyer filed a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission saying its content was racist. A search on terms related to the article produced a message that one of the results has been removed after a legal request relating to Australia's Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) . The publicity surrounding this served to raise the profile of
18178-627: The site . In March 2010, it was reported that the Australian Human Rights Commission had notified the site by e-mail that according to Australian law, the article Aboriginal could be in breach of Sections 18C and 18D of its RDA. In 2020, a Canadian court heard that Alek Minassian, perpetrator of the Toronto van attack , was motivated by the High Score article. In 2016, a United Kingdom court determined an ED user must pay £10,000 in libel damages for making false statements about
18327-411: The site's content. Following 4chan's return, several non-anime related boards were introduced, including /k/ (Weapons), /o/ ( Auto ), and /v/ ( Video Games ). In 2008, nine new boards were created, including the sports board at /sp/, the fashion board at /fa/ and the "Japan/General" (the name later changed to " Otaku Culture") board at /jp/. By this point, 4chan's culture had altered, moving away from
18476-460: The site's content. In January 2009, Poole signed a new deal with an advertising company; in February 2009, he was $ 20,000 in debt, and the site was continuing to lose money. The 4chan servers were moved from Texas to California in August 2008, which upgraded the maximum bandwidth throughput of 4chan from 100 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s. Unlike most web forums, 4chan does not have a registration system, allowing users to post anonymously . Posting
18625-592: The site's creation, Poole invited users from the ADTRW subforum, many of whom were dissatisfied with the site's moderation, to visit 4chan, which he advertised as an English-language counterpart to Futaba Channel and a place for Western fans to discuss anime and manga. At its founding, the site only hosted one board: /b/ (Anime/Random). Before the end of 2003, several new anime-related boards were added, including /h/ ( Hentai ), /c/ ( Anime/Cute ), /d/ (Hentai/Alternative), /w/ (Wallpapers/Anime), /y/ ( Yaoi ), and /a/ (Anime). In
18774-500: The site's homepage lists 75 imageboards and one Flash animation board. Most boards have their own set of rules and are dedicated to a specific topic, including anime and manga, video games, music, literature, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. Uniquely, the "Random" board—also known as /b/—enforces few rules. 4chan is the Internet's most trafficked imageboard, according to the Los Angeles Times . 4chan's Alexa rank
18923-445: The smoke screen of anonymity, it allows a person to be able to socially interact with strangers in a much more personal way. This personal connection the consumer feels translates to how they want to establish relationships online. They separate what is commercial or spam and what is relational. Relational becomes what they associate with human interaction while commercial is what they associate with digital or non-human interaction. Thus
19072-617: The software on their own servers. As of October 2014, 23.1% of the top 10 million websites are either hosted on or run WordPress. Internet forums , sometimes called bulletin boards, are websites which allow users to post topics also known as threads for discussion with other users able to reply creating a conversation. Forums follow a hierarchical structure of categories, with many popular forum software platforms categorising forums depending on their purpose, and allowing forum administrators to create subforums within their platform. With time more advanced features have been added into forums;
19221-445: The spirit of Ambrose Bierce 's The Devil's Dictionary ." The New York Times Magazine recognized the wiki as "an online compendium of troll humor and troll lore" that it labeled a "troll archive". C't , a European magazine for IT professionals, noted the site's role in introducing newcomers to the culture of /b/ , a notorious Internet imageboard at 4chan . Encyclopedia Dramatica defines trolling in terms of doing things "for
19370-622: The support by tweeting /pol/-associated memes. Upon his successful election, a /pol/ moderator embedded a pro-Trump video at the top of all of the board's pages. /r9k/ is a board that implements Randall Munroe 's " ROBOT9000 " algorithm, where no exact reposts are permitted. It is credited as the origin of the "greentext" rhetorical style which often center around stories of social interactions and resulting ineptness. By 2012, personal confession stories of self-loathing, depression, and attempted suicide began to supersede /b/-style roleplaying , otaku , and video game discussion. It became
19519-410: The target of occasional denial of service attacks . For instance, on December 28, 2010, 4chan and other websites went down due to such an attack, following which Poole said on his blog, "We now join the ranks of MasterCard , Visa , PayPal , etc and is an exclusive club!" The site was launched as 4chan.net on October 1, 2003, by Christopher Poole, a then-15-year-old student from New York City using
19668-508: The term " an hero " [ sic ] as a synonym for suicide , after a misspelling in the Myspace online memorial of seventh grader Mitchell Henderson. 4chan and other websites, such as the satirical Encyclopedia Dramatica , have also contributed to the development of significant amounts of leetspeak . A lolcat is an image combining a photograph of a cat with solecistic text intended to contribute humour, widely popularized by 4chan in
19817-464: The transition to utilizing Cloudflare following a series of DDoS attacks. The 4chan imageboards were rewritten in valid HTML5 / CSS3 in May 2012 in an effort to improve client-side performance. On September 28, 2012, 4chan introduced a "4chan pass" that, when purchased, "allows users to bypass typing a reCAPTCHA verification when posting and reporting posts on the 4chan image boards"; the money raised from
19966-503: The website forming the basis for anonymous posting culture which influenced later websites such as Futaba Channel and 4chan; Nishimura lost 2channel's domain after it was seized by his registrar, Jim Watkins due the latter's alleged financial difficulties. Wired later reported that Japanese toy manufacturer Good Smile Company , Japanese telecommunication Dwango , and Nishimura's company Future Search Brazil may have helped facilitate Nishimura's purchase, with anonymous sources telling
20115-458: The wiki, but other members were able to resume Cleary's duties. Garrett E. Moore later became the fork's owner. Moore reported difficulties in securing a host for the website. On March 19, 2012, encyclopediadramatica.ch was shut down for a short time due to a " DNS block". On March 21, 2012, the site moved to a Swedish domain name, at encyclopediadramatica.se, instead of a domain in Switzerland as before. The site's Facebook account later addressed
20264-496: The works of Duster , D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L by Panchiko , and All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling by Godspeed You! Black Emperor . This was described by NPR as resembling "a secret club of preservationists obsessed with the articulation of a near-dead language". The board has attracted further attention for various projects done by its users. A group called The Pablo Collective posted
20413-591: The works of Lave and Wenger, who illustrate a cycle of how users become incorporated into virtual communities using the principles of legitimate peripheral participation. They suggest five types of trajectories amongst a learning community: The following shows the correlation between the learning trajectories and Web 2.0 community participation by using the example of YouTube : Newcomers are important for online communities. Online communities rely on volunteers' contribution, and most online communities face high turnover rate as one of their main challenges. For example, only
20562-402: The world between people of different cultures who might not otherwise have met with offline meetings also becoming more common. Another key use of web communities is access to and the exchange of information. With communities for even very small niches it is possible to find people also interested in a topic and to seek and share information on a subject where there are not such people available in
20711-494: Was "hands-off, leaving moderation of the site primarily to RapeApe." Neither Nishimura nor RapeApe responded to these allegations. Far-right extremism has been reported by public authorities, commentators and civil society groups as connected, in part, to 4chan, an association that had arisen by 2015. According to 4chan's filings to the New York Attorney General's Office, 4chan signed an agreement to pay RapeApe $ 3,000
20860-483: Was 853 in March 2022, though it has been as high as 56. It is provided to its users free of charge and consumes a large amount of bandwidth ; as a result, its financing has often been problematic. Poole has acknowledged that donations alone could not keep the site online, and turned to advertising to help make ends meet. However, the explicit content hosted on 4chan has deterred businesses who do not want to be associated with
21009-400: Was added in late 2006, after /b/ users spent most of that summer "invading" Habbo Hotel . The "no rules" policy also applies to actions of administrators and moderators, which means that users may be banned at any time, for any reason, including for no reason at all. Due partially to its anonymous nature, board moderation is not always successful—indeed, the site's anti-child pornography rule
21158-497: Was addressed in a blog hosted at Wired News , where the blogger proposes that Encyclopedia Dramatica may be the "world's lamest wiki". Julian Dibbell , in Wired , described Encyclopedia Dramatica as the site "where the vast parallel universe of Anonymous in-jokes, catchphrases, and obsessions is lovingly annotated, and you will discover an elaborate trolling culture: flamingly racist, homophobic and misogynistic content lurks throughout, all of it calculated to offend." The site
21307-493: Was announced that the site would be split into two, with the work-safe boards moved to a new domain, 4channel.org, while the NSFW boards would remain on the 4chan.org domain. In a series of posts on the topic, Nishimura explained that the split was due to 4chan being blacklisted by most advertising companies and that the new 4channel domain would allow for the site to receive advertisements by mainstream ad providers. All boards returned to
21456-432: Was being written about her and participated in discussions. The SCP Foundation , a fictional secret organization documented by the collaborative writing wiki project of the same name, originated on /x/ in 2007, when the first SCP file, SCP-173, was posted by an anonymous user. Initially a stand-alone short story, many additional SCP files were created shortly after; these new SCPs copied SCP-173's style and were set within
21605-446: Was due in part to 4chan. In his American incarnation, Pedobear is an anthropomorphic bear child predator that is often used within the community to mock contributors showing a sexual interest in children. Pedobear is one of the most popular memes on non-English imageboards, and has gained recognition across Europe, appearing in offline publications. It has been used as a symbol of pedophilia by Maltese graffiti vandals prior to
21754-461: Was later overtaken by Facebook . In 2013, Facebook attracted 1.23 billion monthly users, rising from 145 million in 2008. Facebook was the first social network to surpass 1 billion registered accounts, and by 2020, had more than 2.7 billion active users. Meta Platforms , the owner of Facebook, also owns three other leading platforms for online communities: Instagram , WhatsApp , and Facebook Messenger . Most top-ranked social networks originate in
21903-485: Was mostly just personalities that were just so nuts and fascinating. She became involved in the LJdrama community, which covered stories on LiveJournal gossip. When the community was banned from LiveJournal, they created their own website. In 2002, two LiveJournal users, Joshua Williams (aka mediacrat) and Andrewpants, became intimately involved with each other. After they broke off their relationship, LJdrama decided to document
22052-556: Was the first encyclopedia dedicated to the memes and "mean-spirited trolling" of 4chan culture. In March 2010, a "Joseph Evers" was recognized as the owner by ABC News, reporting on the site being blacklisted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority . The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) contacted Evers threatening him with charges under Australian law. On December 8, 2010, Encyclopedia Dramatica deleted its article on Operation Payback . On
22201-880: Was when GETs lost meaning due to the high post rate resulting in a GET occurring every few weeks. He estimated /b/'s post rate in July 2008 to be 150,000–200,000 posts per day. The music board, /mu/ , is dedicated to the discussion of music artists, albums, genres, and instruments. Described as "4chan's best kept secret" and a "surprisingly artistic side of 4chan", /mu/ is used by users to share their music interests with similar minds and discover "great music they would never have found otherwise" with many moments of insightful candor that can affirm or challenge their own musical tastes. The board has gained notoriety for earnestly focusing upon and promoting challenging and otherwise obscure music. Some common genres discussed on /mu/ include shoegaze , experimental hip hop , witch house , IDM , midwest emo , vaporwave , and K-pop . There
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