4Chan – What is 4Chan, Who uses 4chan, Rules, Image Macros & Memes

4Chan is an imageboard website in the English language. This post will discuss about what is 4Chan, What is unique in it, who uses 4chan, why is it bad, Rules, Image Macros, Memes and Author’s take on this.

What is 4Chan

4chan is an imageboard website and works anonymously and came into being in 2003. It was founded by the internet entrepreneur Christopher Moot Poole.

Fig. 1 – Introduction to 4Chan

This website hosts “Boards” which dedicate themselves to a wide variety of topics. These could be manga and anime to video games, politics, music, literature, fitness, sports, and many others. There is no need to register here as the users can post anything as anonymous users and the reputation of 4Chan is poor.

It is a time sensitive website and posts usually last for a short period as threads that receives recent reverts are at the top. Once the new threads are in, the old ones get deleted. As of April 2021, 4chan amuses more than 21 million active monthly visitors along with more than 9 lakh regular posts in a day.

Fig. 2 – Different Genres on Boards

4Chan comprises a 4Chan fit, which is an imageboard meant for weightlifting, fitness, and health. It also has a 4chan VG which is an imageboard for discussing PC and consoling video games. Further, 4chan Tv is also an imageboard for discussing films and television. 4Chan is a website that carries out its fundamental and layout operations anonymously.

What is Unique About 4Chan

It is much similar to Reddit, which is yet another broad-scale online forum. This website consists of numerous threads which can be further distinguished into specific topics, ranging from sex toys to civet coffee. Not only this, More than 22 million users pay a visit to this amusing website every month consistently. Unlike other websites, users don’t have to submit any username, not even a pseudo name.

It entitles the users to say and do whatever comes to their mind without fearing for any accountability. It also states that the users can’t message any other site mates, nor can they establish any other social or personal relationship. Numerous socialists are still studying the working of this efficient site.

For the further complication of things, the 4chan’s threads terminate after a particular period. The R-rated boards stay for a longer time, whereas PG or G-rated ones stay on the website for a relatively short time. There is a proper organization of posts in a reverse chronological manner. Non-regular users often find using this website a bit challenging as the interface is deliberate and minimal. Summing it up, 4chan is a forum with no rules and restrictions and is a virtual place where people can say and commit whatever they wish to do.

Who Uses 4chan

According to the statistics about the website, most of the users of this website are young and college-going men. Often, most users are the ones who have a significant interest in the culture, games, technology, comic books, and ethics of Japan. These users are from English lingual countries like the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Britain, Japan, Turkey, etc.

Fig. 3 – Anonymous Users on 4Chan

This site also attracts a considerable proportion of traffic from counties like Sweden, Germany, and France. A wholly scientific survey in 2010 pinpoints that the users of this site do not discuss anything offline. It also claims that most of the users of 4chan are not allowing their children to join it. The founder of this site is urging its users to take this wholly scientific and reliable survey with a grain of salt. This site is wholly anonymous, and there is no way by which one can extract who is using it with any certainty.

Why is 4chan Bad

The reasons include:

• 4chan is the original cultivator for various exciting memes and behaviors, which we must consider central to mainstream online culture.
• It is also responsible for some of the cyberbullying incidents, hoaxes, and online pranks, for the past 4 to 5 years.

Rules of Using 4Chan

4Chan has some global rules which every user must abide by. These are the following:

• The users will never post, upload, or request, or link to anything, which leads to the violation of local laws or laws in the United States of America.
• If you are under 18 (minor), the website will cease to exist and access is denied.
• You should never post or request any private information.
• Submission of complete or false reports may result in a temporary or permanent ban.
• 4chan has a very well-established team of people, known as janitors or moderators. They are always active for the deletion of unwanted and illegal content.

4Chan GIF, Image Macros and Memes

It is booming the internet with an extensive 4Chan GIF, Image Macros or Memes. A few of them include:

• LOLCats
• Dusty the Cat
• Advice animals
• Rage Comics
• Rickrolling
• Chocolate Rain

LOLCats

It refers to funny and exciting cat pictures with the text on them which is said to have originated on 4Chan.

Dusty the Cat

It is an abused cat in the region of Oklahoma. The video of this cat became viral on YouTube. Later, 4chan successfully tracked the owner of such a cat and made his details available to the local police.

Advice Animals

It refers to pictures of humans or animals, along with archetypal or stereotypical captions beneath them.

Fig. 4 – 4Chan GIF and Image macros

Rage Comics

Rage comics are a simple and line-drawn genre of comic books. You can easily see some of the characters are familiar to those characters in memes.

Rickrolling

Rickroll is a prank and internet meme mostly used as 4Chan GIF. Also, it is the practice of sending and spreading secret links, which have an association with music videos for Rick Astley’s song, “Never gonna give you up.”

Fig. 5 – Example of Rickrolling

Chocolate Rain

The users swarmed the video of the chocolate rain by Tay Zonday. This swarming then led to the transformation of it into original memes and several artists were covering the chocolate rain since then.

Author’s Point

4Chan is an unofficial counterpart to the Japanese imageboard Futaba channel in the English language and is also known as 2chan. It is attracting unshakable attention from the media after being a source of regular controversies. Our aim is to educate and create awareness among masses and We do not intend to endorse, promote, encourage and support 4Chan or it’s counterparts.

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