61–70 of 133 posts
While I no longer visit 4chan regularly, I love its extensive influence on human society. * lolcats * rage comics * anonymous * a lot of the 1% movement * getting random people in jail because they think animal cruelty is funny * making Moot TIME's person of the year and getting him a TED talk -> http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for... While most of what goes on there hinges somewhere between…
Moot really deserves praise for sticking around for 8 years and keeping the site running. I can imagine a lot of people giving up after a couple of years.
I don't know what I'd do without it. It's been a fun ride since the very beginning (although I can do without the summer invasions).
While I no longer visit 4chan regularly, I love its extensive influence on human society. * lolcats * rage comics * anonymous * a lot of the 1% movement * getting random people in jail because they think animal cruelty is funny * making Moot TIME's person of the year and getting him a TED talk -> http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for... While most of what goes on there hinges somewhere between…
Influence on Western Culture? Why don't you go read the news, the Patterson break-up has had more of an effect on Western culture then 4Chan could ever hope to succeed. Some people spend way too much time on the internet; I can guarantee you that 99% of America, has no clue what 4Chan, Rage Comics, lolcats is. Anonymous and the 1% movement (but you may have to say Occupy Wall Street to the 3 million remaining people)…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Young people of today do, or young computer geeks do today? I don't think internet memes is the same as the rock and roll or hippie movement.
It's probably not the same, but it's the closest thing we've got.
I would be surprised if there wasn't an overlap between HN and 4chan (same as with SA). Being run in diametrically opposed way it fills its role rather well, I think. There is no reputation system, no limits, no censorship, etc.. This means it produces many utterly vile posts - but all of them are true expressions of people as they are, not as they pretend to be. I think people often don't appreciate this. It's not j…
"This means it produces many utterly vile posts - but all of them are true expressions of people as they are, not as they pretend to be." I'm not sure that that really makes sense. I can be very charming or utterly vile. Are you implying that I'm only truly me when I'm vile (for example)? Aren't we all pretending all the time?
"Aren't we all pretending all the time?"
On Hacker News, I expect that my posts will (for better or worse) someday come back to haunt me. Indeed, if you apply to YC, I believe one of the application questions asks for your HN username. This being the case, there are certain arguments and jokes that I have had to refrain from making. I've even had to apologize OOB every so often to people here for being hot-headed (I believe I once said some nasty things to one of the senior Apache folks...awkward).
On 4chan, these "vile posts" are honest expressions of either the poster or of the facade the poster wishes to maintain--and in a completely anonymous setting, it's easier not to pose at all. An interesting research question would be to compare the normal posters to the non-anonymous "tripfags" and "namefags" (users who post under the same username and signature--terminology is as found on the chan), but I honestly have no idea how that might be done in any useful sense.
The entire mindset of interacting with complete strangers, and especially knowing that you may well never share a thread with them again, is hugely liberating. You can make and laugh at jokes that otherwise would be in poor taste. You can discuss trivial things very seriously, and serious things very lightly, and be assured that you won't be tagged/branded permanently as a fool or a fetishist--consider what we've done to losethos here, and how at this point even if he started posting coherently he'd still downvoted into oblivion.
"Are you implying that I'm only truly me when I'm vile
(for example)?"
My experience, for example, is that I am just as much the humble helpful hacker given debugging help and useful links on the /pr/ programming board as I am the mean-spirited hateful troll on /adv/--and on any given day, I may do the opposite. Seeing my behavior when held to no external standard has been enlightening, and proven to be a useful data point in self-discovery and self-betterment. I try to help more and troll less now. :)
While I no longer visit 4chan regularly, I love its extensive influence on human society. * lolcats * rage comics * anonymous * a lot of the 1% movement * getting random people in jail because they think animal cruelty is funny * making Moot TIME's person of the year and getting him a TED talk -> http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for... While most of what goes on there hinges somewhere between…
Influence on Western Culture? Why don't you go read the news, the Patterson break-up has had more of an effect on Western culture then 4Chan could ever hope to succeed. Some people spend way too much time on the internet; I can guarantee you that 99% of America, has no clue what 4Chan, Rage Comics, lolcats is. Anonymous and the 1% movement (but you may have to say Occupy Wall Street to the 3 million remaining people)…
And I think 4chan has a huge influence. It is a very powerful site in tech culture, which is pretty large I think. Tech culture might be smaller by numbers than the so-called mainstream but it's plenty large enough to be self-sustaining and have its own sense of identity.
While I no longer visit 4chan regularly, I love its extensive influence on human society. * lolcats * rage comics * anonymous * a lot of the 1% movement * getting random people in jail because they think animal cruelty is funny * making Moot TIME's person of the year and getting him a TED talk -> http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for... While most of what goes on there hinges somewhere between…
Don't you see? The fact that meme now connotes a "funny picture" is itself a meme.
I would be surprised if there wasn't an overlap between HN and 4chan (same as with SA). Being run in diametrically opposed way it fills its role rather well, I think. There is no reputation system, no limits, no censorship, etc.. This means it produces many utterly vile posts - but all of them are true expressions of people as they are, not as they pretend to be. I think people often don't appreciate this. It's not j…
"This means it produces many utterly vile posts - but all of them are true expressions of people as they are, not as they pretend to be." A vast majority of the vile posts are people playing a game/acting out a character/aping (along with) the community. It's willfully not-in-earnest. It's crazy that people think 4chan is 'true expression'. That's not to say that there's not truth in 4chan, it's just that it's not on…
Tell me, as sociopathic as channers may be--how closely do they compare with the bankers and financial quants, politicians who drop bombs, or the data mining folks intent on converting our social media signals into ad revenue?
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[citation needed] on 4chan producing memes that are more than comics and cat pictures. Anonymous, sure. 1% movement? Ehh I need some proof. "And come on, it's where all the memes are born." It is not where all of the memes are born, much less the useful ones. If you claim otherwise, please tell me what I am missing.
You yourself admitted that they produced more than comics and cat pictures. Don't forget the Anonymous cracking outfit.
My point is that he is vastly overstating its influence. The millions of 4chan users have produced _maybe_ as much influence as a single pop music star.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You yourself admitted that they produced more than comics and cat pictures. Don't forget the Anonymous cracking outfit.
One prominent non-cat/comic meme isn't quite on the influence level of what Swizec was trying to make 4chan out to be. My point is that he is vastly overstating its influence. The millions of 4chan users have produced _maybe_ as much influence as a single pop music star.
"The millions of 4chan users have produced _maybe_ as much influence as a single pop music star"
You answered your own question.