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4chan: Beyond one billion

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Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#111

Post by listic »

Swizec wrote: post #23

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…

"loving LOLcats or rickrolling as outputs is like loving a tasty hamburger; visiting 4chan is like visiting the meat factory. At some point, it’d probably help to visit the meat factory, but that might make you go vegetarian."

-- Danah Boyd (retelling her friend's saying)

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/06/12/for-the...

Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#112

Post by jeffool »

dnpfwfyuta wrote: post #77
jeffool wrote: post #11

The thing that strikes me is how... Ubiquitous as it is, and at the same time, unknown to so many more. "Browsing 4chan" truly is the "reading Rolling Stone magazine" of its day. And somehow, it retains that while being huge. I say this as someone fired for visiting it[1], and finding it impossible to get a job in the news industry a year later. Now, the news industry is hardly considered cutting edge, but people hea…

Did you get fired for browsing it at work, or because they found out you browse it at home?

At work. Sorry if that was unclear; I didn't mean to be.

Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#113

Post by StavrosK »

papsosouid wrote: post #52
simias wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you (and probably many others) are conflating 4chan with its /b/ board. There are several communities with their own "ecosystem" within 4chan, even if there's some overlap of course. Also, it wouldn't be fair to attribute all the things you've cited to 4chan only. Something Aweful contributed to the birth of many "early" memes for instance. And I think the rage comics were infamously made popular by reddit (4…

They were made infamous by reddit, due to them starting to beat that dead horse a year after 4chan got bored of it.

When was that? I created f7u12 three years ago.

Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#114

Post by Torgo »

Torgo wrote: post #104
ianstallings wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're catching my drift so I'll just come out and say it - I don't want to be tracked by my government going to a site that is a known gathering spot for criminals and juveniles just so I can see some silly pictures, thereby associating myself with criminals and juveniles. Now we can split hairs about whether that's true but perception is reality. So let's just end it here - I won't visit 4chan and it'…

You can access 4chan through Tor, now. It used to be blocked, but now only blocks posting. Additionally, there is an HTTPSEverywhere definition (you have to specially get it from their website) that forces all the 4chan content through SSL to prevent snooping by exit nodes.

Rather than just talking about it, here's how to actually do it without you having to search around for specific instructions:

4chan ruleset is here: https://gitweb.torproject.org/https-everywhere.git/blob_plai...

Download and place the file in the HTTPSEverywhereUserRules/ subdirectory in your Firefox profile directory. In Tor Browser bundle, the location for your profile is: {wherever you installed tbb}/Data/profile

When you're in TBB, navigate to http://4chan.org. If it doesn't switch to https automatically, then click the HTTPSEverywhere icon up in the corner, and make sure the 4chan.org rule is checked. Page should refresh, you should see that it is now https.

Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#115

Post by RobAtticus »

ktizo wrote: post #92
jmduke wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty brash claim. Shakespeare's been around for centuries, and has most likely been read or seen by more people in the sum of that time than celebrity news.

You forget, more people have lived since the end of the second world war, than lived between then and Shakespeare's time. If you also take into account the rise in global literacy, far more people will have read celebrity news than Shakespeare.

My guess is that anyone who is literate has read Shakespeare at least once. I have to imagine my public schooling is not that different from the norm, and I read at least 3 works as required (Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo & Juliet) and some other others as my choice for assignments.

At least, in the western world. I don't know how popular Shakespeare is outside of that. On the other hand, I don't know how popular celebrity news is either.

Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#116

Post by snowwrestler »

cochese wrote: post #80
mej10 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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.

The RickRoll'D Youtube video has over 63 million views, an incredible feat for an artist whose career all but died in the late 80s.

"Had," unfortunately--it got DMCA'd a while ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#117

Post by joshu »

gwern wrote: post #108
joshu wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> getting him a TED talk That was actually me. I suggested it to Chris Anderson originally. (Also, the memes=funny pictures thing drives me nuts. But then again I started memepool.com in 1998 or so...)

For some reason, your nickname strikes me as hilarious. I hereby present: "joshu investigates" --- A surfing editor named Anderson asked the moot the URL to his imageboard, a place popularly supposed to give insight into humanity's character. The old moot said, "Go straight to /b/." After he typed several characters, the moot said to himself, 'He also is a common b-tard.' This incident was told to joshu who said, 'Wa…

You are literally the first person to get my username.

The underlying joke is that those who have met me realize that I am in no way a zen monk. I am more of an anti-Buddhist, seeking to achieve a state of complete Worry.

Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#118

Post by snowwrestler »

lovskogen wrote: post #42
Swizec wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Memes are profound because they are our culture . It is what the "young people of today" do. In the 50's they had rock-and-roll, in the 60's it was hippies and so on. Right now, it's the internet. In just a few more years all of us will become "the old guys" and our younger brothers and sisters will come up with something new - my sister already thinks I'm lame for liking the internet so much and sharing silly pictur…

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.

For the past 5 years at least, all young people are computer people. Only some are geeks, but they are all immersed in computerized communications every day.

Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#119

Post by joshu »

moot wrote: post #100
joshu wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> getting him a TED talk That was actually me. I suggested it to Chris Anderson originally. (Also, the memes=funny pictures thing drives me nuts. But then again I started memepool.com in 1998 or so...)

I <3 you Joshua!!!

Hi Chris!

Re: 4chan: Beyond one billion

#120

Post by cochese »

snowwrestler wrote: post #116
cochese wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The RickRoll'D Youtube video has over 63 million views, an incredible feat for an artist whose career all but died in the late 80s.

"Had," unfortunately--it got DMCA'd a while ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

Hmm, it's still working here. Not only that, but it appears that Apple is RickRolling developers: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-ri...

A 4chan meme making its way into Apple goes to show how influential that site can be.

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