4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
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Re: 4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
#2/g is interesting especially /g/dpt (the daily programming thread). Today's thread: http://boards.4chan.org/g/thread/66170997
Re: 4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
#3> Yet this cannot last. At 15 years old, 4chan has reached adolescence. Up till now, trolls—children—have been in control. It’s not so funny anymore. After all, even the lost boys had to grow up.
Just because one can write that it cannot last doesn't make it so. Putting 4chan in terms of "human age" and development does little to quantify anything. Facebook is 14 and Twitter is 12 and that doesn't say anything about them. They all have their own problems, but if this age metaphor is to work, then 4chan should be "more mature" than its younger siblings. It isn't.
4chan is also not going anywhere fast. Someone seems inclined to still pay for the servers, and until that time stops, it's probably going to say well and truly the same. That's just what you get when you have an anonymous imageboard. But, even if something happened and 4chan shutdown, you'd still have any number of chans that still exist as clones. It's trivial to find them. You can close the pool, but there are infinite pools to close.
Re: 4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
#4> Yet this cannot last. At 15 years old, 4chan has reached adolescence. Up till now, trolls—children—have been in control. It’s not so funny anymore. After all, even the lost boys had to grow up. Just because one can write that it cannot last doesn't make it so. Putting 4chan in terms of "human age" and development does little to quantify anything. Facebook is 14 and Twitter is 12 and that doesn't say anything about…
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Re: 4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
#5> Yet this cannot last. At 15 years old, 4chan has reached adolescence. Up till now, trolls—children—have been in control. It’s not so funny anymore. After all, even the lost boys had to grow up. Just because one can write that it cannot last doesn't make it so. Putting 4chan in terms of "human age" and development does little to quantify anything. Facebook is 14 and Twitter is 12 and that doesn't say anything about…
Adding to this, it's not a static group of people on there growing old together. There is a a consistent group of adolescents reaching troll age and joining in.
Re: 4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
#6> Yet this cannot last. At 15 years old, 4chan has reached adolescence. Up till now, trolls—children—have been in control. It’s not so funny anymore. After all, even the lost boys had to grow up. Just because one can write that it cannot last doesn't make it so. Putting 4chan in terms of "human age" and development does little to quantify anything. Facebook is 14 and Twitter is 12 and that doesn't say anything about…
The more facebook and twitter and youtube censor their users, the more gravity will shift to 4chan, it's the law of conservation of speech on the internet.
Re: 4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
#7This is a really sensationalist article. I'm not going to ignore the parts of 4chan highlighted by the article, but there are some really good boards you can visit where the level of discussion is far superior than what you would find in most corners of today's popular forums. Personally I don't participate in any conversations, but I'll read the threads on the boards I find interesting.
If anything, 4chan is an authentic reflection of the internet's user base. You'll find both gold and garbage depending on what you visit and frequent. It is unfair to broadly paint the site as only containing the worst of human nature. If you were to similarly depict other popular websites like Reddit in the same fashion, you would get something just as horrifying.
Re: 4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
#8> Yet this cannot last. At 15 years old, 4chan has reached adolescence. Up till now, trolls—children—have been in control. It’s not so funny anymore. After all, even the lost boys had to grow up. Just because one can write that it cannot last doesn't make it so. Putting 4chan in terms of "human age" and development does little to quantify anything. Facebook is 14 and Twitter is 12 and that doesn't say anything about…
> Putting 4chan in terms of "human age" and development does little to quantify anything.
Drawing parallels between the two exemplifies poor analogous journalism on the part of WIRED.
> The internet makes sense in metaphors. (from the article)
No, it does not. However, it helps immensely in crafting the opening salvo of a clickbait-y article to drive site views.
Re: 4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
#9> There isn’t darkness without the light, it seems. So it’s probably fair to say 4channers are, at least a little bit, right: Their haven is the soul of the internet, the deep source of its sights and sounds, for worse and, occasionally, for better.
I couldn't see much notable in the article, aside from a negative slew at the start, and some 'the other side of the coin' in the above quote.
15 years is noteworthy, however, and I'm surprised so short, as I started visiting it back in 2003/2004; it seemed about as busy then as today. 4chan hasn't changed much from an external perspective. Traffic has probably been at stable levels for years, while the price of traffic has fallen.
I quite enjoy it's existence. There is a great diversity between message boards. Some are the reverse of b and pol highlighted in the article, as is the case on Reddit. Anonymous can be good. a la Hacker News's freedom of registration.
Re: 4Chan Is Turning 15–And Remains the Internet's Teenager
#10As someone who has frequented 4chan for nearly 15 years I don't think you want 4chan to die for many reasons. If 4chan is gone then all of the time people spend there will be spent somewhere else. Maybe the internet is too far gone to be significantly impacted, but I'd rather not test it.
Most of 4chan boards aren't really that bad though.