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4chan Sharty Hack And Janitor Email Leak

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Re: 4chan Sharty Hack And Janitor Email Leak

#661

I see a lot of hate for 4chan here. Why? I’ve never used it, know it by reputation, but not sure why there’s so much hate for it.

I hope this isn't too contentious but I'll try to cover most things. I've posted this a few times, but I checked out 4Chan about twice in the early days and saw CSAM both times and it gave me personally a visceral hatred of the site. I've heard it got better/that's not representative but it's a hard thing to shake. The origin of the site is also supposedly Moot getting kicked off SomethingAwful for posting 'lolicon'…

Thanks, that gives me something to go on. I appreciate the time you took with your reply.

Re: 4chan Sharty Hack And Janitor Email Leak

#662

The take on 4chan on here is super intriguing. I always felt that the current social media/doomscroll/memesharing landscape which has become so common worldwide is indiscernable and in some ways worse than 4chan. It feels like 4chan left it's homepage and went worldwide sometime in the early 2010s when iPhone-style phone use became more commonplace. I remember that 4chan users had more honor than users on the interne…

My main problem with 4chan is how they talk, like the language they use. They really don't care about anyone's feelings and show a lack of empathy. Unfortunately this has been spreading to other social media as well. Imagine how good a place it could have been if people over there talked like people on HN.

HN is 4chan in many ways - the smart, civilized people just come here. Whereas the smart people that are willing to act disabled go there.

Re: 4chan Sharty Hack And Janitor Email Leak

#663
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to watch that at 2x to keep the thoughts-per-second above catatonic. In the same vein, for those who haven't seen it, the classic "Is soup a drink?" debate: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IDNuz_VFJtU Somewhere, there are ancient Greek rhetoric teachers spinning in their graves.

Is cereal soup?

Yes. And a vanilla soy latte is a three bean soup.

Re: 4chan Sharty Hack And Janitor Email Leak

#665

I feel too many people conflate /pol/ with the whole website. I enjoyed browsing through sfw boards like /tg/ (tabletop media), /ck/ (cooking) and /fit/ (fitness). I had long discussions about the SW sequels on /tv/ back in 2015-19. The readership was surprisingly diverse and the anonymity lead users to provide more focused replies. With bodybuilding.com gone, the blue boards felt like the last bastion of the old int…

I still don't understand how to read threads. How do replies work? How do you know it's actually the person you're replying to who's replying back? How is it organized visually??

Re: 4chan Sharty Hack And Janitor Email Leak

#667
There are, of course, many people with memories of 4chan that precede that of mine (oldf*) - I could only even articulate what I was seeing on 4chan at the age I was around 2014. But by 2015 - with only 1-2 years of experience on the site - I noticed a drastic downturn of the authenticity in posts and comments that I was used to. Then, I saw quality of topics and speaking points go down in 2020. And finally, I saw the social fabric of 4chan itself go down essentially right after Omegle was shut down. By mid-2024, I couldn't even trust it for contrarian or less-conventional (or, frankly, brutally honest) viewpoints of topics they purported to care about.

And honestly, as things got better in my life and I went out to be more recreational, I went from going on 4chan once a day - to once a week - to once a month - and finally, to only when I wanted to see edgy takes on divisive current events.

I'll miss all that, despite all it lost over the years. And I'll miss the element of design and mannerisms in its userbase. It required an upfront investment to even understand how to engage with, and a "lurk moar" attitude. RIP.

Edit: It was also very crazy watching small groups of people turn insider-jargon into mainstream terminology. I'll also never forget watching the thread of QAnon's conception in real-time. Crazy stuff originated there - both in substance and meaning.

Re: 4chan Sharty Hack And Janitor Email Leak

#668

If you lamented the disappearance of the "old internet", well, this was a part of it, and now it may be gone too. The title is also a fair bit understated. They're leaking the moderators home addresses and work contact info (for admins, who are(were?) paid moderators)

Was part of it. As somebody who has been trapped there since 2004, I'd say it evolved into a part of the normal internet between 2010 and 2016 (i.e. it had already fully transformed before Trump's first term), where "normal internet" means being infested with uncle-on-Facebook-tier political posts, "jokes" where the punchline is "I hate my political enemies", etc. Creative irreverence was replaced with regular childi…

>Creative irreverence was replaced with regular childishness.

I’d suggest taking off those glasses as they are a bit too rose-tinted. I was there, just like you, and the humor was way more “childishness” than “creative irreverence” well before 2010.

Re: 4chan Sharty Hack And Janitor Email Leak

#669
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "shoved down my throat." Who shoves it down someone's throat though? I can't remember the last time I used tiktok, probably 3 or 4 years ago, and I don't feel like anyone forces me to.

The American government is actively working to move its communication exclusively to Twitter.[0] [0] https://www.wired.com/story/social-security-administration-r...

Not as much since Elon’s bribery lost in Wisconsin. Even the SSA is denying that rumor: https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/04/15/ssa-using-x-communica...
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