Introducing the 4chan API

#1

Post by nthitz » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:02 PM UTC

Introducing the 4chan API
4chan.org

Re: Introducing the 4chan API

#2

Post by astrojams » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:30 PM UTC

This could transform 4chan as mobile and desktop clients are created. God I hate the web interface.

Re: Introducing the 4chan API

#3

Post by kineticflow » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:41 PM UTC

astrojams wrote: post #2

This could transform 4chan as mobile and desktop clients are created. God I hate the web interface.

There already were plenty of ("native") mobile and desktop clients, although they worked by parsing HTML.

Re: Introducing the 4chan API

#4

Post by jasimq » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:43 PM UTC

This is interesting. Would surely give it a try and integrate with our app

Re: Introducing the 4chan API

#5

Post by terhechte » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:44 PM UTC

Sadly read-only, though it's not much work parsing the HTML and faking a submit through a Post request. Good luck submitting a 4chan app to Apple's app store though :)

Re: Introducing the 4chan API

#6

Post by afhof » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:46 PM UTC

I feel kinda silly just having spent the long weekend writing a threaded 4chan scraper. This is a super welcome change though. Even if you don't visit 4chan regularly you can't ignore the VAST amount of content people upload there. I imagine some interesting statistics will come of this ( I know I plan to).

Re: Introducing the 4chan API

#7

Post by calinet6 » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:47 PM UTC

The first thing that jumps to mind with this is... "Oh $#!*." I don't know why, but it scares me what could come out of this.

Re: Introducing the 4chan API

#8

Post by 54mf » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:51 PM UTC

calinet6 wrote: post #7

The first thing that jumps to mind with this is... "Oh $#!*." I don't know why, but it scares me what could come out of this.

Came to post this. The only redeemable value in 4chan, in my opinion, is that the fact that posts aren't archived makes for a very interesting social experiment. An API firehose pretty much puts an end to that.

Re: Introducing the 4chan API

#9

Post by joethompson » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:52 PM UTC

54mf wrote: post #8

calinet6 wrote: post #7

The first thing that jumps to mind with this is... "Oh $#!*." I don't know why, but it scares me what could come out of this.

Came to post this. The only redeemable value in 4chan, in my opinion, is that the fact that posts aren't archived makes for a very interesting social experiment. An API firehose pretty much puts an end to that.

There are actually plenty of third party archives for 4chan boards, some that have been running for 4+ years.

Re: Introducing the 4chan API

#10

Post by cs702 » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 7:53 PM UTC

afhof wrote: post #6

I feel kinda silly just having spent the long weekend writing a threaded 4chan scraper. This is a super welcome change though. Even if you don't visit 4chan regularly you can't ignore the VAST amount of content people upload there. I imagine some interesting statistics will come of this ( I know I plan to).

Even if you don't visit 4chan regularly you can't ignore the VAST amount of content people upload there. I imagine some interesting statistics will come of this.

That was my reaction too. Beyond statistics, this will make it easier to develop all sorts of user-facing and machine-to-machine applications -- for sharing, grouping, ranking, and linking items, and even for 'overlaying' the content on top of other social networks.

I'd expect the API to be grow and mature over time, and am curious to see what comes out of this experiment.