4chan
4chan
The 4chan homepage on January 26, 2009
URL
http://www.4chan.org/
Commercial?
Yes
Type of site
Imageboard
Registration
None available
Available
language(s)
English
Owner
"moot"
Launched
October 1, 2003[1]
4chan
is an English-language imageboard
website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its
boards are primarily used for the posting of
pictures and discussion of manga and anime.
Users generally post anonymously and the
site has been linked to internet subcultures
and
activism,
most
notably
Project
Chanology.
4chan users have been responsible for the
formation and/or popularization of Internet
memes such as
lolcats,
rickrolling, and
"Chocolate Rain". The site’s random board is
by far its most popular and notorious. Known
as "/b/", there are very minimal rules on pos-
ted content. Gawker.com once claimed in jest
that "reading /b/ will melt your brain".[2]
The site’s Anonymous community and cul-
ture has often provoked media attention. For
planners, this enterprise is "further proof as
well as the Social impact of YouTube phe-
nomenon that creativity is everywhere and
new media is less accessible" to advertise-
ment agencies.[3] Journalists looked at how
an internet destination was hijacked for a
prank, so that images of Rick Astley ap-
peared instead of the page that was searched
for; the coordination of attacks against other
websites and Internet users; and covered the
reaction to threats of violence that have been
posted on the site. The Guardian once sum-
marised the 4chan community as "lunatic, ju-
venile... brilliant, ridiculous and alarming."[4]
Background
4chan was started in 2003 in the bedroom of
a 15-year old student from New York City
who posts as "moot".[5] He intended the site
to be a place to discuss Japanese comics and
television shows, an American counterpart to
the popular
Japanese Futaba Channel
("2chan") imageboard.[6][7] Moot purchased
the server space for 4chan using his mother’s
credit card, with her permission.[5][8] Prior to
starting 4chan, moot had been a regular par-
ticipant on the S