[HN Gopher] How the Internet Left 4chan Behind
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How the Internet Left 4chan Behind
Author : FinnLobsien
Score : 24 points
Date : 2025-04-30 10:44 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| ViktorRay wrote:
| This article seems wrong to me.
|
| _The anonymous forum thrived when edgelord content wasn't
| acceptable on more mainstream social media. Today, it can be
| found most anywhere._
|
| I never used 4chan myself but I was in high school in the late
| 2000's and knew folks in my computer science classes who used to
| spend much time there. The late 2000's was before "mainstream
| social media" right? Only facebook.com was there and you could
| post whatever you wanted including "edgelord" stuff on facebook
| of the late 2000's as that version of facebook wasn't really
| moderated...
|
| And then you had reddit also which at that time had many
| subreddits where you could post anything including 4chan stuff. I
| remember people on reddit back then complaining that reddit was
| for people too scared to go to 4chan. And I would laugh at the
| comments because they basically described me back then haha.
|
| Mainstream social media stuff that this article talks
| about...that happened later in the 2010's....
|
| Also it is still so surreal to me to see prestigious publications
| like the New Yorker talking about 4chan. Back in the 2000's and
| early 2010's 4chan was one of those super nerdy silly kinda dumb
| underground things that you didn't really talk about in public
| because it would be cringe worthy. I remember in 2016 when
| somebody shouted "PEPE!" at some Hillary Clinton rally and
| looking at the video of that and feeling cringe. The thought that
| history students in the future would have to study memes and the
| thought that people in the "real world" like CNN would be writing
| about some dumb silly nerd meme website was so bizzare. Even now
| in 2025 the fact that The New Yorker has this giant article about
| 4chan is so weird to me.
|
| 4chan...those "edgelord memes"....crazy reddit subreddits....Pepe
| the frog....
|
| All these things were not supposed to change the "real world."
| Like I said earlier, I never used 4chan myself, but I really
| don't think anyone actually using 4chan or any of us using reddit
| back in the late 2000's or early 2010's ever imagined that
| anything posted on those sites would ever have any impact on the
| real world. The internet was just this place where nerdy people
| could go to post silly shit. What the hell happnened?
| xg15 wrote:
| > _What the hell happnened?_
|
| The people who _did_ post on 4chan became adults. I say
| "became adults", not "grew up".
| neom wrote:
| Technically I think we were first with deviantART, 2000.
| Myspace was after us, only thing I know around the same was was
| Habbo Hotel, but it didn't come out of beta till 2001 iirc.
| Either way, I was dealing with edgelordies uploading crazy shit
| to dA long before 4chan. The things I've seen...
| pixelpoet wrote:
| The way deviantArt snatched defeat from the jaws of victory
| by repeatedly messing up everything regarding the large and
| numerous communities they had, leading to their eventual
| exodus (such as the fractal art community) is pretty
| legendary. They literally could just have done nothing (i.e.
| no harm, for example breaking dAmn) and just ride off into
| the sunset.
|
| We're you responsible for that, as the Communities director?
| Because that was basically dA's self-influcted and unprompted
| Brexit moment.
|
| Just noticed that my dA account is old enough to drink (in
| the US)! https://lyc.deviantart.com/
| neom wrote:
| Nope, on the other side, I was throw out with Scott and
| Eric. They fired 6 of us "hippies". I've written about it a
| few times, I'm still pissed about... That group was all the
| kind hearted folks. Hi lyc!! I have 4 accounts since 1999.
| qtoMPkuZe46ny wrote:
| > The internet was just this place where nerdy people could go
| to post silly shit. What the hell happnened?
|
| Right. The whole internet and the culture around it changed.
|
| Early 4chan really was just stupid silly garbage. Did you know
| there's an archive of old 4chan posts from around 2006-2008?
|
| https://old.sage.moe/b/thread/85525276 (sarah palin email
| "hack")
|
| https://old.sage.moe/b/thread/9691632/ (just a random thread.)
|
| https://old.sage.moe/_/articles/glossary/
|
| Just ridiculously stupid, juvenile stuff. Being "edgy" on 4chan
| was often just copy-pasting the n-word or "JEWS" a thousand
| times. That feels really so tame to what goes on there now.
| Looking through this archive, it all feels so... disconnected
| from reality. It was all so fake and stupid.
|
| These elite "hackers" were often just pwning people who reused
| passwords, and then posting gay porn on their MySpace. When Fox
| News did a report saying that "4chan are hackers on steroids.
| They can turn your computer into a bomb!", they all laughed
| because they knew they're not capable of that. And then
| Anonymous? I mean the V for Vendetta masks? So stupid lol.
|
| It all changed as time went on. I remember seeing a tweet
| around 2015 that said something like "it's crazy how I can type
| something in this box that would destroy my life", except it
| wasn't a joke.
| ViktorRay wrote:
| Reading through the links you posted from the 2000's it's
| interesting how...innocent some of those users seem.
|
| The word "innocent" may seem absurd to describe 4chan
| users...but those comments really do come off as being posted
| by kids in suburban middle class families who seem gleeful
| they can anonymously say things on a computer that they
| cannot say in real life at school or at home because their
| teachers or their parents would put them into time out or
| something...
|
| I don't think anyone would ever use the word "innocent" to
| describe 4chan of the 2010's or nowadays though
| neom wrote:
| I never got into 4chan because I used irc, looking at those
| threads, reads like irc logs.
| soulofmischief wrote:
| What exactly is stupid about Anonymous?
| numpad0 wrote:
| yeah, anons and most user groups of toxic anonymous BBS are
| only stupid as in tasteless; not stupid as in having low
| INT and/or education. Too many people conflate those two.
| thenthenthen wrote:
| Florian Cramer is a scholar who puts things into a wider
| art/historical context:
| https://www.diaphanes.com/artikel/anonymous-imageboards-
| meme...
| Lammy wrote:
| > Also it is still so surreal to me to see prestigious
| publications like the New Yorker talking about 4chan.
|
| Needs moar yellow van:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=128IR21ZQa0 (2007)
| throwaway743 wrote:
| 4chan is composed of different boards. There's/b/ which used to
| be fun/funny to go to, back in the 00s up until probably
| 2012ish. There's /pol/ which has always been a shitshow and has
| become synonymous with "4chan" when people think of it these
| days. And a bunch of others. Think of it like maybe you go to
| /r/showerthoughts or /r/cats but you'd never step foot in
| /r/the_donald (when it existed) or /r/feet (not shaming, just
| using for range). The same goes for 4chan. Personally, I'd go
| to /b/ (random) or /m/ (mecha).
|
| It was never cringe to talk about 4chan openly back then
| because most people didn't even know about it, and for those
| who did it was like a secret badge/nod to those who knew.
|
| Before 2012 it was also a hub for Anonymous, lulzsec, and
| others, and was a force behind Occupy Wallstreet, protesting
| the church of scientology and spreading word about Lisa
| McPherson, taking down gov sites in protest, Stratfor leaks,
| and far more focused on taking action on issues related to
| civil liberties.
|
| Then in 2012 it really went down hill after Jeremy Hammond got
| arrested, after Sabu snitched on him. Yes, moot owned the site,
| but I'm of the opinion that due to the arrest/snitching, moot
| had to go against the "anonymous" ethos of 4chan and give
| access to everything to the fbi for "national security" reasons
| because they got spooked after the whole Occupy movement and
| the activity of activists on the site. The whole site turned
| into total garbage in a really short period of time following,
| and became flooded with a completely different crowd, a ton of
| brainrot (more so than before), way more right leaning
| posts/posters, and wayyy more porn than usual filled boards
| like /b/. Then when moot started another business (or he got a
| higher position at one of the big tech companies... I forget)
| and sold off 4chan, it became an absolute cesspool for the
| things listed earlier.
|
| Tldr - it used be good... stupid but good. Now it's garbage,
| full of maga bs, and brainrot.
| Igrom wrote:
| Moot first got engaged in growing Canvas Networks, then got a
| job at Google.
|
| See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19119576
| tiahura wrote:
| Where else am I going to find coupons for a free X-Box?
| user9999999999 wrote:
| they just moved to x
| Yeul wrote:
| I am old enough to remember a time when your internet persona was
| not linked to the real world.
|
| No I cannot openly post about how much I fucking hate religious
| people because who knows my next employer may very well be a card
| carrying Christian (they are rare here but do exist). Anonymity
| has it's place.
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