4chan was first created in 2003 by Christopher Poole, although this might not be his real name, and has since then grown to be the second largest image board on the internet as well as one of the largest internet communities around. I say second largest image board since the largest one is the Japanese equivalent of 4chan, 2chan. 4chan started as an image board for people who were interested in Japanese cartoons, anime, or Japanese comic books, manga, but has since then grown to include a large variety of people. The most popular of the image boards on 4chan is by far /b/ or more commonly known as random. Random differs from the other boards in that there are no strict rules as to what you are allowed to post as long as it is not child porn, which is more or less the only rule that /b/ has. All the other boards on 4chan have different themes and your posts must be related to the stated theme. Examples of themes are anime, manga, food, weapons, news, traditional games, art and photography. As you can see there are a large variety of boards and it is almost impossible not to find one to ones liking.
What is an image board? Well it is kind of like a message board, and if you want you can post only text, except it focuses more image posting and compared to most message boards, which can make it a hassle to post images, 4chan has a fundamental and fairly easy interface when it comes to posting images. More or less you simply browse your hard drive for the image you want posted and then upload it to the 4chan server and you are done.
What separates 4chan from other communities? Well the main difference between 4chan and other message or image boards or even other communities as a whole is that 4chan has forced anonymity. Everyone posting is anonymous and it is even impossible for people wanting to post under a name to do so. The reason for this is often stated to be that what you say and think should matter more than who you are. Most posters refer to both themselves and others as anonymous with pride and the meme, which we will get into next, We are Anonymous, we are legion is often cited when talking about themselves since it is a common view that anonymous is indeed an invisible, unstoppable anonymous army or force fighting for the greater good or just for some lulz.
One of the keys to understanding what people say or refer to in a discussion on 4chan is to understand the thousands upon thousands of memes that exist. What is a meme then? A meme is, in this case, a catch phrase or an image spread voluntarily from peer to peer over the net. One might even define it as a tidbit of pop culture or information that has taken on a life on its own, spreading out to the masses. Most memes on 4chan, however, are internal jokes that seem to be nothing but gibberish to people from the outside world. But since 4chan manufactures many memes a lot of them have spread into other communities such as youtube or even television or film. For example Tay Zonday's song Chocolate Rain would not have reached its popularity if it had not been posted on 4chan. The rating on youtube rocketed as 4chan users flooded in to watch the tiny clip. The song has since then been sung by Tay Zonday himself on American national television and plenty of covers have been made of it by famous artist such as John Mayer and Tre Cool, the drummer from Green Day.
What about the language of 4chan? 4chan shares a lot of grounds, language wise, with 1337 speak. Although 4chan did not exist when 1337 was first used it has contributed to the evolution of 1337 speak. Many new words or phrases used by people writing or speaking 1337 have their origin from the internet sub culture of 4chan. For example typing orly or rly instead oh really or really is something that is derived from 4chan’s caturday meme, a day when you are only, unofficially, allowed to post cats in /b/. The fact that most people relate the phrase orly to be written on an image of an owl can be further used to argue that the image comes from the 4chan sub culture. But it is not only in text that you can communicate on 4chan but also, since it is an image board, through images. A common way to say someone is being stupid or an idiot is by posting a man that holds his right hand over his face. These types of images are known as facepalms and the word itself is also often used when someone needs to point out how frustratingly stupid the other person is. I guess you can say it is the 4chan equivalent of the doh! from the popular animated series The Simpsons.
The language that is posted on 4chan varies a lot from anonymous to anonymous but one might say that the non standard varieties and 1337 speak are the two most common written types of English on the image board, that and of course transcribed spoken English. However sometimes it can be easy to mistake a meme for poor grammar. For example the meme or phrase do not want is the same as the word no and is used in the same way. In fact the meme comes from a pirated version of Star Wars episode 3. When Darth Vader shouts out no towards the end of the film when he learns that his lover, Padme, is dead the word no is translated with the phrase do not want. Because of this the phrase do not want is widely used in the same manner as portrayed in the film, not only on 4chan, but in many other communities as well.
I feel that I am running out of space, there is of course a lot more to be said about the language and I could probably write a small thesis on the subject but since you wanted one page I almost have 3 I think I will stop now. I hope this is what you wanted otherwise I will have to revise the essay I suppose.
What is an image board? Well it is kind of like a message board, and if you want you can post only text, except it focuses more image posting and compared to most message boards, which can make it a hassle to post images, 4chan has a fundamental and fairly easy interface when it comes to posting images. More or less you simply browse your hard drive for the image you want posted and then upload it to the 4chan server and you are done.
What separates 4chan from other communities? Well the main difference between 4chan and other message or image boards or even other communities as a whole is that 4chan has forced anonymity. Everyone posting is anonymous and it is even impossible for people wanting to post under a name to do so. The reason for this is often stated to be that what you say and think should matter more than who you are. Most posters refer to both themselves and others as anonymous with pride and the meme, which we will get into next, We are Anonymous, we are legion is often cited when talking about themselves since it is a common view that anonymous is indeed an invisible, unstoppable anonymous army or force fighting for the greater good or just for some lulz.
One of the keys to understanding what people say or refer to in a discussion on 4chan is to understand the thousands upon thousands of memes that exist. What is a meme then? A meme is, in this case, a catch phrase or an image spread voluntarily from peer to peer over the net. One might even define it as a tidbit of pop culture or information that has taken on a life on its own, spreading out to the masses. Most memes on 4chan, however, are internal jokes that seem to be nothing but gibberish to people from the outside world. But since 4chan manufactures many memes a lot of them have spread into other communities such as youtube or even television or film. For example Tay Zonday's song Chocolate Rain would not have reached its popularity if it had not been posted on 4chan. The rating on youtube rocketed as 4chan users flooded in to watch the tiny clip. The song has since then been sung by Tay Zonday himself on American national television and plenty of covers have been made of it by famous artist such as John Mayer and Tre Cool, the drummer from Green Day.
What about the language of 4chan? 4chan shares a lot of grounds, language wise, with 1337 speak. Although 4chan did not exist when 1337 was first used it has contributed to the evolution of 1337 speak. Many new words or phrases used by people writing or speaking 1337 have their origin from the internet sub culture of 4chan. For example typing orly or rly instead oh really or really is something that is derived from 4chan’s caturday meme, a day when you are only, unofficially, allowed to post cats in /b/. The fact that most people relate the phrase orly to be written on an image of an owl can be further used to argue that the image comes from the 4chan sub culture. But it is not only in text that you can communicate on 4chan but also, since it is an image board, through images. A common way to say someone is being stupid or an idiot is by posting a man that holds his right hand over his face. These types of images are known as facepalms and the word itself is also often used when someone needs to point out how frustratingly stupid the other person is. I guess you can say it is the 4chan equivalent of the doh! from the popular animated series The Simpsons.
The language that is posted on 4chan varies a lot from anonymous to anonymous but one might say that the non standard varieties and 1337 speak are the two most common written types of English on the image board, that and of course transcribed spoken English. However sometimes it can be easy to mistake a meme for poor grammar. For example the meme or phrase do not want is the same as the word no and is used in the same way. In fact the meme comes from a pirated version of Star Wars episode 3. When Darth Vader shouts out no towards the end of the film when he learns that his lover, Padme, is dead the word no is translated with the phrase do not want. Because of this the phrase do not want is widely used in the same manner as portrayed in the film, not only on 4chan, but in many other communities as well.
I feel that I am running out of space, there is of course a lot more to be said about the language and I could probably write a small thesis on the subject but since you wanted one page I almost have 3 I think I will stop now. I hope this is what you wanted otherwise I will have to revise the essay I suppose.
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