this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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[–] KulunkelBoom@lemm.ee 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Is 4-chan gone? gasp!?! goddammit. Don't 'they' realize how many assholes and degenerates this will dump on the internet? Myself included?

[–] Clbull@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Hacked by a rival image board, all its moderators, janitors and premier users who made accounts have been doxxed.

The new owners who bought it from Moot in 2016 legitimately never updated the backend... The server was still running on a nine year old version of FreeBSD and PHP.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

made accounts

Huh?

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It had some of the absolute greatest and the most depraved the internet had to offer. In my opinion Pepe is the greatest representation of 4chan, it can both easily be used for wholesome purposes or it can be extremely racist. It certainly left the greatest impact on the internet out of any website which is kinda funny because they were never relatively large. Now theres a 4chan shaped hole in the internet, and I hope its not filled by them flocking here.

[–] vxx@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

When was the last time 4chan has used its strenghts for good, or was wholesome in any way?

It got to be a decade

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

its been a very long time. 4chan was less bad before the whole gamer gate thing.

[–] ssfckdt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 61 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Hot take, but I dare say 4chan was the source of as much of what's good in internet culture as it was for much of what's the worst in internet culture.

Rickroll, Caturday, the modern meme format, reaction gifs, "TLDR", Anonymous (well, the good versions of it), spoderman, Rule 34, trollface, rageface, quite a bit of pet abuse justice, ... they may have even successfully set back AI chatbots nearly a full decade with their gaming of Microsoft's Tay chatbot... quite a lot of modern Internet slang such as win, fail, an hero, based, copypasta, creepypasta, "god tier", lulz, moar, sauce...

The thing about anarchy is that it brings out both the best and the worst.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think that most of those evolved elsewhere and were taken over to 4Chan.

[–] PurpleSkull@lemm.ee 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You think wrong. 4chan's impact on internet culture late 2000s and the entire 2010s can't be overstated. And that includes getting Trump elected twice.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm extremely skeptical of the first use of "TLDR" coming from 4chan specifically.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

The modern meme format was around before 4chan. They were called "image macros."

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 12 points 2 days ago

I'd argue that demotivational posters were even older, right? These were even printed out before internet access was wide spread.

[–] Thunderbird4@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you trust KnowYourMeme, the phrase “image macro” was coined in 2004 and popularized in 2005. 4chan was started in 2003.

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[–] Rakudjo@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Remember when 4chan was good?

4chan was never good.

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Playing capture the flag with Shia LeBoof was kinda fun tho

[–] FatTony@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I once read on 4chan: "One cannot hope without suffering." One of the realest shit I've ever read.

One cannot be nostalgic without hating their current circumstances.

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[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 145 points 2 days ago (2 children)

4chan was one of the websites on the internet.

[–] Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org 76 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] squirrel@discuss.tchncs.de 52 points 2 days ago (3 children)
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[–] YungOnions@lemmy.world 36 points 2 days ago (7 children)

You could say it was one of the websites of all time.

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[–] MidsizedSedan@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago (4 children)

There was already an empty space when liveleak went under. If 4chan is gone for good, then theres nothing exciting on the internet left. Everything PG and corporate.

kinda hits the spot, at least IMO. nothing exciting left.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago

There are other chans if you're into that.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah I legit think this is a bad thing. 4chan was bad for society but IMO it's less so than mainstream social media. To get radicalized on 4chan you have to wade through some truly despicable shit right off the bat, where there is this friendly veneer on mainstream Internet that makes it seem safer and less horrifying even though the same underlying filth of human nature powers it all. If you encounter far right ideology on 4chan, it's stripped of all of the edifices of respectability and it's clear that what it is is raw unfiltered hatred. If you encounter it on Tik Tok it's just another political viewpoint because they're not allowed to show their true colors.

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[–] pumpkinseedoil@mander.xyz 5 points 1 day ago (3 children)

You're forgetting about the fediverse

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[–] slingstone@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

So you're saying Tumblr actually won all these years later?

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 57 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

It contained some of the best and the worst of the internet, but its legacy is cemented with its greentexts which explores the sometimes dark and depraved aspects of us all without flinching away from it.

I believe the website has done more good than harm, but acknowledge that the harm it has inflicted has been targeted and substantial.

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[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 51 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Its going to be back in a week relax

[–] FatTony@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

And when it does, it'll be the biggest WE'RE SO BACK ever!

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[–] Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Gonna miss the fake and gay greentexts

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[–] shortrounddev@lemmy.world 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why are we talking like 4chan is actually dead? It's just offline

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 53 points 2 days ago (15 children)

Apparently the source code revealed a ton of insecurities that would make it all but impossible for them to relaunch without a major redesign, or at least that's what the actual coders that hang about here have said.

[–] JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

nah, they'll just redo it in Dreamweaver again.

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[–] Angry_Autist@lemmy.world 37 points 2 days ago (8 children)

A mix of the best and worst of humanity shoved into a small room and given no supervision

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[–] Hikuro93@lemmy.world 32 points 2 days ago (4 children)

It definetly was the platform ever. Like, no doubt about it.

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