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Not sure why you were downvoted. Something Awful, while incredibly influential early on, didn't really grow because of the paid nature of the forums. 4chan expl
by cjslep 10y ago
Not sure why you were downvoted. Something Awful, while incredibly influential early on, didn't really grow because of the paid nature of the forums. 4chan exploded because of the anonymous nature of the memes. They were funny, and they weren't tied to the creator to boost his or her internet points. They are pure ideas coming from the level playing field that is Anonymous. Awful and great stuff arose out of it when its biggest competitor was flash-based stuff from ebaumsworld, funnyjunk, black sheep, and newgrounds.
Now I'd say Reddit is a huge influencer but it is fragmented (as opposed to a single /b/) and still tied to internet points. And missing the pink babies from Something Awful.
- Waterluvian 10y agoThere is something beautiful about how pure the content on 4chan is because there's no e peen.
- sotojuan 10y agoAnd people who try to build an identity are almost always disliked (though the ones that persevere make the site more fun).
- meowface 10y agoDepends what you consider "fun". A so-called namefag posting in a thread out of the blue can completely derail it merely by their presence.
- noobermin 10y agoUnfortunately, the ephemeral nature does have its downsides. It guarantees that most of the posts will be short, stupid reposts of old content. However, you can't have true anonymity without the limited lifetime of posts. Also, it accelerates natural selection. Garbage memes won't make it to the next thread.