6 ms·

4chan is running out of money–and Martin Shkreli wants to help out

43 points by pavornyoh 10y ago

denom 10y ago
I guess they deserve each other?
- Esperaux 10y ago
  Maybe /pol deserves him but quite a few boards on 4chan where actually pretty accepting and friendly, particularly /I.
  - rarec 10y ago
    /tg/ has its moments as well.
    - gnarbarian 10y ago
      I like /k/ and /int/ /Pol/ used to be more ideologically diverse where you would always see communists libertarians and national socialists duking it out in hilarious exchanges (both sincerely and ironically). But a massive banwave in November 2014 drove a ton of users to 8chan where anyone can create their own board. So now /pol/ is the alt right equivalent of the monoculture seen at Reddit.com/r/politics and 8chan has 10 echo chambers for each political ideology. Echo chambers cement and worsen extremism and the biggest casualty has been the exchange of banter across ideological boundaries.
      - RunningDroid 10y ago
        I've always wondered how to fix this when/if 8Chan's users move towards a peer-to-peer system. Maybe some kind of "I use this board so I agree to share the content" style feature?
        gnarbarian 10y ago
        I think it would work like a tagging feature. So if you make a post, you can put a tags on it like #weapons and #politics anyone subscribed to those tags could see your post and reply to it. Not sure how to prevent balkanization though, undoubtedly people will post to #politics-antidisestablishmentarianism and whatnot.
unethical_ban 10y ago
I recall several netizens posting concern about the buyer of 4chan, how he ran some other Japanese sites into the ground. Now on /. there is someone claiming the new owner turned ads down and tried to promote 4chan passes, which now don't work. Another person points out that even if you hate 4chan (or especially if you do), it'd be better left intact to contain the culture that foments there. Otherwise we might see /r/The_Donald style posts all over the internet. In any case, when you avoid the dregs of the site, the other boards can have unique and even informative discussion.
- go_go_ 10y ago
  > Another person points out that even if you hate 4chan (or especially if you do), it'd be better left intact to contain the culture that foments there. Otherwise we might see /r/The_Donald style posts all over the internet. I can't help but to think this is pure fear mongering.
  - gravypod 10y ago
    If hacker news went down would you not use other discussion sites? Why would this not hold true for others who post things you don't like?
    - M_Grey 10y ago
      I somehow would guess that few people only use HN, in the same way that few only use 4chan.
      - gnarbarian 10y ago
        They have distinct uses and cultures. I use both. Destroying an outlet for a culture leads to migrants and discord at the new host. This was demonstrated repeatedly when moot would attempt to delete a problem board like /b/ or /pol/ (diffusing that culture to other boards) or when digg would make a significant change causing an influx of migrants to Reddit. I doubt they would come here though. If 4chan were to disappear entirely, most users would end up going to 8chan. Voting sites are not compatible with the provocative nature of image board cultures.
gnarbarian 10y ago
I love 4chan. It's a bastion of raw unmitigated free speech and anonymity. Because of this, people naturally use it to say things they can't normally in public or with a account that might be linked back to their real name. There are no points, only replies. Unpopular opinions aren't hidden. Popular opinions are boring and those threads disappear from a lack of replies. The most provocative threads are the ones which thrive. This is the exact opposite of voting sites like hacker news and Reddit. We need a place like this to exist where people aren't saddled with long term consequences for making their real opinions known. Users on 4chan are rewarded with replies for thinking outside of the box and breaking rank. Losing it would be a terrible loss for discourse. Sure there are lots of trolls there. Yes there is lots of racism and offensive content and gore. If you dont like that sort of thing you are free to not go there. But there must be a place for people to hash these ideas out and get unpopular opinions off their chest. Convenient anonymity on the Internet is dying, and if it does ultimately go so will freedom of speech. Because nobody will be free to speak their mind when a deviant or unpopular opinion may incur the wrath of a targeted campaign against them to destroy their professional and private life at any point in the future. Especially when those opinions which were once common are now out of style. (See Brandon Eich or Palmer Luckey) The lack of rules and consequences is precisely the reason 4chan has always been a creative powerhouse where trends and content are born at a rate that is unmatched elsewhere. Some of the funniest things I've read have come from the unrestrained banter between people from different countries on the /int/ (international) board. Despite all this, it's always been difficult to keep that place above water. They need a sort of Reddit gold type epiphany.
- Raphmedia 10y ago
  > They need a sort of Reddit gold type epiphany. Can't you already pay for a 4chan premium account that allows you to... I can't remember, post more, ignore the captcha, etc?
  - gnarbarian 10y ago
    You can't buy it for someone else though. That was the key to the Reddit gold success.
unfunco 10y ago
4chan is viable as an anonymous and ephemeral p2p implementation, 4chan has always suffered from the cost of running the service, which is kept to a minimum (relative to say, reddit) due to the lack of persistence. It can thrive with a peer-to-peer infrastructure since the need for advertising to sustain running costs would disappear, add encryption, restrict content to images and text to avoid the RIAA or MPAA getting close and it could be a veritable outlet for unabridged and uncensored views.
- mustacheemperor 10y ago
  Hasn't this been tried before? If I'm not mistaken Aether is a similar concept but I'm not sure how much traction it's gotten. http://getaether.net/ http://getaether.net/

43 points by pavornyoh 10y ago

denom 10y ago

I guess they deserve each other?

Esperaux 10y ago
Maybe /pol deserves him but quite a few boards on 4chan where actually pretty accepting and friendly, particularly /I.
- rarec 10y ago
  /tg/ has its moments as well.
  - gnarbarian 10y ago
    I like /k/ and /int/ /Pol/ used to be more ideologically diverse where you would always see communists libertarians and national socialists duking it out in hilarious exchanges (both sincerely and ironically). But a massive banwave in November 2014 drove a ton of users to 8chan where anyone can create their own board. So now /pol/ is the alt right equivalent of the monoculture seen at Reddit.com/r/politics and 8chan has 10 echo chambers for each political ideology. Echo chambers cement and worsen extremism and the biggest casualty has been the exchange of banter across ideological boundaries.
    - RunningDroid 10y ago
      I've always wondered how to fix this when/if 8Chan's users move towards a peer-to-peer system. Maybe some kind of "I use this board so I agree to share the content" style feature?
      - gnarbarian 10y ago
        I think it would work like a tagging feature. So if you make a post, you can put a tags on it like #weapons and #politics anyone subscribed to those tags could see your post and reply to it. Not sure how to prevent balkanization though, undoubtedly people will post to #politics-antidisestablishmentarianism and whatnot.

unethical_ban 10y ago

I recall several netizens posting concern about the buyer of 4chan, how he ran some other Japanese sites into the ground. Now on /. there is someone claiming the new owner turned ads down and tried to promote 4chan passes, which now don't work. Another person points out that even if you hate 4chan (or especially if you do), it'd be better left intact to contain the culture that foments there. Otherwise we might see /r/The_Donald style posts all over the internet. In any case, when you avoid the dregs of the site, the other boards can have unique and even informative discussion.

go_go_ 10y ago
> Another person points out that even if you hate 4chan (or especially if you do), it'd be better left intact to contain the culture that foments there. Otherwise we might see /r/The_Donald style posts all over the internet. I can't help but to think this is pure fear mongering.
- gravypod 10y ago
  If hacker news went down would you not use other discussion sites? Why would this not hold true for others who post things you don't like?
  - M_Grey 10y ago
    I somehow would guess that few people only use HN, in the same way that few only use 4chan.
    - gnarbarian 10y ago
      They have distinct uses and cultures. I use both. Destroying an outlet for a culture leads to migrants and discord at the new host. This was demonstrated repeatedly when moot would attempt to delete a problem board like /b/ or /pol/ (diffusing that culture to other boards) or when digg would make a significant change causing an influx of migrants to Reddit. I doubt they would come here though. If 4chan were to disappear entirely, most users would end up going to 8chan. Voting sites are not compatible with the provocative nature of image board cultures.

gnarbarian 10y ago

I love 4chan. It's a bastion of raw unmitigated free speech and anonymity. Because of this, people naturally use it to say things they can't normally in public or with a account that might be linked back to their real name. There are no points, only replies. Unpopular opinions aren't hidden. Popular opinions are boring and those threads disappear from a lack of replies. The most provocative threads are the ones which thrive. This is the exact opposite of voting sites like hacker news and Reddit. We need a place like this to exist where people aren't saddled with long term consequences for making their real opinions known. Users on 4chan are rewarded with replies for thinking outside of the box and breaking rank. Losing it would be a terrible loss for discourse. Sure there are lots of trolls there. Yes there is lots of racism and offensive content and gore. If you dont like that sort of thing you are free to not go there. But there must be a place for people to hash these ideas out and get unpopular opinions off their chest. Convenient anonymity on the Internet is dying, and if it does ultimately go so will freedom of speech. Because nobody will be free to speak their mind when a deviant or unpopular opinion may incur the wrath of a targeted campaign against them to destroy their professional and private life at any point in the future. Especially when those opinions which were once common are now out of style. (See Brandon Eich or Palmer Luckey) The lack of rules and consequences is precisely the reason 4chan has always been a creative powerhouse where trends and content are born at a rate that is unmatched elsewhere. Some of the funniest things I've read have come from the unrestrained banter between people from different countries on the /int/ (international) board. Despite all this, it's always been difficult to keep that place above water. They need a sort of Reddit gold type epiphany.

Raphmedia 10y ago
> They need a sort of Reddit gold type epiphany. Can't you already pay for a 4chan premium account that allows you to... I can't remember, post more, ignore the captcha, etc?
- gnarbarian 10y ago
  You can't buy it for someone else though. That was the key to the Reddit gold success.

unfunco 10y ago

4chan is viable as an anonymous and ephemeral p2p implementation, 4chan has always suffered from the cost of running the service, which is kept to a minimum (relative to say, reddit) due to the lack of persistence. It can thrive with a peer-to-peer infrastructure since the need for advertising to sustain running costs would disappear, add encryption, restrict content to images and text to avoid the RIAA or MPAA getting close and it could be a veritable outlet for unabridged and uncensored views.

mustacheemperor 10y ago
Hasn't this been tried before? If I'm not mistaken Aether is a similar concept but I'm not sure how much traction it's gotten. http://getaether.net/ http://getaether.net/