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An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in 4chan /b/ (2011) [pdf]
- jack9 10y agoThe conclusion section illustrated, indeed, nothing of value was learned. From a dataset of 2 the conclusion is that they are different for each context.
- kriro 10y agoThat's pretty much grounded theory in a nutshell ;P
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- eptgrant 10y agoPersonally I'd be more interested in a report on /pol/.
- alexmlamb2 10y agoThere was a research paper on /pol/ too.
- astrange 10y agoThere is one. Sadly nobody has studied the most important and cultural board, /jp/. https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.03452 https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.03452
- elliotpage 10y ago/jp/ was made expressly so it could be forgotten about, which works out for both sides.
- reilly3000 10y agoWhen trolls go to grad school.
- nether 10y agoFor me, the most eye opening connection to humanity: > Through our investigation of /b/, we hope to contribute to scholarly conversations about data permanence. For example, Grudin (2002) suggests that we evolved to live in an ephemeral world, yet our technology takes us from the “here and now” to the “everywhere and forever.” Similarly, Mayer-Schonberger (2009) emphasizes the value of “societal forgetting,” where “the limits of human memory ensure that people’s sins are eventually forgotten.” As a long time 4channer, there's some "naturalness" I feel in the off-the-cuff discussions on the site where I know my stupidity won't be saved forever. The ephemerality taps into FOMO, requiring that you be there for a thread event that is unfolding, and that is addicting to some.
- dyates 10y ago>As a long time 4channer, there's some "naturalness" I feel in the off-the-cuff discussions on the site where I know my stupidity won't be saved forever. Not sure how true that is anymore these days, with the existence of so many third-party 4chan archive websites. Although your stupidity probably still won't be easily linked to your identity, so there's that.
- krackers 10y agoEven with the archive websites, the sheer volume of posts means that any single one is likely to be forgotten unless it's particularly kek-worthy. Plus as you mentioned it's still disentangled from your identity and other posts (though I recall a report somewhere on de-anonamyzing 4chan users through semantic analysis)
- kahrkunne 10y agoThe archives are so vast that the data in them becomes mostly meaningless; the only point in reading them is to either check out threads that happened recently, or look at legendary posts (which would've been screencapped anyways)
- rtpg 10y agoAs another person who spent a long time on there, I now feel like the opposite effect ends up happening. Sure, it's anonymous. But the short-term nature means that the prime objective when posting something is to get replies. So you get some troll bait or other things sure to get replies. Everyone else is doing the same, so you develop a vocabulary based primarily around saying and responding to memes. If the communication were natural, why is 80% of it memes? Because of the FOMO, you get an effect similar to many MMOs. In order to participate, you must spend a lot of time on the image board, on IRC, making sure that you're doing your thing. So you end up with a bunch of people who spend their (usually teenage) lives online absorbing as much image board culture as possible to "get good" at it. It's the ultimate clique. Everyone wants to be part of the secret club (sometimes quite literal: the IRC channels like #/v/ would spend their time creating private sub-channels to have "real talk"). I know on some of the lower-traffic boards you'll find some "real talk" happening, but even then it's usually layered underneath snarky "contrarian trueisms". It's the ultimate secret club for people who think they get the internet, and gets pretty close to a religion. Remember: don't say you came from reddit.
- ulucs 10y agoIf anyone has not seen this masterpiece, here's a bachelor thesis about /fit/, its persona and its memes. https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/53595/SHEDD-THESIS-2015.pdf https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/53595/SHED...
- ansgri 10y agoIt says something about a paper when a list of abbreviations can hold your attention.
- laichzeit0 10y agoSince I'm a long time /fit shitposter and lurker when I read that list of acronyms I laughed a bit, but then it dawned on me "that's a pretty good bunch of definitions, but still it doesn't really truly convey the whole meaning of the words". You actually have to experience those things to completely "get" the meaning of some of those words. This makes me sad because one of my other hobbies is classical literature and I don't think I will ever properly understand Plato either no matter how well I read the definition of an Attic Greek word or see it appear in 10 different contexts. Something is irretrievably missing and unconveyable. I find the same problem when I try and translate words from my second language to English.
- Senji 10y agoWhat's next, PHD in dank memes?
- kahrkunne 10y agoWhy always /b/, though? I get that it's the most popular board, but its culture is so different from the rest of 4chan that it might as well be its own website. I'd like to see an analysis of multiple boards, comparing culture differences between them and why they're so different between being on the same website with a lot of crossover. Someone here (I assume jokingly) suggested analyzing /jp/, but I feel as if there's actually a lot that can be learned from studying the jay.
- snerbles 10y ago/b/ is still the most infamous board, nearly a decade after one Fox affiliate station called it the "Internet Hate Machine" in response to its antics. Even though the days of "old /b/" have long past, its memes live on. The election certainly brought more attention to /pol/ in recent months, given time we'll all be grumbling about how all the other boards are ignored.
- ProdSangi 10y agoHonestly,/b/ might seems mild when you compare it to /pol/ which is little less anonymous
- libeclipse 10y agoI wonder how /b/ would react to this. Has anyone posted it there?