5 ms·

I guess 4chan is one of the most valuable tech startups of the last decade or two. Or maybe there are other metrics that matter.

by CPLX 8y ago

AndrewKemendo 8y ago
The post didn't say anything about "value" in terms of money good enough to raise money, or good enough to keep working on a feature or product, or good enough to believe the product will grow into something much bigger someday. In the last sense, 4chan is probably in the top 10 of websites that have impacted the web/world the greatest over the last 15 years.
- rjbwork 8y ago
  I would absolutely say the top. They started meme culture, which has absolutely taken over most of the social media sites. /pol/ started the extreme Trump support, and made supporting him fun and memey, ultimately leading to /r/The_Donald, and his eventual election to POTUS. That has had quite a large effect on the world. They've done gobs and gobs of things related to VG, hoaxes, cultural obstruction, etc. They are quite influential, just not in the way we typically think about influence.
  - azeirah 8y ago
    4chan's influence on internet culture is huge. /r9k/ played a big role in the whole incel thing, Elliot Rogers was treated as a sort of deity there before he went on a rampage. Are there any serious, in-depth studies, stories or books or whatever about 4chan? I feel like politically and culturally, 4chan is one of the most important sites on the internet. I'd like to read more on its influence
    - marviel 8y ago
      I'd be interested in this as well. http://tanasinn.info/wiki/Complete_History_of_4chan http://tanasinn.info/wiki/Complete_History_of_4chan appears to be a (small) stab in that direction
    - ehaliewicz2 8y ago
      > /r9k/ played a big role in the whole incel thing, Elliot Rogers was treated as a sort of deity there before he went on a rampage. I'm pretty sure this only started afterwards, but I could be wrong. There are histories of 4chan, but they are usually incomplete since the number of users who kept track of things all the way from the beginning are few.
      - azeirah 8y ago
        I was on /r9k/ before what he did. He was definitely on their radar, and there were nearly weekly discussions on him. After the rampage he definitely got a lot more attention, but he definitely had a strong presence before.
    - hoorayimhelping 8y ago
      >Are there any serious, in-depth studies, stories or books or whatever about 4chan? I feel like politically and culturally, 4chan is one of the most important sites on the internet. I'd like to read more on its influence https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/why-we-cant-have-nice-things https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/why-we-cant-have-nice-things I'm friends with the author and we were pretty close with when she was writing this. She would tell me about her research, which involved a lot of lurking on 4chan and talking with people there in an official journalistic capacity. I haven't read the book, but it might be worth a peek. She was very much interested in not dismissing it as sociopathic boy behavior, but in understanding what drives intelligent people to troll.
  - philipov 8y ago
    Actually, the goons at somethingawful.com were doing that long before 4chan, and 4chan itself is a copycat of the japanese 2ch forums. They certainly did lead the way with all that stuff later on, but I'm sure there was a lot of cross-pollination by that point, and I doubt somethingawful can take credit as being the first, either.
    - rjbwork 8y ago
      I didn't mean they originated the type of environment, but that they are the most influential at creating a real widespread culture and propagating that culture to the wider internet. Goons tended to just be total assholes to specific targets, or organizing things within some videogames (Eve Online, etc.)
- tantalor 8y ago
  > in the top 10 of websites that have impacted the web But is that impact positive? If 4chan disappeared overnight, would anybody care? Malaria has a huge impact on the world too, but I think we'd be better off without it.
  - barbecue_sauce 8y ago
    > If 4chan disappeared overnight, would anybody care? Probably the people that use 4chan.
EZ-E 8y ago
4chan is a fantastic way to see where opinion will go in the future in my opinion. 4chan is very contrarian, usually against the leading opinion. The narratives discussed in its boards usually slowly starts to influence more mainstream targets, starting with reddit, 9gag equivalents, meme, eventually Facebook until it becomes mainstream enough, leading 4chan to abandon it and switch sides. 4chan used to be quite liberal, a long time ago, then the "mainstream" opinion went to liberal. In the last few years 4chan became very conservative (/pol/ especially) and convervative & reactionary movements are now what they are, growing in Europe, trump got elected, etc. Now, slighly, you can see 4chan moving away from strong conservative & reactionist views to a more low-key liberal view, again. /pol/ opinions start to get rejected or mocked by other boards, people are bored with the constant alt-right spam and I believe this will leak into mainstream media in few years, that will be the next turn in mainstream opinion.
- askafriend 8y ago
  Don't you think you're giving 4Chan a little too much credit for the phenomenon you're describing here? It's likely that 4Chan acts as a haven for the fringes (which are always changing) but claiming 4Chan has a direct and predictable impact on public opinion globally is a bit of a stretch. Don't get me wrong, I am well aware of 4Chan's influence on internet culture and how things go viral by the will of 4Chan. But even still I think you're ascribing 4Chan a little too much credit here.
  - EZ-E 8y ago
    I don't believe 4chan is "moving" all the opinion by itself, it's just reflecting the contrarian's opinion and has some influence which expose their opinion to other more mainstream groups

I guess 4chan is one of the most valuable tech startups of the last decade or two. Or maybe there are other metrics that matter.

by CPLX 8y ago

I guess 4chan is one of the most valuable tech startups of the last decade or two. Or maybe there are other metrics that matter.

AndrewKemendo 8y ago

The post didn't say anything about "value" in terms of money good enough to raise money, or good enough to keep working on a feature or product, or good enough to believe the product will grow into something much bigger someday. In the last sense, 4chan is probably in the top 10 of websites that have impacted the web/world the greatest over the last 15 years.

rjbwork 8y ago
I would absolutely say the top. They started meme culture, which has absolutely taken over most of the social media sites. /pol/ started the extreme Trump support, and made supporting him fun and memey, ultimately leading to /r/The_Donald, and his eventual election to POTUS. That has had quite a large effect on the world. They've done gobs and gobs of things related to VG, hoaxes, cultural obstruction, etc. They are quite influential, just not in the way we typically think about influence.
- azeirah 8y ago
  4chan's influence on internet culture is huge. /r9k/ played a big role in the whole incel thing, Elliot Rogers was treated as a sort of deity there before he went on a rampage. Are there any serious, in-depth studies, stories or books or whatever about 4chan? I feel like politically and culturally, 4chan is one of the most important sites on the internet. I'd like to read more on its influence
  - marviel 8y ago
    I'd be interested in this as well. http://tanasinn.info/wiki/Complete_History_of_4chan http://tanasinn.info/wiki/Complete_History_of_4chan appears to be a (small) stab in that direction
  - ehaliewicz2 8y ago
    > /r9k/ played a big role in the whole incel thing, Elliot Rogers was treated as a sort of deity there before he went on a rampage. I'm pretty sure this only started afterwards, but I could be wrong. There are histories of 4chan, but they are usually incomplete since the number of users who kept track of things all the way from the beginning are few.
    - azeirah 8y ago
      I was on /r9k/ before what he did. He was definitely on their radar, and there were nearly weekly discussions on him. After the rampage he definitely got a lot more attention, but he definitely had a strong presence before.
  - hoorayimhelping 8y ago
    >Are there any serious, in-depth studies, stories or books or whatever about 4chan? I feel like politically and culturally, 4chan is one of the most important sites on the internet. I'd like to read more on its influence https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/why-we-cant-have-nice-things https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/why-we-cant-have-nice-things I'm friends with the author and we were pretty close with when she was writing this. She would tell me about her research, which involved a lot of lurking on 4chan and talking with people there in an official journalistic capacity. I haven't read the book, but it might be worth a peek. She was very much interested in not dismissing it as sociopathic boy behavior, but in understanding what drives intelligent people to troll.
- philipov 8y ago
  Actually, the goons at somethingawful.com were doing that long before 4chan, and 4chan itself is a copycat of the japanese 2ch forums. They certainly did lead the way with all that stuff later on, but I'm sure there was a lot of cross-pollination by that point, and I doubt somethingawful can take credit as being the first, either.
  - rjbwork 8y ago
    I didn't mean they originated the type of environment, but that they are the most influential at creating a real widespread culture and propagating that culture to the wider internet. Goons tended to just be total assholes to specific targets, or organizing things within some videogames (Eve Online, etc.)
tantalor 8y ago
> in the top 10 of websites that have impacted the web But is that impact positive? If 4chan disappeared overnight, would anybody care? Malaria has a huge impact on the world too, but I think we'd be better off without it.
- barbecue_sauce 8y ago
  > If 4chan disappeared overnight, would anybody care? Probably the people that use 4chan.

EZ-E 8y ago

4chan is a fantastic way to see where opinion will go in the future in my opinion. 4chan is very contrarian, usually against the leading opinion. The narratives discussed in its boards usually slowly starts to influence more mainstream targets, starting with reddit, 9gag equivalents, meme, eventually Facebook until it becomes mainstream enough, leading 4chan to abandon it and switch sides. 4chan used to be quite liberal, a long time ago, then the "mainstream" opinion went to liberal. In the last few years 4chan became very conservative (/pol/ especially) and convervative & reactionary movements are now what they are, growing in Europe, trump got elected, etc. Now, slighly, you can see 4chan moving away from strong conservative & reactionist views to a more low-key liberal view, again. /pol/ opinions start to get rejected or mocked by other boards, people are bored with the constant alt-right spam and I believe this will leak into mainstream media in few years, that will be the next turn in mainstream opinion.

askafriend 8y ago
Don't you think you're giving 4Chan a little too much credit for the phenomenon you're describing here? It's likely that 4Chan acts as a haven for the fringes (which are always changing) but claiming 4Chan has a direct and predictable impact on public opinion globally is a bit of a stretch. Don't get me wrong, I am well aware of 4Chan's influence on internet culture and how things go viral by the will of 4Chan. But even still I think you're ascribing 4Chan a little too much credit here.
- EZ-E 8y ago
  I don't believe 4chan is "moving" all the opinion by itself, it's just reflecting the contrarian's opinion and has some influence which expose their opinion to other more mainstream groups