4 ms·

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 sup

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.)

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.)