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I've always seen 4chan as the scumhole of the internet. It scares me that it's so huge. Do I have a wrong impression of it?

purephase 14y ago
Not really, no. I think it's size is more indicative of the standard age range it draws (a younger audience). People keep telling me that there are decent parts of the place. Each time I try to venture in it is such a dizzying mess that I stopped trying. It makes me feel old.
- TillE 14y ago
  I've seen a bunch of people recommend /tg/ (tabletop gaming), that it was totally different from the awful parts of 4chan. I went there, and I think I had to scroll down half a page to see people tossing around f-g and f-ggot. Yeah, no thanks. I still think "Reddit for grownups" is a potentially viable business. A semi-moderated community of communities with no tolerance for low-effort garbage or trolling. As it is now, there are plenty of decent topical fora scattered around the internet, but they're mostly not great technically or culturally. I'm not sure exactly how, but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement.
  - pavel_lishin 14y ago
    > I still think "Reddit for grownups" is a potentially viable business. It's as simple as setting up http://reddit.com/r/redditforgrownups http://reddit.com/r/redditforgrownups and moderating it heavily. (Well, not really - you won't make any money from setting that up - but at the same time, why would I pay you for a reddit clone when there are already subreddits with good moderators?)
  - Karunamon 14y ago
    Something Awful on particular subforums are good for this. It has its nonsense areas just like 4chan and Reddit, but it's worth a look. Catchphrases, trolling, low-content and the like are heavily policed.
franzus 14y ago
Maybe you've got a wrong impression of humanity?
Karunamon 14y ago
Sort of. Each board is more or less its own community (much like how different subreddits are independent of each other on Reddit). /b/ and /v/ (Random and Video Games) contain the cause of the great majority of 4chan's esteemed reputation. The other boards are a lot more calm and enjoyable. But some people enjoy the chaos :)
dudurocha 14y ago
I would recomend the /fit. Is a great place to get tips and encouragement for exercises. But go away from /b, it's a mess.
- getsat 14y ago
  It's also summertime, so there's plenty of summerfriends already. Remember to read the sticky at the top of the first page.
stfu 14y ago
So far 4chan is one of the last places I found which still fosters an absolute anything-goes policy. It is almost a last frontier of a world where people can dump their thoughts, ideas just without having to use any form of self censorship. Once one gets over some idealistic expectation how other people should behave it is, at least from my perspective, a truly liberating experience.
Hemospectrum 14y ago
Think of it like a really crowded dormitory whose lower floors are overrun by a never-ending frat party. The first person you run into when you show up will likely be projectile vomiting, or teabagging someone who passed out. Bored jerks are free to wander upstairs and urinate in any room in the building, and the deafeningly loud music and incoherent screaming is a backdrop (albeit distant at times) to every stimulating conversation that takes place. If you want to enjoy yourself, you kind of have to know where you're going, and how to knock. Even on "quiet" boards like /lit/, the front page is churning with new threads. Everything is steeped in weird slang and inside jokes. There is no respect for newcomers. People who don't "get" the culture are dismissed with "lurk moar" or simply ignored. Also, there is always someone, somewhere, who will find any given post hilarious.
wrekkuh 14y ago
It would help to add that while the age of everyone posting is a broad range, the most active users are teenagers and people in their early 20s. At least that's the impression i get after browsing for a few years. Also, while it could be said that notoriety attracts a good crowd for them, so does their anime discussion as there are several boards dedicated to different styles of artwork (and, of course, the fact that the entire website is styled after another hugely popular Japanese Anime board, 2chan.net).
runn1ng 14y ago
To add to what has been said - on 4chan, the very "controversial" topics are beaten over and over and over again. Go to /pol/ and you will see at least two rasict threads at any given moment, then some other name-calling and misoginy. Go to /g/ and you will see non-stop dumb OS wars ("Mac OS X sucks!" - "STFU, your mother is a whore"), and so on. Feminism, homosexuality, religion, those topics are always popular no matter the board.

purephase 14y ago

Not really, no. I think it's size is more indicative of the standard age range it draws (a younger audience). People keep telling me that there are decent parts of the place. Each time I try to venture in it is such a dizzying mess that I stopped trying. It makes me feel old.

TillE 14y ago
I've seen a bunch of people recommend /tg/ (tabletop gaming), that it was totally different from the awful parts of 4chan. I went there, and I think I had to scroll down half a page to see people tossing around f-g and f-ggot. Yeah, no thanks. I still think "Reddit for grownups" is a potentially viable business. A semi-moderated community of communities with no tolerance for low-effort garbage or trolling. As it is now, there are plenty of decent topical fora scattered around the internet, but they're mostly not great technically or culturally. I'm not sure exactly how, but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement.
- pavel_lishin 14y ago
  > I still think "Reddit for grownups" is a potentially viable business. It's as simple as setting up http://reddit.com/r/redditforgrownups http://reddit.com/r/redditforgrownups and moderating it heavily. (Well, not really - you won't make any money from setting that up - but at the same time, why would I pay you for a reddit clone when there are already subreddits with good moderators?)
- Karunamon 14y ago
  Something Awful on particular subforums are good for this. It has its nonsense areas just like 4chan and Reddit, but it's worth a look. Catchphrases, trolling, low-content and the like are heavily policed.

franzus 14y ago

Maybe you've got a wrong impression of humanity?

Karunamon 14y ago

Sort of. Each board is more or less its own community (much like how different subreddits are independent of each other on Reddit). /b/ and /v/ (Random and Video Games) contain the cause of the great majority of 4chan's esteemed reputation. The other boards are a lot more calm and enjoyable. But some people enjoy the chaos :)

dudurocha 14y ago

I would recomend the /fit. Is a great place to get tips and encouragement for exercises. But go away from /b, it's a mess.

getsat 14y ago
It's also summertime, so there's plenty of summerfriends already. Remember to read the sticky at the top of the first page.

stfu 14y ago

So far 4chan is one of the last places I found which still fosters an absolute anything-goes policy. It is almost a last frontier of a world where people can dump their thoughts, ideas just without having to use any form of self censorship. Once one gets over some idealistic expectation how other people should behave it is, at least from my perspective, a truly liberating experience.

Hemospectrum 14y ago

Think of it like a really crowded dormitory whose lower floors are overrun by a never-ending frat party. The first person you run into when you show up will likely be projectile vomiting, or teabagging someone who passed out. Bored jerks are free to wander upstairs and urinate in any room in the building, and the deafeningly loud music and incoherent screaming is a backdrop (albeit distant at times) to every stimulating conversation that takes place. If you want to enjoy yourself, you kind of have to know where you're going, and how to knock. Even on "quiet" boards like /lit/, the front page is churning with new threads. Everything is steeped in weird slang and inside jokes. There is no respect for newcomers. People who don't "get" the culture are dismissed with "lurk moar" or simply ignored. Also, there is always someone, somewhere, who will find any given post hilarious.

wrekkuh 14y ago

It would help to add that while the age of everyone posting is a broad range, the most active users are teenagers and people in their early 20s. At least that's the impression i get after browsing for a few years. Also, while it could be said that notoriety attracts a good crowd for them, so does their anime discussion as there are several boards dedicated to different styles of artwork (and, of course, the fact that the entire website is styled after another hugely popular Japanese Anime board, 2chan.net).

runn1ng 14y ago

To add to what has been said - on 4chan, the very "controversial" topics are beaten over and over and over again. Go to /pol/ and you will see at least two rasict threads at any given moment, then some other name-calling and misoginy. Go to /g/ and you will see non-stop dumb OS wars ("Mac OS X sucks!" - "STFU, your mother is a whore"), and so on. Feminism, homosexuality, religion, those topics are always popular no matter the board.