4 ms·

Most popular websites gather a lot of intelligent people. Nothing specific to 4chan.

• johnnyanmac 2y ago
  4chan was very early, if not close to first of what we'd describe as a "forum" and persisted through the decades. That's the notable factor, outside of all the "noise" described above. But yes, the noise was also a part of the surprise factor here. Many people have this perception that intelligent people are dignified, studious,and fancy in their demeanor. So someone like that hanging out on an "anime forum" can be shocking to some.
  • bawolff 2y ago
    > 4chan was very early, if not close to first of what we'd describe as a "forum" and persisted through the decades That feels untrue. 4chan was launched only in 2003. Forums are much older than that. Especially if you count forum-like things that aren't called forums, like usenet or bbs.
    • pimlottc 2y ago
      CompuServe used the term “forums” going back at least to the late 1980s
      • extraduder_ire 2y ago
        It's a natural term to use for it. Since about the time of the Romans.
    • dragonwriter 2y ago
      > That feels untrue. 4chan was launched only in 2003. Forums are much older than that. Web forums are basically as old as the web; I have accounts that are older than 4chan on forums (what I believe is the oldest forum that I have an account on, which also has my oldest continuous forum account [though not my first forum account] launched in 1996 -- I didn't join until 2002.) Online forums, more generally, are older than the web, whether you are talking about email listservers, nntp groups, or CompuServe forums.
      • ryoshu 2y ago
        Usenet was great until the spammers arrived.
        • tstrimple 2y ago
          I've still found a lot of use for it from a "free content" platform and haven't seen anything at all from the spammers. Maybe it's a matter of the indexers I use? What form does usenet spam take?