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>Loath as I am to give 4chan credit for anything positive I love the fact we have somewhere unambiguously lowbrow on the internet. It's fun to watch how highb

>Loath as I am to give 4chan credit for anything positive I love the fact we have somewhere unambiguously lowbrow on the internet. It's fun to watch how highbrow places talk about it.

mjr00 2y ago
As the saying goes, most social media is stupid people pretending to be smart; 4chan is smart people pretending to be stupid.
- lukas099 2y ago
  I wouldn't say 4chan's smarter than other social media. I'd say "stupid people not pretending".
  - fastball 2y ago
    The median user definitely seems smarter on 4chan (at least that is how it felt 10-20 years ago).
    - tstrimple 2y ago
      I think median is the wrong term here. There are some absolute freak geniuses on 4chan, but it's not the norm. It's the exception. The median is just as fucking stupid as they present themselves to be.
make3 2y ago
does it still exist? this is an old story
- WJW 2y ago
  You can literally type in the url mate. Just go and check for yourself instead of having to ask HN.
  - make3 2y ago
    I mean, do people still use it in large amounts, is it popular, don't be so literal
dokyun 2y ago
implying hacker news is highbrow
- seanw444 2y ago
  I tend to enjoy the banter on 4chan more than here. Everyone is expected to dish it and take it there. Peoples' biases are obvious, because they make it clear who they dislike fairly often. Nobody actually takes any real offense to it all. It's quite pleasant compared to the sanitized world of... literally anywhere else. Of course, if seeing the N word makes you obsessively clutch pearls, then it's not the place for you. If you can let stuff roll right off you, it's fun, and there can be dialogue of interest here and there. /g/ being most similar to here, of course.
  - dokyun 2y ago
    An issue I have with imageboards is that use of images invites low-effort posting because it makes it easy to be as annoying as possible, whereas with pure text making inflammatory remarks at least takes some forethought, and it invites unique forms of creative writing. Anonymous textboards I think have the best forms of banter, but they're dying out these days. Over here people have incentives to appease others by gathering upvotes, so they feign this type of altruism that keeps them from being too inflammatory and makes them resort to stupid shit like tone indicators instead of being clever enough to write it that way.
    - hatsunearu 2y ago
      My experience is that 4chan is obscure and annoying enough to browse and participate that it keeps the lowest of low effort posts down. Like if you look at websites that are easy to participate, like Facebook or reddit, you're just gonna see the worst of the worst.
      - tumsfestival 2y ago
        Not sure that I agree. There's plenty of very, very annoying people completely derailing threads on every board by spamming shitposts and the like on 4chan. I'd say the anonymous nature is actually an incentive since there's no real consequences.
VoodooJuJu 2y ago
[dead]
KennyBlanken 2y ago
You mean the place that has generated numerous mass shooters and the "boogaloo movement" which among other things tried to kidnap a governor? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement

>Loath as I am to give 4chan credit for anything positive I love the fact we have somewhere unambiguously lowbrow on the internet. It's fun to watch how highbrow places talk about it.

mjr00 2y ago

As the saying goes, most social media is stupid people pretending to be smart; 4chan is smart people pretending to be stupid.

lukas099 2y ago
I wouldn't say 4chan's smarter than other social media. I'd say "stupid people not pretending".
- fastball 2y ago
  The median user definitely seems smarter on 4chan (at least that is how it felt 10-20 years ago).
  - tstrimple 2y ago
    I think median is the wrong term here. There are some absolute freak geniuses on 4chan, but it's not the norm. It's the exception. The median is just as fucking stupid as they present themselves to be.

make3 2y ago

does it still exist? this is an old story

WJW 2y ago
You can literally type in the url mate. Just go and check for yourself instead of having to ask HN.
- make3 2y ago
  I mean, do people still use it in large amounts, is it popular, don't be so literal

dokyun 2y ago

implying hacker news is highbrow

seanw444 2y ago
I tend to enjoy the banter on 4chan more than here. Everyone is expected to dish it and take it there. Peoples' biases are obvious, because they make it clear who they dislike fairly often. Nobody actually takes any real offense to it all. It's quite pleasant compared to the sanitized world of... literally anywhere else. Of course, if seeing the N word makes you obsessively clutch pearls, then it's not the place for you. If you can let stuff roll right off you, it's fun, and there can be dialogue of interest here and there. /g/ being most similar to here, of course.
- dokyun 2y ago
  An issue I have with imageboards is that use of images invites low-effort posting because it makes it easy to be as annoying as possible, whereas with pure text making inflammatory remarks at least takes some forethought, and it invites unique forms of creative writing. Anonymous textboards I think have the best forms of banter, but they're dying out these days. Over here people have incentives to appease others by gathering upvotes, so they feign this type of altruism that keeps them from being too inflammatory and makes them resort to stupid shit like tone indicators instead of being clever enough to write it that way.
  - hatsunearu 2y ago
    My experience is that 4chan is obscure and annoying enough to browse and participate that it keeps the lowest of low effort posts down. Like if you look at websites that are easy to participate, like Facebook or reddit, you're just gonna see the worst of the worst.
    - tumsfestival 2y ago
      Not sure that I agree. There's plenty of very, very annoying people completely derailing threads on every board by spamming shitposts and the like on 4chan. I'd say the anonymous nature is actually an incentive since there's no real consequences.

VoodooJuJu 2y ago

[dead]

KennyBlanken 2y ago

You mean the place that has generated numerous mass shooters and the "boogaloo movement" which among other things tried to kidnap a governor? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement