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I assumed 4chan didn't exist anymore and it was renamed/replaced by another board... Great advertisement. The UK acts like a madman on fire trying to attack ev

I assumed 4chan didn't exist anymore and it was renamed/replaced by another board... Great advertisement. The UK acts like a madman on fire trying to attack everybody.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
bentlegen 1y ago
It stopped being relevant because its content became acceptable on major social networks, beginning in late 2022.
- firesteelrain 1y ago
  What content in particular?
  - lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
    The stuff that Free Speech Absolutists like to say on twitter, judging by the date they included. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_Twitter_by_Elon_Musk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_Twitter_by_Elon...
    - watwut 1y ago
      [flagged]
      - PicassoCTs 1y ago
        Listen. The lies, the culture relativist lies, they are so tiresome. We now all have ghaza at home- and we see through it all now. You do not have the slightest idea of the world, you just have that approximation made out of your own feelings and you yank on all social levers to make it real. Im sorry the world made you unable to appreciate complexity and handle it especially when its hostile to western values. But the grown ups have to clean up your mess now. Why not go and play in your corner, with the other problems, you could play "nazi and revolutionary" all day long. Thank you..
  - dmonitor 1y ago
    racism
- ux266478 1y ago
  Major social networks aren't even remotely close to being in the same niche. There are no algorithms, no friction with accounts, no obtrusive interfaces or feature bloat, no likes, no post ratings, content is completely ephemeral. This is a common and fundamental misunderstanding I see people make when trying to understand why 4chan exists. The people who post on 4chan aren't doing it because they can't help but post edgy content, they're doing it because its web 1.0 approach to social media completely erases a whole load of annoyances and anti-patterns that are endemic in the modern web. Just like Usenet, it will probably never die despite the antisocial controversies. Or at least in the case of 4chan, it will be replaced with another board-type system. As Twitch streamers are the contemporary version of AM radio, 4chan is the contemporary version of BBSes. You should be extremely skeptical of the idea that you could ever compete in the same space with a heavily commercialized product like a modern social network. Twitter is not a replacement, it never will be.
  - dkiebd 1y ago
    Most people in websites like HN have absolutely no idea what 4chan is, how it works, and what kind of things people post in there. It shows because every time you read a comment here about 4chan you are confused as to what website they may be talking about.
    - OldfieldFund 1y ago
      Twitter is really not far from 4chan in 2025.
      - dmonitor 1y ago
        That's understating it. They're practically the same at this point, 4chan just has fewer bots.
        hellojesus 1y ago
        4chan doesn't manipulate the feed, so far as I know. Nor does it require a phone number to use. It blocks mainstream vpns, but that's about it. Behind the scenes, who knows, but it's not as obviously full of low effort bait as Twitter, and no account is necessary.
- catsma21 1y ago
  there's more boards than just /b/
- LAC-Tech 1y ago
  4chan is to Twitter what Reddit is to Hacker News.
Bender 1y ago
In a way it does not exist any more. Most of the threads are started by 4chan-GPT yes this is a thing and most replies to threads are 4chan-GPT. They uses 4chan passes to allow proxies and not have to deal with a craptcha. Anyone could start their own chan, implement GPT bots and have the same level of popularity. I would wager a dozen HN'ers could implement this in a day. I think the goal on 4chan is controlling the narrative. My question would be, would HN'ers also use bots to control the narratives on their chans or create the same daily and weekly threads?
- gs17 1y ago
  > yes this is a thing and most replies to threads are 4chan-GPT Do you have proof of this?
  - Bender 1y ago
    They bragged about it for a while but after the bragging stopped my proof is only anecdotal. When the United States Agency for International Development was defunded the bots went quiet and shortly thereafter the site was hacked using a vulnerability that had been well known since 2012. It was peaceful for a few weeks prior to the hack and for a couple weeks after the hack. Most of the fake racists disappeared from /pol/ and /g/ stopped shilling products. It was just real people and the site was just as active as the hundreds of other chans. Best I can tell 4chan is a test site to fine tune social manipulation GPT's. All the bots, fake racists and shillers are back now suggesting to me the manipulators started getting funded by other means. Before someone says it, there are a few real racists there too. The bots attract and egg them on. Most moved to 8chan. I think that is part of the experiment and tuning. Perhaps some day the veil will be lifted.
    - bananalychee 1y ago
      If that's true you should be able to see that in the public traffic statistics.
      - Bender 1y ago

I assumed 4chan didn't exist anymore and it was renamed/replaced by another board... Great advertisement. The UK acts like a madman on fire trying to attack everybody.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

bentlegen 1y ago

It stopped being relevant because its content became acceptable on major social networks, beginning in late 2022.

firesteelrain 1y ago
What content in particular?
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
  The stuff that Free Speech Absolutists like to say on twitter, judging by the date they included. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_Twitter_by_Elon_Musk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_Twitter_by_Elon...
  - watwut 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - PicassoCTs 1y ago
      Listen. The lies, the culture relativist lies, they are so tiresome. We now all have ghaza at home- and we see through it all now. You do not have the slightest idea of the world, you just have that approximation made out of your own feelings and you yank on all social levers to make it real. Im sorry the world made you unable to appreciate complexity and handle it especially when its hostile to western values. But the grown ups have to clean up your mess now. Why not go and play in your corner, with the other problems, you could play "nazi and revolutionary" all day long. Thank you..
- dmonitor 1y ago
  racism
ux266478 1y ago
Major social networks aren't even remotely close to being in the same niche. There are no algorithms, no friction with accounts, no obtrusive interfaces or feature bloat, no likes, no post ratings, content is completely ephemeral. This is a common and fundamental misunderstanding I see people make when trying to understand why 4chan exists. The people who post on 4chan aren't doing it because they can't help but post edgy content, they're doing it because its web 1.0 approach to social media completely erases a whole load of annoyances and anti-patterns that are endemic in the modern web. Just like Usenet, it will probably never die despite the antisocial controversies. Or at least in the case of 4chan, it will be replaced with another board-type system. As Twitch streamers are the contemporary version of AM radio, 4chan is the contemporary version of BBSes. You should be extremely skeptical of the idea that you could ever compete in the same space with a heavily commercialized product like a modern social network. Twitter is not a replacement, it never will be.
- dkiebd 1y ago
  Most people in websites like HN have absolutely no idea what 4chan is, how it works, and what kind of things people post in there. It shows because every time you read a comment here about 4chan you are confused as to what website they may be talking about.
  - OldfieldFund 1y ago
    Twitter is really not far from 4chan in 2025.
    - dmonitor 1y ago
      That's understating it. They're practically the same at this point, 4chan just has fewer bots.
      - hellojesus 1y ago
        4chan doesn't manipulate the feed, so far as I know. Nor does it require a phone number to use. It blocks mainstream vpns, but that's about it. Behind the scenes, who knows, but it's not as obviously full of low effort bait as Twitter, and no account is necessary.
catsma21 1y ago
there's more boards than just /b/
LAC-Tech 1y ago
4chan is to Twitter what Reddit is to Hacker News.

Bender 1y ago

In a way it does not exist any more. Most of the threads are started by 4chan-GPT yes this is a thing and most replies to threads are 4chan-GPT. They uses 4chan passes to allow proxies and not have to deal with a craptcha. Anyone could start their own chan, implement GPT bots and have the same level of popularity. I would wager a dozen HN'ers could implement this in a day. I think the goal on 4chan is controlling the narrative. My question would be, would HN'ers also use bots to control the narratives on their chans or create the same daily and weekly threads?

gs17 1y ago
> yes this is a thing and most replies to threads are 4chan-GPT Do you have proof of this?
- Bender 1y ago
  They bragged about it for a while but after the bragging stopped my proof is only anecdotal. When the United States Agency for International Development was defunded the bots went quiet and shortly thereafter the site was hacked using a vulnerability that had been well known since 2012. It was peaceful for a few weeks prior to the hack and for a couple weeks after the hack. Most of the fake racists disappeared from /pol/ and /g/ stopped shilling products. It was just real people and the site was just as active as the hundreds of other chans. Best I can tell 4chan is a test site to fine tune social manipulation GPT's. All the bots, fake racists and shillers are back now suggesting to me the manipulators started getting funded by other means. Before someone says it, there are a few real racists there too. The bots attract and egg them on. Most moved to 8chan. I think that is part of the experiment and tuning. Perhaps some day the veil will be lifted.
  - bananalychee 1y ago
    If that's true you should be able to see that in the public traffic statistics.
    - Bender 1y ago