In my view, anything that was original to 4chan has pretty much spread all over the internet already by now. The anonymity is cool but the liberalism inherent to the site’s moderation just turns most discussions into an unproductive, unoriginal hivemind that slides ever further into uncreative and reactionary tendencies.
After the many years I spent on 4chan and similar imageboards, I can’t think of anything really positive to say except I had a few laughs here and there and it taught me a lot about the mindset of incels and white nationalists, and I got to watch the unfortunate dynamics of communities that are founded on little else than “free speech” all descend from vague libertarianism into reactionary far-right breeding grounds over and over again. It was an instructive experience, but not really one I care to repeat or recommend.
Personally I have zero desire to look such places ever again, as anything I liked about it can be found in much less annoying and reactionary places. And as I said, anything that was original to 4chan–good or bad–seems to have pretty much spread all over other parts of the internet anyway. It’s been years since I looked at it so I don’t know what’s going on there now.
In my view, anything that was original to 4chan has pretty much spread all over the internet already by now. The anonymity is cool but the liberalism inherent to the site’s moderation just turns most discussions into an unproductive, unoriginal hivemind that slides ever further into uncreative and reactionary tendencies.
After the many years I spent on 4chan and similar imageboards, I can’t think of anything really positive to say except I had a few laughs here and there and it taught me a lot about the mindset of incels and white nationalists, and I got to watch the unfortunate dynamics of communities that are founded on little else than “free speech” all descend from vague libertarianism into reactionary far-right breeding grounds over and over again. It was an instructive experience, but not really one I care to repeat or recommend.
Personally I have zero desire to look such places ever again, as anything I liked about it can be found in much less annoying and reactionary places. And as I said, anything that was original to 4chan–good or bad–seems to have pretty much spread all over other parts of the internet anyway. It’s been years since I looked at it so I don’t know what’s going on there now.