EPIC WIN FOR ANONYMOUS Read Online Free PDF

sweating, oozing gob of id.
    4chan is the most fascinating place on the Internet.
    But What Is It?
     
    4chan is an imageboard: a simple message board that allows users to post images in addition to text. Users can post anonymously, without setting up an account. It’s hosted at http://www.4chan.org, and was launched in 2003 by a 15-year-old kid who wanted to provide his online buddies with a place to share anime.
    That’s it.
    But somehow, 4chan has evolved into the web’s foremost wellspring of pop-culture output over the last decade, spawning globally recognized iconography and serving as a base for people who conduct clandestine operations ranging from stalking cute girls to organizing global efforts of pseudopolitical “hacktivism.”
    As of this writing, 4chan receives 12 million hits monthly, making it one of the largest communities on the web. No small feat for a site with no marketing budget, no stated mission, no searchable index, no archives, a userbase that’s famously antagonistic to outsiders, a decade-old user interface, and almost zero static content. There’s something special about 4chan that keeps people coming back, in dramatically greater numbers year after year.
    “Like it or hate it, 4chan is an important cultural force . . . It is a huge site, and so many Internet memes are formed there, it’s hard to ignore it,” said June Cohen, executive producer of TED Media, the organization that invited 4chan’s founder to speak alongside impressively credentialed academics, inventors, and entrepreneurs in 2010.
    I could go on telling you about it, but I’d rather show you.

Chapter 3
     
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    4chan in a Day
     
    M OST OF THE media coverage that 4chan has received over the last year has focused on Anonymous (again, capital
A
Anonymous). This is the loosely organized hacker collective responsible for a variety of unrelated pranks, hacks, and protests beginning in 2007. 4chan’s the sort of place where unseemly characters congregate to plan pseudopolitically motivated mischief. We’ll get to them later. But what’s it actually like to be there?
    I spent twelve straight hours on the site, documenting my experiences in real time. Everything you’re about to read actually happened as I’ve presented below. I haven’t added a thing to make it interesting. I don’t need to.
    Take my hand. Call me Virgil.
    The Enthusiast Boards
     
    As of this writing, there are 49 boards that make up 4chan.org. When you read about 4chan in the news, you are most likely reading about /b/, 4chan’s Random board. And for good reason. /b/’s traffic makes up more of the activity on 4chan than the other boards combined. /b/ is a no-rules board that fosters all kinds of nasty behavior. I discuss it later in this chapter. But first, some descriptions of the enthusiast boards found on 4chan that focus on specific areas of interest.
    Note: All posts quoted from 4chan and elsewhere are reproduced exactly as posted.
    /a/ Anime & Manga
    4chan was originally conceived as a place for anime and manga (comic book) fans to talk about their hobby and share images from their favorite anime franchises. There are strict rules in place to ban those who spoil storylines. Not much to see here if you’re not an anime buff.
    As someone who has little personal interest in anime, I haven’t spent much time on this board. But anime has had an important influence on the rest of 4chan, and on Internet culture at large. Anime fandom in the West exploded with the advent of the Internet. Before the web, fans acquired VHS tapes from pen pals in Japan and drove for days to get to annual anime conventions. Today’s anime geek has millions of hours of content at his fingertips, all dubbed, subtitled, and readily available. What’s more, he has a deeply informed network of superfans he can consult 24/7. And if he can’t find some obscure piece of content, he can inquire at /a/ and likely receive an answer within seconds. Still, the hobby demands a