4chan

"The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."

4chan is a widely known English-language imageboard website, which was created by Christopher Poole, who is also known as "moot", in October 2003. The website hosts various boards that cater to diverse topics such as anime, manga, video games, music, literature, fitness, politics, and more. One of the unique features of the website is that users can post content anonymously. Threads on the website are also given a bump limit, which archives a thread once a certain number of posts have been reached. 4chan has been infamous for its controversial content.

The site has several boards, and some boards like "/b/" (random) are notorious for hosting offensive and shocking material. Due to its anonymous nature, 4chan has become a platform for activism, trolling, and pranksters, with users frequently participating in raids, hacking, and creating viral content and memes. The website has been associated with several internet subcultures and is credited with creating several memes, including "Rickrolling". Despite its popularity, 4chan has received criticism for its role in spreading hate speech, harassment, and misinformation. The site's moderation policies have also been a topic of debate. Some argue that the site's lack of moderation promotes free speech and creativity, while others criticize it for promoting toxic behavior and allowing illegal activities to thrive. Nevertheless, 4chan remains a popular platform with millions of visitors every month.

It also became known for being involved with screamers and shock sites including Jeff the Killer, Fukouna Shoujo 03, Smile Dog, Glory Hole Foundation, Poochee and Pansy and others. The site doesn't require registration, so users can post anything on boards anonymously, but users can also use a nickname for themselves on the site.

Background
4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board website that has been active since 2003. Founded by Christopher Poole, known by his online pseudonym "moot", the site features various boards dedicated to specific topics. Users can share and comment on images and content anonymously, with each board having its own set of rules and culture. The site became popular for its unique and often controversial content, which includes memes, viral images, and discussions on a wide range of topics, from technology and politics to anime and video games. 4chan's userbase is renowned for their humorous and often irreverent posts, with users communicating in internet slang and acronyms. The site has been home to many internet memes, some of which have gone on to become popular mainstream memes, such as "Pepe the Frog". However, the site has also gained notoriety for its darker side, with some boards hosting content that is considered obscene or illegal. The /b/ board is particularly infamous for its shocking and disturbing content. In addition to its controversial content, 4chan has been associated with various online movements and subcultures, including the hacktivist group Anonymous and the alt-right. The site's userbase has been both praised for its creativity and criticized for its role in spreading hate speech and extremist ideologies. The site has also been linked to various internet pranks and hoaxes, such as the "Rickrolling" meme. Despite its controversial reputation, 4chan remains a popular and influential website with millions of visitors every month. Its impact on internet culture and subcultures has been widely recognized, making it an important part of the online landscape.

Screamers and shock sites are two different types of online pranks that have been associated with the controversial imageboard website. Screamers are pranks that involve a sudden and loud noise or image designed to startle or scare the viewer, and are often shared on 4chan as reaction videos or as a trolling tool. While not all content on 4chan is related to screamers, the site remains a popular destination for those looking for anonymous discussion and sharing of various media, including screamers. On the other hand, shock sites are websites that contain explicit and graphic content, such as violent or sexual imagery, gore, and other disturbing material, designed to shock or disgust the viewer. 4chan users have been known to post links to shock sites on the website's boards, often as a form of trolling or to provoke a reaction from other users. Some of the most well-known shock sites associated with 4chan include "Meatspin" "Lemon Party" and "Goatse.cx" which have become infamous within the 4chan community and have been used as a way to shock and troll other users.

Known screamers in 4chan
Smile Dog is a creepypasta story that originated on 4chan in 2008. It tells the story of a writer who receives a mysterious email containing a picture of a black and white dog with a wide, human-like smile. The writer soon becomes obsessed with the image, and begins to experience terrifying hallucinations and nightmares. The earliest screamer to be on 4chan was Smile Dog. The famous story of this creepypasta explains that there are no copies of the original Smile Dog, but fake variations have been spreading across 4chan's paranormal-related board, /x/, on 2008.

A flash animation called Derpy animation.swf was first mentioned on January 3, 2012, in /f/, a board list of flash animations. The animation was supposed to lure My Little Pony fans into thinking the screamer was a list of Derpy's animations.

On March 14, 2018, Shuaib "Shuaiby" Aslam started a Livestream on his YouTube channel titled "Hey". Tarp was put on the windows to cover any debris. He starts a Discord call and two other people can be heard talking, one of them crying. A bit later, he holds out a piece of paper with the text "Bye /r9k/", loads a shotgun, and finally shoots his face, splattering blood on the ceiling.

On November 18, 2021, a 4chan user named Armus posted a thread claiming to have hacked kingliam3's account along with the popular Scratch copy of the Flappy Bird game and added Ronnie McNutt's suicide on it.

Jeff the Killer controversy
4chan quickly became involved with creepypasta Jeff The Killer shortly after an anonymous claim that the image of Jeff was revealed to be an extensively unedited picture of a woman named "Katy Robinson", who had committed suicide in 2008. However, some users claimed that it was a picture of a dog with a broken jaw. However, some users claimed that it was a picture of a dog with a broken jaw.[8][9] A story was created by a few /b/ users to explain the origin of this image: A woman named "Victoria" was a live-streamer on Stickam and used 4chan as a way to self-promote herself for fame; One user posted a screenshot of her face with the caption "Am I pretty?", Later, users started posting their own photoshop versions of the image, with one of the users posting the actual, old version of Jeff's face with the caption "Now you are." Victoria quickly found out about the post and disappeared without a trace.

However, after 4chan's research on these rumors about the origin quickly revealed that the woman in the picture was named "Heather White", and the picture of Jeff was originally uploaded on the Japanese site, pya.cc, on November 16, 2005. The Jeff image originally came from a less unedited photo of a pale woman with googly eyes smiling, which was also uploaded to that site; the image was edited to make the smile enlarged and stretched out, and the eyes to have white and black pupils, which became known as the appearance of the character of Jeff.

Trivia

 * The site was born shortly after Poole copied Futaba Channel's source code and translated the text into English.