View source for 4chan

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{{#seo:
|keywords= 4chan screamers, 4chan akk.li, 4chan Encyclopedia Dramatica, 4chan, 4chan Christoper Poole, 4chan Screamer Wiki, 4chan shock sites, 4chan screamer, 4chan wiki
|description= 4chan is an imageboard website made in 2003. This site hosts a plenty of boards with topics, including video games, fitness, politics, music, anime and many more. It is an English-language counterpart of Futaba Channel, a Japanese imageboard site discussing online culture. Introduced by Christopher Poole, site has also been known for popular internet memes made by its community. It has became known for screamers.
}}
{{Infobox Website
|title = 4chan
|image = 4chan.png
|imagecaption = A screenshot of 4chan.org on April 1st, 2023.
|maker = Chris "moot" Poole
|type = Imageboard
|registered in = 2003
|written in = PHP, HTML5, CSS, Javascript
|status =  Online
}}
{{Quote|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 ''[[wikipedia:Christopher Poole|Christopher Poole]]'', who is also known as "moot", in October 2003.<ref name="readwrite">Larson, S. (2018, September 29). [https://readwrite.com/2013/11/04/4chan-moot-christopher-pool-qa/ "4chan's Christopher Poole: I was a teenage coder-and then I stopped."] ReadWrite. Retrieved December 9, 2021.</ref><ref name="cnbc">Elias, J. (2021, April 23). [https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/22/4chan-founder-chris-poole-moot-has-left-google.html "4chan founder Chris Poole has left google"]. CNBC. Retrieved December 9, 2021.</ref><ref name="The Guardian">Wong, J. C. (2016, March 8). [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/07/chris-poole-4chan-google-hire-social-media "Google hires founder of 4chan, the 'Zuckerberg of Online Underground'"]. [[wikipedia:The Guardian|The Guardian]]. Retrieved December 9, 2021.</ref><ref name="The New York Times">Bilton, N. (2010, March 19). [https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/one-on-one-christopher-poole-founder-of-4chan/ "One on one: Christopher Poole, founder of 4chan"]. [[wikipedia:The New York Times|The New York Times]]. Retrieved December 9, 2021.</ref><ref name="Forbes">Ewalt, D. M. (2011, August 11). [https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2011/03/13/4chans-christopher-poole-why-anonymity-rules/ "4chan's Christopher Poole: Why anonymity rules"]. [[wikipedia:Forbes|Forbes]]. Retrieved December 9, 2021.</ref> The website [[hosts|hosted]] 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 was that users could post content anonymously. Threads on the website were also given a bump limit, which archived a thread once a certain number of posts had been reached. 4chan has been infamous for its controversial content. 

The site has several boards, and some boards like "[[wikipedia:/b/|/b/]]" (random) are notorious for hosting offensive and shocking material. Due to its anonymous nature, 4chan became 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 "[[wikipedia:Rickrolling|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 [[screamer]]s and [[shock site]]s including [[Jeff the Killer]], [[Fukouna Shoujo 03]], [[Smile Dog]], [[Glory Hole Foundation]], [[Poochee and Pansy]] and others. The site did not require registration, so users could post anything on boards anonymously,<ref name="The Guardian" /><ref name="Forbes" /> but users could 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.<ref name="readwrite" /><ref name="cnbc" /><ref name="The Guardian" /><ref name="The New York Times" /> 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 had 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 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 remained a popular and influential website with millions of visitors every month until its shutdown. 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 [[internet screamers|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 was related to screamers, the site remained 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 had become infamous within the ''4chan'' community and have been used as a way to shock and troll other users.
==Known screamers in 4chan== 
{{MCategory|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 [[Suicide of Ronnie McNutt|Ronnie McNutt's suicide]] on it.
===Jeff the Killer controversy===
[[File:Katy_Robinson.png|215px|right|thumb|The controversy started after it was believed that the person in the Jeff The Killer picture was a nonexistent person named Katy Robinson (pictured), who had committed suicide after being bullied on 4chan.]]
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.<ref name="Daily Dot">III, Fernando Alfonso. “4chan Hunts down the Origins of an Internet Horror Legend.” The Daily Dot, 1 June 2021, from <nowiki>https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/4chan-x-origins-jeff-the-killer/</nowiki>.</ref><ref name="Gizmodo">Newitz, Annalee. “Who Is ‘Jeff the Killer’? and Is His Picture Haunted by a Real Death?” Gizmodo, 16 Dec. 2015, from <nowiki>https://gizmodo.com/who-is-jeff-the-killer-and-is-his-picture-haunted-by-1016241494</nowiki>.</ref> However, some users claimed that it was a picture of a dog with a broken jaw.<ref name="Daily Dot" /><ref name="Gizmodo" /> 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.<ref><nowiki>https://www.reddit.com/r/creepypasta/comments/bd5wzp/jeff_the_killer_new_image_origins/</nowiki></ref>

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.
*moot created the imageboard only because he wanted a place to talk about his waifu, Asuka, from [[wikipedia:Neon Genesis Evangelion|Neon Genesis Evangelion]]. 
==References==
<references />

==See also==
*[[YouTube]]
*[[TikTok]]
*[[Newgrounds]]
*[[Jeff the Killer]]
*[[Creepypasta]]
*[[Luna Game]]
*[[Flappy Bird]]

==Links==
<u>NOTE</u>: The following website contains [[:Category:Pornography|pornography]]!
*4chan.org
* '''Safe for work link (no NSFW boards)''': 4channel.org
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