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Swastikas, porn, and feels: 4chan users explain 4chan to us

After 10 years and over a billion posts, it can still be difficult to describe the site, so we asked users to explain their 4chan.

 

Fernando Alfonso III

IRL

Posted on Oct 1, 2013   Updated on Jun 1, 2021, 5:15 am CDT

With more than 22 million unique visitors each month, 4chan attracts a whole lot of different people from all walks of life.

Some are anime fans, who visit /a/ and /jp/ for the latest discourse on novels, TV shows, and movies. Some are surrealists in search of little green men and the true meaning of life on /x/. And most are troublemakers, the pranksters who have made /b/ one of the most obscene and pornographic places on the Internet.

Either way, 4chan is something a little different to everybody. So on the imageboard’s 10th anniversary, I wanted to know exactly what that was. 
 

MORE:
Now 10 years old, 4chan is the most important site you never visit


As I waited in line for 4chan founder Christopher “moot” Poole’s panel at Anime Weekend Atlanta Saturday night, I simply asked patrons, “What does 4chan mean to you?” In the spirit of the anonymity all 4chan users enjoy on the site, I didn’t want to know their names or where they were from. All I wanted was brutal honesty.

This is what 21 people had to share.


 

Photos by Fernando Alfonso III

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*First Published: Oct 1, 2013, 10:05 am CDT