What a festering crock of SHIT. 4chan is a virtual "penthouse forum" where the most intelligent thought ever formulated starts with "be 14" and where the anonymity provokes not just antisocial behavior, but violence. We've been raided by /b/ twice and listen close my children - this is not some egalitarian force for truth, justice and the Internet Way. This is angry, antisocial 14-year-olds with no outlet for their aggression other than night letters against strangers. 4chan-grade anonymity doesn't just permit a degradation of human discourse - it sets it as the goal. Conditional anonymity keeps people in line somewhat but total anonymity is the rule of the mob. This is the shit moot is championing. I hope that fucker never gets a job.
I agree that Poole paints a picture that could lead my mother to think that 4chan was a place worth checking out. There are some very damaged people there. I have been told that some great discussions occur there, and I believe it. However, there can be no doubt that some use the combination of anonymity and audience for terrible things. Poole is right that there is value in anonymity. However, there are also some things that people will only do when they have that kind of cover. I don’t see 4chan as a fine example of the gifts of anonymity. I do find it interesting the difference between a community with pseudonyms and a completely anonymous one. IMO the difference is as striking as that between one using real-name and pseudonyms. The ephemerality part is interesting. I wonder what 4chan would look like if posts were permanent. IRL our conversations are real-ID but ephemeral. That’s the medium we use most. I can’t think of a large online platform equivalent.
I don't think anonymity is the sole reason /b/ is the way it is. I think the raiding, paedophilia and casual use of slurs became the thing people talked about when they talked about /b/, and people started wanting to live up to the stories it tells about itself. Maybe that wouldn't have happened without anonymity, but I don't think anonymity causes that to happen.
I have spoken to five different Archangelles. They enjoy being coy, but they'll admit they're Goons on a foreign adventure. It is one big troll, just like this one. The SRS playbook is, beat for beat, the Geno playbook as deployed against Habbo Hotel.
I really don't see that much wrong with SRS. They're extreme, and a circle-jerk, echo-chamber, but they're at least in on the joke. And Reddit is so awful with misogyny, racism and just general shitty-ness that its nice to see it get called out sometimes. Doxxing pedophiles is hardly the most evil demonic thing in the world that the rest of reddit makes it out to be. Anonymous does it and reddit loves them. I don't go on SRS or really have any connection to them but it seems from the very limited knowledge I have of them but I get the feeling that all the hate is more likely from Reddit's anti-feminism circle-jerk than from anything intrinsically bad about them. Feel free to prove me wrong, you guys may know more about it than I do.
The environment favors damaged people. This is no accident. Great conversations can happen anywhere, despite the environment. A good environment fosters great conversations. See response to TNG below. With all the screengrabbing, they often are. I will say this: I've seen more horrible shit inb4 ban than Reddit's worst.There are some very damaged people there.
I have been told that some great discussions occur there, and I believe it.
I do find it interesting the difference between a community with pseudonyms and a completely anonymous one. IMO the difference is as striking as that between one using real-name and pseudonyms.
The ephemerality part is interesting. I wonder what 4chan would look like if posts were permanent.
I've spent a lot of time on 4chan and can say that there is interesting conversation happening on that site. Even 4chan can't escape the eternal September. It's shit at the moment and I rarely see interesting content like I used to, but the content is there.......Buried beneath the trap threads and nigger nigger nigger.
To be fair your picture has absolutely nothing to do with 4chan (although I admit they could easily do something like that). As you say elsewhere in the thread: - total anonymity. This is what you get at 4chan. You post something, nobody knows where it's from. - transitory anonymity. This is a blog comment with a throwaway name, or a Youtube comment. You can own your comments, but there's no reputation, there's no accountability. - conditional anonymity. This is what you get at Hubski, at Reddit, at eBay. You are anonymous, but your alias is not. There are consequences to your persona for misbehavior. There's a bifurcation between your "real life" and your "internet life" that forms a Chinese Wall between the two, preventing blowback from one injuring the other, but you are vulnerable to attack. This was on reddit, not 4chan. So an example of conditional anonymity, not total anonymity. I don't think the problem is total anonymity, the problem is that people on the computer think they're safe and they can be an asshole. I see people ALL THE TIME say the most horrible things on facebook to groups and things like that, thats not anonymous at all.There are three kinds of anonymity: