So, taking a look at the popularity of 2ch and how significant it is within Japanese internet culture, what exactly are the cultural/social differences that make 2ch so popular and 4-ch so dead (relatively)? Although one could claim it was Densha Otoko that really brought 2ch into the mainstream attention, the fact of the matter is that it was nearly ubiquitous previous to Densha.
Furthermore, what can be done to make 4-ch more popular? I would love to see the board become as strong as 2ch, and although that may not be possible, it would be nice to see a community develop.
It's impossible.
Japanese and Americans have a different mentality. I think Japanese people are usually reserved, and thus need anonymous message boards so that they can finally be themselves.
Americans, however, aren't as reserved, and thus don't really see the advantages of using it.
That's not likely to happen... I mean, when I post on 2ch I get
replies almost instantly.
In this place it sometimes takes days to get a reply.
phpBB and stuff like that are the norm for English speakers and
I can't see that changing anytime soon.
Ok, so it may be impossible for it to become as popular and widely used as 2ch, however, is it possible for it to reach the popularity of 4chan? Or, does 4ch think it's just the imageboard functionality that makes 4chan as popular as it is?
I hate 4chan. Seriously, it's finished IMO.
I think you're right. From the beginning, 4chan had a different focus in mind than 2ch or 4ch, and since then, it's degraded significantly into rambling of /b/tards about internet memes and racism. That being said, I know I wouldn't want 4ch to turn into 4chan... just for it to have as much traffic with users such as those who currently post. Impossible? Absolutely.
> Japanese and Americans have a different mentality
Except there are very little Americans here. There are many Europeans, however.
One thing is that many of the people who know about this board are people who interested in Japan and so know about 2ch, but are English speaking.
But for many English speaking people, they want to have "avatars" and such, and thus like the traditional phpBB type boards.
I recommend you tell all of your otaku friends about this place! It'll be fun! Or retarded...
>>7 tsk tsk...don't you know ALL westerners are Americans? What were you thinking? (I'm kidding of course)
>>8
I actually post on 2ch as well as here.
I just think it's kind of cool to post
in my native language.
Oh, and I'm not into anime at all.....
And so, this place isn't just for Wapanese.
Should I feel a bit out of place here?
I think that you're right though.
The majority of posters here are just
people who probably want to post on 2ch
but can't speak Japanese that well...
Maybe 4ch focuses too much on one
group of people.
This place should widen it's focus and
actually live up to it's "Let's talk
about everything" motto.
Only then can it become anywhere near as
popular as something like 2ch.
I think you're right, but the problem is that the addition of more focused boards simply creates disparity within 4ch itself, rather than bringing in others.
Let's say, theoretically, there was an advertising effort for 4ch, paid for solely through donations, or a movement of bloggers finding refuge in 4ch. The audience would widen, and would thus grow as people would have more reason to continue returning. I think the question should be first how to raise traffic, then how to make more focused boards, etc.
Agreed. But how would you suggest we raise traffic? I often post in the Sports section for example only to come back and see the thread I started weeks ago STILL at the top with no replies. I don't think alot of people trust the internet enough or think it's 'cool' to use forums like this for information and discussion. I'm afraid we need to broadcast our existence more at the risk of attracting more idiots simply to broaden our userbase. Don't forget 2ch has it's share of trolls and idiots too.
Yes, it's quite a conundrum. As it stands, 4ch feels like a community, but a very, very close-knit one and without the far-ranging interests as found on 2ch. 2ch certainly does have its share of jerks (read: all of the racism against Koreans, which is inexcusable despite being widely cultural), but that comes with any anonymity, regardless of culture. Anonymity breeds free speech, but that's not always a good thing (although this is an age-old argument).
I've been spreading the word about 4ch, and I'm sure many of you all have, but the fact of the matter is that if one friend of each of us on 4ch starts using it, it's still not enough to bring in the numbers to make it worth having open in a Firefox tab at all times.
Just a thought.
1) Because it is 4-ch, not 4ch.
2) Too much of /personal/ everywhere on all the boards; by that I mean too many emo loser shutins with no life and friends on 4-ch and they like to talk about their issues
3) emo loser shutins with no life and friends will not have an effect on 4-ch when they tell their imaginary friend about 4-ch
4) Everyone acts like a eunuch here; by that I mean they have no balls (and they are proud of that fact); see DQN and its ball-lessness
5) Anonymous. And the whole "I hate namefags" crap. A community will never form here because of anonymous and the lack of memes.
>>14
We have memes.
We have mittens
We have tanasinn.
We have Nida.
We have Steyr AUG.
And most of all, we have DENSHAAAAAAAAAA
A community forming here has nothing to do with memes. gb2/b/.
>>19
Okay, how exactly fo you think there is going to be a community feeling around here? A community needs something in common. At the very least they need to know each other. If that is not possible, they need some kind of culture that they can hang on to, something that is common about them.
To me, 4-ch culture is fucking /personal/ and all the shutin fags whining about their life. That is pretty much it around here.
They don't all need to know each other for there to be a large population here. A large population doesn't require a "community feeling".
And, for the record, the people that come here DO have something in common. They wish to have an intelligent (or at least mostly intelligent) discussion about subjects that interest them. Furthermore, they wish to have these sorts of discussions in an anonymous environment, which if you don't understand the benefits of that then I suggest you stop posting here and read this page: http://wakaba.c3.cx/shii/shiichan/ .
We don't need Cockmongler or Happy Negro or Longcat to have these kind of discussions here. And anyway, if that's the only way to get more people to come here, then I'd prefer it stays like it is now, as this whole site would just become another /b/.
>>22 people have intelligent discussions here? DQN seems to be the happenin' place.
And longcat is loooooong.
>>22
I was trying to say why a lot of people don't frequent 4-ch. I sometimes come here, mostly because I like being anonymous, but I am put off by 1) the whole /personal/, emo, shutin crap 2) the anti namefag stuff 3) the tone of the average anonymous here, who sound like someone with no ball, seriously I can't explain that 4) lawl Japan, but I don't mind that, it's something interesting to talk about.
And I didn't mean memes like Longcat and Cockmongler; I don't exactly know what..a certain set of ideas that people who frequent here should have...I don't know.
I don't have long to type this post, but I will address your points in the same order you did.
1) If you don't like /personal/, don't go there. Not every single board on this site caters to everyone's interests or likes. I'm sure there are people here who think /love/ is just for people who can't get laid, or that /dqn/ is for retards. So they don't go there. Easy solution.
2) Of course there's an anti-tripcode sentiment on a board that is based on anonymous discussion. The vast majority of 4-ch users (and, to the best of my knowledge, 2ch users) agree that in MOST situations, an anonymous discussion works best when everyone is anonymous, and that anyone who tries to not be anonymous (ie by using a name and tripcode) is doing it to stand out, which is looked down upon.
3) Just as you can't explain this point, I don't really have an answer or explanation, except that I haven't noticed it. Sure, a lot of people here are the hikki type, or otherwise socially awkward, but a lot aren't, as well. /shrug
4) The idea of this board came from a Japanese one, so of course there's going to be a large community of people here that are interested in Japanese culture.
I'm neither >>25 nor >>26, but to address point 3 - I like to think that Anonymous here at 4-ch is quite a nice guy. I know that I try to avoid needlessly trolling posts, and try to avoid the whole "OMG FAGGOT IDIOT SHUT THE HELL UP!" knee-jerk replies that I might use elsewhere. I suppose that could be construed as having no balls. But that's the way I likes it! =D
( ﾟ ヮﾟ) < After all, 4-ch.net is a BBS for simple and fun communication!
The reason why 4-ch will never be so popular is because we already have many boards for English-speaking people interested in Japan. There are boards run by media organizations encouraging discussion of news articles. There are Japan-related Usenet groups, there are anime boards. We already have boards for almost every hobby or subject related to Japan. There are blogs.
Also, the 2ch software you are using for this BBS probably has the worse-looking layout and least understandable system. For 1st-time users, it sucks. As someone mentioned above, we are too used to conventional board systems like phpbb, blogs, wikis, and myspace. We understand how it works. But this 2ch software is totally alien to most people. Not very intuitive to use.
This software is uniquely popular only for 2ch. It will never become a popular system in the more logical and design-conscious English-speaking world. This board really looks primitive, like the text-only days before the Internet when we had Compuserve, etc. Finding a thread is too troublesome.
You should have used a better and more modern software like an SNS system such as mixi.
And who wants to come here when you all keep calling each other faggots?
For first time users this place fucking rocks!!!
>And who wants to come here when you all keep calling each other faggots?
We do?
Also, you must admit that the shut-ins and /l&r/'ers are now part of the 4-ch culture. Without them, out userbase is smaller. :(
And it's because of anonymity that they/we can discuss those kinds of things, as well as "normal" topics, much like the people at 2ch.
The reason why 4-ch won't be as popular and humongous as 2ch is like what 28 said. I really agree with what he said. There are just too much of forum boards that have avatars and whatnots that we have grown so accustomed too.
But...
I keep coming back here again and again. And its not like I don't have other boards to go to. It's just that this board has a somewhat effect that draws you in. Maybe because its just special and its something that we haven't seen before, I don't know.
It was Densha who introduced me into this alien world, firstly 2ch and in turn here, 4-ch.
I also like the fact that you could insult people like "YOU FUCKING BASTARD!! YOU ATE OUT OF YOUR OWN MOMMA!!" without having your post getting deleted. That kind of thing.
Though, I'm keeping my finger crossed that more people would frequent this alien world here.
This is one of the places that shut-ins or other wise socially problematic people come and talk, or as you like to say, whine about their problems on /personal/, /love/
If you want them out, just close these two, and moderate General. but what’s the point of that? It sure doesn’t make your user base any larger
I rather not see any one else here if this place is going to get closer to anything like 4 chan.
>>1
If I spam the link to this forum on 4chan.org, then it will become popular, bu then again, quantity over quality.
What is it with this crap you all are saying about 4chan, 4chan, 4chan?? What did 4chan do to deserve your seemingly negative comments?