y/n?
4-ch is neither an experiment, nor failed.
In fact, it's pretty darn neat.
2-chan is real popular in Japan right? 4-ch has followers but isn't that popular. 4chan is a bloodbath. Maybe the West isn't ready for anonymous messaging? Too many egos. Discuss.
Personally, I could never get into going to forums before I found anonymous boards... The elitist structure of members with high post counts lording over all was too much for me. I like 4-ch. I think it's probably just too Japan-centric for most Westerners. (And then, if you made it less Japan-centric, you'd lose the current 4-ch userbase...)
I think 4-ch will always be "Japan-centric" it's spawned from a Japanese text board steeped in its own culture.
It wouldn't be 2-ch style anonymous BBS otherwise.
less porn and spam than 4chan is surely a good thing and I agree with the above comment about the elitist structure of many forums.
I get the feeling that 80% of talk on 4-ch is about why 4-ch isn't popular and why there aren't more posts.
The really popular sites on western internet are youtube, myspace and facebook - all about you you you: "Look at me, I have two thousand myspace friends. Everyone reads my Youtube blog. I am so cool. I am so popular." Named forums have been called gardens of vanity. As a n00b, you must kiss your moderators ass on a regular basis. It's expected. All this has been blamed on the Self-esteem movement which told kids they were special, even if they weren't. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17349066/
Compare that to Japanese culture where kids are treasured but not told they're special or better than anyone else. Creates a very different social environment.
In Japan the real Densha Otoko never came forward and the story is in the public domain. If that story happened in America, he'd have gone on Oprah, Jerry Springer, be hanging out with Hollywood celebs, would have laywers suing anyone who infringed on "his brand" and his marriage would now be on the rocks, and he would be dating Paris Hilton.
>>9
I've had more trouble with people on 4chan and 4-ch acting like they're better than people from MySpace or Gaia, as though being a part of either community automatically makes you a moron, than I ever have on Gaia or MySpace. People are probably LESS likely to act as though they're better than you when there are repercussions like getting banned.
I'll agree that most people using MySpace, Gaia, or their ilk display more moronic behavior, but there are also so many people on both that each hobby or whatever has its own community, being only loosely connected to the rest of each site.
But I hate MySpace anyway, simply because the forums are never really active and random people seem to enjoy asking to be my friend.
>>13
The problem wouldn't really be the American version of Densha Otoko himself. I mean, the American media pays attention to that sort of shit. "Some guy wrote on an anonymous board about how he fell in love and came out of being a reclusive nerd! WE HAVE TO GET THIS STORY!" The guy would be tracked down like a fucking dog whether he wanted the attention or not. He'd have reporters at his doorstep simply for being lucky and turning his life around.
Long story short, the American media is fucking nosy and refuse to respect anyone's privacy.
I think it's largely about presentation, 4-ch looks like a lonely, static page from 1996.
If I had unlimited free time to devote to this then here's my radical ideas for what I would do different:
Of course with all these changes, it wouldn't be the same as 4-ch. But that's kinda the point, I think such a site would (unlike this one) have a chance of becoming popular.
Problem is, I don't think most people know 4ch even exists. I've never seen it mentioned in any media anywhere. Only found out about it because watched Densha Otoko and thought cool. Maybe tell people about 4ch, word of mouth: Tell them why anonymous BBS is better. Nicely summed up here:
Q: Why did you decide to use perfect anonymity, not even requiring a user name?
A: Because delivering news without taking any risk is very important to us. There is a lot of information disclosure or secret news gathered on Channel 2. Few people would post that kind of information by taking a risk. Moreover, people can only truly discuss something when they don't know each other.
If there is a user ID attached to a user, a discussion tends to become a criticizing game. On the other hand, under the anonymous system, even though your opinion/information is criticized, you don't know with whom to be upset. Also with a user ID, those who participate in the site for a long time tend to have authority, and it becomes difficult for a user to disagree with them. Under a perfectly anonymous system, you can say, "it's boring," if it is actually boring. All information is treated equally; only an accurate argument will work.