The format was also just good at creating things that resonated with its community. And honestly pretty good at creating things that resonate with the rest of the world - everyone speaks fucking 4chan speak now. Doxx, weeaboo, raid, and all sorts of other shit, plus half the internet memes in the 2000s came from there.
Most online forums at the time had literally a fucking signature field under every post, and they tended to be pretty small and reputation-based. They were all about forming little cliques and reputations.
4chan was the only really anonymous board and they haaaated people who used the username feature that was available.
So it was a laboratory for content. Boring stuff got no responses other than maybe "sage" or a slur plus a sage (users could reply without bumping a thread to the top, to avoid keeping alive a thread they don't like - called a sage).
That's why it created all the memes and eventually catalyzed the American fascist movement. It was a competitive laboratory for attention full of people desperate for attention and overloaded with spare time.
The format was also just good at creating things that resonated with its community. And honestly pretty good at creating things that resonate with the rest of the world - everyone speaks fucking 4chan speak now. Doxx, weeaboo, raid, and all sorts of other shit, plus half the internet memes in the 2000s came from there.
Most online forums at the time had literally a fucking signature field under every post, and they tended to be pretty small and reputation-based. They were all about forming little cliques and reputations.
4chan was the only really anonymous board and they haaaated people who used the username feature that was available.
So it was a laboratory for content. Boring stuff got no responses other than maybe "sage" or a slur plus a sage (users could reply without bumping a thread to the top, to avoid keeping alive a thread they don't like - called a sage).
That's why it created all the memes and eventually catalyzed the American fascist movement. It was a competitive laboratory for attention full of people desperate for attention and overloaded with spare time.