It's becoming increasing prevalent recently for screencaps of 4chan posts to find their onto reddit, imgur, twitter, funnyjunk, even tumblr. There's a whole genre of "thread simulator" videos on YouTube now as well. I understand that this website is very well known across the internet now (which often surprises me having remembered a time when people actually meant "rules 1 & 2" when talking about raids) but consider how notorious 4chan seems to be now, the sheer volume of shared threads still surprises me. How are the people who spread 4chan posts around the web? Is it lurkers who browse and immediately return to r/4chan with a hot new "meme" worthy of upboats, or is it regular users of the site who also happen to have a twitter account or whatever and upload screenshots of threads they've been in? Either way, it really confuses me that people would bother to do this. If you like using 4chan why not just post here rather than post about how funny it is on imgur or twitter or whatever? Is there some sort of "cred" to be gain in communities on other websites by admitting you come here?
It's never something that's even crossed my mind to do and not just because I'd fear attracting newfags (let's be honest, that would be too little too late) but mainly because it just seems pointless coming to one website only to cap something to share it with another.So,what do you make of this phenomenon of 4chan posts appearing more frequently around the rest of the web? Have any of you ever engage in this behaviour, and if so, why?
>>459769
>How are the people who spread 4chan posts around the web?
The same people who brought shit from other sites into 4chan which provided this place with content for years to begin with.
4chan was born by ripping off other sites and we extensively brought content from other sites here for discussion and fun. The place became popular as an open harbour for everything from other sites at the time without restriction and it was because of this that we were able to survive and growth.
Ironically you are complaining about something that 4chan perfected.
>>459769
>increasing prevalent
No it's not. That peaked during Chanology. It's barely catching up. "The Fappening" wasn't even as big as Chanology, nor was Gamergate.
>>459772
I feel as though there's a difference between adopting the culture and sense of humour from and different websites and taking influence from them, straight up screencapping one website and posting it on another. It's a totally different kind of 'ripping'. I wasn't referring to someone making a banepost in YouTube comments, or someone using ">" in twitch chat or whatever; I was talking specifically about the thing copy something verbatim without adding to it or adapting it to the context at all. "Look at what I found" rather than "here's a joke I made influenced by X". It was rare even in the early days of 4chan for people to just post a screencap of someone else's joke or whatever from a different website because there was no advantage to doing so, no upboats to be gained.
>>459778
Are you sure? Relative to the size of the internet in 2008, possibly, but 4chan is used by far more people now than in 2008, and I've certainly seen it discussed more elsewhere now than back then, but maybe I wasn't paying as much attention back then?
People still see it as the big bad website where hackers, racists and pedos reside and coming here will put you on the FBI most wanted list so people are just fascinated by others who are just brave enough to come here.
>>459782
>Relative to the size of the internet in 2008
Sorry, this is indeed what I meant. But if that isn't what YOU meant then I think you've answered your own question as to why it's "increasing prevalent" these days. It is because everything is.
>>459782
>It's a totally different kind of 'ripping'.
It's the same in principle, really.
>It was rare even in the early days of 4chan for people to just post a screencap of someone else's joke
Instead it was posted, mocked, then later on claimed as originating here. The "upboats" where there but hidden.
>>459784
Is this really a reputation that still persists? I haven't seen a cringe worthy "hack" request on /b/ or /g/ in ages so I don't think many newfags are coming here with such an impression now. Maybe the edginess part of the reputation has stuck though and people still think 4chan is a group of ruffians not to be messed with or something.
>>459786
I think there's a good point there, but I think there's more ot it. Obviously the internet has grown far larger in the last 8 years, but I don't think all of it has. Many forums are dying as their userbase transitions onto social media, which is where most of the internet growth is occurring. As far as I can tell, reddit and 4chan seem to be the only non-social media forms of communication to have grown considerably since 2008. Maybe to kids who've basically grown up on social media, this kind of thing is somehow unique and interesting
>>459796
>Is this really a reputation that still persists?
Why would it go away?
>>459806
I thought because it's been so long since Chanology that it might have died down, especially since 4chan has picked up newer reputations as a celebrity nude distributor or video game journalism ethics crusade. I guess you're right, though, people wouldn't have any reason to change their mind about this.
We are the Port Royal of the internet, a salty and politically incorrect hub of weeaboo villains and internet corsairs but still somewhat legitimate.
Average 2016 "/v/irgin", everyone.
>>459830
not really, this place is mostly just autists making shitposts desu
>>459833
Yeah
But it's our pathetic outside reputation that matters!
>>459796
>I haven't seen a cringe worthy "hack" request on /g/ in ages
Everytime I look at the archive frontpage there's either a shitty question/unlock my stolen iphone/hack this ip that tried to login in my twatter
>>459769
the thread simulator videos are almost entirely made by those from here. cf. the ones for /sug/, /mu/, and /lit/. the ones in the op pic, probably not.
>>459908
I'm actually fond of those ones as well as the couple of /jp/ ones since they're clearly made by users of the board for other users of the board. The ones I dislike in particular are the /mlp/ ones (or Pony Thread Simulators) which were basically "haha come look at these autists" videos and they attracted an enormous amount of 14 year minecraft kiddies to /mlp/ which shat up the board, so when I wrote it I was probably just salty about that.
>>459769
>There's a whole genre of "thread simulator" videos on YouTube now as well.
Those used to be fun. They were often made by people that actually participated in the threads.
Now they're shitty 35 minute videos that drag on and on, reading every single post from an archived thread.
the best are these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNiErBNLpLs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLxJS8k9pHs
>>459966
Yes, great videos. I still love this even if this meme is fairly tired now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrgxHDoe8gA
>>459970
meguca butte a lil pointy
>>459946
How is that even a simulator. It's someone reading a thread. Do people not understand what simulator means?
>>460044
You mean like Goat Simulator?
>>459772
>The same people who brought shit from other sites into 4chan which provided this place with content for years to begin with.
For sure bro. Just keep telling yourself that.
>>460089
Goat Simulator is a realistic simulation of life as a goat. Similarly, I Am Bread could have been called Bread Simulator but they decided to go with a different title because people have dragged the word simulator through the mud. This way, people will judge it on its own merits and realize it's a legitimately good game.
>>460124
I should sell a 4chan thread simulator game on steam that just tells you that you and somebody who isn't you is samefagging, that you came from reddit, calls you a faggot, but lets you put images and text into it. It'd be great.
>>460128
Yes, and that would be a simulator. I don't get these dumb videos that call themselves simulators.
>>460130
People don't know the meanings of a lot of words they use online.
Like "parody".
>>460130
well it's kinda like lurking through a thread i guess just more wacky
>>460531
Or "cuck".
People on 4chan may try to make the claim that they're using it that way as a joke, but I've been on a lot of other sites that throw around cuck at everything now. And they're completely serious about it. "CuckStylus", for example.
>>460555
Cuckstylus? Are they making fun of the artist for Riot Games?
