Any oldfags here?
I'm talking pre-2010 people, i'm curious how 4chan, /r9k/ and /b/ were in those times... Was it good, bad, the fucking same? I'd ask /b/, but i'm sure there are no oldfags in that shithole.
No oldfag vs. newfag drama please, i'd just like some stories...
Everybody in /b/ will claim they're an oldfag. It's a thing over there. I don't really care how long somebody has been browsing 4chan honestly. They could've started a few hours ago, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is they don't shit this place up (no memeing, shit posting, etc.)
>>24538634
>pre-2010 is considered old-fag
I can't remember anything because of alcoholism
>>24538634
The epic meme threads that you see on reddit were like 1 in a billion threads, the rest was all tripfags, whores, dubs threads and gay shit.
>>24538714
No drama please.
this 4chan culture there was... is definitely dead for good
people who actually belonged there and molded 4chan
it's all gone, 4chan is now quite simply an anonymous imageboard that creates memes for facebookers
>>24538715
I feel it heavily
On and off since 2004.
/b/ took a nose dive after /b/day 2006, stabilised in 2007, and then steadily spiralled into oblivion until I stopped checking it for anything but porn. These days there doesn't even seem to be porn on it.
/r9k/ was always a shithole, but in different ways. People like to pretend there was a golden age, when it was inhabited by "gentlemen", but it really was a reddit containment board and/or colony. It allowed redditors a smooth transition from the upvote, e-penis system to an anonymous imageboard via a board infested by tripfags and their reputations.
Since, I don't know, 2010, the boards were so shit it was no longer possible to see a downward trend. /v/, /int/ and /pol/ were the only places were something of the old 4chan survived, but it was mutated almost beyond recognition. A parody of former times.
An important milestone on the road to oblivion was the introduction of /soc/ and the banning of contact threads elsewhere. This eliminated one of the last functions of this site: a place to meet likeminded people. Because contact threads on /soc/ will only get you in touch with the type of people that visit /soc/.
>>24538634
>pre-2010
>old fag
To answer your question, r9k was good for about two seconds before m00t realized this board would never be the oc hotspot he envisioned.
>>24538779
I said 2010, because that's around the time i came here, and it was all shit... I only stayed because of the ocasional gem, and because of some weird charm 4chan has on you.
>>24538818
If you want to know what 4chan was like back then, just go on /f/. It's stuck in 2008. Just use the 4plebs archive for it and then you'll experience it
It was actually good, a great one of a kind blend that produced so much fun. I remember a time when it was like every thread would spawn something hilarious that would bleed out across the board and the culture would develop in front of your eyes.
Now posts are like facebook comments and you can see how many replies you got to make your attention collecting and upvote karma easier.
>>24538634
2007 here. /b/ and /x/ were seriously fucking incredible. The amount of high quality OC coming from those pages on a daily basis was unreal.
/b/ had so much energy, it was probably the most interesting place on the Internet. It was like one million weirdos came together to do the funniest and most outrageous things they could possibly do over the Internet. You would REGULARLY see people's lives get RUINED ON A NIGHTLY BASIS. I mean FUCKING RUINED because the accidently posted something they shouldn't have and then people would find their Facebook page and just ruin their lives. Just insanity. Plus there were legitimate basement dwelling nutcases hanging out and posting weird stuff.
/x/ used to have original creepy pasta constantly. Great content, super spooky discoveries, stuff like that.
Overall4 4chan's quality has gone way down since it was invaded by normies. /pol/ is probably the funniest board on here now, and that doesn't even live up to 4chan's former glory.
All the memes...
I'm from 2005 and I only come here to check up on the place every once in a while. The thing is that 4chan was probably as shitty back then, we were just too young to fully comprehend it and went along with the DESU spam and other shit. I did enjoy the sense of elitism though. Hostility kept complete retards in check.
Tl;dr: 4chan was never good.
I started browsing on and off in 2010 on /b/. Even back then it was shit but it definitely was better than it is now. People before me have said it, and people will say it again, but it's because it is the undeniable and primary force of change, and that is that the more popular it gets, the more shit it is. Threads become more generic, memes become less interesting, etc.
I started browsing /r9k/ after someone said it was a board dedicated to original content and I read the thread of some bot that worked at an orphanage in China, and after having read the whole thread where he answered people's questions I started browsing /r9k/ every day.
I've browsed so much that I never really noticed the board get worse, but that one day when some underage fag posted about how some chick got a different bf (that was also some fag) and she thought it was funny how "meme'd" she was I realized how much I fucking hate this place now and how it has, over time, slipped and slid into being what it has always derided so fiercely. Nowadays I browse less, I used to check /r9k/ when I woke up and before I went to bed, and now I just open it when I'm bored.
Fuck I want to die.
>pre 2010
>oldfag
hhahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHahahahahAHAHAH
2008 here
/b/ was creative and fun, meme wasn't a dirty word
>>24538634
08 here, not even an oldfag desu, probably found this place through /b/ not going to lie, but I quickly migrated to /g/ and /o/ since they are my hobbies.
Original r9k (before it got deleted) was something, I can't really say if it was better or worse because the forever alone meme came in pretty quick. It did have more greentext story threads which I personally enjoyed.
I think puddi was the last time I was ever on /b/. The site is certainly past its prime, but I don't like the circlejerk that is reddit and forums are just too slow so I haven't found a better place to waste my time.
>>24538941
Coming from someone who started lurking 4chan in 07-08 this is indisputable fact, anyone who would tell you otherwise is delusional.
/b/ and /x/ used to be genuinely really good boards, looking at what /b/ is now is sort of depressing.
>>24539183
This is the problem. 4chan has definitely declined in the last 10 years, but there is nothing to take it's place. Everything else on the Internet is SO SHITTY that 4chan is still light years ahead of everything else despite its shittiness.
>>24539192
Agreed. People who say "4chan was never good" can fuck themselves. I do think age or maturity has much to do with it either. This place used to supply hours of mind blowing entertainment.
I feel like I learned about human nature from spending time on old /b/. Like there were actually a large mass of deranged nut cases who thought it was funny to see people's lives get rek't on a Thursday night
2006/2007 here, had some good times back in the day. Still do too, there's always good and bad periods.
Current /b/ is literally the worst board that exists now though.
>>24539314
I remember /b/ still not being that bad in 2012. Lots of conspiracy theory fags, but it was still kinda fun. Now it's just dead. It's over. /pol/ is the only board with any energy.
summer '06 here. i consider myself "something" of an oldfag, but on the lower end of it. the first time i actually visited 4chan was probably the year before in '05, but i was too retarded to realize i could just click through the age warning thing. in my defense, i was 10.
what a long strange trip it's been.
/b/ is fucking normie central now, it's disgusting. It may as well be a porn board by this point to. It's all people visit it for anymore.
/b/ is a bunch of 15-16 year olds pretending to be 18-20 year olds
I started coming here in 2008 and used the site daily pretty consistently until about 2011 or so. I only occasionally lurk now.
It was better, but only because boards were slower and people had more time to compose responses or create content for a specific thread. It was easier to have a conversation.
Also, the average age was probably around 16. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was 14 today. I'm 20 and I'm confident I'm older than most of you.
Oh, also, child pornography popped up a lot. That's in pretty stark contrast to today.
Even as late as 2010 it still would appear. Thank fuck those days are over.
>>24538715
Shit nigga right there with you. Been on 4chan since '08. First started drinking in 2010. It wiped out my memory so thoroughly. That effect of alcohol was the most pronounced. I don't drink excessively anymore, some stuff is coming back. But God the years flew by when all I did was drink. It robbed me of the ability to remember, to feel, to write. And I'm old now. I know you all will read this and go hurrdurr i'm 19 I'll do whatever I want, I'm so tragically hip drinking myself to death. So I know it's pointless. But I'd feel bad if I didn't at least say it - just don't man. Don't fall into the trap. Don't drink.
was always shit
>>24539546
I haven't smoked weed or drank beer since I was 21. Almost 24 now.
I could see where that was taking me, and it freaked me out. There was always that voice in the back of my head telling me to stop too
I remember spending a lot of time on /b/ and /v/. Those were the days....
Now everything is shit
i joined 2008
i don't remember much about what it used to be, it was definitely better
looking at it now though holy fuck it's complete shit to the worst degree
I remember around this time of night boards would really slow down. There was a time when you'd refresh a page after 5 minutes and the same threads would have maybe one new post.
>>24538767
>since, I don't know, 2010, the boards were so shit it was no longer possible to see a downward trend
I came here since 2006 (yeah, the bad year), and after being gone for the last three years due to my shit being reckt irl, I can confirm that overall 4chan is much shitter now. Especially /v/, which is now just facebook-tier normalfags. Even /a/ is full of shitty entry-level shonen threads now, which is funny considering how hard they tried to prevent normalfaggotry by encouraging shit-posting. Even /pol/ got its share. /int/ still seems ok, but I've not checked it out much, so I'm not sure.
I guess 4chan has been slowly degrading for years, but when you see a three year difference all at once, it gets painfully clear how bad things are.
>mfw I read 'normies'
Should I just jump ship now?
10 fucking years . . .
she most likely has kids and is on her second marriage
/v/ was better, but overall the website was the same. All you can really change is the topics around here, the culture is fairly cemented in. A little less politically correct tho.
It was a smaller community. Memes were different. Duckroll was a thing.
>>24539719
>2005 was ten years ago
S-Stop it, Anon. ;_;
i remember when talking about gender politics was for faggots
I've been browsing since circa 2005-2006 and /b/ was always shitty, though it got worse with 9gag/reddit opening and being such huge mainstream successes.
As for /r9k/, it was pretty much the same, except there was plenty of OC because of the original filter that prohibited quite effectively the posting of memes and identical threads. I remember some pretty amazing threads, like the ones that were started by a guy who claimed he was from the future, and who would answer any of our questions, I think his trip was "FutureGuy" or something, and whenever he started a thread it'd blow your mind, he'd talk politics, science, religion, space, pop culture and technology.
>>24539719
why dont we find her? it cant be that hard
Not much different. We kept to ourselves though. But it was not that much better. I think I might say it is because of nostalgia. Back in my day yadda yadda. /b/ was never good tho
>>24539882
this is bait isn't it?
there were multiple "chans" just for that
>>24539917
so did they find her, how does she look now
if not what information is out there
2007 here
It's the same.
the site as a whole is more reactionary and right-wing, though.
I wouldn't say there are more memes/shitposting than before, but there seems to be fewer and much more dominant memes at work across all boards. (JUST, t b h, etc.). Before, there were still tons of memes but they were, to a larger extent, more restricted both in terms of time, but also space.
Boards have changed too. But to go into depth about which boards, and how much/what has changed would take up too much space, and I can't be arsed.
2004
i miss moot. he brought the place to life. there's no common ground anymore, and none of you faggots know what a good joke is.
>>24538634
r9k was a lot better than it was now. I really wish the old "4chanarchive" website was still around, because that would give you a much better idea of how different it was. There was a lot more OC, but not "meme" OC if that makes sense, there wasn't the same response/flavor of the month thing just spammed to death.
Also this was before "Being ironic" became cool, so there were no ":)" faces and a lot less of the sort of shitposting that you get these days. A lot of >implying though.
It was still bad, but there was a lot more content in r9k back then, and a LOT less about trying to know who people are: no "rate me" threads, no "fill out this fucking chart about yourself", no "You aren't a robot if you don't fill X criteria" bullshit. People just did what they want, If you are here for the feels, fine; here for the green text, fine etc.
>>24539961
egotistical secret group circle jerk each other for rares and mass amounts of disinformation seems to be the only result
I honestly don't know if Bounceme is even accessible without knowing the ip
just went to /f/ and that place is weird as fuck senpai
i found a chatroom with a bunch of norwegians in it what the fuck
>>24540011
>no rate me threads
r9k was very much like that, m8.
That's why moot created /soc/. /r9k/ was INFESTED with normal-fags with tripcodes (e.g. Camel), creating inane, attention-whoring threads.
>>24538634
I mean, it was pretty much the same... Eh, smaller in scale so memes were more elaborate and board events and big discussions resonated with the community instead of being lost in the noise.
More OC.
More clever stuff.
More counter-culture/left-wing/tail end of 90's hacker culture stuff
More actual jokes
Less edgelords
Less rightwing
Less woman/feminism-hate (gender was generally not talked about, and tits or gtfo was an extension of that rather than a dig towards women)
Less depressed dweebs / redpill / neet (more otaku pride ala /jp/)
2007 ish here
>>24540011
quality summarization here
I found 4chan when people referenced it on IGN in like 2005 and I started posting regularly in 2007 and started posting literally every day in 2010
I remember /r9k/ used to be for the more older /b/tards and we'd call ourselves "gentlemen" and prided ourselves on OC
I miss the days when Kimmo would spam the whole site and then it'd go down and I'd spend hours just waiting for it to come back up.
>>24540045
But this is referring to 2004-2006 mostly, which was the golden age. It's been a steady decline since then, first in content quality and noise and from 2010 on in the increasingly shitty userbase.
>>24540043
Eh, maybe i'm seeing it through rose tinted glasses, who knows. I just don't remember it being as prolific as it is now. You could well be right though, it feel so long ago.
>>24540098
He's the autistic German, right? I remember being banned from his shitty site.
I would say good times, but they really weren't.
>>24539977
>the site as a whole is more reactionary and right-wing, though.
as apposed to being left-wing? loled
>4chan
>left-wing
>ever
>>24540045
>>24539977
stop trying to revisionist 4chan "history" by saying it was some sort of left-wing utopia
it never was
get the fuck out
>>24540167
typical liberal delusional thinking
>>24540155
It's always been full of gays and pedos, except now that pretty much everyone is gay and a pedo, some of them have become conservative to retain their edge and to be special.
>>24540155
>>24540167
Reading comprehension is not your strong suit.
Don't worry, the world will always need Walmart greeters.
>>24540155
before obongo got into power 4chan would take the piss out of christfags, loved traps, boast about smoking weed and have anti-corporate leanings because that was considered edgy at the time since if nothing else the site will always be contrarian
of course we always posted nigger nigger nigger as much as possible since that'll always be edgy no matter what the mainstream is
I started browsing 4chan before 2006, started posting on /b/ before the boxxy things happened, stayed on /v/ mostly until 2009 then branched out to /r9k/, /tv/ and /new/.
4chan was completely different, most of the boards I lurk were at least 40% genuine threads, 50% tangentially related, 10% unrelated but common board subjects, now most boards are 90% twitter/facebook/reddit reposts and 10% crap.
>>24540184
>4chan has always been full of gays and pedos
>therefore 4chan was left-wing
what?
>>24540208
>before obongo got into power 4chan would take the piss out of christfags, loved traps, boast about smoking weed and have anti-corporate leanings because that was considered edgy at the time since if nothing else the site will always be contrarian
what? Anti corporate leanings? I remember 4chan not giving a shit about these things?
Also, taking the piss out of christfags, 4chan was taking the piss out of everyone, including left-wingers. Also also, loving traps =/= left-wing
>>24540216
>now most boards are 90% twitter/facebook/reddit reposts and 10% crap
sad but true
>>24540236
i don't get it
how is boasting about smoking weed and loving traps left-wing? Is the an American thing?
r9k was a board for greentext stories, and surprisingly enough most of the board was just that
there were feel threads, actual feel threads. people talking about sad shit that happened in their lives and green texting stories about it. there were the occasional green text stories about c ukold shit as well, but they were pretty well written, and like I said, they were actual written stories and not just something some 14 year old angst filled boy threw together to b8 other 14 year olds into replying to him
It was pretty comfy honestly. the board was really dead even just a few years ago. it was the first time the robot was removed that everyone else on 4chan actually started to give notice to the board and that was the turning point that made this board into what you see it is now.
/b/ back then was just shit-posts on trap threads. but now it's just shit-posts and underage kids posting other underage girls facebook pictures or something. i dont know I havent been their in years.
Pre-2010 still had people saying shit like "4chan was never good shut up faggot old fag". And they were right, but these days old 4chan really was so much better. Post 2011 4chan really started to go down hill. No one cared about keeping the newfags at bay anymore. Everyone started to spoonfeed them and then you have this.
>>24540236
basically it was like how /v/ hates big game studios but for everything, and the wannabe hackers (now Anonymous, who still do this kind of shit) would try and get people to DDoS various corporate websites they thought were evil for whatever reason
>>24540248
well compared to now adays where everyone has to pretend to hate "degeneracy"
>>24540244
It makes me sad honestly, I always saw 4chan as my home on the internet and now I have to share it with squatters who'll shit along the walls and leave when it gets demolished without a single fuck given whereas every single shitty thread on any board I frequent is a needle in my heart
>>24538767
Why did I read it in some epic narrating voice?
>>24538634
It's hard for me to say what /b/ was like in 2005 because I was an edgecore 15 year old. I don't specifically remember shitposting or being cancer, but that's not to say I wasn't...
>>24540011
I remember the old archive! I forgot about that.
Back in the mid 2000s threads would only be added to the archive if a bunch of people voted for them and it got mod approval.
It was awesome because if the board was annoying you with lots of Shit threads, you could just switch over to the best threads of the previous week.
I was afk 2007-2013 though so Im not sure when it changed...
I think I first came here around early 2008, but I'm not really sure.
Things are more or less the same, just with varying flavors of idiocy. The lowest point was the period leading up to the introduction of the captcha, where many boards were spammed to shit 24/7.
>>24540167
You're probably not old enough to remember, but 4chan was and to a certain degree still is a meeting of counter-culture and geek culture.
Don't get me wrong, all the players were there, but both sub-cultures used to be far more left-wing than right wing. The geek demographic had the common left-wing bias of the highly educated (especially those hardcore enough to find their way to 4chan), but as geeky pursuits have become increasingly mainstream this has shifted towards liberatarianism and the new european right-wing that really started gaining ground after the financial crisis.
I mean, it's not like it was some kind of communist haven of political correctness. Far from it. However, tasteless black shock humor was still humor rather than ideology and ultimately harmless. It was a place for dorky, relatively well-off white kids and college-types to share porn and goof off. Pushing the limits was a challenge, and a bit of fun rather than the new normal.
Likewise the counter-culture part used to be dominated by the anti-government, anti-big business, anti-facist types who were the zeitgeist of the time (think fight-club/matrix fans), and while the jewish conspiracy types and racist trolls were always present they did not dominate in the same manner they do now.
It's always been a menagerie of weirdness, but there's been a clear shift towards the right, and if you deny that then you're the one trying to rewrite shit faggot.
>>24538634
Well let's see. There are 15 pages instead of 10. Shit didn't move as fast as it does now.
Honestly the same stuff. People arguing about what's new and what's old and cancer newfags and all that bullshit. I mean I guess some of the memes of change
>>24540419
>Back in the mid 2000s threads would only be added to the archive if a bunch of people voted for them and it got mod approval.
senpai it needed 5 votes from different IPs
>>24539222
This is pretty much correct
>>24539543
I agree that was totally fucking the site up and bringing the fucking wrong type of people
30 kv, been here since 2005
>/r9k/
I remember seeing it as a clone of /new/ / /pol/, eventually I got bored of it then left, when I came back for some reason it was all about relationships
>politics
I think the majority of 4chan is right wing but they are divided into lots of different groups while the left wing are nearly all run of the mill college liberals, /pol/ and /new/ was mainly libertarian for a while but they melted away
>/b/
less originality, reposts of YLYL, cringe or porn webm threads and such things full of content you could find elsewhere on the internet, in the past you'd have things like caturday arising and the internet would copy /b/, now it seems that /b/ copies the internet more, though occasionally they organize something like #pissforequality
One thing I've definitely noticed over the past couple years a lot more threads about traps. I think it's like definite becoming a bigger thing in culture
>>24538634
Early 2009. I really don't post anymore. Just lurk. It's gone shitter than shit.
>>24540577
It's certainly become a much bigger deal in youth culture. There's been porn featuing transexuals since forever tho.
>>24540520
VOTE TO ARCHIVE
fuck it's been a little less than ten years and I'm sitting in the same room of the same house with a million more experiences and the memories hit me like a fucking truck
How do you banish these feelings? How did everyone else do it?
>/r9k/
I've been on 4chan since 2008ish but I've only been on /r9k/ in 2009 for one month before I just abandoned it until 2011. It was basically a slower, more tame /b/.
>/b/
Lots of advice dog ripoff threads, occasional gore threads, lots of people whining about there being no OC and bullshit. It was actually pretty ok, at least it wasn't a glorified porn board.
I miss old /b/ day.
>/v/
It was amazing. Actual insightful discussion without devolving into shitposting and paranoia every thread. Only shitposting was spambots and a good amount of namefags.
>>24540420
Good god I remember that day before the captcha. Every thread was spam and then they got it to stop for long enough to make a bunker thread of a lolcat with tank treads and then the site was down. Next day we had captcha.
It was the same back then, but with older memes. I remember the rage comics being popular in /b, before the jumped to 9gag. When was that, 2011?
>>24540865
Yeah, right around shiggy diggy, jimmies, and the tail end of a certain french article being abused en masse
>>24538634
less traps
