4chan

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4chan is an English-language image board that was created in 2003 by Christopher "moot" Poole as an American version of the Japanese Futaba Channel (2chan). He translated the source code of the Japanese image board to English, then started up what has been the most famous (and infamous) English language image board of all time.

4chan was originally created for the discussion of Anime, but has grown into a collection of image boards dedicated to all sorts of topics. Posting is anonymous, though nicknames can be used.

However, it isn't just images 4chan is known for. 4chan has been the birthplace of lots of internet trolling, contributed a lot to the culture and formation of Encyclopedia Dramatica (both its former and current incarnations), started a ton of internet memes, and has been the center of a ridiculous amount of publicity, both good and bad. By 2015 however, a changing of a guard came when "moot," following a period of drama and controversy finally resigned from running 4chan and now working for Google. Time will tell how this will affect the site in the long run.

As a side note, this very page was created because at one point TV Tropes.org refused to have a page for it, as documented in this thread. However, this is no longer the case.

Tropes used in 4chan include:

• Defector From Decadence: 8chan, after a fashion. Given that a good portion of its users were originally from 4chan, who migrated for one reason or another.
• GIFT: There is a very good reason this site is called the "asshole of the internet".
• Lolicon: And Shotacon. Though theoretically banned there for some years, the site is still overflowing with them, which push the rules the site as far as possible to keep their community going on inside it. There are also the ironic ones who simulate it to try to push off "normies" (aka people disgusted by it) off discussions.
• Memetic Mutation: Tons of memes have been born due to 4chan.
• Prank Call: Beginning in early 2011, 4chan organized a prank calling of the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, home to the popular television show Pawn Stars. The callers would repeatedly ask the employees if they sold Battletoads, a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System notorious for its difficulty. This call led Rick Harrison, owner of the store, to repeatedly swear and yell at the prank callers, who recorded this and uploaded it to YouTube. This originated several other similar videos of pranksters dialing random establishments and asking about Battletoads.
• Rules of the Internet: Created thanks to 4chan.
  • Rule 34: The amount of this you can find on 4chan is mindboggling.
• Troll: Tons of these can be found on 4chan too.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The various boards don't always get along, which can be an understatement.
• Yaoi Fangirl: The Shounen Jump mangas threads with particularly heavy levels of Ho Yay get bombarded with softcore yaoi pics, often derailing the discussions. And there is also /y/, the board dedicated to it.