• I'm back on my BS 🤪@lemmy.autism.place
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    14 hours ago

    I heard a story about a whole world that was perfect because they locked a kid up in a room and threw all the bad stuff in there with the kid. The poor kid suffered all of the world’s miseries so that others could enjoy life. That kid’s name? 4chan.

    4chan is 99% deplorable garbage. I won’t even go into /b/. Helllll no. But oddly enough, some of the internet’s best memes come out of there.

    • kernelle@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      4chan is what the internet would look like if everything had the bare minimum of moderation. Actually a very interesting case study about the human psyche, and I’ve had many a interesting conversation on there, especially early internet days.

      Is it a shithole? Overall, yes. But the right board at the right time is truly early internet ethos.

      • superkret@feddit.org
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        3 hours ago

        If the entire internet was as unmoderated as 4chan, it would be a lot less extreme than 4chan is.

        But since there are only very few places like that, all the weirdos and nazis congregate there, cause that’s where they don’t get banned for using the n-word.

        • kernelle@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          it would be a lot less extreme than 4chan is

          I don’t really think so, every online fora I’ve been a part of starts unmoderated, and it works, for years sometimes. But every single time without fail when a platform reaches a critical mass, moderation becomes necessary.

          I think putting a digital mask on shows the true nature of people, and moderation is the only way of keeping conversation* civil on the internet.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            11 minutes ago

            moderation becomes necessary

            Maybe, if you’re determined to preserve a certain culture on a specific site. But as long as movement between sites is pretty easy (was quite common in the days of forums), then the community could self-regulate reasonably well. Either the weirdos would leave, or the constructive members of the community would leave and the site would get shut down. Either way, the problem solves itself without moderation becoming necessary.

            IMO, the only reason we “need” moderation is because we’ve decided that the site itself needs to be preserved. That’s the mindset that needs to change. Sites should come and go and take the trash out with it.

    • dwindling7373
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      8 hours ago

      Isn’t the concept of a meme itself a leak from 4chan?

      • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 hours ago

        The original idea of a meme came from Dawkins in the 70’s, and “Internet Meme” from Godwin in the early 90’s, talking about message boards, usenet, listservs, etc.

        4chan did not start the concept, no. Lolcats came from 4chan, iirc. But internet memes predate the existence of 4chan.

        • dwindling7373
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          47 minutes ago

          Well the word “meme” comes from Dawkins, but his usage was not to label the isea we talk about when we talk about memes.

          I know for a fact where I’m from memes were something you’d only ever see on 4chan and people on Facebook and any other “normal” social media (or people) had no idea of what the fuck even was a meme.

          I rememeber because I was like “this people are degenerates but it’s fashinating the whole layers upon layers of instane meaning that they managed to cram into single pictures, I wonder if people outside this bubble would ever understand those”.

          And to be fair memes nowdays are rarely as “obscure” as those old ones.