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420chan

420chan is a niche English bulletin board, founded by Aubrey “Kirtaner” Cottle on April 20, 2005,1) then it went offline around July 22, 20222) as their servers were seized in an apartment raid.3) The website is currently a splash page with plans to restart under new ownership.

History

2005–2022

According to Cottle, he registered the “420chan.org” domain on April 20, 2005 as a joke, but didn't plan on doing anything with it.4) Then on December 1, 2005, he'd finally set up a bulletin board website using the Wakaba script5) and assumed the identity, “Kirtaner !Ub4TCdRjOM”. It isn't clear how 420chan got popular, but after the /b/-day incident, it would inherit the Anonymous collective from 7chan in 2007.

Unlike the previous iteration of the “Invasion” (/i/) board, 420chan did their best to keep /i/ alive. This board was housed at “disc.420chan.org” for the greater first half of 2007, with “not420chan.com” as the backup, then /i/ would be moved to the “not420chan.org” domain around July 2007. This accommodation lasted quite some time with 711chan being a temporary refuge,6) but it's unclear how this ended.

Despite the collective leaving, 420chan had remained distinct as a place to discuss recreational drugs, net characters, wrestling, and so forth. Sometime after, their footer was jokingly changed to “Wakaba 4.2.0”, 420chan would completely revamp their website, and fork “Wakaba” into “Taimaba” on December 18, 2008.7) From there, 420chan remained a niche website in contemporary history for the next 14 years.

Out of nowhere, 420chan suddenly went offline around July 22, 2022.8) It was eventually revealed that Cottle had his Canadian apartment raided by the American FBI with the local OPP in August 2022,9) later confirming that it only went down as the servers were seized.10)11) Despite the setback, Cottle stated that he hopes to bring 420chan back.12)

2023–

For the website's 18th anniversary, Cottle sold the “420chan.org” domain to former 8chan founder Fredrick Brennan for $4,200 USD on April 20, 2023,13)14)15) but states that 420chan will be owned by a non-profit organization16) with Cottle remaining in control of the website.17) At the time of this writing, 420chan's bulletin boards remain offline until noted otherwise.

List of Boards

Notes

  • A few things of note on the subject of 420chan's very beginnings:18)
    • They once had dedicated boards for Bridget from Guilty Gear,19) Mahoro from Mahoromatic, and Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura, but these boards silently vanished in 2007.
    • 420chan's mascot, “TCC-chan”, was originally drawn by Something Awful user “Vanessie” in 2004 for the subforum, “The Crackhead Clubhouse”. The stoner girl was chosen as 420chan's mascot on January 24, 2006,20) technically without permission since Cottle did not know who the artist was, though “Vanessie” seemed to be fine and even elated with the mascot's popularity.21)
    • In the “Cracky-chan”22) lore, 420chan had a “Cracky-chan” (/cracky/) board. It lasted three months with 1609 posts being made in it, before she personally requested its removal.23)24)
  • The “Wakaba” script had a default “no message” feature that imitates Futaba Channel, but the feature was rarely utilized. However, 420chan set theirs to “DICKS EVERYWHERE” and it stuck.
  • 4chan's /b/ board had a wordfilter for “420chan.org”, changing it to “FUCK THE POH LEECE”.
    • At some point, the board name was changed to be /i/-related, but some /b/ users would mistake /i/ for 4chan's “Oekaki” (/i/) board and ended up wiping most of their website's own /i/ board.
  • In KTTV's infamous “Hackers on Steroids” report on Anonymous,25) the video actually has glimpses of 420chan's /i/ board with posts dating June 29, 2007 and July 24, 2007.
  • “Taimaba” is a portmanteau of “taima” (大麻, lit. “big hemp” or “cannabis”) and the imageboard script being named “wakaba” (若葉, lit. “young leaf”), so it technically would be “Taimaba” (大麻葉).26)

See also

  • 420chan - The front page of 420chan.
    • 420chan [Archive] - The front page of 420chan, archived June 6, 2022.
  • @Kirtaner on Twitter - The founder's Twitter account, re-suspended.
1)
The WHOIS for 420chan lists 2005-04-21 03:39:16 UTC as its creation time, but when you consider that Cottle was in Toronto which would be in UTC-5, this would be 2005-04-20 22:39:16.
2) , 8)
"420chan and Kirtaner's personal website have been offline for a week." (July 22, 2022). Kissu /qa/.
3) , 10)
"Only reason 420chan is down is because Feds have the servers." (December 31, 2022). Twitter.
4)
"FAQ". 420chan.
5)
"It's finally finished" (December 5, 2005). 420chan.
6)
"http://711chan.org/weed/ REPORT HERE FAGHATS. TEMP HOME FOR /weed/ TIL KIRT FIXES SHIT." (November 26, 2007). 711chan.
7)
"IS THIS THING ON" (December 18, 2008). 420chan.
9)
"Tell the Feds to give me back the servers they seized from my apartment in August when I got raided" (December 25, 2022). Twitter.
11)
"Just picked up some paperwork about my case “due to the technical abilities of the subject, he has the skills to destroy or alter evidence relating to the cybercrime related offence's that are being investigated. The #Anonymous mask was seized within the residence.” Whew!" (January 27, 2023). Twitter.
12)
"Hopefully I’ll be able to bring it back in the future" (December 31, 2022). Twitter.
13)
"I’m going to have to think about fred wanting to buy 420chan because frankly that would be a hilarious turn of events" (April 10, 2023). Twitter.
14)
"420chan.org" (April 20, 2023). Twitter.
15)
"Fred and I are getting @420chan back online. Stay tuned." (April 20, 2023). Twitter.
16)
"lmfao you can be assured that i will run 420chan as a non-profit. probably not related to the corporation that holds http://mfek.org and other fonts stuff of mine. maybe a B-Corp at first while i shop it around to different harm reduction 501(c)(3)'s." (April 17, 2023). Twitter.
17)
"420chan.org is under new management* and under construction". 420chan.
18)
"420chan" (December 27, 2005). 420chan.
19)
At the time, Bridget identified as male after it was revealed that Bridget was biologically male but raised as a woman. Cottle opened the board with “GO BRIDGET GO” and “THIS IS WHERE I FEEL AT HOME”. It isn't known if he was aware of Burichan which had shut down on September 5, 2005, months before 420chan began to formally operate.
20)
"TCC-tan" (January 24, 2005). 420chan.
21)
"Return of 420-chan aka Tcc-tan" (May 21, 2010). DeviantArt.
22)
“Cracky-chan” (!N1toQkxgzc) was a nickname for a British girl with a “15-year-old girl persona” that began posting on 4chan for a few weeks in early 2005 and incidentally attracted a dangerous cult-like following for herself. This proved to be a mistake as people were harassing, stalking, and threatening her, on top of trying to hack her accounts for more. She vanished around 2007.
23)
"you know who i am." (February 13, 2006). 420chan /cracky/.
24)
"The hopeful end of the Cracky-chan phenominon" (February 13, 2006). 420blog.
25)
"Anonymous on FOX11" (July 27, 2007). YouTube.
26)
However, “taima” (大麻(タイマ)) is the on-reading while “wakaba” (若葉(わかば)) is the kun-reading. “Taimaba” (大麻葉(タイマバ)) is a valid reading, but it could also be read as “Taimayō” (from “Dàmáyè”) or “Ōasaba”.
420chan.txt · Last modified: 2023-10-14 16:21:39 by namelessrumia