4-ch, formally Channel4, is an English bulletin board website that was set up by “Squeeks” in October 29, 2004¹⁾ and is currently run by “ssz” as of 2020.²⁾ It's a really old website, being a member of the Wakachan coalition and once considered a successor to World2ch.

On October 29, 2004, “Squeeks” launches 4-ch using the Kareha script,³⁾ affiliating itself with the Wakachan coalition and having no clue that World2ch even existed.⁴⁾ There may have been a soft reset in July 2006, followed by a design overhaul around September 2006 and mobile support in 2007. Then, some downtime in December 2013 would be followed up with “bps” becoming owner on January 2, 2014.⁵⁾⁶⁾

As time went on, 4-ch would outlive both 4chan's World4ch and the Wakachan coalition. They would add an imageboard on September 2015, but shelved this in 2019 for unknown reasons. In short, “bps” didn't really do anything, at least on the surface. Some downtime would occur around September 16, 2020 and this would be followed with “ssz” becoming owner on October 5, 2020.⁷⁾

The new administration brought some long-awaited changes to 4-ch, such as “https://” support in December 2020. For the 10,000th day of September 1993,⁸⁾ the imageboard returned, /dqn/ was given a frying pan counter, and some old stylesheets were restored. The default name on /iaa/ would change to rotating default names on March 14, 2021,⁹⁾ then several boards were merged on March 21, 2021.¹⁰⁾

• General
  • General [general]
  • Hobbies [hobby] - /fashion/, /food/, and /sports/ merged into /hobby/.
  • Personal Issues & Romance [personal] - /love/ merged into /personal/.
  • Requests/Feedback [req]
  • Images [img] - Revived.
• Culture
  • Film & TV [tv]
  • Japanese Media [japan] - /anime/ and /manga/ merged into /japan/. (new)
  • Games [games]
  • Music [music]
  • Books & Literature [book]
• Internet
  • ASCII [ascii]
  • The Elitist Superstructure of DQN [dqn] - DQN! DQN!
  • Technology & Programming [tech] - /code/ merged into /tech/.
  • Internet Addicts Anonymous [iaa] - /net/ merged into /iaa/.
• World
  • Language [language] - /nordic/ merged into /language/.
  • 日本語 - Japanese [nihongo]
  • Current Events [current] - /news/, /politics/, /debate/, and /science/ merged into /current/. (new)
• Secret
  • Hades [hades] - The board where threads proclaiming that the website is dead, often by people with short attention spans, and bad threads are sent.

• It isn't clear why “DQN” (ドキュン, Dokyun) was chosen as the analogue for “VIP” on 4-ch.
  • “DQN” is Japanese internet slang for a dumb, insane person with no common sense. It was taken from a variety show, then spread via Ayashii World and Amezou.¹¹⁾ It might be dated.
  • The most likely story is that someone asked what it meant on November 26, 2004,¹²⁾ then a staff member saw the definitions people gave and made it into a board on December 3, 2004.
• In 2005/2006, 4-ch temporarily housed two imageboards, "Cosplay" and "Video Games", for the Wakachan coalition. They wouldn't officially house an imageboard until 2015.
• “Shii” claimed to be a 4-ch administrator,¹³⁾ but he likely quit before taking down most of his website.
• The famous “tastes like prion disease” post¹⁴⁾ was made on May 20, 2013 (1993-09-7202).¹⁵⁾
  • Someone ended up with April 14, 2013 (1993-09-7166),¹⁶⁾ but this was when the thread was made.
• If you read this far, nobody actually uses /general/. It's actually just a landing spot for idiots.

• Channel4 - The front page of 4-ch.
  • Channel4 (Frames) - The real front page of 4-ch, listing all the boards on the sidebar.
  • How to Participate - A help page that teaches you the basics and general customs.
  • 2channel English Navigator - An old 2channel navigator, which now links to 2ch.sc instead?
• 4-ch on World2ch Historical Society
• 4-ch on Compendium of Personal Ignorance