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4chon (4chon.net)
4chon, technically 4chon.net, was a controversial English bulletin board founded by “SaveTheInternet” (STI) on May 2, 20101) and shut down by late 2014. It was a strange mix of far-right nationalists and losers, arguably prototyping the alt-right and incel phenomenons.
History
In the beginning, the “4chon.net” domain was registered on May 2, 20102) as a rather generic website that curiously linked to AnonTalk.3) Most of the website's early history involves conflict over the name with the much older “4chon.org” community and accusations of being a “Kimmo Alm” website. It didn't have much of a community, given that the front page housed a joke simulator4) and a directory5) at some point.
On January 17, 2011, 4chan removed “News” (/new/) and “Robot9000” (/r9k/),6) so 4chon would reestablish itself as a refuge on January 18, 2011 with the first instance of Tinyboard. However, their very aggressive advertising campaign7)8) forced 4chan to ban the links, leading to workaround domains,9)10) and it constantly saw DDoS attacks in its first few months as a result.11)
As for the website, 4chon was constantly criticized for their incompetent ban-happy management, which was not helped by 4chan restoring the aforementioned boards on November 10, 2011.12) The latter years of 4chon was mostly a downward spiral.13) By December 2014, “SaveTheInternet” decided to shut 4chon down, noting that it was “a hub for hatred and racism”, then attempted to buy 8chan from Brennan.14)
List of Boards
- News [new]
- Robot9001 [r9k]
- The Vidya [v]
- Academics, DIY, & Learning [edu]
- Asian Culture [azn]
- Arts & Entertainment [ae]
- Meta [meta]
Notes
- It should be noted that “chon” (チョン) is a Japanese ethnic slur for Koreans, but this is not common knowledge and playful misspellings or typos were common in the 2000s internet.
- 4chon is mentioned in an article on the banned British far-right organization National Action.17)
External links
- 4chon.net [Archive] - The front page of 4chon, archived December 8, 2014.
- @4chonable on Twitter - The official Twitter account, likely forgotten about.
- 4chon.me - The current 4chon refuge.