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4chon (4chon.net)
4chon was an English bulletin board, founded by “SaveTheInternet” (STI) on May 2, 2010,1) and shut down by late 2014. It was controversial for housing a prototype of what eventually became the alt-right and incel phenomenon that infested 4chan after their re-implementation.
History
In the beginning, “4chon.net” was registered on May 2, 20102) as a generic website that linked to AnonTalk.3) Much of its early history involves a conflict with the older “4chon.org”, and general accusations of being a “Kimmo Alm” website. It's presumed that they didn't have that much of a community, given that the front page used to house a “Kimmo Alm” simulator4) and a completely blank directory5) at some point.
On January 17, 2011, 4chan removed the “News” (/new/) and “Robot9000” (/r9k/) board,6) so 4chon returned with Tinyboard on January 18, 2011 and aggressively advertised itself as a /new/ and /r9k/ refuge,7)8) even purchasing workaround domains.9)10) It constantly saw DDoS attacks as a result.11) Over time, 4chon became noted for its reportedly incompetent, ban-happy management.
During this, 4chan actually restored the two boards on November 10, 2011,12) allowing 4chon to face greater scrutiny. These latter years were mostly a downward spiral, especially amongst the staff,13) then we'd see “SaveTheInternet” shut down 4chon for being “a hub for hatred and racism” around December 2014 and tried to buy 8chan from Brennan on February 13, 2015, presumably to shut 8chan down himself.14)
List of Boards
- News [new]
- Robot9001 [r9k]
- The Vidya [v]
- Academics, DIY, & Learning [edu]
- Asian Culture [azn]
- Arts & Entertainment [ae]
- Meta [meta]
Notes
- While “chon” (チョン) is the Japanese ethnic slur for Koreans, it's more likely that it was a byproduct of playful misspellings in the 2000s, though I wouldn't discount the 'broad racism' aspect.
- Benjamin Raymond, founder of the banned British far-right terrorist organization National Action, has actually mentioned 4chon in an interview.17) This was later cited in a research article.18)
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.