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Ayashii World

Ayashii(Strange) World (あやしいわーるど)1) was a Japanese underground bulletin board, founded by “Shiba” (しば), that initially ran from August 21, 1996 to September 3, 1998. However, other bulletin boards would borrow the name, which created an informal 'Ayashii World' subculture.

Summary

These chalkboard-colored2) boards were relatively 'simple' and easy to install, thus the plethora of unrelated clones and lack of overarching authority. Most iterations dealt with niche 'underground' subjects, though it's advised to conduct a vibe check as the communities tend to be loose with the rules, arguably coming off as an unfiltered, anonymous Twitter-like feed. Below is a 'key' that some versions of the board use:

  • ■: Open reply form.
  • ★: See posts by the author.
  • ◆: Thread view (reverse chronological).
  • 木: Tree view.
  • ×: Undo your post.
  • 消: Hide post.
  • 退: Hide the author.

History

In 1995, “Shiba” establishes the first Ayashii World at Nifty-Serve, a personal website that simply mirrored Kasumigaseki, an inappropriate strategy game based on a then-recent domestic terrorist attack, but didn't last that long. As the internet spread, there was a question of whether Japan could have an uncensored, 'underground' culture, so “Shiba” decided to be acquainted with pedophiles.3)

On August 21, 1996, “Shiba” re-establishes Ayashii World using MiniBBS at “Digital Eden” (デジタルエデン), then refugees from “Underpass Entrance” (地下道入口) would arrive. On December 23, 1996, the “Digital Eden” trial ends, so Ayashii World moves to “Kenjinkai” (県人会). Shortly after, “Shiba” decides to split Ayashii World into two boards: '98' for general discussions and '2000' for tech (e.g. hacking, raiding, etc.).

In 1997, “Kenjinkai” shut down and the hosts for Ayashii World kept changing, then a user leaks the alleged perpetrator's alias of the Kobe child murders on June 29, 1997 which would gather national attention. Around September 8, 1997, “Shiba” moves Ayashii World to the Korean-owned Xtel, but started using CGI scripts that would pioneer the standard Ayashii World model still used to this day.

Then in March 1998, a Guess4) member named “Alice Liddel”5) would test his “PerlDuke” vandalism script on Ayashii World and, while he did apologize, the community wasn't as forgiving and it led to a very petty war. Several months later, “Shiba” ends up shutting down Ayashii World on September 3, 1998, alluding to the war in his farewell message,6) and then dashed rumors of a potential return by September 20, 1998.

Genealogy

This section contains an archived translation.
A better rendering was created at the Random Crap Museum.

Full version (up to 2000)

Condensed version (up to 2007)

Notes

  • Some sources claim the full name of “Shiba” was “Masayuki Shiba” (芝雅之, Shiba Masayuki).
  • The community frequently used the following kaomojis: ヽ(´ー｀)ノ, (;´Д`), and (ﾟДﾟ).
  • On January 27, 1997, “KKC” would post the iconic “You is a big fool man. Hahahaha.” thread.7)
  • At some point, they relied on small characters (小文字文化) or 'kusachū-go' (クサチュー語), so the website name was rendered as 'Ayashii' (ぁゃιぃ) or 'A' (ぁ). This predates gyaru-moji.

See also

  • Amezou - Most of the former users ended up fleeing here.
,
1)
The term 'ayashii' (あやしい) can potentially mean 'suspicious', 'spooky', 'questionable', or 'mysterious', but some of the earliest translations used 'strange' in 1998, so that's the translation that would stick around.
2)
The original MiniBBS script would inherit the background color, so Ayashii World originally used #007F7F, but later figured out how to set it to a chalkboard-like 'dark green' #004040 on May 24, 1998.
3)
“Nihon Lolicon Graphics” (日本ロリコングラフィックス) was a bulletin board for pedophiles. The story is that “Shiba” found out that they used a free rental service, so he figured out how to set up a bulletin board using a combination of free services. It was a very crude or primitive way to avoid liability, taking advantage of services that people weren't really monitoring since the internet was still relatively niche in the 1990s.
4)
“Guess” (ゲスッ, Gesuu), or "Guess Who", was a decentralized group of hacktivists that originally split from Ayashii World in March 1997, and most of their programs had the “-duke” suffix.
5)
The user “Alice Liddell” (アリス・リデル) was named after the Alice in Wonderland character.
6)
"しばさんの辞世の言葉" (September 3, 1998). FC2.
7)
"KKC". Networker Research Laboratory.
ayashii_world.txt · Last modified: by namelessrumia