ayashii_world
Table of Contents
Ayashii World
Ayashii World (あやしいわーるど, lit. “Strange World”) was a Japanese underground bulletin board, originally run by “Masayuki Shiba” (芝雅之) from August 21, 1996 to September 3, 1998. However, the name is mostly associated with the network of boards it spawned nowadays.
It was once well-known among Japanese internet users in the late 1990s, considering how much AA and slang spread to 2channel, but it became obscure by the 2000s and ironically became underground. Despite this, it still sees some use to this date.
Summary
These chalkboard-themed1) boards were simple and could be installed by anybody, so they never had an overarching administrator. Most iterations dealt with obscure “underground” subjects as the original was chaotic, but some have unwritten rules on behavior which is why lurking is advised to get a feel of the culture. At some point, you notice that Ayashii World is like an anonymous, text-only version of Twitter.
- ■: Open reply form.
- ★: See posts by author.
- ◆: Thread view. (In reverse chronological order.)
- 木: Tree view.
- ×: Undo your post.
- 消: Hide post.
- 退: Hide poster.
History
Shiba began Ayashii World, via “Nifty-Serve” on March 15, 1995, as a mirror for an insensitive2) game titled “Kasumigaseki” (霞ヶ関) or “The Subway Salin Game” [sic], based on the Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack claimed by Aum Shinrikyō, but it was short-lived. Meanwhile, the Japanese internet was rapidly changing, and Shiba believed that pedophilia was unique towards Japan's underground culture.3)
1996–1997
Then in 1996, Shiba reboots Ayashii World, via “Digital Eden” (デジタルエデン) on August 21, 1996, using MiniBBS for an “idyllic board with casual pedophilia.” It was later picked up by other underground websites that, when the “Underground Portal” (地下道入口) shut down on November 30, 1996, a few hackers migrated to Ayashii World. After its fourth month online, Shiba's free trial on “Digital Eden” apparently ended.
As a result, they moved to “Kenjinkai” (県人会) on December 23, 1996, then Shiba decided to split Ayashii World into two boards: “98” for general discussion and “2000” for tech-related subjects. By March 1997, people started making their own Ayashii World websites. Concurrently, the bulletin board vandals on “2000”, which Shiba discouraged, would migrate to “Guess” (ゲスッ).
1997–1998
Once “Kenjinkai” booted Ayashii World on March 26, 1997, Ayashii World, in short, kept server hopping. Then on June 26, 1997, a user on their “2000” board leaked the name of the boy who perpetrated the Kobe child murders and the news caused Ayashii World to enter the public eye, eventually crashing their servers because so many people wanted to see. After this, the history is a bit muddied.
In March 1998, a Guess member, dubbed “Alice Liddel” (アリス・リデル), tested his “PerlDUKE” vandalism script on Ayashii World. While the vandal did apologize to Shiba, the inhabitants were out for blood and attempted to dox the vandal. Shiba couldn't really do much and eventually felt pressured to shut it all down on September 3, 1998, writing the following message to close an era:
あやしいわーるどは閉鎖いたしました。当分復活しないでしょう。
でも、ここのリンクは更新し続けるので利用してね。
なにも言わないと閉鎖の理由についていろんな憶測が飛ぶでしょうから、まあ少しくらいは書いてみるか。
まず、公権力とか大手のどこかの圧力なんていう話は残念ながら全くないっす。
人間を滅ぼすのは人間ってな感じで、まあアングラ同士で潰し合いとかしちゃってまあくだらないね。
あやしいわーるどがアングラかどうかはまあともかくさ（わらぃ。
まあ、直接の原因はメイン掲示板の沈没なのですが、ネットの中にはいろんな対立とかがあるみたいで、
そういうのってとってもくだらないなあと思ってね。みんなと仲良くしたいのになあ、くだらないっすよ。
そんなかんじ。
Ayashii World has closed. There are no plans for a revival.
I'll keep maintaining the link collection here though, so please check back.
If I don't say anything, you guys will make up a bunch of random guesses, so I'll write something.
First of all, it has nothing do with pressure from the authorities or any major companies.
It's human to wreck other humans, so it's normal that we attack our underground comrades.
Wait, was Ayashii World even underground? (lol
So, the main reason for why the board closed has to do with a certain opposition and
even I think this was stupid. I wanted everyone to get along, but it was no use.
Something like that.
Legacy
While it was clear that Shiba had no issue with the Ayashii World spinoff boards, he would oddly retract this statement on December 7, 1998 and every board that kept the name were mysteriously spammed or compromised unless “Ayashii World” was dropped from their name. Most users fled to Amezou, but there was a number of stragglers that just refused to let it go of the Ayashii World name.
At one point, “Famiru”, “Meiso”, and “Honten” were the last ones standing, then “REBIRTH” would emerge in January 1999 and controversially accepted anime otaku that the original Ayashii World and “Honten” once looked down on. “REBIRTH” later fell apart, so users left for “Famiru”, made “REQUIEM”, then “Ayashii World II” was born. It gets confusing after this, so I won't bother.
The Extensive Genealogy
Full version (2000)
Prehistory │ Shiba/1st Era (Digital Eden) [1996-08 ~ 1996-12] │ Shiba/2nd Era (Genjinkai) [1996-12 ~ 1997-03] │ Shiba/3rd Era (jcat, k&t, IntaractiA, Free Rental) [1997-03 ~ 1997-09] │ Shiba/4th Era (Xtel, Solidigit) [1997-09 ~ 1998-03] │ Shiba/5th Era (Shibura, Ikeburo, Hyper, etc.) [1998-03 ~ 1998-05] │ Shiba/6th Era (WEBDESIGN) [1998-05 ~ 1998-09] ├────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐ Evacuation [1998-09] Famiru Phase 1 [1998-09] Meiso [1998-09 ~] │ │ │ Yuuyuu Club [1998-09] └───────────────────────┐ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Denki Mēkā Honten/1st Era [1998-09 ~ 1998-12] │ │ │ (Ayashii @ Hiro no bu, Yoru no bu Honten) │ │ │ │ │ Denki Mēkā Honten/2nd Era [1998-12 ~ 1999-01] └─────────────────────────────┐ │ │ (Hiru no bu yoru no bu Honten) │ │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ <Honten> <Rebirth> │ │ Denki Mēkā Honten/3nd Era [1999-01 ~ 1999-10] REBIRTH [1999-01 ~ 1999-04] │ │ │ (306c6d Honten) │ │ │ │ └─────┐ │ │ │ ¦ ↓ │ │ │ ¦ Famiru Phase 2 [1999-04 ~ 1999-06] │ │ ¦ │ (Main Era) │ │ ¦ │ │ │ ¦ Famiru Phase 3 [1999-06] │ │ ¦ │ (/1/ Era) │ │ ├─────────────┘ │ │ K-COM [1999-06 ~ 1999-07] REQUIEM [1999-06 ~ 1999-07] │ │ ¦ │ │ │ ¦ ┌──────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ <II> <Kinsan> │ │ ARENA, II/1st Period [1999-07] Kinsan [1999-07 ~ 1999-09] │ │ │ (Extra, until split) │ ¦ │ │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ¦ │ │ II/2st Period [1999-07 ~ 1999-09] <Extra> │ ¦ │ Pororo Honten [1999-10 ~ 2000-03] │ (Ichiji Teishi, ???, until split) Extra Phase 1 [1999-07] │ ¦ │ │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ ¦ │ │ II/3rd Period [1999-09 ~ 1999-11] <Christmas Island> AMG [1999-07 ~ 1999-08] │ ¦ │ │ │ (until November suspension) Temp Interim Board [1999-09] │ │ ¦ │ │ ├────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Extra Phase 2 [1999-08] │ ¦ │ │ ¦ <Reipa> ??? [1999-09 ~ 1999-10] │ │ ¦ │ │ ¦ Nettopuro [1999-11] │ Grind [1999-08] │ ¦ │ ├───┐ ├────────────────────────────────────┘ │ Wakana [1999-10 ~ 1999-11] │ │ ¦ │ │ <Inujini> II/4th Period [1999-11 ~ 2000-02] Millennium [1999-11 ~ 2000-02] │ Extra Phase 3 [1999-08 ~] │ ¦ │ │ Inujini Ayashii │ (until Yamashita crisis) │ Christmas Island [1999-11 ~] ├─────────────────────────┘ 2000 [1999-12 ~] │ │ [2000-01 ~] │ └─────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ II/5th Period [2000-02] │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ (Non-ARENA) Aiai Taihi [2000-02] │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ II @ Maripe Moe! [2000-02] <Mirai> │ │ │ │ │ │ └──────────────────┐ │ Mirai [2000-02 ~] │ │ │ │ │ │ │ II/6th Period [2000-02 ~] │ │ │ │ │ │ Taihi Honten │ │ (AGStar revival) │ @Heijo [2000-03~] │ │ │ │ │ [2000-03 ~] │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
Short version (2007)
Digital Eden [1996-08 ~ 1996-12] │ ~ ~ │ Main [1998-05 ~ 1998-09] ├─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐ Evacuation [1998-09] Famiru [1998-09 ~ 1999-06] Meiso [1998-09] │ │ │ Yuuyuu Club [1998-09] │ │ │ │ │ Honten (Denki Mēkā) │ │ [1998-09 ~ 1999-10] │ │ ├────────────────────┐ │ │ │ REBIRTH │ │ │ [1999-01 ~ 1999-04] │ │ │ └───────────→│ │ │ ¦ │ │ │ ├────────────┘ │ │ REQUIEM [1999-06 ~ 1999-07] └──────────┐ │ │ │ │ II [1999-07 ~ 2000-02] │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Honten (Pororo) │ Christmas Island │ [1999-10 ~ 2000-03] │ [1999-09~] │ │ ├──────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ Taihi Honten II @ Maripe! [2000-02] Mirai │ │ [2000-03 ~ 2000-04] │ [2000-02 ~ 2005-03] │ │ │ II [2000-03 ~] │ │ │ Honten (Kamisama) │ │ │ │ [2000-05 ~ 2000-10] ├───────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ NG │ │ │ Honten (ds) ├──┐ [2000-10 ~ 2002-04] │ │ │ [2000-10 ~] │ Zantei │ │ │ │ │ │ [2002-01 ~ 2003-01] │ QWERTY [2005-03 ~] │ │ │ │ │ Nozomi ├──┐ │ │ │ │ Zantei Taihi [2002-08 ~] │ Hinata │ │ │ │ [2003-01 ~] │ │ [2005-11 ~] │ │ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
Notes
- The most common emoticons or kaomojis are “ヽ(´ー｀)ノ”, “(;´Д`)”, and “(ﾟДﾟ)”. Recently, it's said that the popularity of the “(;´Д`)” emote had surpassed the “ヽ(´ー｀)ノ” emote around 2008.
- Back then, there was “small letter culture” (小文字文化, komoji bunka), so you would see “あやしい” rendered as “ぁゃιぃ”. It has some similarities to "gal writing" (ギャル文字, gyarumoji).
External links
- Ayashii World @ Links - The most recent “link collection” (directory) of Ayashii World websites.
- Ayashii World Directory - An archive of an older Ayashii World directory from 2008.
- Ayashii World History (Archive) - A complete history up to 2006. Use the archive for dead links.
- A Small History of Ayashii World - IsharaYar's ancient translation with broken English.
- Ayashii World Board History - A log of the servers used. I didn't think it was very useful.
- Ayashii World on Japanese Wikipedia
- Ayashii World on Hatena Keyword
1)
In the past, the original MiniBBS script inherited the background color set by the service provider. For the original Ayashii World, they used #007F7F until they were able to switch to the iconic #004040 on May 24, 1998, often described as a “dark green” (深緑色) color that resembled a “chalkboard” or “blackboard” (黒板).
2)
A “fukinshin game” (不謹慎ゲーム, fukinshin gēmu) is a Japanese term for computer games that satirize high-profile incidents, often related to politics or religion, for those who can appreciate dark humor. The term can be translated to “insensitive game”, “inappropriate game”, or “imprudent game” in English.
ayashii_world.txt · Last modified: 2023-11-08 16:26:42 by namelessrumia