Futaba Channel (ふたば☆ちゃんねる), also called Futaba (ふたば/双葉) and 2chan, is a popular Japanese bulletin board that opened on August 30, 2001 when 2channel claimed they may shut down. It has since evolved and developed its own culture, completely separate from 2channel.

Generally speaking, Futaba Channel is renowned for their creative users that generate unique content and power the website. While the Nijiura boards are frequently praised as the website's centerpiece, please keep in mind that there are other boards as well.

On August 30, 2001, Futaba Channel opened in response to 2channel claiming that they were in danger of closing and it's interesting to note that they only had text boards back then. As time went on, the website developed its own culture, added image boards, and the first Nijiura would emerge in March 2002. Over time, the text boards were gradually replaced with image boards as they became the website's main focus.

The website split into the “img” and “dat” server in January 2005 and they would continue to add additional servers over the next four years.¹⁾ As for the boards, they saw more feature like a simple board catalog in 2005 and the “del” feature with “deleters” (削除人, sakujonin) in September 27, 2008. There isn't really much to say after that, aside from boards being added and removed.

In the 2010s, they began working on WebM support on December 29, 2015, a “dice” feature was added on October 25, 2016, “https://” support was finally introduced after 15 years on November 12, 2016, and there's also a “soudane” (そうだね, lit. “yeah” or “i agree”) feature that can be used to agree with posts. For some reason, Nijiura May and Nijiura Jun also swapped positions on the front page.

Before we jump into the boards, we should review the terms and conditions (利用規約, riyou kikaku) first since the website isn't necessarily “rule-free” like someone in the past described it.

The website hasn't let non-Japanese IPs to post in years,²⁾ but this page oddly has a section stating that the website isn't intended for those in the European Union as they're affected by GDPR.

• 3D (三次元, Sanjigen) - This ended up becoming a board for gravure idols and nude images. It's not hard to imagine why this would easily become a problem.
• Shoujo (少女) - This ended up becoming a board for posting actual little girls, but the upload limit was reduced down to 5KB to shoo pedophiles away, then it closed in 2004.
• 3D Materials (三次ネタ, Sanji Neta) → TV (テレビ, Terebi) - This was a board for TV captures and captures of female idols. Some copyright concerns and obscene images ensued, but no actions were taken and the board formed its own culture. However, it later deleted on February 1, 2007.
• 2D Live Commentary (二次元実況, Nijigen Jikkyō) - This was a board for live commentary threads when an anime aired and TV captures were uploaded here, though requesting TV captures were heavily discouraged and met with disgust. For some reason, the board disappeared on May 7, 2014.
• Shopping (買い物, Kaimono) - This was apparently an idle chat board for gothic lolita fashion, but then the board closed and everyone on it had moved to some refuge website.

• The administrator's identity is a mystery, but it's known that they sign their posts with “[管理人]”.
  • The users have nicknamed them, “Kanrinrin-san” (管理人さん), and depict them a brown-haired girl with the net idol name of “Tokyo Castella” (東京カステラ).
• You may find some posts replaced with a red message. They are not ban messages. These say:
  • 書き込みをした人によって削除されました - “The poster deleted their post.”
  • スレッドを立てた人に削除されました - “The thread starter deleted this post.”
• A “festival” (祭り, matsuri) can be an image dump, a script dump, etc. A “kora” (コラ), from “collage”, is a term that somehow became the word for “manipulated images” or “photoshops” in other words.
• “POMれ” (Preview-Only Member) is a spin on “ROMれ” (Read-Only Member) and this is often used in a context suggesting that you lurk for six months before posting.

• Nijiura

• Futaba Channel - The front page of Futaba Channel.
  • @FutabaKanri2 on Twitter - The administration's Twitter account.
• FutaKuro - A browser extension for Futaba Channel, but only for Chrome-based browsers.
  • FutaPo - This is a “portal” site. In other words, it's a better board catalog.
  • Futaba Channel Power Rankings - A page that compiles the most active threads.
• FTBucket - A small archive that preserves old threads for two days so they can be saved. It only checks five boards: Nijiura Img, Nijiura May, Nijiura Jun, Touhou/Back, and KanColle.
• Futaba Channel on Pixiv Encyclopedia
• Futaba Channel on Niconico Encyclopedia
• Futaba Unofficial Server Monitor