Vichan was a Polish bulletin board, initially founded by Marcin Łabanowski on April 27, 2008,¹⁾ that barely stayed alive until 2018. They were mostly known for starting the popular Tinyboard fork Vichan in 2011, allegedly while drunk.²⁾ Aside from that, it was never relevant past 2010.

On April 27, 2008, Łabanowski sets up Vichan at “vichan.pokemonpl.net” using Kusaba.³⁾⁴⁾ It was originally a private community until Eris-chan users discovered Vichan, initially raiding them until Vichan became their unofficial refuge. This first iteration of Vichan would last until early 2009,⁵⁾ then a Kusaba exploit killed Vichan, but rather than bring it back, the old files were archived at the “vichan.net” domain.

When Dvatirech knocked Eris-chan offline on July 2, 2009, the second iteration of Vichan began shortly after. Around December 1, 2009, the /3/ board was added, essentially /b/ with forced anonymity, which created a conservative /b/ and liberal /3/ dynamic. This iteration of Vichan reportedly died on April 23, 2010, which forced users to take refuge at Tapchan (69chan), then that funneled into Karachan.

On August 8, 2011, Łabanowski revived Vichan at “beta.vichan.net”,⁶⁾ but the third iteration didn't last. Around late 2012, Łabanowski would fork Tinyboard into what eventually became Vichan,⁷⁾ then the Vichan website became a federation, with the Polish-language boards sectioned off to “pl.vichan.net”, and the relative success of Vichan would lead to the federation partnering with 55chan, Cable6, Czchan, and Tahta.

The federation apparently dissolved in 2016, with “vichan.net” mirroring the unstable 8chan clone at “8ch.pl”, but the “pl.vichan.net” section remained active until April 22, 2018. From there, the remaining users would scatter to the real 8chan, which had a /poland/ board at the time, or a short-lived “vichan.pro” that merged into Lolifox's /poland/, which ended up being monitored by CERT Polska.⁸⁾

Back on August 26, 2020, a Vichan clone was established at “vichan.org” and, after a few months, drummed up some momentum. On February 8, 2021, the website moved into the former “pl.vichan.net” subdomain, whilst the main “vichan.net” showed the rotating logo. Despite the administration being involved and motivated to keep it alive, this fifth iteration would later be declared dead on April 9, 2022.

• For the record, Łabanowski was historically known as “Chax” in the Polish Pokémon fan community, adopting the tripcode of “!fPeniseKvI”,⁹⁾ but eventually became “Czaks” at some point.¹⁰⁾
  • A lot of rumors have been told, claiming that Łabanowski allegedly hacked Wykop.pl during the Polandball event or summoned in court, but there are no verifiable sources.
  • It was later clarified, through 8chan founder Fredrick Brennan, that Łabanowski is still alive,¹¹⁾ presumably distancing himself from his prior online activities to live a more private life.
• There is a small contingent of refugees at 8kun's /vichan/ board.

• Ciepła Twarz (Wojak) - The 'neutral' version of Trollface.
• Diochan - A similar Italian-language bulletin board with roots in Pokémon.

• Vichan [Archive] - The front page of Vichan, archived April 9, 2018.
• Vichan on ChanWiki