Why doesn't 4chan get a separate page?

Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Why doesn't 4chan get a seperate page on the wiki? (It instead links to Imageboards)

A long time ago, it was decreed that it would be too much Flame Bait to make a page for that.

It's a troll and vandalism target, and given the rule of cautious editing judgment and the potential for any level of nastiness, it's best to let the sleeping dog lie. We acknowledge its existence, have a short remark on what the site is on the Imageboards page, and that's really enough.

I don't agree with a lot of the decisions this site's administration makes, but this is one I support.

Yeah, I figured. So it gets the same treatment as Danbooru (Image Booru).

We don't need to document every cesspit of the Internet.

@Fighteer - I disagree about it not deserving a page, but I understand why TV Tropes doesn't host a page for it and respect that.

However, I created a page for 4chan at my wiki since even though I agree it is a cesspit in many ways, it has contributed an unbelievable amount of Memetic Mutation to popular culture among other things and could be considered the creator of many tropes and works as a result.

Regardless, I understand and respect your concerns as to why it wouldn't be acceptable on TV Tropes (which, given it's current policies, makes perfect sense to me.)

Because 4chan is only /b/.

That aside, the page might have been too biased. I once read the old page on Encyclopedia Dramatica there. It kept mentioning Love It or Hate It. I think this was before subjective tropes were separated.

There's so much information about 4chan's subboards on Image Boards that I'd be fine with splitting it to its own folder.

Yeah. Willbyr's suggestion is as far as we need to go. We don't need to document everything. (cough)This Troper(cough)

I also support giving 4chan its own page, but I think Anonymous should write it.

edited 9th Aug '13 3:37:39 PM by Mullon

That sounds like a recipe for either awesomeness or disaster, with no middle ground.

I think the 4chan section of that page may be too long... or it doesn't belong in an existing page.

edited 12th Aug '13 8:01:10 PM by MikuruFan

Don't poke the bear.

Seriously, some things really should be left alone.

I wouldn't mind the entire 4chan section of Image Boards moved to a new page that is locked and without a trope list.

That... actually sounds like a good idea.

The question there is whether a page lock would suffice at keeping the problem at bay. It wasn't enough with Encyclopedia Dramatica.

Otherwise, we could just chop off the long section on 4chan in Image Boards.

That's another idea. Maybe just a brief, neutral explanation of what it is. The current one's a bit gushing and complaining mixed in an odd way.

I like the descriptions of the boards, they're entertaining to read. They should be cleaned up a little and moved to the page.

What page?

I suspect Website.Four Chan.

Didn't you just explain why an actual page would be a bad idea even if we locked it?

I don't know that we want to attract the kinds of visitors to this site that a live page for 4chan would generate.

A search for 4chan TV Tropes turns up Image Boards anyway. I see no problem on that page, especially since it's not locked.

After seeing a couple of pages not only refer to 4chan by name, but refer to boards specifically without explaining where they are from, plus seeing a couple other pages dedicated to websites with lists of tropes, I'm interested in reviving this conversation, at least a little bit more.

As some somebody who uses 4chan more than any other website, I have mixed feelings about this.

I have no issues with it, and personally, I think it should, given the amount of influence it has had, and would be more than happy to actually contribute to such a page if it was created, but 4chan as a whole is a very xenophobic community, even inside of itself (Many boards hate other boards, but to be honest, everybody justs hates everybody else), and what would most likely end up happening is that 4chan users would contribute very little, leaving the majrity of the editing to outsiders, and given how "different" 4chan is from other websites, an outside view wouldn't properly convey what goes on from a half objective view, but I think trying to be objective about 4chan is a doomed endeavor to begin with, unless you approach it in a very careful way (as explained in the third paragraph).

Vandalism is a valid concern, of course. If one were to be made, personally, I feel there's only 2 ways it could work: You allow editing/vandelism by 4chan users themselves given it doesn't entail any NSFW/misleading/illegal content, and is itself limited to that page. While this at first glance seems to go against the entire point, I think it would be MORE insightful than if you were to treat it like any other page: It gives you a sense of how 4chan operates, how users see themselves and events that occur on the site, and so on. It's kinda like reading a diary or an encyclopedia article written by the subject. Yes, it's biased, but that can be even more informative than if it was written by an objective third party. You can see how this might look like by looking at the 4chan wiki or encyclopedia dramtica.

The other option would be to soley discuss 4chan as a work, and not as a group of individuals. Instead of focusing on who uses 4chan, and how they act, you focus on what is ON 4chan, what has happened on the site and relating to the site, and so on. If you focus on abstracting how the site behaves or who visits it, you are missing the point of the site itself: anonymity. Again, though, part of the point of the site is that content isn't permanent: Unpopular ideas and threads quickly die and are lost, and even popular ones only stay around for a few hours or days. "generals" (reoccurring threads that are re-created after they die) are a relatively recent concept to 4chan's history as a whole, and even Moot, the founder of the site, feel they kinda defeat the entire purpose of 4chan in the first place.

A third option, is to do both. Have one page be one much like any other page on this site: Treating 4chan like a work of fiction, and explaining what has occurred on the site, or what the users of the site have done. Then, you have a second page that allows 4chan users to run more or less wild and allow them to create a page that shows what 4chan is from their own point of view, just removing any obscene content. If you make it clear that both pages exist on both pages, and make sure that both pages get the appropriate amount of moderating attention, I think this might work.

All of that said, it could be more trouble than it is worth.

edited 26th Mar '14 3:41:59 PM by MajoraZ