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2ch
2ch (2ちゃんねる, pronounced "nee-channel", romaji is "ni chan'neru"), opened by Hiroyuki Nishimura in 1999, is one of the largest Internet forums in the world (largest in Japan). With over 10 million visitors every day (as of 2001), it is gaining significant influence in society, approaching that of traditional mass media such as TV, radio and magazines.
OverviewTo this date, the official owner of 2ch is Hiroyuki Nishimura, known simply as "Hiroyuki" (ひろゆき). However, most daily management is done by an external voluntary group, self-elected and picked from 2ch visitors. 2ch itself is non-commercial and run by banner advertisement fees and support from a hosting service company that provides specially priced inexpensive UNIX hosting. What is unique about this forum is its scale and its management style. It has more than 600 "board groups" (Japanese ita) each with its own categorical topic (ex. "Social News", "Computer", "Cooking"). Each "ita" usually has hundreds of "threads", which are actual discussion pages created by anonymous visitors for each detailed topic (ex. "Coming election in Tokyo, 4th vote", "P4 vs. Athlon, overheating 51 times", "Best wheat for making Pizza, 3rd slice"). Every posting in a thread has an "age" (up) and "sage" (stay) attribute, and once posted with "age" attribute (default), that thread goes to the top of the recent active thread in its board group. Each thread is limited to 1000 postings at maximum, and must be created again (by some anonymous user, self-elected during discussion) to continue discussion. This prevents the rottening of old threads and keeps active topics refreshed. Most "old" threads will be stored in a thread archive after deprecation for future reference. Nearly everything is done anonymously (and voluntarily). With the huge popularity of this forum, this "thread floating with pushout style" of web forums is now known as "2ch-style". CultureSeveral important and/or well-known social issues (incidents, social movements, etc) are known to have relation with this forum, and due to early shocking events (see Neomugicha incident) for an example), this forum is somewhat acknowledged as "underground-ish" despite its wide acceptance, especially in the younger generations. On the other hand, these incidents helped 2ch to have huge publicity through mass-media coverings. 2ch had been participating in various voluntary services like the United Devices' cancer research project and SETI@home. 2ch is the group with the most point and result in the UD project, as well as having the largest number of participants. Frequent visitors of 2ch are usually called (and call themselves) "2ちゃんねらー" (meaning "2ch'er", pronouced "ni-chan-ne-rah", romaji is "ni chan'nerā). Even though topics vary a lot between each thread/ita, 2ch as a whole keeps its unity through its unique cultural backplane. "2ch slang", "2ch AA" (Shift_JIS styled ASCII art) and "2ch Flash" are examples of such culture. Many virtual characters, such as Mona, and Onigiri have evolved out from these creations, and are now acknowledged as mascots representing the whole community. The now famous Soy Sauce Warrior Kikkoman parody character was created by members of the 2ch forums, as well as its flash movies. Trolling and off-topic posting on 2ch has made is now a part of 2ch culture. In this way it is similar to the Something Awful Forums, where bad threads are quickly derailed or "saved" by introducing a new topic. However, 2channel does not tolerate spamming and flooding. Due to its chaotic nature and large size, it is difficult to describe or define this emerging community. Several movements to self-describe it have been running, and so the reader is recommended to visit these materials. For that matter, similarities with Usenet are many. Anonymous postingOne of the most distinguishing features of 2ch is the complete freedom given to anonymous posting. This is a rare feature as almost all other internet forums require some form of registration, usually coupled with email verification for further identification of an individual. From an interview with the founder in the Japan Media Review: Q: Why did you decide to use perfect anonymity, not even requiring a user name? A: Because delivering news without taking any risk is very important to us. There is a lot of information disclosure or secret news gathered on Channel 2. Few people would post that kind of information by taking a risk. Moreover, people can only truly discuss something when they don't know each other. If there is a user ID attached to a user, a discussion tends to become a criticizing game. On the other hand, under the anonymous system, even though your opinion/information is criticized, you don't know with whom to be upset. Also with a user ID, those who participate in the site for a long time tend to have authority, and it becomes difficult for a user to disagree with them. Under a perfectly anonymous system, you can say, "it's boring," if it is actually boring. All information is treated equally; only an accurate argument will work. TerminologyThese terms are used both on 2channel and on its Japanese and American spinoffs.
Common abbreviations and phrases
English OffspringsThere have been some attempts by various internet communities to form their own, more English or internationally orientated message boards in the style and tradition of 2ch. The first and most notable has been the now defunct world2ch . 4ch, historically following world2ch, is an English website with discussion boards for English speakers and also contains a board where Japanese 2ch users can talk in Japanese. Likewise, 4chan, an English website based around Japanese content, now also has anonymous message boards similar to 2ch: world4ch. See alsoExternal links
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