/philosophy/ - Philosophy

>>5845

An image board is merely defined by a family resemblance and what is prized most depends upon the specific anon in question.

Personally I strongly value freedom of speech and a very large diversity of opinions and interests.

In that respect I find the fights between leftypol and pol annoying and dumb. Neither of the two owns the image board. Image boards are a shared cultural heritage to be valued by all.

>>5858

At least for this one in particular, slapfights over who "owns" the site really upset me. This website was designed for each board to be an independent community, united only in the most necessary functions required to make it work. Saying shit like "this is /pol/chan" is completely antithetical to the spirit of this website. Much like how the dissolution of states rights in favor of federal zero-sum politics has been a disaster for America, an "8chan culture" has been a disaster for this website. People fight over which types of communities are allowed when there is ample space for everyone. People drag every board into partisan politics because "everything is political" and other boards are no exceptions. This site feels like a constant turf war and telling people to stop only emboldens them, no matter how clear you make it that you do not wish to participate. I find myself close to not using this site anymore, but crawl back to the few boards that put their foot down to stop it. I fear "the spirit of anonymity" and other such lofty virtues attributed to the imageboard medium are not enough to save it.

>>5879

Each board is unifying it's users. Either through beliefs, opinions, interests or knowledge. If a board (and by that i meant: THE USERS OF A BOARD) gets the idea it needs to expand their agenda, that their common belief is superior over someone elses belief, there are no limits for that. Each board can do whatever they want, regardless of what other boards think. If a board A invades board C with spam, neither board B,C or D can do much about it. Board A gets noticed, and then fall back to their board because they get bored and that is how board invasions go. In some cases board A gets a few new users because users of board C did not know about the board A. Just like how i discovered /o/ and /ck/.

>>5879

IMO, shitposting and board rivalry is also part of "chan culture". And the same way that I still see 4chan as cousins, even if it's retarded and like to fuck goat from time to time, it's still family.

As long as its users crossboard are "kind of united" then it's fine.

The other thing is that since people are more open, then it give just the tiny little start of understanding between people.

IRL there's always factor limiting speech to some extent, and thus, getting to some understanding is more difficult.

What do you think would be "The perfect poster"? Is there an archetype you think an user could follow to make the best out of this site?

Starting by the obvious, he should make good OC, not fish for attention and should be able to receive and give out the strongest of bantz.

I have been posting on image boards since maybe a year or two after 4chan was invented.

There are many things i have thought about image boards. The basic philosophy of image boards in anonymity. The philosophy of the troll invented all those years ago on 4chan is "do it for the lulz"

The philosophy of the troll is pure nihilism. Believe in nothing. Just do it because its funny and it makes people mad.

“Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent.”- mao

Image boards are actually the polar oppiste of the times we live in. Modern western liberal capitalist society pushes a hyper identity politics. Gay rights, black rights, womens rights, etc. But anons have no identity. they are everything and nothing, and they believe in nothing, only the lulz.

Image boards throw off the cage of political correctness, social norms, and identity politics. It replaces it with a faceless hivemind of chaos.

I can pretend to be anything or anyone. I can tell you the complete truth about myself. I can tell you things i have never told anyone. And it will just disappear once its left the last page.

I can say something that would be deemed outrageous or not PC in real life. and we can talk about it, and we can find out, actually, this is what everyone was thinking but was afraid to say.

4chan and imageboard culture are a collective of shadows. I mean shadow in the jungian sense.

>>5845

>What ideas are they fundamentally based on?

A bulletin board. They were an evolution of dial up BBSes from pre-internet days.

>How best is an image board operated?

As a collection of creative artists working as a source of free education, an outlet for experimentation, a means of artistic self-actualization, all through a focus obtained by eliminating the need for self promotion.

>And finally, what should the purpose or end result of an image board be?

It's purpose should be an ongoing cultivation of new artists, with the end result as a slow changeover of talent—the accomplished passing on the history and culture of the system as they move on to bigger things.

>>5879

>This site feels like a constant turf war and telling people to stop only emboldens them, no matter how clear you make it that you do not wish to participate.

>I fear "the spirit of anonymity" and other such lofty virtues attributed to the imageboard medium are not enough to save it.

Anonymity is not, for it is too blunt as an idea. Larger imagboards have became merely homes for what is maximally obnoxious. Most anyone displaced by the ongoing corporatization and privatization of the internet will find a home here. Arguably a good thing, if rioting with a touch of filesharing are to your liking. If not, many, many other places cater to the need for honing skills, or encouraging artistic creation, or what-have-you.

The current philosophy of imageboards is, find a place that suits you and wade in. If not here, then elsewhere.

imageboards are based around the idea that you can use forums without registration or tracking, and they were designed to allow people to easily share images in the days before Facebook and Imgur and all that. Text and imageboards are really built as a response to software such as PHPbb or other "Traditional" forum software. the early userbase was hackers and journalists who wanted to maintain confidentiality

the first imageboards only allowed the OP to have an image attachment (which was optional) -- 4chan radically introduced the concept of multiple images per post, which helped promote the growth of memes

>>6000

You didn't go to Something Awful did you? 4chan didn't invent trolls.... Something Awful posters made and populated 4chan.

Imageboards are the mosaic and participatory press that McLuhan predicted in his Press chapter in Extensions of Man.

The anonymity has enabled imageboards to gain inordinate power because controversial truths only survive here, while the rest of the identified world speeds toward complete partisan top down censorship of wrongthink.

I just want to comment that the religious boards like Islam and Christian are very censor happy, and fly against the original spirit of 8chan as a place of no censorship and very few rules. They're not indicative of the core idea of image boards which is freedom.

>>6746

/tv/ misses all 4 points.

>What ideas are they fundamentally based on?

anonymity

>How best is an image board operated? e.g. In terms of moderation, its culture, and what it generally does.

baning nonvirgins, flooders, cancer, spamers, advertisers

>And finally, what should the purpose or end result of an image board be?

pleasure