Imageboards (Soyjak.st/soyjak party, 4chan, 8kun/8chan). What do you guys think about them?

Dec 09 · 5 days ago

11 Comments ↓

Imageboards are a good idea in principle, but I think the major boards of the Internet fell to two problems. The first was that the combination of anonymity and minimal moderation led their users to indulge in humanity's worst impulses (bigotry, extreme porn, organized harassment, etc.). The second was that their antics caused the concept of the imageboard to become associated with lawlessness, and thus no-one other than people who participate in such activities wants to use them or create new ones anymore.

The culture of imageboards also definitely contributed to the modern inane humor of the Internet. Frankly, I see a lot of similarity between the memes that spread on TikTok today and the memes that spread on 4chan 10 years ago.

I'm not a fan of how Soyjack party residents act at all, and makes me greatful I check out places like ikouchan.tokyo from time to time. And it's a shame too, because imageboards could work.

@jsreed5 I'd take it a step further and have to say it's s pretty much all social media, many if not most websites, including anonymous imageboards (even the more niche ones) just end up being a masturbatory feedback loop of madness, just in different costumes. I still have an interest in technology and think the internet can be a good way to spread knowledge, but I do believe it might just be one of our worst recent creations with the way it has been for the past 20 or more years. It's all so tiresome. We also shouldn't forget that DARPA and other organizations played a large part in its creation.

Imageboards have also contributed to the asinine, nonsensical and it may sound extreme but I would even say subhuman babbling of things being 'reddit' 'redditry' or for """t****s""" (Undertale and Deltarune for example, as much as I've never cared for them or their terrible fanbases) even if they don't advocate for it in anyway, are related to it, or has some irrelevant bit of it or just 'tons of X do/watch/play X so it's X and X and for X!' I've seen games like Half Life called 'for t****s' or movies like the thing 'reddit' for God's sake. On the topic of games, that doesn't even begin to cover the fevered obsession with 'the masses' and the idiotically rabid discourse over a topic like video games that almost always follows it anywhere. There's also the tribalistic lunacy about 'THE ZZZZZZOOOOOOMEEEERRRSSS'or 'THE MILLLENNNIAALLLSSS!' Even spacing your paragraphs like you've made it past 5th grade is demonized.

On top of this all, if you don't get manic insanity from right leaning spaces, you find absolute derangement from left leaning spaces as well, take for example 'Human Domesticstion Guide'. This a collaborative fiction project, centered entirely around humanoid plant aliens called the Affini enslaving the entire human race (who have all essentially united under some comically evil 'fascist' dictatorship with equally comically horrible living conditions on every single ship and location) and turning them into 'florets' (essentially pets, who are hypnotized, drugged by 'xenodrugs' the Affini produce from their bodies, and also sexually assaulted) and the rules are that in every story, the Affini must always be objectively correct, must be seen as the good guys, what is happening as good, and that they will always inevitably win without much if any struggle, and are essentially invincible. I'm talking genuinely things like a character running propaganda for the Affini praising them for letting her get HRT (This in the first story, after she had been captured off of a ship and forcibly being made to sign her entire being amd all humam rights over to her Affini owner, while sobbing hysterically, all after she had been brainwashed, broken down, walked around on a leash, and her escape attempt she was moments away from succeeding in, but ratted out by her friend who had been completely indoctrinated in that time) and nearly every character always being some closeted pansexual Therian or the like and 'just not realizing it'. The community genuinely gets agitated and angry if you suggest anything for a story other than things such as this. The entire thing revolves around nearly religiously fetishizing having your entire being, agency, and independence taken away from you, being drugged and brainwashed into being a pampered living decoration and/or sex toy. It's like a made up boogeyman by the aforementioned imageboards, but it's not. I can't do justice to just how insane this rabbit hole is. The internet has essentially become a digital cesspit. It's all so tiresome.

And that's why I mainly only check out calmer places online, man I'm glad I just enjoy the games/shows I like without being in a fanbase tbh.

I'm also starting to wish people online stops doom-mongering about stuff too, it's getting pretty annoying honestly.

@bsj38381 I've been trying to avoid reading community tabs or discussions in steam (The only reason I still use it is because of the games I had accumulated as a kid using gift cards, and for a while before I started deciding I'd find other methods to download games that weren't multiplayer, plus two friends I can only really talk to through, I refuse to use discord and it wouldn't be any better) reading youtube comments, and all (other) social media as I always have. Thankfully I've never browsed facebook, tiktok, instagram, or any of the other ones. Maybe redshit counts since it has a bit of a monopoly on internet tips and guides and that's what's almost always brought up...

I'll be brutally honest and say that I wish Reddit is just blacklisted on all search engines but yeah. I mainly just share my art on Discord every blue moon as well. I'll probably try not to overly go to the YouTube comments, even using GrayJay on desktop.

@bsj38381 I just watch youtube through apps like NewPipe now, trying not to go to the comments unless I really think there could be extra info or a warning/correction about the video I'm watching. I occasionally might make an account specifically to join a discord for mods like hotline miami redux-redux mods. I also write in Joplin sometimes. You said you like forest creatures and I don't know if you like anthropomorphic animals or not, but I do have a writing project involving them I could post in s/art if you're interested.

I'm very interested in what you'll post in art. (And I love anthropomorphic animals in general too, I did post a Sonic drawing a few days ago recently.)

@bsj38381 It's posted.

Nice!

I think they offer a place where people can say things they cannot say otherwise. Sadly, though, one often learns why they cannot say what they might say otherwise and one walks away feeling like one could have done without seeing any of it.