Check'em: An Analysis of Online Group Identity on 4Chan - OLDŘICH CHMELA Bakalářská diplomová práce - IS MUNI
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FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA
Check'em: An Analysis
of Online Group Identity
on 4Chan
Bakalářská diplomová práce
OLDŘICH CHMELA
Vedoucí práce: doc. Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph.D.
Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky
Obor Anglický jazyk a literatura
Brno 2021
CHECK'EM: AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE GROUP IDENTITY ON 4CHAN
Bibliografický záznam
Autor: Oldřich Chmela
Filozofická fakulta
Masarykova univerzita
Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky
Název práce: Check'em: An Analysis of Online Group Identity on 4Chan
Studijní program: FF B-FI Filologie, bakalářský studijní program
Studijní obor: Anglický jazyk a literatura
Vedoucí práce: doc. Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph.D.
Rok: 2021
Počet stran: 69
Klíčová slova: 4chan, počítačově zprostředkovaný diskurz, online skupinová
identita, hnutí incel
2
CHECK'EM: AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE GROUP IDENTITY ON 4CHAN
Bibliographic record
Author: Oldřich Chmela
Faculty of Arts
Masaryk University
Department of English and American Studies
Title of Thesis: Check'em: An Analysis of Online Group Identity on 4Chan
Degree Programme: FF B-FI Philology, Bachelor's degree programme
Field of Study: FF AJ English Language and Literature
Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph.D.
Year: 2021
Number of Pages: 69
Keywords: 4chan, computer-mediated discourse, linguistics, online group
identity, incels
3CHECK'EM: AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE GROUP IDENTITY ON 4CHAN Anotace Tato bakalářská práce popisuje a analyzuje diskusní fórum 4chan.org, jeho obecnou lingvistickou stránku, lexikon a jeho morfologický systém. Vysvětluje i jeho historický kontext. Prezentuje mechanismy, kterými se diskurs na 4chanu řídí. Dále podrobně vysvětluje důležité koncepty, které jsou k porozumění informací na této stránce třeba znát, jako například koncept CMD. Zvláštní důraz je kladen na funkci čísel, jež mají na tomto fóru svoji speciální roli. Konkrétněji popsáno je také slovo faggot a jeho morfologie, jejíž analýza poskytuje hlubší pochopení slovotvorbě a slovníku, jež uživatelé 4chanu užívají. Dále je práce doplněna o korpusovou analýzu, která se věnuje především frekvenční analýze, kolokacím a kontextu, v jakém jsou jednotlivá slova užívána. Práce bere v potaz také politické a sociologické implikace obsahu diskusí i korpusu. Nakonec je ještě pro úplnost informací práce rozšířena glosářem, kde jsou stručnou formou vysvětleny vybrané termíny specifické pro 4chan. 4
CHECK'EM: AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE GROUP IDENTITY ON 4CHAN
Abstract
This thesis discusses and analyses the overall linguistic atmosphere, vocabulary and
the morphological system of the discussion forum 4chan.org. The historical context is
also discussed. It also explains the mechanisms that affect the discourse on the forum.
Important concepts such as CMD and others, necessary understand its specific form of
discourse are explained. Special focus is given to the function of numbers, which play
a special role within 4chan’s user dynamics. Extra focus is given to the lemma faggot
and its morphology, which in turn provides for a deeper understanding 4chan’s
lexicon. Political implications, stemming from the contents of the forums as well as the
corpus are discussed. Additionally, the thesis contains a corpus analysis which works
with frequency analysis, collocations, and the context in which are the most frequently
used words utilised. Finally, the thesis is accompanied by a glossary which includes a
selection of the most important keywords and describes them in a brief way.
5CHECK'EM: AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE GROUP IDENTITY ON 4CHAN
Declaration
I hereby declare that this thesis with title Check'em: An Analysis of Online Group
Identity on 4Chan I submit for assessment is entirely my own work and has not been
taken from the work of others save to the extent that such work has been cited and
acknowledged within the text of my thesis.
Brno May 16, 2021 .......................................
Oldřich Chmela
7CHECK'EM: AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE GROUP IDENTITY ON 4CHAN
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all my family members for being supportive throughout the
whole process of my writing this bachelor’s thesis. I would also like to thank my friends
for their equally important moral support, as well as the teachers and other staff
members of the Department of English and American Studies for their help, patience
and understanding.
Šablona DP 3.2.2-ARTS-dipl-obor-anglicky (2021-04-29) © 2014, 2016, 2018–2021 Masarykova univerzita 9TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
List of Figures 13
List of Tables 13
Glossary 15
1 Introduction 17
1.1 Computer-mediated discourse .................................................................................... 18
2 Methodology 20
2.1 General overview of the topic, choice of material ................................................ 20
2.2 Technical aspects of corpus creation ........................................................................ 20
2.3 Overview of the corpus contents ................................................................................ 21
2.4 Preliminary analysis of the corpus ............................................................................. 22
3 Historical, technical and cultural background 24
3.1 Historical background ..................................................................................................... 24
3.2 User demographics ........................................................................................................... 26
4 4chan’s characteristic phenomena and mechanisms 28
4.1 Temporariness ................................................................................................................... 28
4.2 Bumping ............................................................................................................................... 29
4.3 Archiving efforts ................................................................................................................ 30
4.4 User moderation, janitors .............................................................................................. 31
4.5 User identity........................................................................................................................ 32
4.6 Post IDs ............................................................... Chyba! Záložka není definována.
4.7 Dubs, trips and other discourse-altering numerals ............................................. 35
4.8 Check’em, Mr. Bateman .................................................................................................. 36
4.9 Links to the incel movement ........................................................................................ 38
4.10 Tits or GTFO and 4chan’s misogyny .......................................................................... 40
4.11 Other forms of user identification .............................................................................. 42
5 Morphological and stylistic aspects of the forum 43
5.1 The curious case of the word fag ................................................................................ 43
11TABLE OF CONTENTS
5.2 Newfags and oldfags ........................................................................................................46
5.3 Stylistic elements of the forum .........................................................................................47
5.3.1 Reddit-spacing .....................................................................................................................48
5.3.2 Greentext ...............................................................................................................................50
5.3.3 MFW ........................................................................................................................................52
6 Political implications of the forum’s contents 53
7 Conclusion 57
7 Discussion 59
8.1 Study limitations ....................................................................................................................59
8.2 Further research ....................................................................................................................60
Bibliography 61
Summary 66
Resumé 67
12LIST OF FIGURES
List of Figures
Figure 1 - Post 222222222 (Anonymous, 2019)...............................................................33
Figure 2 - GET Post 88869 (Anonymous, 2010)................................................................34
Figure 3 - Check’em, Post 193798577 (Anonymous, 2010) .........................................38
Figure 4 - 9384163 – Anon is gay (Anonymous, 2020) .................................................51
Figure 5 - 1223025 – Anon is Korean” (Anonymous, 2017) .......................................54
13LIST OF TABLES
List of Tables
Table 1 - most frequent nouns, verb and adjectives in the corpus ............................22
Table 2 - chances of obtaining a rare post ID (The Digit Advisory Page, n.d) ........36
Table 3 – most frequent nouns containing the -fag suffix .............................................44
Table 4 – random concordance of the lemma faggot.......................................................45
Table 5 – most frequent collocations of lemma faggot ...................................................46
Table 6 - a random sample of sentences and utterances ...............................................48
14GLOSSARY
Glossary
thread – a self-contained discussion which may or may not have a title
catalog – an overview of all of the currently active threads on a specific
board
board – a sub-forum, generally dedicated to a singular topic, for example
/pol/ for politics or /fit/ for fitness
OP – OP is a short version of opening / original post. In the context of
4chan’s discourse, OP refers to the user who created the thread by
submitting their post. It is universally understood that OP is a fag.
bump – an act of replying to someone else’s post in order to push the
thread closer to the beginning of the catalog
selfbump – same as bump, only this time it is the OP doing the bumping
sage – from Japanese sageru, when put into the respective field, it will
push the thread further back in the catalog, effectively giving the
users a way to rid the board of an unwanted thread
fag, faggot – an user of 4chan. used also a suffix to express affiliation with a
certain group or character qualities, i.e. christfag, animefag and
so on
tard – similarly to fag, tard may also be used to create a portmanteau
of sorts, such as /b/tard – in this case an user hailing from the
/b/ board, dedicated to random topics.
imageboard – a forum, primarily used for sharing pictures
chan – channel, alternative word for an imageboard
(to) lurk – to only browse the boards without participating
lurker – users who lurk, see above
moar – a spelling variant of the word more, frequently used by 4chan’s
members
post ID – string of numerals, assigned randomly to every post
GET – marks a milestone post with a rare post ID combination, or signifies
the user’s attempt to obtain one
roll – similar to get, users could be rolling for a post with a rare com-
bination of numbers
15GLOSSARY
tripcode – a way to establish an identity on 4chan, a unique sort of password
which serves as a form of identification for the website
tripfag – user of 4chan who decides to use a tripcode, which will be dis-
played next to their posts. Usually faced with hostile behaviour
towards them, most users simply remain anonymous. Only a few
tripfags were tolerated on 4chan, some of which retain a celeb-
rity status
moot – nickname of the creator of 4chan, Christopher Poole
vidya – a spelling variation of the word videogames
anime – Japanese animated cartoons
manga – Japanese comics
blueboard – a board where no NSWF content is allowed
NSFW – not safe for work, opposite of above – [Definice]
SWF – safe for work, permissible content
16INTRODUCTION
1 Introduction
The subject of this thesis is 4chan.org, one of the internet’s most well-known
discussion forums. Contrary to its ever-rising popularity, it is considered quite
controversial. There are multiple reasons behind this claim. Certain aspects of the
forum are politically incorrect and could be even described as outright extremist. It is
also thought to be mostly used by male users of with little to no diversity, and as such
it is prone to becoming an echo-chamber. But while controversial, is still a unique
platform, something that no traditional form of media could ever match. And as such,
it contents provide an intriguing source material for a study.
This thesis therefore aims to provide a general analysis of its linguistic
atmosphere, lexicon, and sociological aspects contained within the forum. By
describing the unique communicative methods and styles employed by its users,
provides the reader with the tools necessary for understanding the somewhat cryptic
information the forum contains. Special attention is given to all the phenomena that
are crucial to understand in order to navigate and participate in the discourse, with
extra focus on the meaning of post IDs, the temporary nature of all its content and the
technical vocabulary used within its boards. In order to achieve that, a special passage
dedicated to various blends and portmanteaus related to the omnipresent lemma
faggot shall provide the reader with a brief overview of the lexical system of the forum.
4chan does also have an active community of volunteer moderators, who
complement the self-policing methods enforced by the inherent rules of every board,
these mechanisms shall be analysed in a separate part of the thesis.
17INTRODUCTION
Finally, the thesis takes advantage of both author’s empirical findings, gathered
by both actively participating in the discussions while gathering posts relevant to the
research and a sample corpus, counting roughly 10 million words and created using
data provided by Bibliotheca Anonoma, an online archive of internet folklore, which
was subsequently analysed using the Sketch Engine tool. Data obtained by this analysis
shall be used to further support the claims presented in the thesis.
1.1 Computer-mediated discourse
In order to communicate on 4chan, and the internet in general, the users have to work
within a specific mode of communication. With the style of discourse being dictated by
the methods and technology employed in order to transmit their messages, and the
inherent impossibility to employ gestures, auditory cues or facial expression, it may
seem heavily restricted.
Prominent linguists working in this field, such as Susan Herring, recognise it
under the term computer-mediated discourse. In the 2000 journal article of the same
name, Herring describes it as “a specialization within the broader interdisciplinary
study of computer-mediated communication”. While acknowledging the inadequacies
stemming from the inability to fully employ all the devices offered by face-to-face
communication, Herring still argues that “CMD can be richly expressive” (Herring,
2000). Crystal’s Internet linguistics: a student guide then notes that there may be more
similarities between the computer-mediated way of communication and actual speech,
claiming that some aspects of CMD “…display much of the urgency and energetic force
18INTRODUCTION
which is characteristic of face-to-face conversation” (Crystal, 2011). The phenomena
further described in this thesis support these conclusions. For the sake of brevity,
Herring uses the acronym CMD when referring to computer-mediated discourse, and
for the purposes of this thesis, the same acronym shall be henceforth used as well.
However, familiarity with the concept of CMD is insufficient on its own, as it only
describes a general framework. In order to understand the origins of the distinctive
style of CMD employed by 4chan’s users, a deeper understanding of internet history
and 4chan’s background is needed.
19METHODOLOGY
2 Methodology
2.1 General overview of the topic, choice of material
The corpus was created by utilising the data offered on Archive.org, created over the
course of August 2019 and uploaded to the interned by the members of Bibliotheca
Anonoma, a “research task force archiving, documenting, and safeguarding Internet
Folklife” (Bibliotheca Anonoma, n.d.).
Out of the 167 separate archives, each representing a different part of the forum,
a 6-gigabyte file named b.csv.bz2 was chosen. My reasoning behind choosing this
particular file was the fact that it represents the /b/ Random board – the term board
being the official term for each particular part of the forum unified by a certain topic.
As hinted in its name, the Random board does not have a pre-set topic, and as such it
serves as a suitable and representative basis for the subsequent creation of the corpus.
2.2 Technical aspects of corpus creation
Upon the extraction of the b.csv.bz2 file, I was presented with 30 gigabytes of raw data.
Using Microsoft Excel’s Import data function, I have loaded the file into the program.
The contents of the archive did not only consist of text, and therefore I had to limit
Excel’s output to only load one column containing the actual user-submitted posts. I
capped the output to 500000 entries due to the technical constrains of both Excel and
Sketch Engine, my concordancer of choice. The raw data was unfortunately
20METHODOLOGY
contaminated by a great number of illegible symbols, a problem probably caused by
the computer script used by the coders of Bibliotheca Anonoma in order to scrape the
contents of the website. Therefore, I have decided to filter the output even more,
exporting the file out of Excel and moving it to Notepad ++, an advanced text editor.
There, I was finally able to remove unwanted entries. Using the expression ^\d{7,12},
I managed to delete all the numbers greater than 8 decimal places, which would
logically be the post numbers. Since they seemed to be embedded together with the
text posts, they had to be removed in order to obtain a clean and legible corpus. This
way, some of the posts directly referencing post numbers would be removed, but I was
able to find relevant information regarding the mechanics of numerals in the 4chan
GET Encyclopedia hosted on the LURKMORE Wiki. After exporting a clean .txt file out of
Notepad ++, I was finally able to load it into the Sketch Engine concordancer.
2.3 Overview of the corpus contents
The corpus consists roughly of 10000000 (ten million) words, or 1200000 tokens.
There are only 475000 recognised sentences, pointing at the somewhat reduced
grammatical system of 4chan’s users who tend to use short, concise replies, sometimes
only one-word long.
Using the wordlist function, I have gathered a table consisting of the most
frequently used nouns, verbs and adjectives, listing the first 20 of each category with
absolute frequency, representing the actual number of their occurrences within the
21METHODOLOGY
corpus. For some reason, the concordancer includes the pronoun I as the top entry, no
matter the settings, and I ascribe that to a software error.
Nr. Nouns Frequency Verbs Frequency Adjectives Frequency
1 I 59635 be 459413 good 32259
2 pol 30822 do 122223 more 15575
3 shit 27530 have 73546 other 11792
4 op 26003 get 62565 bad 10067
5 fuck 24884 fuck 41094 nice 9148
6 thread 23908 go 29536 same 8867
7 faggot 22398 know 29485 old 7771
8 time 22195 make 25220 new 7327
9 people 19361 think 25089 first 7189
10 [url] 19361 see 24451 big 7006
11 girl 17563 say 21953 little 6926
12 roll 17519 look 19853 [number] 6825
13 guy 17216 take 18001 real 6648
14 man 14693 try 15068 last 6095
15 thing 14582 post 14323 white 5828
16 nigger 13366 give 13840 only 5473
17 year 12875 come 13810 hot 5455
18 dick 12044 use 13262 hard 5340
19 life 11626 need 13047 few 5303
20 day 11517 like 12330 much 5113
Table 1 - most frequent nouns, verb and adjectives in the corpus
2.4 Preliminary analysis of the corpus
Without any previous knowledge of the contents and nature of the forum, the reader
may immediately take notice of the fact that especially the category of most-frequently
used nouns is quite offensive and 25% of the top nouns are expletives or derogatory
terms. Then there are slang terms, such as pol or op, which are not understandable
without deeper knowledge of 4chan’s lexicon. The word fuck takes the fifth place both
22METHODOLOGY
as a verb and as a noun, which may indicate that this forum is frequented by more men
than women, at least when we take in account some of the linguistic research claiming
that as “a whole, male speakers use fuck more than twice as frequently as female
speakers, a difference that is statistically significant” (McEnery & Xiao, 2004). Same
results were found by Baker, who states that “male speakers used the strong swear
word fuck / fucking more”, some 10 years after McEnery and Xiao’s journal article
publication date, proving that this trend continues to be true (Baker, 2014). The
frequent use of the noun dick could also point to this conclusion.
Signs of homophobia are also present, as exemplified by the word faggot taking the 7th
place. In addition to that, the fact that an extremely derogatory term nigger happens to
be the 16th most used noun, as well as white being the 15th most used adjective
uncovers the racist and xenophobic tendencies of 4chan’s users, at least when it comes
to their choice of words.
23HISTORICAL, TECHNICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND
3 Historical, technical and cultural background
Founded by Christopher Poole, also known by “moot, a member of the Something
Awful forums” in 2003 (Bibliotheca Anonoma, n.d.), originally meant as place to share
anime and manga, 4chan is not the only internet forum of its kind, it is simply one of
the most well-known, ranking at position 882 among all websites and at position 56 in
the United Kingdom at the time of writing (4chan.Org Competitive Analysis, Marketing
Mix and Traffic - Alexa, 2021).
3.1 Historical background
The proper term for this kind of text-based forum with the possibility to upload images
is an imageboard or simply a board. Imageboards, or chans, which is an abbreviation
of the word channel, originate in Japan. Forums of this kind started to appear in the
very beginnings of the World Wide Web. The first one of its kind is considered to be
Ayashii’s World, created in the mid-90s, and the collective of Bibliotheca Anonoma
claims that it was “…the first anonymous textboard ever made on the internet. 4chan
(…) is actually a direct descendant, at least when it comes to the code” (History -
Bibliotheca Anonoma, n.d.). Kaigo and Watanabe describe its content as “…mainly
“underground” and “subculture” related, and the contributors usually did not indicate
their names in the name field, so that the community became an anonymous forum”
(Kaigo & Watanabe, 2007).
In Japan, these forums served as safe space for the users to anonymously express
their opinions, allowing them to momentarily escape their designated societal roles
24HISTORICAL, TECHNICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND
that were inseparably tied to their identity. Eric Cattelain, author of an article
discussing the concept of this social duality, named uchi-soto, notes that is further
divided into two parts: honne-tatemae, the distinction between what you truly feel and
what you show to others, and omote-ura, loosely translated as front and back. It is
further described as an “intricate sense of who you are and who you are expected to
be, or what you are and are not supposed to say or show others” (Cattelain, 2014). In
the very professional and competitive society, which Japan undoubtedly was and still
is, it is quite difficult to detach oneself from those rigid roles and expectations laid upon
an average individual, especially since they are now an integral part of Japanese
society. It is only logical that the Japanese users flocked to these imageboards, as they
provided a discussion platform where everyone is anonymous and therefore equal.
Consequently, the sense of anonymity so characteristic of Japanese chans would also
become an inherent part of 4chan, as a Western adaptation of this Japanese internet
phenomenon.
In the Western context, the principles of uchi-soto, hone-tatemae and omote-ura
appear to be closely related to the politeness theory, a concept invented by Stephen
Levinson and Penelope Brown in their 1987 book Politeness: some universals in
language usage. Similarly to uchi-soto, it operates with the idea of face, characterised
as “something that is emotionally invested (…) and must be constantly attended to in
interaction” (Jaworski & Coupland, 1999). Contrasting negative face as “the desire to
be unimpeded in one’s actions”, and positive face as “the desire (in some respects) to
be approved of”, Levinson and Brown consider this concept a global phenomenon.
25HISTORICAL, TECHNICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND
However, it is also claimed that further explanation is needed in order to apply the
notion of face to different cultures or groups, stating that it is something which in
“…any particular society we would expect to be the subject of much cultural
elaboration” (Brown & Levinson, 1987).
Therefore, it can be claimed that while imageboards have developed in Japan, a
society radically different in from the Western one in many aspects, they have already
shared a significant part the common concept of face, albeit under a different name and
setting. This concept is also relevant in the way the users interact with each other, and
especially the newcomers, who are not members of the in-group and as such
unacquainted with 4chan’s rules. This other implementation of the theory of politeness
shall be discussed further in the text. However, this is not the only occurrence of a
direct link to the Japanese culture.
3.2 User demographics
According to 4chan.org’s official data, its users, whose ages typically range from 18 to
34, are 70% male and 30% female. The vast majority (up to 70%) is from the United
States of America and other anglophone countries; however, their interests are
frequently linked to “Japanese culture, anime and manga” (Advertise - 4chan, 2020).
These close ties to Japan and its culture are still clearly visible, not only by the
adoption of the conventions of those early imageboards such as Ayashii’s World, but
also by its contents. Many parts of 4chan deal exclusively with aforementioned
Japanese phenomena. In addition, some of the vocabulary and slang terms used on the
26HISTORICAL, TECHNICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND
website are inspired or directly taken from the Japanese language. The results
generated by the keyword analysis of the corpus shows that the fifth most prevalent
one is desu, a Japanese linking verb. Others are directly used as loan words, such as
sage, suffix -san, and more. These lexical aspects of the forum are mentioned further in
the text.
But the integral and predominant traits, shared by all of the users, irrespective of their
nationality, can be seen everywhere on the forum no matter the topic or sub-board.
The omnipresent anonymity, and temporariness.
274CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
4 4chan’s characteristic phenomena and
mechanisms
4.1 Temporariness
Perhaps the most integral quality of 4chan is the fact that the discussions, or in 4chan’s
lingo, threads, exist only for a certain amount of time. This is one of the aspects that
compensate for the lack of functions inherent to the CMD utilised on the forum.
Crystal characterizes this temporariness by utilizing Herring’s facet framework,
which is described as “parameters of contrast in relation to which outputs can be
defined and are similar in conception to the notion of design-features”. Using the term
persistence, he explains it as “the period of time that messages remain on the system
after they are received.” (Crystal, 2011).
For 4chan, this period of time is not very long (minutes or hours, depending on
the board), and it is mandated by the design of the code behind the forum itself. It
guarantees that no matter how popular or how discussed one’s post is, it will
eventually be deleted. The catalog, which serves as an overview of every board,
contains a limited number of currently active threads. They are automatically sorted
by the newest and most popular towards the beginning of the list. Correspondingly,
new posts, posts with little to no replies or very old posts without new activity are
pushed back to the end of the list and eventually replaced by the new ones.
284CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
4.2 Bumping
The users can push new posts towards the top of the page, which is the default position
for new or most discussed topics, by either posting in or bumping the thread. The
difference between simply replying and bumping is that a bump post is always posted
only for the sake of moving the thread upwards in the hierarchy, and increases its
visibility, or rather “spatial centrality” (Davis & Graham, 2021). It is often nonsensical,
has no new information. Sometimes it can be just a picture not necessarily relevant to
the topic.
Likewise, the users can sage the thread, in case it contains something they dislike.
That can be done simply by entering the word sage into a corresponding field in the
reply window. This act is doing the exact opposite of bumping, pushing the thread
further back, eventually leading to its deletion.
From a linguistic point of view, bumping would be an equivalent of Jakobson’s
phatic function, only translated to the field of CMD. The OP, 4chan’s abbreviation of the
collocation original poster or opening post, signals an interest to communicate to the
other potential discourse participants. Unable to utilise non-verbal cues, “all the work
of signalling attention and interest during the conversation has to be done by the
textual messages” (Kulkarni, 2014). By moving the thread upwards with his messages,
they keep the communication channel open. This again proves that CMD utilises many
of the same mechanics as the traditional forms of communication, only adopting and
altering them to accommodate for the technological limitations of this online form
conversation.
294CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
Similarly, temporariness is a characteristic also found in other forms of human
communication. In her book Because Internet, linguist Gretchen McCulloch
appropriately states that “…conversations throughout history have naturally not left
records”. Computer-mediated forms of communication only re-introduce this
temporariness in a contemporary way, with “private messages that vanish after they’re
seen, live video streaming, manual deletion of old posts, and storystyle posts that only
stay visible for twenty-four hours”. These characteristics of CMD “reduce the likelihood
that messages will be encountered outside their intended context” and this is very true
for 4chan as well (McCulloch, 2019). It may therefore not be the first internet forum or
a communication channel to introduce temporariness, but it is one of the few social
networks that utilise it in such a fundamental way.
4.3 Archiving efforts
While the contents of 4chan are deleted regularly, both for the sake of anonymity and
server capacity, some chosen boards or threads are archived for a certain amount of
time. However, they mostly serve as a source of general information and rules for each
board, and do not usually contain user’s discussions.
There are several websites that scrap the contents of 4chan and save it, but there
is no complete mirror archive of everything ever posted on the site, not even on the
provider’s servers. Therefore, only some of its contents are being preserved by
enthusiasts and volunteer internet historians. One example of such activity would be
the efforts of a group named Bibliotheca Anonoma, who gather and publicly offer their
304CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
findings on their website or “semantic wiki” (Bibliotheca Anonoma, n.d.), or the
LURKMORE Wiki, which considers itself to be “the encyclopedia of Anonymous”
(LURKMORE Wiki, n.d.).
4.4 User moderation, janitors
While seemingly chaotic, 4chan has its own set of rules and standards. These are
enforced either by so called janitors, an alternative to censors or moderators who keep
the forums in order by making sure the users adhere to those rules, or the users
themselves, who shun or outright attack those who refuse to follow them or are not
aware of such rules at all. The rules are different for each board, but it is universally
acknowledged that the users are forbidden from posting illegal content. Pornographic
content is tolerated, however only on certain designated boards.
The distinction is based on the colour of the board itself, an attribute coded
directly into the website. By default, the so-called safe for work or sfw boards are blue,
and may not contain anything that would be deemed overly offensive of unacceptable.
Equally, red or nswf / not safe for work boards may contain all the other things that
would not be tolerated on blue boards, as long as it is not “anything that violates local
or United States law” (Rules - 4chan, 2021). The range of topics discussed is incredibly
broad and does include extreme, violent, racist and generally provocative matters. The
moderators, who are not financially compensated for their work, manually browse
through the forums and delete posts that do not adhere to the rules.
314CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
Their motivation is generally unknown, as they are also anonymous and there is
no way to contact them. Arguably, they are driven only by the gratification stemming
from doing a service for their community.
4.5 User identity, post IDs
As referenced in the general introduction of the thesis, every post is assigned a post ID,
a combination of numbers based on multiple factors, with the crucial one being its
position in the moment when the reply or post is submitted. Starting from number 1,
post digits are increasing incrementally with each new post. For example, around the
time of writing this thesis, the /b/ board was reaching post number nearing
830000000.
This is one of the mechanisms that introduce order into the seemingly
disorganised nature of the forum. However, the numbers play a major role in 4chan’s
CMD, having the power to turn a completely meaningless post into a treasured source
of 4chan’s own folklore. For the purposes of this thesis, I propose to name them
discourse-altering numerals.
4.6 Discourse-altering numerals
The actual content of a post is oftentimes not the most important part. Depending on
luck, timing or technical knowledge, an otherwise ordinary post may be considered
unquestionably true or outright prophetic just by being assigned an unusual post
number, or post ID, which would be the actual technical term for it.
324CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
Figure 1 - Post 222222222 (Ano-
nymous, 2019)
As an example, in Figure 1, the post number 222222222 on the /pol/(politics) board is
being reacted to, confirmed or simply acknowledged by many other users not only for
its—arguably questionable—comic value, but mainly for its unique post number that
consists of 9 2s in a row. This is an event on its own, and the users of 4chan would
always react to these discourse-altering numerals and increase the frequency of their
posting when the discussion is nearing another milestone number.
This behaviour could be linked to the attention reward theory proposed by Davis
and Graham, who argue that most mainstream social media platforms utilise a form of
binary rating system, claiming that it acts as an “indicator of value” (Davis & Graham,
2021). This is also true for 4chan, even though the binary value is assigned by the
334CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
programming algorithm of the website, not the users themselves. The only way for OP
to acknowledge the user feedback is to observe the direct textual reactions to their
post, with the website notifying the user when someone replies to their post by
attaching a (You) to each direct reply.
Thanks to users’ fascination with discourse-altering numerals, an actual
terminology was established to complement them. Starting from doubles or dubs,
which would signify a post number ending in two identical numbers, they span all the
way to nons, a sequence of nine identical numbers in a row. The odds that a user
receives such a combination are exponentially smaller, and on busier boards, such as
/pol/ or /b/ it is almost impossible to obtain any combination without a great deal of
effort or just sheer luck.
Figure 2„GET Post 88869” (Anonymous, 2010)
344CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
4.6.1 GETs
Some users only post for the sake of obtaining a post with a desirable number
combination. The act of doing so is called a GET. It usually takes the form of posting a
relevant picture, any kind of text string containing the words GET or simply GET on its
own, as seen in Figure 2, which can serve as a way to explain its mechanics. Sometimes,
the users refer to this act as roll.
Posts with such high number combinations are sometimes archived, and always
considered important. The GETs once again reference to the “function as both value
markers and mechanisms of curation within a competitive attention economy”. (Davis
& Graham, 2021) Their message, if it contains any information at all, is—based on the
rarity of the post ID—considered increasingly more truthful and important.
4.7 Dubs, trips and other discourse-altering numerals
Since the number of rare posts containing more than 5 numbers in a row is quite low,
as described by Table 2, people are more likely to focus on more realistic goals, such as
obtaining simple dubs.
354CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
Sequence Number of Digits Pattern Chance
Quints 5 XXXXXXXAAAAA 1 in 10,000
Sexts 6 XXXXXXAAAAAA 1 in 100,000
Septs 7 XXXXXAAAAAAA 1 in 1,000,000
Octs 8 XXXXAAAAAAAA 1 in 10,000,000
Nons 9 XXXAAAAAAAAA 1 in 100,000,000
Table 2 - chances of obtaining a rare post ID (The Digit Advisory Page, n.d)
4.8 Check’em, Mr. Bateman
The link between the expression check’em and the GET mechanism has been
spontaneously established by the users who started following a certain practice. In
order to get dubs or a higher number string – in this case a form of validation of one’s
post or a reply – the user combines a GET post, an utterance to draw users’ attention
to the post ID, such as check’em, and a customarily a depiction of Christian Bale, who
played the protagonist of Mary Harron’s 2000 film American Psycho, based on the
eponymous novel written by Bret Easton Ellis, and who became an internet meme.
The choice of Patrick Bateman, a highly controversial literary and movie character
conveys numerous implications relevant for the purposes of this thesis. A study
conducted by Christopher Burlingame sums up Bateman as a collection of “the worst
aspects of the male id”. Considering the fact that 4chan was and still is a place full of
pornographic and extremely offensive content, its demographics are predominantly
364CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
male and is also characteristic for its animosity towards women as well as the fact that
online anonymity facilitates sharing radical views (Neo et al., 2016), they could identify
with Bateman on many levels. Burlingame claims that “for both the fictional Bateman
and real-world men (…) the influence of pornography appears to shape their attitudes,
language, and behaviour in terms of how they conceptualize and treat women”. The
fans of Bateman are also willingly ignoring this fact, considering the movie a cult
classic, even though the “critics condemned the portrayal of sexual violence as
pornographic for the way it reduced women to objects and suggested Ellis's novel
normalized patriarchal oppression of women in the way it represented rape and
murder” (Burlingame, 2019).
Just like the controversial contents of 4chan, “Bateman's actions extend to the
most extreme bounds of human behaviour, foregoing all decency; however, at the end
of the novel, it is not perfectly clear how much is real versus how much is a product of
Bateman's fantasies” (Burlingame, 2019). This interpretation implies that Bateman
fulfilled his true desires in his mind only. Same prediction could apply to 4chan’s users,
who would most likely not display their misogyny and racism outside of 4chan, since
it is a controversial topic that could potentially damage their public face, and similarly
to Bateman, they vent by anonymously posting on 4chan, with minimal consequences.
In other words, “the online self becomes a compartmentalized self. In the case of
expressed hostilities or other deviant actions, the person can avert responsibility for
those behaviors” (Suler, 2004). This explains why the picture of Patrick Bateman
pointing at the sound system, explaining the nuances of the latest Huey Lewis and the
374CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
News album to one of his victims seconds before slaughtering him with a fire axe—as
seen in Figure 3—is such an apt fit for this specific 4chan’s posting mechanism.
Figure 3„Check’em, post 193798577” (Anonymous, 2010)
4.9 Links to the incel movement
The major characteristics of Patrick Bateman are almost identical as those of a
prototypical incel, a shortened term signifying an involuntary celibate person, coined
“in the late 1990s by a Canadian woman named Alana” (Zimmer, 2018). One
characteristic trait of every incel would be their deeply ingrained animosity towards
women. They tend to blame women for their problems in life, while completely
overlooking their own repulsive and sexist behaviour and other flaws, ranging from
social ineptitude to narcissism and racism.
384CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
Regarding their online presence, “incel discussion threads often focus on the belief
that men are entitled to sex and disparage ideologies related to women's rights and
feminism” (Caffrey, 2020).
4chan became a meeting point for some of the members of this group, especially after
other, more prominent websites such as Reddit banned their discussions completely
“due to the extremity of incel messages” (Dynel, 2020). Part of the reason why they
resort to using 4chan as their medium of choice is the fact that there are checks and
mechanisms in place that do not outright filter out female visitors, but rather level the
imaginary playing field.
As stated, on 4chan, everyone is anonymous unless they choose to identify
themselves. They are simply anons (a short version for Anonymous, the default
username that is pre-entered when submitting a new post), one homogenous group
with no conception of sex, nationality or ethnicity. Unless they reveal themselves to be
different, either voluntarily or by accident, they will be regarded as every other user,
with no inherent prejudice. That, however, does not mean that the interlocutors
respect each other, or that the quality of discourse is high, but that all these social
factors and variables that heavily influence real-life communication are simply non-
existent on 4chan.
This status quo is enforced by certain identity checks that serve as a filter,
discouraging the users from attempting to differentiate themselves. The most
prevalent one would be the tits or GTFO rule.
394CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
4.10 Tits or GTFO and 4chan’s misogyny
Every time a female user enters 4chan, or any similar male-dominated “confederacy of
interest groups, broadly known as the manosphere” (Ging, 2019) and attempts to
participate, it is only a matter of time before they will be met with negative feedback.
In the case of 4chan, this negative feedback takes a form of an identity check. Users
regard it as tits or GTFO rule. This check is utilised anytime a female poster enters the
discussion by either sharing their picture, replying in a manner that gives away their
sex or outright states it. Invariably, one of the responses will simply state “tits or GTFO
(get the fuck out)”. The user in question is now faced with an ultimatum. Either they
post their naked body and be allowed to speak, or they do not, and their posts will be
disregarded and saged.
The male users require the female user to undergo a virtual form of sexual abuse.
In order to communicate, they must submit to those demands and accept their place
as something lesser, reducing themselves to a sexual object. The chances that an actual
woman goes through with such a bizarre and degrading request are slim, but if they
do, a strong reaction is always guaranteed. The thread then usually revolves around
the female, with people either praising their body and trying to gain their attention or
condemning her behaviour.
Arguably, this is the reason why this check even exists, to eliminate these kinds of
unwanted disruption. A woman in a male-dominated virtual space of this kind is bound
to cause an uproar, and as noted by Filipovic, “these kinds of sexualized insults reflect
attempts to put women in their place, just as rape threats attempt to keep women
404CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
fearful in an effort to relegate them to the domestic sphere” (Filipovic, 2007).
Furthermore, Phillips points at the root of this problem, claiming that “aggressive
speech directed at women is sexist, but it’s symptomatic of something much deeper
and much older than the contemporary attitudes of contemporary men toward
contemporary women”, arguing that this behaviour is rooted in the very foundations
of the Western civilisation, stressing “the significance of classical era” (Phillips, 2015).
To sum up this phenomenon within the context of 4chan, the tits or GTFO check
serves to eliminate any attempt to either change the status quo of 4chan being a male
space and to translate any of the real-world power structures into the virtual discourse
on the webpage. This way, the woman is usually discouraged to participate in the
discussion, or should she comply with the request, serves as a form of entertainment
for the male users. The last option is for her to not disclose her gender at all, therefore
adhering to the unwritten rules of 4chan and simply participating as any other
anonymous user, anon. The other option would be not to participate at all.
This would confirm the claims made by Herring, who states that “when women's
attempts at equal participation are the cause of (male) dissatisfaction—even if voiced
publicly by only a few —and disruption of list functioning, a message is communicated
to the effect that it is more appropriate for women to participate less” (Herring, 1995).
The reasons behind the hostility displayed towards the users who do not respect or
adhere to those rules, causing disagreements and negative reactions, is also supported
by the claim presented by Weber, who argues that such “disputes can be an effective
way for online communities and their members to communicate their boundaries,
414CHAN’S CHARACTERISTIC PHENOMENA AND MECHANISMS
identities, and relationships”, which is something that the users of 4chan tend to do
constantly. (Weber, 2011).
4.11 Other forms of user identification
While most of the users of 4chan simply remain under the handle Anonymous, and refer
to each other utilising its abbreviation anon, there are still some are aware of the rules,
yet choose to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Choosing to do so will in most
cases result in a hostile reaction, even if they are not female.
For these reasons, only a small fraction of users chooses to post on 4chan in a
manner that would make it possible for them to be identified, be it an online handle or
even their real name. Curiously, the tools are there – when posting, user may choose to
use a personal, randomly generated code, which will allow them to post under a unique
handle, while simultaneously preventing anyone else from using it. This is called a
tripcode.
4.12 Tripcodes and tripfags
Tripcodes are a form of identification generally used by users who want to make
their presence permanent. This goes against the whole philosophy of 4chan, and as
such, they must face the unpleasant consequences of using them. As a vehicle to display
user’s hostility towards such user, a special derogatory term is reserved for those who
use a tripcode to identify themselves. They are known as tripfags.
42MORPHOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC ASPECTS OF THE FORUM
5 Morphological and stylistic aspects of the forum
5.8 The curious case of the word fag
Tripfag, this portmanteau of words tripcode and faggot is a term very important
to understand in order to gain an overall understanding of 4chan’s morphological
dynamics. The very term describing a 4chan user is, for reasons unknown, fag or
faggot. This word was originally borrowed from French, meaning “a bundle of sticks,
twigs, or brushwood tied together for use as fuel” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2020).
However, in the North American context, defined in the American Heritage Dictionary
of the English Language it signifies “a term used to refer to a male homosexual”. In the
context of 4chan’s discourse, it serves as a primary unit for further development of
other terminology. The origins of the idea that every member of the forum is a faggot
trace back to the very beginnings of 4chan and the term has been an integral part of its
lexicon ever since.
From a linguistic point of view, fag serves as a specific form of morpheme.
Carrying a certain meaning on its own, in this case referring to member of 4chan, it can
at the same time be devoid of any deeper meaning unless combined with another
morpheme, which then serves as a stem word. It may even be used as a reflexive
pronoun, with users referring to themselves as poorfags, sharing their unsatisfying
financial status, or eurofags, indicating their nationality. There are many other
variations, as seen in Table 3.
43MORPHOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC ASPECTS OF THE FORUM
Word Absolute Frequency
1 newfag 1800
2 samefag 482
3 oldfag 288
4 poorfag 260
5 drawfag 123
6 9fag 93
7 furfag 75
8 richfag 71
9 amerifag 61
10 eurofag 58
Table 3 – most frequent nouns containing the -fag suffix
Depending on the context, the word fag usually does not carry any kind of negative
or positive connotation, as it does outside of 4chan. It is only meant as an offensive
word if the addresser wants it to be, and this can usually be deduced by the context or
the choice of collocation.
This is a phenomenon frequently found in in-group word usage analyses, with
researchers claiming that “such in- group usage will incrementally “defang” words of
their negative connotations, ultimately reshaping the lexical content of the word itself”.
As a result of this process, it then becomes a form of humorous self-reference. It is
possible to observe it in “the in- group usage of terms such as nigger, chink, and fob
(“fresh-off-the-boat” Asian immigrants), which are sometimes used endearingly by
African Americans and Asian Americans, respectively” (H. Samy Alim et al., 2016). In
other words, when the members of an online ingroup “…use words like “addiction,”
“sex,” and “fuck,” the meanings of these will be in part determined by their context of
use; these meanings may not reflect the force of these words to individuals outside the
44MORPHOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC ASPECTS OF THE FORUM
community” (LeBlanc, 2005). This would in turn explain the reason why users do not
view it as a derogatory term.
op is a faggot op is a faggot op is a faggot op is a faggot op is a faggot op is a faggot
Fuck off and kill yourself you ginger faggot .Thank you.
Sure you did faggot Fuckin rekt enjoy diddling grandma nigga
OP IS A SHITTY CUMSWALLOWING FAGGOT CUNT Calligula role gg go 518
>go ew I can't believe you faggots couldn't get noods from this hoe
THE FUCK OUT OF /b/ FUCKING FAGGOT GET THE FUCK OUT OF /b/
!!! FAIL!!!!!LOL nice bait, faggot Ass ass ass Thats some sort of pocket
from them. you neckbeard faggots bitch about them like a bunch of chicks
>.45acp is for dumb faggots she's my favorite amateur since Vicky
NEDERDRAAD sletten editie zijn jullie faggot nog wakker?Sletteneditie
Table 4 – random concordance of the lemma faggot
The word fag, when combined with a root word, is given a certain meaning,
effectively creating a neologism. The root word can be any relevant noun, or
combination of nouns. This results in a great number of possible permutations, with
new ones being coined every day, adapting to new contexts that emerge in 4chan’s
discourse. Looking at the corpus frequency analysis, “fag” is being utilised 23,488
times, taking the 5th place in the most-used nouns in the corpus. This random sample
45MORPHOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC ASPECTS OF THE FORUM
is also very representative, in that it shows some of the most commonly used
collocations, as seen in Table 5 below. Also note an interesting entry by a Dutch user,
who seems to use it as a loan word. The presence of other nationalities is clearly visible,
but no matter the language, they evidently still employ 4chan’s slang lexicon.
Position Word Cooccurrences
1 soc 1056
2 fucking 777
3 fuck 740
4 get 700
5 the 730
6 op 1050
7 you 5120
8 a 5410
9 b 569
10 is 824
Table 5 – most frequent collocations of lemma faggot
5.9 Newfags and oldfags
For the sake of brevity, out of the countless combinations created by the suffix -fag only
several most relevant occurrences shall be discussed in detail. A good example of these
word combinations in use would be the neologisms newfag and oldfag. These are also
antonyms, used to represent the two main types of users, and are based on their
seniority. Since there are no set or traceable cut-offs, such as the date of registration or
number of posts submitted in the forum, the newfags and oldfags tend to argue over
their rights to call themselves or others using one term one or another.
Perhaps the only way to differentiate between these two groups is their attestable
knowledge of 4chan’s rules, lingo, and history. But even someone familiar with all of
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