Screenshot from an iichan.net imageboard

An imageboard (also chan, which itself is short for channel) is a type of Internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. The first imageboards were created in Japan, and many English imageboards today are centered around Japanese culture.

Characteristics of imageboards

Imageboards, similar to bulletin boards, are used for discussion of a variety of topics. The primary focus of imageboards, however, is directed away from text posts, and is instead placed on picture posts. The two share many of the same structures, including separate forums for separate topics, as well as similar audiences. Imageboards are much more transitory with content?-on some boards (especially highly-trafficked ones), the thread deletion time can be as little as 10 minutes. The most popular English-language imageboards tend to revolve around Japanese culture such as CG artwork of anime. In Japan, where imageboards are more common, topics vary widely, ranging from trains to current news.

Imageboards are also different from online galleries in that most of the works posted are not made by the poster, but instead are taken from other online sources: galleries, other imageboards, and edited pictures.

Most imageboards and 2channel-style discussion boards allow (and encourage) anonymous posting and use a system of tripcodes instead of registration. Anonymity is considered to be one of the advantages of an imageboard. Some boards have from time to time removed the ability to post with a name altogether (known as 'forced anonymous/anonymity').

If a user wants to reply to a thread but not bump it, they can put the word sage (Japanese: ??) in the e-mail field. "Ageing" can refer to either bumping a post or putting the word age (Japanese: ??) into the e-mail field. It is considered polite to sage when replying to your own thread, but this is rarely done. On Western imageboards, "sageing" is often seen as a sign of disapproval, as threads with multiple sages are more likely to be deleted automatically as they fall down the board.

In Japan, the imageboard is a much larger cultural symbol, with one guess putting the total number of posts for Futaba's five /b/ boards (four of which are no longer linked to by the main site) at over 56,000,000 and rising.^[1]

Software

There are currently three imageboard software packages in widespread use: Futallaby,^[2] Kusaba,^[3] Wakaba.^[4]

Futallaby is a PHP script based on the Futaba script from Futaba Channel. Although Futallaby is still in use at 1chan,^[5] and the Futallaby source is still freely available, it is no longer in development, and the download page recommends using Wakaba instead, stating that "Wakaba can do everything Futallaby does and so much more."^[2] Futallaby started as a translation of Futaba, later retooled to support XHTML and customizable CSS styles. It is mostly notable for being the first English imageboard script.

Wakaba is written from the ground up in Perl, and a SQL backend to store thread information. Wakaba is very strictly modelled after the Futaba and Futallaby scripts. Wakaba borrows some HTML codes and translated text from Futallaby. It is designed to be more efficient and cleanly written than other scripts that are available, while preserving the same kind of functionality. Wakaba scripts are in use at iichan. Wakaba is one of most popular western imageboard software scripts, used most notably by fchan^[6], and Wakachan.^[7]

Kusaba is modular, written from scratch with PHP for server side scripting, JavaScript for some client side scripting, and with ADOdb Lite for database abstraction to a database, MySQL. The main focus of the development of Kusaba was to code faster and more efficient software for multi-imageboard sites. The center feature of the software is the centralization of the backend for all boards by having a single installation controlling all boards. The creator has discontinued the project in favor of a separate imageboard project using Python called PyIB^[8], going so far as to not renew the kusaba.org domain name. When the site went down, the last version of the software (1.0.4) was hosted on another imageboard site, Megachan, and development has been picked up by Kusaba X, OperatorChan, and Serissa^[9]. Kusaba scripts are in use at 7chan, and Kusaba.^[3]

Imageboards

Futaba Channel

Futaba Channel (?????????), or "Futaba" for short, is a popular, anonymous BBS and imageboard system based in Japan. Its imageboards usually do not distinguish between pornographic and "clean" content(known as NSFW(not safe for work) and SFW(safe for work)), but there is a strict barrier between two-dimensional (drawn) and three-dimensional (CG and photographic) pictures that is heavily enforced and debated.^[10]

4chan

4chan is an English language imageboard based on the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel. This imageboard is based primarily around the posting of pictures (generally related to anime, manga, and popular culture) and their discussion. The Guardian describes it as "at once brilliant, ridiculous and alarming."^[11]

The site and its userbase have received attention from the media for a number of reasons, including posts sporting terrorist threats against schools and sports stadiums,^[12] attacks against Hal Turner on his Internet shows,^[13] and distributed denial-of-service attacks against eBaum's World^[14][15] and taking part in Project Chanology.^[16]

Many Internet memes have originated there, including lolcats^[17][18][19] and rickrolling.

420chan

420chan.org is an imageboard where people discuss recreational drug use, professional wrestling, politics, philosophy, and cross-dressing, among other topics.^[20]

In December 2006 and January 2007, users of English-language imageboards attacked Hal Turner's website through methods such as denial of service attacks; more advanced attacks were orchestrated through 420chan, and Turner's site remained offline or under fire for many months. Hal Turner redirected the traffic at one point to 420chan.org, causing its bandwidth to take a hit, which was quickly fixed by the administration.^[21][13][22]

References

See also

• Oekaki

External links

• Overchan (a directory of English-language imageboards)
• Overchan V.2 (an imageboard portal)
• The Society for the Study of Modern Image Board Culture

de:Imageboard es:Tablón de imágenes fr:Imageboard it:Imageboard ja:????? pl:Imageboard ru:????????? fi:Kuvafoorumi