Imageboard
From Includipedia, the inclusionist encyclopedia
An imageboard is an internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. Popular imageboards can be hit with bandwidth consumption reaching up to eighteen terabytes per month and beyond.
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[edit] Characteristics of imageboards
Imageboards could be most simply described as a bulletin board focused on pictures instead of text posts; they share many of the same structures, including separate forums for separate topics, as well as similar audiences. However, imageboards are much more transitory with content—-on some boards (especially high-traffic 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 many times more common, topics vary widely, including trains and 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, such as the /b/ (random) board on Futaba and 4chan, have from time to time instituted a ban on names 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: 下げ) in the e-mail field. "Ageing" can refer to either bumping a post or putting the word "age" (Japanese: 上げ) into the email field. It is considered polite to sage when replying to your own thread, but rarely followed. 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]
[edit] Software
There are currently three imageboard software packages currently in widespread use: Futallaby, Kusaba, Wakaba.
Futallaby is a PHP imageboard script based on the Futaba script from Futaba Channel. Although Futallaby is still in use at 1chan, and 4chan uses a highly customized version of Futallaby named Yotsuba for its imageboards, and the Futallaby source is still freely available, it is no longer in development, and the download page recommends using Wakaba instead stating "Wakaba can do everything Futallaby does and so much more." 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.
Wakabais imageboard software 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 code and translated text from Futallaby. Wakaba 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, and also 4-ch. Wakaba is one of most popular western imageboard software scripts, used most notably by 420chan, Wtfux, and Wakachan.
Kusaba is modular imageboard software, 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. One of the purposes of kusaba project is to code a faster and more efficient software for image boards. One of its main features is the fact that the software spans over each board without multiple installations, meaning there is no recursive editing, therefore Kusaba supports multiple boards of varying types requiring only one installation for an entire website. It supports modules which can be created and distributed among installations, adding functionality to the already robust software. Kusaba scripts are in use at 7chan, lolikun, and kusaba.
[edit] Imageboards
[edit] Futaba Channel
Futaba Channel (ふたば☆ちゃんねる), 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, but there is a strict barrier between two-dimensional (drawn) and three-dimensional (CG and photographic) pictures that is heavily enforced and debated.
[edit] 4chan
4chan (Japanese: Yotsuba, lit. "four leaves") was intended to be an English language version of the famous Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel. It is by far the most popular English language imageboard website.
[edit] Other Imageboards
Although 4chan is by far the largest English-language board, there are a number of other notable boards. For example iichan/WAKAchan is a board with a distributed hosting plan. They have a large variety of specifically-themed boards. Other image boards sites that are out there, among others, include: 7chan.org, lolikun.org, and 12chan.org(requires password from IRC in order to save bandwidth). Other active chans include 4chanarchive, not4chan, Wikichan, 420chan, 573chan, fchan, Gurochan, desuchan, Freechan.
A number of boards sites have set up what are called /i/nvasion boards after 4chan banned discussion of attacking other websites. These "/i/nvasion boards" have harassed, among others, Hal Turner, and Tom Green.
Los Angeles's local Fox affiliate (FOX11) ran a segment on imageboard culture, spawning a number of memes about how "Anonymous" is an "internet hate machine."[2][3]
[edit] Notes and references
[edit] External links
- Overchan (a directory of English-language imageboards)
- Overchan V.2 (an imageboard portal)
- The Society for the Study of Modern Image Board Culturede:Imageboard
