Theoretically, 4-ch's simple post system should make it the biggest English-speaking forum in the world. (lol)
So, what makes a forum popular? Let's look at the most popular forums in the world for hints:
#1: 2channel. Popular because it stayed up while other anonymous forums went down; consolidated a bunch of different forums such as Ayashii World. The Live TV forums also probably contributed. There may be other factors which I don't know.
#2: Go-Gaia. Attracted little kids because of its avatar system. But that's not the userbase we want, is it?
#3: IGN+VaultNet. I don't know why this is popular, I don't know much about the history of this BBS.
#4,5: FaceTheJury and Nexopia. These are popular because you can just spam any damn message you want, it's like AIM. Maybe 4-ch should open a bunch of gimmick boards like 2ch has.
#6: Partyflock. Popular because it created a large number of forums to plan parties in different areas of the Netherlands.
#7: Off Topic. I don't know why this is popular, I don't know much about the history of this BBS.
#8: PaintBallNation. Popular because it created a large number of paintball forums and became the number one place to go for paintball.
#9: Something Awful. Popular because the $10 registration fee keeps out little kids, and because of its dedicated moderation team. Not popular because of some inherent superiority; go back to archive.org and see SA in 2002 if you don't beleive me on that.
#10: Fok.nl. I don't know why this is popular, I don't know much about the history of this BBS.
>>2 Now's your chance! Go for the kill!
>>3-1000 Discuss theories of attracting people!
>>51: I think you might be confusing "culture" with "gimmick."
>>53
Culture isn't anything but a continuous accumulation of gimmicks.
I feel sorry for you if you think otherwise.
>>54: Granted… but that's a rather cynical way of looking at things.
No, Culture is a monolithic amassing of Important Works of Art by Dead People!
>>55
I dunno, I like gimmicks...
>>56 is the funniest thing I've read all day.
I need to get out more.
This board isn't that popular because a majority of Westerners still confuse Japanese and Chinese. And worst of all, this board isn't so much Japanophilic as it is otaku-centric. The discussion of Japanese culture at large is tiny compared to discussion about otaku culture.
> This board isn't that popular because a majority of Westerners still confuse Japanese and Chinese.
what
ie: They think all asians are same.
I saw a how Japanese girl named "Ching-wung Fei" today.
...or was it a Chinese guy?
Maybe it means that Western people don't care about Asain people?
I care about Asain people!
>>65
No, it means that Western people don't care about good spelling habits. ;)
Great, I made a typo. Please set my face on fire in the name of spelling habits and Adolf Hitler.
Oops. Forgot to login. LOL.
>>65, 69
I set your face on fire in the name of anonymous posting!
(and Adolf Hitler)
たくさんの板も仕掛けも意味なし。
たくさんの板が人を呼ぶんではなくて、人が多いから板が分割されたことを知っといたほうがいい。
今の2chは人が人を呼ぶ状態であって、そんな今の2chを真似をしても意味がない。
とりあえず、君達はどうやって2chを知った？
俺は、違法ソフトや、携帯電話について調べていたら2chにたどり着いた。
つまり、調べごと（検索）していたら2chにたどりついた。これがヒントだ。
分かったら早く糞してベットに入るんだ。
Machine translation
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
The meanings are not in a lot of boards and beginning either.
The person is not called, and the board is learning because it is crowded as for be divided.
a lot of boards
The person ..person.. calls 2ch today, and such 2ch today is not significant even if it
mimics it.
Very did you learn 2ch for the time being?
When I examined illegal software and the cellular phone, I reached 2ch
at last.
In a word, it traced to 2ch and it attached whenever it was each
examination (retrieval). This is a hint.
It enters the excrement bed early when understanding.
BizÖingo is DQN...
Can someone do a better translation of >>72?
>>76
a little bit better (translated by http://nifty.com/globalgate):
Many boards and a mechanism have no meaning. It is better to know that many boards did not call people, and the board was divided since there were many people. The present 2ch(es) are in the state where people call people, and even if they imitate 2ch(es) of such now, they are meaningless. for the time being, you got to know 2ch(es) how -- ? -- when I was investigating about illegal software and a cellular phone, I arrived at 2ch(es). That is, when carrying out the whole investigation (search), it arrived at 2ch(es). This is a hint. If it understands, excrement will be carried out early and it will go into a bed.
I still don't get it.... orz
guesswork:
Many boards had no purpose in the beginning.
Many boards didn't advertise, and they were split up as they grew in popularity.
Nowadays, people find 2ch by word-of-mouth, so there's no point copying 2ch.
How did I find 2ch?
I was looking for illegal software for a cellular phone, and I arrived at 2ch. That is, my search led me to 2ch. This is a hint.
If you understand, throw this shit away and go to bed.
All I know is, I need to continue working on my Japanese so I can do more than just lurk 2ch. There are some ok English boards for anime/game/otaku related discussion, but most don't have enough traffic or the members are not 'hardcore' enough.
This was already stated before, but I feel that it's a very important point.
The difference between this board and 2ch is that 2ch caters to all levels of Japanese society. A true Western equivalent of 2ch would cater to all levels of European and American society. This board obviously caters to a very specific group - young Japanophiles. That's the primary reason why it will never come close to the popularity of 2ch.
> This board obviously caters to a very specific group - young Japanophiles.
That's not supposed to be that way, though.
In that case more non-japanophile niche boards may be a good idea, to encourage discussions that isn't japanophile bather. So that those dicussions won't be lost amongst the more otaku/japanophile style general babble. Judging from my mom, having a bunch of kids babbling about random general silly things would be a turnoff for her, and it would make her feel at east to at first spend time at a board more fit for her and her likes before she would feel like mingling with the general "riffraff". I probably should mention that my mom annoys me sometimes. She's an intelligent woman, and interesting. But being her kid is not too good sometimes. (mom dragged into discussion since i was assuming 4ch was trying to attract people of all sorts, and not just young teenagers. Not that i'm a teenager anymore but that's beside the point)
Create, and they will come. Provide good enough atmosphere and they will return. The latter however being a responsebility for all of the visitors at a board and something mods and similar only can encourage.
The reason for why i've never bothered visiting world4chan is mainly because i never ever actually noticed it.
I've been visting 4chan for a year by now, but it's pretty much mainly two boards i visit, and once in a blue moon wander off to the other image boards. Since i virtually never surf with the frame on, world4chan is an easily ignorable, cryptical link on the other side of the top. Had i know, i definitely would have visited it though. C'est la vie.
> encourage discussions that isn't japanophile bather.
I suggested to group the existing otaku boards together and make up a new group, "culture" and "social life" which could be used to expand the site with new boards aimed at a different audience than just otaku:
http://4-ch.net/req/kareha.pl/1122891831/31
Creating new boards is a pretty dodgy matter, though. You always run into the chance of not enough earnest users coming in and the whole board then slowly devolving into some kind of gimmick shit.
As of now, the policy seems to have been "if there's enough demand / too much variety on an already existing board" for creating new boards. I don't know if it would be sensible to depart from that just yet.
>>83 *banter
note to self, trying to type more than a word after just having woken up = bad. -_-;;
>84 As of now, the policy seems to have been "if there's enough demand / too much variety on an already existing board" for creating new boards. I don't know if it would be sensible to depart from that just yet.
Probably not, not until we get more regulars to this place, at least.
Clearly, Achewood has the answer:
http://img360.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lolinternet3wc.gif
Are you sure it's not supposed to be that way? Because when I go to 4-ch.net, I see anime-style characters doing orz. Tell me who else can this site possibly be catering too?
>>88
Basically: everybody (with the exception of people who cannot behave and therefore get banned). It's just a matter of communicating that to people. No need to register on here, no need to associate with any kind of clique, nuffin'.
This site is pretty much what the users decide to make out of it.
I agree the anime style logo on the frontpage might put off some people (though it's cute!). But I doubt that cute little drawings expresses "JAPANOPHILES ONLY IN HERE!" to most people...
I like the image, and I think it's very cute as well, but it obviously says "there are otaku inside" -- c'mon there's even no place to discuss Western comics.
Manga are comic books, why not replace the manga board with a general comic board; let the American comic readers and manga readers mingle, debate, and maybe change peoples perception.
I don't think it's a good idea to replace boards. If anything, add some new or change the rules about the old ones.
>>90
Would a giant pot make you think "there are cultists inside" or somesuch?
Okay, look, people. It's very simple. The reason 4-ch isn't particularly popular is this: there's a hyphen in the URL.
>>94
If this was Slashdot, I'd rate your post 1, "Funny".
Reason #249 why this can't be the American equivalent of 2ch:
It's too heavily moderated. There is a known admin and he can ban you or delete your posts at his discretion. I understand that rules are needed; for instance, no illegal activities, no advertisement. But on this site and also world4ch it's easy to get banned just for being a stupid jerk. While 2ch is a zoo of stupid jerks, and no one gets in trouble for it. I was banned on world4ch for making fun of Koreans, someone was almost banned on this board for being a Nida and demanding compensation. Stuff like that would not even raise on eyebrow on 2ch, that's why so many people have flocked there, they have a chance to be idiots without the threat of being scolded for it.
> American equivalent
I should have wrote "foreign equivalent." Sorry!
> get banned just for being a stupid jerk.
I'm curious how much of this is actually happening.
Some of the iichan imageboards only ban people if they're actually abusing the board in some way (linkspam, automated flooding, browser-crashing links or images, those sort of things). That seems like a good policy.
> someone was almost banned on this board for being a Nida and demanding compensation
what
That never happened. So far, the only bans that have been handed out were for people who severely spammed the boards.
And it's not true that all of 2ch is a stupid zoo of jerks. True, there are many boards in which you can act stupid and get away with it but there's also many boards where you cannot. In fact, a lot of boards are merely doubles of existing ones, only difference that the one gets actively moderated and the other doesn't.
And people get banned from 2ch, too. But that very rarely happens anymore these days.
> That never happened. So far, the only bans that have been handed out were for people who severely spammed the boards.
Read this thread: http://4-ch.net/nihongo/kareha.pl/1102656968/
>>100
AFAIK, no ban has been handed out, though.
And the argument still stands: Until we get big enough to split up boards between moderated and unmoderated, all boards will continue to get moderated.
Bans have been and will be the exception (7 bans so far that are still in effect), most likely your stuff will simply get deleted if you post shit that you shouldn't (and even that should seldomly happen).
PS: I think it would be a good idea, when we expand, that a board gets put up where users can discuss issues of moderation, self-moderation and related stuff.
Come on, idyit. On 2ch, bans are handed out for entire subnets. Why did you think your posts don't go through from some computers?
(although, I was banned once for posting a picture of Yukorin... but that was quickly handled)
I'd never ban you, Shii. You're just too cute.
>>105
Either we require login from users from your ISP because of abuse, or the thread is marked members only. Please login and then back up to view.
>>106
username: vipper
password: dqndqnlol
>>107
GJ!
Well, after reading >>105, I can say that the author doesn't know his stuff as well as he likes to impress people with.
If the account in >>107 should expire or something, I zipped up the thread linked in >>105:
http://rapidshare.de/files/5735230/587.zip.html
>>105
The community part is pretty much the exact opposite of 4-ch
>>112
Please calm down!
I'm getting paid to post in this thread RIGHT NOW.
>>115 >>Who the hell is using these services?!<<
Rich people? ....¬_¬'
I'm getting royalties for >>116's posts!
Why do rich people need their own popular forums? They can just buy a WELL subscription.
I am the owner of forumelves... people use my forum to help getting started. Before they launch, or as they launch they use it to interact with memebers and get it more popular.
Quiet, you. Just sit back and be made fun of like a good boy!
If a forum needs to "launch", it's not being made for the right reasons.
You're not who we're confused by. What we're wondering is what sort of nutheads are starting a forum that they are willing to pay for special posts to get off the ground. As No. 122 implied, a forum is supposed to be an organic thing centered around a group of interested people, not a revenue generator like a commercial website.
I know some people have high hopes for their purposeless new anime forums and beg people to come post, but that's their problem, and in the natural order of things their forums should just wither and die. They shouldn't get a "community transplant" to stay afloat.
By the way, nice job advertising on Million Dollar Homepage and so forth, that's how I found your site. (Although I'm just really bored and I am not interested in buying your services, so maybe you targeted the wrong market with those ads.)
That reminds me, I kind of like the aesthetics of the million dollar homepage, but most of the content on it is pure shit, for obvious reasons. I think it would be cool to do a similar thing for free, to let it be more interesting and creative. However, there are some obvious problems with the idea, such as how to allocate pixels to people.
(http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ for those of you who don't know of it.)
Wow, what a brilliant idea. That guy really is going to make a million bucks. Wish I'd have thought of that; hell, I'd be happy with just $10k.
I am Japanese.
Please enjoy the site that I have managed.
I am American.
Please enjoy the sage that I have managed.
Re >>114-115
I used to hear stories about people making multiple accounts on their own forums and talking to themselves in order to make it seem lively and get others interested. I always dismissed those stories as apocryphal, but I guess not only were they true, the craft has now been commercialized.
Really makes you wonder. Like, wouldn't people see through that sort of thing? I could see it happen on a totally anonymous forum, but with registration, you must have to be a good liar indeed. And of course the forum's credibility would go to nil if the real users found out.
> the forum's credibility
lol
>>131 Here:
Nevermind. Found it.
Even in an anonymous forum, things like writing styles can be dead giveaways. I guess if you have the time, it doesn't matter though.
Why do you claim that it is much harder to post with several accounts on a registration-only forum than to post with several names, or anonymously, on an anonymous board?
BTW: Anyone else find it funny that http://www.rentpixelads.com/ is advertizing on http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ ?
>>135
No... that's their business model. They rent out ads on the MDH and hope to recoup the investment they made buying the MDH's pixels.
Yeah, but it's still kind of funny to advertise on the page of someone who is at least in part competition.
>>137
Actually, it's not competition at all. MDH is the only one that people are actually visiting; the other "pixel" sites can only place ads there and pray people click on them.
I put an ad for 4-ch on rentpixelads, i hope someone sees it ('-`)
Ahh, I didn't quite get that from the advertising. Good luck with the 4-ch ad.
Since 2-ch style boards are so different from more conventionally designed webboards, it will take time to catch on, IMO. First you're likely to get people who find it new, and different. After a while, it won't seem so weird anymore, and traffic will increase much more often.
>>134
Most registration-based boards I've been to tend to be smaller, more familial places, where everyone sort of knows everyone else. But even when that's not true (e.g., Slashdot), you still have registration dates and post counts -- which tend to be a dead giveaway, unless you're willing to wait a long time between making your multiple accounts -- and there is the additional hassle factor of registering and such.
It's funny how we no longer respect our elders in the same way we used to, but have gone back to doing exactly that online.
Just look at the reactions you get on slashdot if your UID is > 10000 or the way something awful treats its newest users.
>>141
You could build a sociology textbook out of those two sentences.
>>142
Nominating you for second edition.
You could build a sociology textbook out of most anything. As long as it's not too profound.
Well, getting back to theories of attracting people...
a short flash movie based on the grandpa/junior threads in DQN?
>>146
They need to be more developed characters first.
Maybe we should have a short flash movie based on something that is actually funny
go go gadget ass gadget gadgeter
