Table of Contents
Channel4
4-ch is a multi-textboard site that has been around for almost 20 years, as of now. It also happens to be the largest English-language textboard site on the internet.
Despite it being the largest, it has a small userbase, which is considered by many to be the biggest issue holding Channel4 back from being worth it to visit Channel4 more than once every few months. The fact it continues to exist is something of a miracle in and of itself.
Board Impressions
Despite being the largest English-language textboard site… it’s quite slow for a modern site, especially when compared to 4chan, but moderately fast for a textboard site.
The only way I can describe the community is as ‘normal’ - users of the site come off as pretty much sane…at least that’s the impression I get from most of the boards. Basically, on the surface, Channel4 comes off as a ‘mainstream’ website…despite the fact it is anything but that.
There are slight differences between most of the boards, I bet the same 30 or some people frequent multiple boards, so the differences are more in how one presents oneself on each board. The most significant exception would probably be DQN, where the overall ‘style’ is radically different from the rest of Channel4.
Boards of note include:
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- It’s for general talk on anything that doesn’t fit into the other boards. The most common threads are those commenting on the state of the site.
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- A board dedicated to internet culture, and a pretty good place to go to discuss the Chanverse and related topics.
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- Equivalent of the Japanese VIP board. I don’t go here all that often but it’s interesting looking at the board every now and then.
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- A board dedicated to ASCII and SJIS art. I previously commented that it was likely one of the last places online where people have fun with Ꜳ, but it was pointed out to me on DQN that this was too vague. I now repent by pointing out that there are probably around 5 places total online, which means the Ꜳ bar is definitely not one of the last places online, as there are at least 4 others. I sincerely apologize for my previous statement.
History
Channel4 was originally founded in 2004 by Squeeks, apparently as a sort of test. Squeeks had run the site half-heartedly until 2014, when he handed the reins over to bps after a period of downtime. During the period Squeeks ran the show, Channel4 was part of the Idlechan confederation.
After bps took over, he promised a bunch of changes…but as far as I know, he didn’t actually deliver on most of his promises.
bps ran the site until sometime in 2020A). After some downtime, he handed the site over to ssz. ssz was apparently a moderator on the site prior to this point, but I honestly didn’t even know there were mods still on the site until he took over.
From what I can tell, ssz has been running the site pretty well. He’s made quite a few changes and additions, and he appears to be delivering on his promises.
Misc
2ch Navigator
Channel4 includes an old tool that helps English speakers navigate 2channel. It was broken for some time, and then fixed at some time unknown to me. However, as 2channel is blocked outside of Japan and the US, the site still appeared broken to Europeans. ssz fixed this by having the navigator point to 2ch.sc instead.
Trivilinks
- My own estimates put the number of users between 30 and 3000. I have no way of knowing for sure though.
- I usually check 4-ch out once every few months or so. The (lack of) speed makes checking daily, or even weekly, a bit underwhelming.
- Hello DQN!
- I was actually the one to suggest having the 2ch navigator redirect to 2ch.sc.
- I had suddenly remembered both the existence of Channel4 and this article, so I’ll note something here. Part of Channel4’s issue appears to be the userbase’s unwillingness to talk about things. I’m not sure why this is, but I know that they don’t seem interested in talking to me at least.B) This is the main reason I pretty much forget it exists every now and then and I’m guessing that’s the main reason others keep forgetting it too.