These are a few things I have observed in the Chanverse that I believe are (moderately or serious?) issues.
And it is my opinion, that if classical chan culture wishes to survive, it must overcome these issues.
Many may disagree with me and I am willing to listen.
Despite the incredible age of many chans, they have changed very little. I should probably specify that I mean change in the software and not the culture - we’ll get to that soon.
Channel4, for example, hadn’t gained anything new since ~2015 and only experienced slight change in 2020 through ssz’s takeover.
While it is certainly impressive that this site has been around for almost 2 decades, what has significantly changed?
Now readers shouldn’t get confused, I don’t mean to say that anything fundamental should change, rather, I believe that some minor changes are sufficient.
What I have in mind is more like what the 4chan-x script, together with Onee-chan, does to 4chan. The script extends the functionality of 4chan significantly, while still having it feel like a chan.
Other chans should aim to build such features directly into their scripts.
I identify this as an issue due to how new users would perceive this. A new user doesn’t see the same thing a chanfag sees. They see a really old-looking website, one that (sometimes vaguely) resembles 4chan and old forums, they may then be under the impression the site is dead - we’ll get into this more.
New users may also find the lack of 4chan-x-like features to make using these sites frustrating - I certainly do.
Chans seem scared of growing larger. This is fairly understandable.
Chans don’t wish to lose their unique culture and a large influx of new users is sure to kill or significantly dilute this unique culture.
However, chans (outside of 4chan) are also very slow. In fact, users (especially on Channel4, last I checked) seem to also frequently complain about this lack of speed. Slow chans also contribute to the perception new users have that the site is dead.
The thing is, chans will remain slow as long as there aren’t enough users. I am certainly not the first to notice this, there are, without a doubt, many chan dwellers that have also realised this.
This leads to a bit of a dilemma. Chans are slow, they can only get faster if they gain more users, but more users means the culture may be lost.
The solution most users seemed to land on was to simply freeze. If neither option is desirable, making no decision is most desirable. This is in itself a decision however - a choice has been made to keep the chans slow.
Currently, chans (and their culture) seem to be in a slow decline. In my opinion, I have identified the most pressing issues. It’s possible I have missed some, or I mis-identified those I have noticed, for that, I can only apologise.
What I desire is for further discussion on solving these issues - and to act on those discussed solutions. Chans should not remain stagnant forever, they must evolve for the culture to survive.