4chan

4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images. 4chan's collaborative-community format is copied from one of the most popular forums in Japan, Futaba Channel. Different boards are dedicated to different topics, from Japanese anime, manga, and culture to videogames, music, and photography. Users do not need to register a username before participating in the community. Feel free to click on a board that interests you, and jump right in—anyone can contribute!

In order to access the full site, you must first read and agree to the terms of the disclaimer. To access the disclaimer simply click any board and a dialogue will appear. Your response will be cookied so you'll only need to do this once (providing you don't clear your cache/cookies afterwards). If you wish to browse the site using frames, visit /frames/.

Users are encouraged to participate actively in our community, but only after they have familiarized themselves with the rules and this FAQ. Breaking the rules may result in post deletion, a temporary ban, or in some cases, permanent banishment. Understand the rules before you begin posting!

To post as "Anonymous", simply do not fill in the [Name] field when submitting content. Information such as your personal IP address is viewable only to the administrators, and is not made publicly available.

No user registration process is available. If you're worried about somebody impersonating you, consider using a tripcode to help validate your identity.

To start a new thread, you must attach an image. 4chan is primarily an imageboard after all! When replying to an already existing thread, no attachment is required.

Yes. To reply to a thread with an image of your own, click the [Reply] link and fill in the post box as you normally would, making sure to specify an image for attachment. If you plan on replying to a thread with multiple images, consider using the noko function to help speed up the process.

To quote a portion of text, simply place a pointer (">") in front of the text you wish to highlight (ex. ">This is a quote"). To link to and highlight an entire post, place two pointers in front of its unique post number (ex. ">>210981"). Cross-linking to another 4chan board is also possible, by placing three pointers before a board letter, followed by a post number (ex. ">>>/x/1208196").

Only certain boards allow you to mask plot-spoiling content. To mark your image as a spoiler, check the [X Spoiler Image?] box before submission. Spoilerizing text makes it unreadable to others until they mouse over it. To spoilerize a comment, place [spoiler] tags around the text you wish to hide (ex. "[spoiler]SPIKE DIES![/spoiler]"). Misuse of these tags may result in a ban.

Tripcodes can help verify a user's identity to others, and are a type of pseudo-registration. To use a normal tripcode, place an octothorpe ("#") followed by a word or short phrase after what you've entered into the [Name] field (ex. "User#password"). Upon submission, the server will generate the hash unique to that particular word or phrase. The previous example would display "User !ozOtJW9BFA" after being posted.

Important note: A tripcode is generated only using the text entered after the octothorpe. Your entered name, IP address, cookie information, etc. do not affect the output. Normal tripcodes are *not* secure; they can be cracked with relative ease. For a more secure solution, see secure tripcodes.

A secure tripcode can be generated by placing two octothorpes in the [Name] field, as opposed to one as with a normal tripcode (ex. "User##password"). Secure tripcodes use a secret key file on the server to help obscure their password. The previous example would display "User !!Oo43raDvH61" after being posted.

A capcode is a way of verifying someone as a 4chan staff member. Normal users do not have the ability to post using a capcode. A moderator capcode will display "## Mod" after their name. Likewise, the administrator capcode displays "## Admin". Often times, a moderator will post as "Anonymous ## Mod" in order to keep their identity secret (which is policy). Janitors do not receive a capcode.

Entering "sage" (by itself) into the [E-mail] field while replying will cause the thread not to bump to the top of the page, while still counting against its reply count. Threads that reach their reply limit can no longer be bumped, causing them to sink to the back pages and be pruned more quickly. "saging" is a form of user moderation. Abusing the sage function by "sage-bombing" is frowned upon and may result in a ban.

By entering "noko" into the [E-mail] field (by itself). After submission, you will be returned to the reply view of the thread you just posted in.

Reporting posts for review is extremely encouraged, as it helps us remove rule breaking and/or illegal content faster. To file a report, check the box in the upper lefthand corner of the specific post you wish to flag, and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the [Report] button. A confirmation dialogue will pop up and ask if the post you are reporting is a rule violation, or if it contains illegal material. Be sure to mark this appropriately!

Important note: Submitting false reports will result in a ban. This policy is in place to discourage abuse of the system; it is not meant to dissuade users from submitting legitimate reports.

When you submit a post, you have the option of entering a deletion password in the [Password] field. If you do not specify a password, one will be automatically generated for you and cookied to your browser. As long as your browser retains this cookie, you will be able to delete posts made using it (the box should appear to be filled in automatically). Deletion is carried out similar to reporting. To delete your post(s), check the box in the upper lefthand corner of the specific post(s) you wish to remove, and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the [Delete] button. The password field should be automatically filled in. If it is not, you must manually enter in the password you selected. Checking the [X File Only] box will cause only the image to be deleted, leaving the comment untouched.

All threads have a set bump limit (varies board to board). When this limit is reached, a thread will no longer "bump" to the top of the board, causing the thread to descend through the pages until it is marked for deletion and pruned. This method of post-limiting, while sometimes inconvenient, assures that content is kept fresh on the boards.

"Work safe" is defined as "content that is safe for viewing in the average working environment". Boards that default to the Burichan (blue) theme are to be considered work safe. Posting content that is not suitable for this environment may result in a ban. The goal behind enforcing this rule is to keep the cleaner sections of the site accessible to those in restricted viewing situations.

Threads expire and are pruned automatically by our software at a relatively high rate. Since boards are limited to six or eleven pages, content is usually available for only for a few days before it is removed. Most times, your post was probably flagged as old and marked for deletion by our software, however in some cases it may have been removed by our staff. We ask that users refrain from reposting material that they believe may have been deleted by the administration.

No. Content that expires is removed from our system entirely. Archives are not available. Please do not e-mail us requesting content that has been pruned, for it is impossible for us to assist you. Try placing a request on the /r/ board instead.

No. Unless a user elects to include an e-mail address in their post, there is no way to contact that user privately (outside of the imageboard). More details regarding our storage of personal information can be found here.

"Anonymous" is the name assigned to a poster who does not enter text in to the [Name] field. Anonymous is not a single person, but rather, represents the collective whole of 4chan. He is a god amongst men. Anonymous invented the moon, assassinated former President David Palmer, and is also harder than the hardest metal known to man: diamond. His power level is rumored to be over nine thousand. He currently resides with his auntie and uncle in a town called Bel-Air (however, he is West Philadelphia born and raised). He does not forgive.

A meme is basically an idea that is easily transferable from one mind to another. Think "catch-phrases". Memes are created when a large group of users come to identify with a particular image or slogan. Their continued [mis]use will bring about the destruction of the universe.

"GETs" happen on the approach to significant or unique post numbers on a board, usually /b/ (ex. "5MGET", "1234567GET", "7777777GET", etc.). GETs are sought after by many, and normally over one thousand users will compete for one, often posting very quickly in order to better their chances of achieving the desired GET number. GETs are no longer automatically "stickied". This feature was disabled due to some alleging that the moderation team was rigging them behind the scenes. That, and because GETs tend to implode on themselves within minutes of being posted.

"Stickied" threads are posts that are stuck (hence "sticky/stickied") to the top of a board's index page. A stickied thread is denoted by a small thumbtack icon placed next to its post number. Threads can only be stuck by moderators, and cannot be saged or otherwise unstuck by users. Trolling, sage-bombing, or reporting a sticky may result in a ban. Threads on /b/ are no longer frequently stickied due to constant user abuse of the feature.

The blotter provides a short brief of recent site developments. It is minimized by default, and must be expanded by clicking the [Show/Hide] link below the submission form. A full list of blotter updates is available here.

4chan maintains a number of Atom & RSS feeds, which are located at the following URLs:

Image Boards: http://subdomain.4chan.org/board/index.rss (RSS)
Text Boards: http://dis.4chan.org/atom/board (Atom)
/rs/: RSS
4chan DevBlog: Atom / RSS
4chan Status: Atom / RSS

Note: You'll need to fill in the appropriate subdomain and board information yourself (since it varies).

The 4chan Firefox Extension is developed by DamageInc, and made available on the tools page. If you use Firefox, be sure to download it!

The 4chan /f/lash archive is a page dedicated to the preservation of user-made 4chan related Flash. To inquire about making a submission, please contact the administrator.

Trial boards are added every now and then to broaden the scope of the website. We open new trial boards as resources permit, based on requests from the userbase. If a board does not perform well, it is removed to make way for others. A board's trial status is denoted by its name appearing italicized on the navigation menu.

Short answer: no. Long answer: maybe. Boards are added only if we believe there is enough interest to drive quality traffic to them. Presently, there aren't enough available resources to allow the addition of new trial boards.

Here are four common solutions to problems users might experience:

1. Enable first & third party cookies.
2. Enable JavaScript.
3. Don't block HTTP referals.
4. Whitelist 4chan.org and all of its subdomains.

If 4chan's servers detect that you have JavaScript and cookies enabled, but not HTTP referals, you will receive the following error while attempting to post:

"Detected JavaScript + cookies + blocked referer. Your post looks like spam this way, so either enable referers or disable JavaScript and cookies."

Follow the instructions given and either enable HTTP referals, or disable JavaScript and cookies. Read above for more ideas.

DownThemAll's default image filter does not correctly ignore our /cb-[n]ws/ links, causing it to mistakenly download HTML files. To correct this, use the following as a regular expression with all other filters disabled: /src\/[^\/]+$/

If a black and white "4chan.org" image is being displayed instead of thumbnails, your browser/firewall/proxy is blocking the transmission of referals, which is triggering our anti-leech filter. Disable anything that might be blocking your browser's referer from being sent to our servers, and refresh the page.

If you're seeing our active interstitial advertisement more than once per day (24 hours), your browser probably has third-party cookies disabled (Safari and some alternative browsers have this as their default setting). Enabling the acceptance of third-party cookies, or whitelisting 4chan.org and Etology.com should clear up this issue. Adblock and NoScript might also impact the proper display of our advertisements. We politely request that users refrain from using such add-ons while browsing 4chan, or add 4chan.org and Etology.com to their whitelist(s).

Unfortunately, our active interstitial does not work correctly on the Apple iPhone & iPod touch. In order to bypass the interstitial and view images directly, click the filename above the thumbnail as opposed to the thumbnail itself.

The 4chan Status page will be available and contain information regarding downtime when the main site is unreachable.

Our definition of "positive contribution" is the submission of substantial, helpful, friendly, and humorous posts to the boards, along with the uploading of quality images and files. We feel that positive contribution should be treated as a way of donating to 4chan without actually having to fork over cash.

Contribution is important because it is what drives this website. If we didn't have a dedicated pool of users who frequently contribute, we'd be yet another stagnant run of the mill forum. But we aren't. By having an increasing number of diverse and quality contributors, 4chan becomes more unique, interesting, and enjoyable to use.

It's really quite easy. If you have something to add to a topic: reply. If you have an interesting, high quality, neat, rare, etc. picture: upload it! Share your mind and image collections with us. Don't just leech! Give back to the community which you take from. It's a simple and effective way to grow the site. Before contributing, make sure you're acquainted with the rules.

Unfortunately, at this time, users are unable to donate funds to 4chan. The site's content is considered too risque by most online payment processors, causing them to deny or suspend their services to us. Payment by check, cash, or money order is also not being accepted at this time.

Money. And our talented staff! But mostly—money. 4chan costs upwards of $47,000 per year to operate, so sometimes things can get a bit hairy in terms of our financial situation. Because the site is provided to the end user free of charge, we've faced many challenges over the past few years keeping the site afloat. In December of 2006, we announced the switch from in-house advertising to the AdBrite marketplace, and in October of 2007, we moved some of our adspace over to Etology. In November of 2007, we ceased relations with AdBrite. You can help support the site by making sure you have advertisements and cookies from 4chan.org and Etology.com unblocked, and also by clicking ads relevant to your interests on a daily basis.

Alternative donations such as computer hardware, bandwidth, hosting, etc. cannot be accepted. Thanks for the offer though!

Lots of people (who shall remain nameless) have helped staff 4chan over the years. Without their support, we wouldn't be where we are today. Here's to Anonymous ## Mod! \( '-')c[~]

moot, founder and sole proprietor of 4chan, is its primary administrator. Two other "admins" exist; one who handles programming, and the other, systems administration. Click here for contact information.

The administrator can be contacted at moot@4chan.org.

Moderators are individuals selected to perform general site maintenance. They may delete posts globally, ban users, sticky and close threads, etc. There is no publicly available list of moderators. Since 4chan primarily an Anonymous driven website, the staff abides by that same mindset.

"Janitors" are a class between "end user" and "moderator". They are given access to the report system and may delete posts on their assigned board(s), as well as submit ban requests. Janitors are selected via an application, orientation, and testing process. Janitors are instructed to not reveal their position to others and to conduct themselves as would be expected of any other user. A breach in confidentiality is grounds for immediate expulsion from the program.

...Why would you? There is no public record of deletion, and since threads are frequently pruned, there is no way of knowing which have been removed by the staff. The "(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)" message is optional and only used under certain circumstances, so it's not a good indication of how frequently users are being banned. Usually when a user is banned, their posts are removed, because they're in violation of the rules! Quite simply, there is no way for an end user to accurately judge the amount of moderation taking place at any given point in time. Rest assured though; the moderators and janitors and are always working hard to do their best and keep the boards clean of filth.

Yes and no. Admission to the moderation team is by invite only. Period. The janitor program is occasionally opened up to new applicants. Watch the global message and blotter for notices concerning the application process. If there is no advertised janitor recruitment going on, you're out of luck. Be patient!

If you're banned you will be redirected to http://www.4chan.org/banned.php when trying to access the board(s) you're banned from. If you're getting 403 or 404 errors, this doesn't necessarily mean you're banned. The banned page is pictured here.

Yes. Use the embedded appeal tool on the banned page to appeal your ban. Read the entire banned page carefully before disputing your ban. Some bans require you sit out for a few days before allowing you to appeal the ban. If you believe an error has been made, or you are being mistakenly affected by a ban meant for somebody else, contact a moderator on IRC at #4chan @ Rizon. The appeal form is pictured here.

Currently, users on the Comstar Direct (Russia/.ru), VTR (Chile), Velox (Brazil/.br), RDS.Link (Romania/.ro), and TP (Poland/.pl) networks are disallowed from posting. This block is due to repeated abuse coming from these ISPs/countries. At present, there is no way to exempt a user from these blocks—we apologize for the inconvenience.

4chan runs a heavily modified and now proprietary version of imageboard software that we refer to internally as "Yotsuba". It is derived from thatdog's Futallaby, which is a modified version of Futaba. Currently there are no plans to make our code available to the public. Many open source alternatives exist though, and are only a search away!

4chan is currently powered by seven servers (five content, two database). We are colocated on a full 500mbps Global Crossing connection, allowing us to push over 5TB (5,000GB) of data per day [Image].

4chan only collects and stores user information for active posts. Once a post is pruned or deleted, it is removed from our servers permanently. We value the privacy of our users, and will not make private information such as IP addresses available to others. We will however, comply with valid court orders and cooperate with law enforcement agencies when necessary. Note that: due to the immense storage constraints we face, logs files are automatically rotated (daily) and removed (monthly) to make room for new ones.

Due to repeated abuse coming from Tor exit nodes and open proxies, our official policy is to block them when possible. Our apologies for the inconvenience this might cause those who use these services for legitimate purposes.

4chan opened to the public on October 1st, 2003. Actually, it opened a few days earlier but had no site structure and wasn't using the 4chan domain name, so 10/01/03 (the date of the first news post) is the officially recognized birth date.

4chan was started as a project by a user of a small IRC/DC community known as Raspberry Heaven, which was [then] composed of users from the "Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse" (ADTRW) sub-forum of The Something Awful Forums. The site began as a small image dump for those communities that soon spread like wildfire and garnered enough traffic and popularity to become its own fully fledged community.

4channel and world4ch were two sites spun off from 4chan but later merged back into the main site. 4channel was basically "work safe 4chan", and world4ch housed our discussion boards.

Yes. You can access it here.

4chan generally does not endorse third-party projects. Please do not market your project as "official" or "sponsored by 4chan" in any way without first obtaining permission from the administrator.

4chan has held official panels at Anime USA (2004 & 2005), and Otakon (2005/2006/2007). In addition, we've held a few smaller meetups at Anime Weekend Atlanta (2005 & 2006), and Anime Central (2006).

We highly discourage and would prefer our users not host their own 4chan panels. We'd prefer to do our own official panel at Otakon each year (providing they allow us to). If you choose to ignore our plea, please don't tout your panel as "official" and do things that could hurt our image (as if that's even possible at this point!). Notify the administrator with details before planning your panel.