9gag

[V da Mighty Taco]

I visit 9gag occasionally because I need to kill time, other than having very little original content it is not a bad(offensive) site.

Trolling and hostility is literally part of the culture in all 4chan boards from what I've seen.

I have to disagree, most boards are pretty civil as long as you follow the rules and keep yourself civil, outside of /b/ trolling and similar behavior is against the rules. Does some still slip through? Yes, but that does not mean that it is endorsed. It really is not that different than most forums, just that moderating powers are used more commonly(and visibly) for regulation, and scare people into avoiding conflict, whereas on 4chan user interaction is harsher because there is no reason for people not to combative. Sure that tends to make the place a bit rougher on newcomers, but at the same time, I have had plenty of conversations on 4chan that were more polite than some things posted here. I respect your opinion, but I don't think it is fair to make such blanket statements about a site.

I can only call things as I have seen them, and I've seen the hyper-abrasive, overly-hostile, meanspirited culture extend to /v/, /mlp/, /h/, and more. /pol/ and /b/ may be the absolute kingpins of that kind of culture and attitude, but such things still seem to be fairly prevalent in other boards as well. You are right bout the rules against trolling outside of /b/ and I'll concede that to some extent, but the rest of my points still stand. 4chan is the kind of place where asking a question or trying to have a friendly chat will often lead to a large portion of the people in the thread telling you to suck a dick, hang yourself, get off of the site / board, and / or something similar unless you're already very familiar with the individual culture of that board (yep, personal experience kicking in here) with all of that being considered par for the course on any board. It's how I learned about the "lurk moar" attitude, after all.

I mean no offense to you by any of this, of course. But what I've seen on 4chan myself, including my very rare posts on there and how those played out, tells a very different story on how non-/b/ non-/pol/ 4chan operates than what you've expressed here.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

I can only call things as I have seen them, and I've seen the hyper-abrasive, overly-hostile, meanspirited culture extend to /v/, /mlp/, /h/, and more. /pol/ and /b/ may be the absolute kingpins of that kind of culture and attitude, but such things still seem to be fairly prevalent in other boards as well. You are right bout the rules against trolling outside of /b/ and I'll concede that to some extent, but the rest of my points still stand. 4chan is the kind of place where asking a question or trying to have a friendly chat will often lead to a large portion of the people in the thread telling you to suck a dick, hang yourself, get off of the site / board, and / or something similar unless you're already very familiar with the individual culture of that board (yep, personal experience kicking in here) with all of that being considered par for the course on any board. It's how I learned about the "lurk moar" attitude, after all.

I mean no offense to you by any of this, of course. But what I've seen on 4chan myself, including my very rare posts on there and how those played out, tells a very different story on how non-/b/ non-/pol/ 4chan operates than what you've expressed here.

have you tried /co/, I'm pretty sure you'll fit in well there.

I'm curious, what did you say that got such a vitriolic reaction.

The last time I posted there was quite a while ago, so I may have forgotten something. Anyways, I asked /mlp/ to post Celestia pics, I mentioned being new, and was hoping the board wasn't like /b/ or something like that. Needless to say, I didn't get many Cele pics that day.

Haven't been to /co/, admittedly. It seems nice at a quick glance, though I remain skeptical as always.

 

[Imre Csete]

My friends love it and I see links to pics occasionally, but whenever I happen to visit it, it just seems like some kind of a social media blog with pictures to me, where everyone is complaining about their love lives.

 

[maneyan]

I am a regular there but I don't know why I stay. I mean, I like MOST of the content and sometimes it can positively surprise me. All the same, all too often there's just rampant misogyny, racism etc. It sometimes feels like a festering hive of spiteful white teens/twentysomethings moaning about how all other social/ethnic groups suck. One special favorite was an image of a handcuffed woman sitting on the sidewalk and giving a kick towards a policeman's legs, which the police responds to by kicking the woman in the head and knocking her out. Title was "How's this for equality". Seriously, that is just VILE, and that one had like 20k upvotes! If I had some other humor site with same amount and variety in stuff I'd go there.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I don't really care for may-mays one way or the other. That extends to 9gag.

It's internet humour, but it's the equivalent of a fart joke. Somehow even lower-energy though, but occasionally funnier.

 

[Godhead]

It seems to have the same amount of relevance to the real world and originality that Buzzfeed has. And I hate Buzzfeed. Also my biased utterly impartial friends tell me that a lot of it's content is/was stolen from the chans and Reddit[footnote]I have no idea if this is true or not. Please don't hit me.[/footnote].

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Saying that you were new probably wasn't the best idea, also the way you worded the op might have had an impact people probably assumed you were begging for pictures

I'm not a regular /co/ user but if you're going to check out /co/ it might be wise to avoid posting any mlp pictures

I'm aware about how the way I worded things could have affected how people responded to me, though I do recall trying my best to be as nice as possible to the point of possibly being a bit ass-kissy (I do recall mentioning my higher respect for that board, for example).

Regardless though, the idea of mentioning being new or asking for pics on a image board being seen as reasons to be hyper-hostile towards someone does lead credence to several of my points, in particular my points on the whole "lurk moar" attitude and actively pushing people away who aren't intimately familiar with the board's culture. Telling someone to kill themselves, get the fuck off the site, and go back to a site that one doesn't even visit nor mentioned just for being new to the board doesn't seem all that justified, imho.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Regardless though, the idea of mentioning being new or asking for pics on a image board being seen as reasons to be hyper-hostile towards someone does lead credence to several of my points, in particular my points on the whole "lurk moar" attitude and actively pushing people away who aren't intimately familiar with the board's culture.

the reason behind that attitude is that people want new comers to be accustomed to the board's culture before posting to reduce shitposting and I wouldn't take any of "hyper-hostile" posts seriously most people (except maybe some /pol/acks) don't believe half of the shit they say.
people can be really nice to one another, giveaways are common https://archive.moe/v/search/text/giveaway/type/op/ especially when a humble bundle with a popular game is up for sale https://archive.moe/v/search/text/humble%20bundle/type/op/ ./vp/ does free pokemon giveaways https://boards.4chan.org/vp/thread/22224052/giveaway-general-ggbig-gets-edition

The ends do not justify the means. There are far better ways to teach newcomers how a board works than telling them to kill themselves and never come back to the site. I also fail to see how posts that do nothing but insult or demean someone aren't "shitposting" in and of themselves.

This all goes back to one of my points from earlier - most boards that I've come across (gotta concede the "all" part due to what I've seen from /co/) treat being hostile or insulting people as just part of how the board works and is often even encouraged to some extent (the above discussion being a good example of that).

Yes, people there can be nice to each other. However, that kindness is often only reserved for those who are part of and accepted by the board and it's culture (okay, I'm using that word waaaay too much now). If you're not part of the group, you aren't going to be treated so politely, and even if you are you likely will still have some threatening or demeaning shit flung your way. As I joked before, it's like the goth kids from South Park who demand others conform to them if the person doesn't want to be told to fuck right off. It's a culture of hostility and exclusion, of an "Us vs Them" mindset, and that is not something I can ever be fond of.

Anyways, thanks for pointing me to /co/ again. Hopefully it actually is as polite as it appears so far.