Poll: Should 4chan be "hunted" down?

[Zoot A. Larz]

I don't think so, primarily because the entire 4chan community is being demonized for something that only a small subset of its constituents do. As far as I'm concerned, /b/ is by and large my least favorite board, mostly because of its inhabitants. The quality of content has taken a sharp decline, and I much prefer /r9k/, the porn boards (but of course), and even /v/ over /b/. However, I won't say that everything that is done isn't justified (see: Jessi Slaughter). I just don't think it's as much of a monster as everyone makes it out to be. It can be a monster, but there are so many sides to 4chan that it can just as easily be one great, big, cuddly monster.

 

[Trevor L. Cooper]

I've never been identified as a gamer, or any of those other terms. I'm just a regular person who occasionally fires up Halo Reach or GTA4 for some entertainment. Gaming has no negative stigma. If people are labeling you as such, it is entirely because of YOU as a person, not what you do in your spare time.

I don't mean you referring to you in particular this time, BTW. I mean in general.

First off, thank for clarifying that this was a general statement this time.
Secondly, you just said it yourself, you're a regular person who plays video games.
When I use the term gamer in a room of people, the first thing they think of is a guy who lives in his parents basement, never sees the sun, and smells like some thing you'd find in a porto-potty.
I am not refering to everyday average Joe's like you and me.
But when you tell people that you've played Dragon Age for 110 hours, or that you beat call of duty on hard mode, people say "He's a gamer".
It's not always a negative thing, but 99% of the time, they are thinking of the pale basement dweller.
I don't get called a "Gamer" in a negative, but that's because most of my friends are my age and are also the avid game enthusiast.
What I'm saying is that this is the only social medium in which it's users are labeled.
a film-maker isn't called a "Filmie", a musician isn't called a "Musie", a librarian isn't called a "Bookie".
This is the only form of recreation for which you get a nickname place on you.
And yes, it's not always negative, to you and me, but to the people trying to take our beloved past times away, it is!

Side Note: I never intended for you to take offense in any way Regular Guy, and if you did, I apologize. I was simply stating fact as society sees it. and making a comment on using homophobic terms like "newfag" or "******" is offensive to some people.
And that kind of thing is the reason why parents get up in arms over video games and net-neutrality, when the problem isn't with the medium, it's with the adults!
The ones who haven't researched the genre that they are trying to destroy...

Are we on the same page now?
Just because you don't get called a gamer, or you don't see a problem inherent in societies' view with gaming and the internet, doesn't mean that is isn't there.
Just like the wind or ninjas my friend, just like wind and ninjas...

-Trodo "Trevor" Baggins

 

[Will of One]

It would be a waste of time to try, plus they do some fun stuff from time to time.

 

[Something Amyss]

Should they? Yes.

Will they? No.

Does it matter? Probably not.

 

[FinalGamer]

4chan are a huge collective of millions of people. It is impossible to judge all of them based on what a group of them decide to do. Just as there's been several bad things they've done such as this DDoS attack, they've also done good-hearted things like the prevention of the Pflugerville pipe-bomb explosion, the arrest of the Canadian paedophile Chris Forcand, the arrest of several animal abusers, and the mixed but well-intentioned Scientology protests.

But they are neither good or bad. They just are. And you cannot judge all of them for one thing they do.

 

[DaJoW]

By 4chan I'm guessing you mean b, because there's no good reason to hunt down the people who discuss cooking, video games or any of the other 45+ inoffensive boards. And to answer that: no. Yes, some bad things come from there, along with nearly every internet meme. Considering there's something bad coming from there once a month (if that), most of that harmless, from a site currently with over 600 million posts (and remember, old posts are deleted constantly: b never has more than 225 threads for instance), only a fraction of what goes on there does anything at all to anyone else.

It's also the only site (apart from other chans) I know of where you can be entirely anonymous, and say anything you like about anything, and surely that has some value? And there are still rules: "1. Do not upload, post, discuss, request, or link to, anything that violates local or United States law. This will be severely punished and strictly enforced." and "4. The posting of personal information or calls to invasion is prohibited." are the ones people usually seem to forget.

 

[SinisterGehe]

It's definitely worth pointing out that OP is a dumbfuck.

Mind your language, say something worth of saying or shut up. I believe in freedom of speech but not in insulting others.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Freedom of Speech

/thread

Define freedom of speech.
pardon me here.
"you are a fucking dumpfuck asshole retartd" = "You are stupid"

According to Wittgenstein, only one of these sentences, are sentences with "sense" in them (Sorry I don't know how to translate it better, I hope you get the idea). But still according to freedom of speech I have right I can say both.

Law is not moral. (we can all agree on)
- I have right to freedom of speech and expression.
-- But if I insult someone in public I can be fined or dragged in to court.

With both things giving out the same meaning but only one of them can be seen as having "sense" in them.

So what is freedom of speech?
"you must take what you give to others"
You really want to go in to that extreme low?

 

[Priddo]

Stop breaking the rules of the internet.

 

[The Rockerfly]

4chan is a good thing though, they do battle against injustice against the internet. Some of the stuff they do is incredible, granted some of it horrible (e.g. Jessie Slaughter)

At least if we're on about the random board. The other boards are fairly normal, /fit/ is very good and so is /g/ (technology).

Even if 4chan was taken down, or even random. They would just go to 7chan or /x/ (paranormal) instead. You can't kill anonymous because anonymous is made of people, they just happen to go to 4chan. However you can kill the location but the users will go somewhere else

 

[TriGGeR_HaPPy]

I don't really care...
That "I want only to see the results" option seems a little silly, since before you vote you can just click the "View Results" button on the bottom-far-right of the poll. :S

 

[THEfog101]

Not possible, unlike most community's you may sow their land with salt and burn the ground upon they walk but you can never truly kill 4chan for they shall just move and set up shop else where. May God help you if you piss 4Chan off. For /b/ shall be your doom.

 

[Sethzard]

The problem is that even if we tried to get rid of them, they would migrate to other websites, and so their immaturity would probably spread.

 

[Engarde]

I am against the whole vigilante thing that goes with them or is blamed upon them, but the idea is sound. I am not too sure if what they do is justified, as I have never looked too far into it, but the idea that I get from others does not say so.
Though to be fair, I have not spent any time on there, tried once, porn adds annoyed me to no end so I gave up it. I also do not like the sort of 'we are unstoppable' vibe members give, however true it may or may not be, as I find it rude, self centered, and generally distasteful.

Oh, and I heard it was where memes were born. And I do not like memes. :\

 

[Delusibeta]

Meh. Shut down 4chan and a 5chan will pop up, shut down 5chan and a 6chan will pop up, rinse and repeat. This argument is academic.

 

[Player 2]

Those guys are too savvy to be "hunted down." Most of them are behind seven proxies.

SEVEN? God damn.....we'll have to buy a dog.

 

[MorteSphere]

It's definitely worth pointing out that OP is a dumbfuck.

Mind your language, say something worth of saying or shut up. I believe in freedom of speech but not in insulting others.

First, I don't think you understand what "The right to freedom of speech" means. Second, I'm expressing my freedom to voice my opinion that OP is a fuckwit.

 

[SinisterGehe]

It's definitely worth pointing out that OP is a dumbfuck.

Mind your language, say something worth of saying or shut up. I believe in freedom of speech but not in insulting others.

First, I don't think you understand what "The right to freedom of speech" means. Second, I'm expressing my freedom to voice my opinion that OP is a fuckwit.

Yes, but you could form your words in to civilized sentence. There are other forms of expressing your opinion than just insulting people. Would you kindly then define your vision of freedom of speech?.
This "discussion" tells much more about you than it does about me.
I don't even need to tell you what others think about you now. All I can tell you it has nothing to do with "Cool".

Edit: confused you with other "smart" person I been chatting with.

 

[molester jester]

Too many people focus on the bad side of 4chan its not inherently good or bad it's Random, it's Chaotic Neutral. Its the sum of it parts, some users are dicks, some are genuinely nice people.

For ever Incident like Minecraft being hacked there is something done to balance it out.

Like sending birthday card to an old man, Just because he seemed lonely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diVsSr2aAPw&feature=player_embedded

And your Black and white view is complete bullshit, its kind of like saying hey Nazism was bad some German people were Nazis thus Germany is a bad place.

 

[zombiesinc]

I've seen a very, very small portion of the website, and I have no interest in seeing any more. I've heard a lot of negative stuff, but I know that's only one side of the coin. I do know that anonymous would be difficult to 'hunt down' and even if 4chan was abolished, another website would take its place.

So, no, I don't think 'it' should be 'hunted down', because I do not think it's either possible or necessary.