Showdown at the 4chan corral: Doug Rushkoff
The Web's Dirtiest Site (Daily Beast)
When AT&T recently blocked access to a hugely popular hackers' Web site, 4chan.org, many of us Internet old-timers froze in place. It was like one of those bad Westerns, when an arrogant newcomer sits down in the saloon, and then insults the baddest, most trigger-happy gunslinger in the county. People move to the side of the room, climb under tables, and wait for the shots to fly.The 4Chan community--a diehard, if ever-changing assortment of the Net's most-desperate, most-anonymous, and most-wanted, well, punks--smelled censorship, top-down control, and an evil corporation trying to keep down the world's last squat for hackers. They went batshit. The site's founder posted a note telling his minion's to write and complain to AT&T, and the dog whistle having been heard, a posse called "Project AT&T," quickly formed, dedicated to revenge.
It turns out AT&T was really just trying to protect the site, and its own servers, from a typical "denial of service" attack. (Hackers create a feedback loop of pings and requests that overloads the target Web site.) AT&T's solution--to move 4Chan to a new IP address--was crude but ultimately effective. Project AT&T called a temporary truce, the bar piano started playing again, and the world went back to normal.
But the whole episode reminded me that, in spite of the Web's seemingly secure and consumer-friendly facade, there is still some Wild West left out there. And 4Chan is the OK Corral. So like a middle-aged Australian businessman going on walkabout, I decided to spend a couple of weeks embedded in this famously depraved, raucously fertile community.
Doug's new book: Life, Inc.
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the latest
latest episodes
That man is doomed.
"lurk m0ar rushkoff"
There is a big difference between stepping into the OK Corral and standing outside of it like Howard Cosell, giving a play-by-play of all the "scary hackorz." But it's the child porn comments that are going to have repercussions, and that he did not mention how /b/ condemns and polices it.
I agree with #1. Two days from now /b/ will be looking over the bullet-riddled e-corpse of Rushkoff, shrugging their shoulders and saying, "el oh el."
/maybe
You're not supposed to tell people about 4chan.
Nice post. This is relative to my interests.
Love the "related searches"
4chan, At&t, Internet, Technology, "never Gonna Give You Up." Project Chanology, Douglas Ruskhoff. 4chan.org, Amateur Porn, Underground Porn, Child Porn, Hackers, Rick Astley, Porn, Scientology
I don't get it. Douglas is lurking 4chan at 2am and he expects not to see some porn? Anyway, 4chan is getting a lot of attention lately, and that may kill it... underground is the only way to exist for those guys. And yes, you occasionally have some disgusting kiddie porn (or worst, there's always worst) but overall the site is great fun for everyone with a perverse sense of humor. I just hope you guys don't get their ire for breaking rules 1 and 2.
Oh dear:
"Back in the day—like, last year and before—the 4Chan’s “/b/rothers”, as they call themselves, "
Insert massive facepalm ascii here.
#2: What, Xeni, you don't have the ovaries to declare your 4chanishness in public? You gotta slip it into a comment on your own post? Come on.
http://img.4chan.org/b/res/152127012.html
THERE WILL BE PIZZA.
In this piece Rushkoff really comes across as dad trying to "get down" with the kids and doing his embarrassing dance.
He's a decade older than me. Will I be like that in ten years? The thought is disconcerting to say the least.
I usually really enjoy his writing but he comes off like a tourist in this piece. I bet he can't even triforce.
I *am* a tourist in this piece. That's the point.
Those background look oddly familiar, like ITP?
I don't think Rushkoff spent enough time on his research if he's still calling them "/b/rothers."
Just to be pedantic, it's worth noting that Sarah Palin's email address was not "hacked" in any meaningful sense of the term. Some kid just guessed her password because it was absurdly obvious.
4chan may be a hive of scum and villainy, but hackers? Everyone knows the real hackers are all over at eBaum's World.
I hope he likes pizza's
Well sure, but I mean not in a good way.
My grandparents were perfect examples of that - one of them always traveled and would come back with stories about strange and different places he'd been and weird things he'd seen, but no matter what he was talking about you could tell he had some level of respect for it, simply for being whatever it was that it was.
The other one couldn't have been more opposite, she would stand around gawking and pointing at people who weren't wearing things she was used to seeing people wear. She'd take photos at inappropriate times and when faced with someone who didn't speak English rather than trying to learn a few works in their language she'd just SPEAK ENGLISH SLOWER AND LOUDER as if that would suddenly somehow make sense to them. Her stories always came off as if she somehow thought less of the people she'd just seen because they weren't exactly like her.
OK so I made up the part about that being my grandparents, but you get the idea.
On the one hand, I enjoyed the piece. The writing was very good and the idea of it was fun.
On the other hand... I'm pretty sure most /b/ users refer to themselves as /b/tards, not /b/rothers. I might be wrong on that; I don't spend much time on 4chan, though some of my friends are frequent posters there.
I also know that 4chan users hate it when "Caturday" pics are referred to as "lolcats," or when they have other memes that are appropriated and mass-marketed. Rushkoff could do an entire follow-up piece on that!
"The server at rushkoff.com is taking too long to respond."
Nope. Didn't see THAT coming at all...
@rushkoff - sure but there are ways to be a tourist without "being a tourist" so to speak.
Take my grandparents for example. After a trip my Grandfather would always have stories of the strange and different lands they traveled to and the amazing things he saw there. His stories were always compelling and no matter how "weird" what he was talking about was, it was clear he had some respect for it for being whatever it was.
My grandmother on the other hand, after visiting the same places couldn't have had a more different reaction. She was the type to stand around pointing and gawking and taking photos at completely inappropriate times. When faced with someone who didn't speak English rather than try to learn a few phrases in their language she'd just TALK SLOWER AND LOUDER as if that would somehow make them understand. In her stories she'd always talk about the people if they were some how dumber or less than her because they weren't just like her.
OK so I made up the part about this being my grandparents but you get the idea.
b/ channel are dangerous place
4chan is for hackers? You might better say that 4chan is for pornography enthusiasts, or cosplayers, or photographers. Each of these has a dedicated image board. Personal creative endeavors has a plurality, yet Rushkoff buried mention of those boards.
Not a bad article, though as Pantograph mentions it does come off like Microsoft's guide to leetspeak. You've grasped the content, but not the context.
One bit in particular, "...I actually started to wonder what might happen to the security of my own email account and Web site if I said the wrong thing, insulted the wrong /b/rother, or inflamed the wrong posse" implies that you were doing it wrong the whole time. The portion of the community that actually does this invasion shit is really a very small one, and they mostly don't gather on 4chan anyway. Most channers post there because it's one of the few places on the internet where you can say what's on your mind without fear of retribution, moderator or otherwise. Where the only real faux pas are ego-stroking and arrogance.
On 4chan, no matter who you are, no one gives a rat's ass about you. The best way to make an entrance would have been a post saying "I AM DOUGLAS P RUSHKOFF, BITCHES! YOUR SITE IS OFFENSIVE TO EVERY MORAL SENSIBILITY, AND YOU ARE ALL TERRIBLE PEOPLE." You'd have ended up with a hundred pictures of accident victims and depraved sex acts, but all posted very good-naturedly.
Incidentally, the *worst* way to make an entrance is to come off all paranoid about us wrecking your precious webs. It's frankly a little insulting, not to mention self-absorbed, to assume you'd be attacked as soon as we know of your existence (protip: we already do). That's exactly the kind of obnoxiousness that triggers the "anon r legion" tards, which I hope you don't get to see firsthand.
moot bring back Snacks!!!!! Seriously now. Anywho to those of you who feel that Rules 1 & 2 still apply - well when moot talked to Time, Washington Post and others he kinda killed those rules.
I would like to thank BoingBoing for first introducing me to 4chan. It was a post a long time ago about Portal porn. Thanks!
@ #17 and #20
I love how Sean Bonner gets a bit creased with Rushkoff for being a pseudo-doe-eyed newb but then appears unable to navigate a simple comment thread without double-posting.
Poetry.
I'm getting kinda irritated that 4chan's publicity nowadays paints it as a place where only Nedry's hang out, when in reality an overwhelming majority are clueless idiots that just try to out-shock, out-shoop, and out-wit each other (not judging; i love 4chan but it's called /b/tards for a reason)... oh and exchange sauce.
Rushkoff is late to the party, if anything.
And, yeah... calling 4chan "a place for hackers" is just hillarious
#25 I blame Moveable Type for being slow as crap.
chiming in with others to say that this poorly researched.
4chan was/is a visual culture image board first and foremost.
the whole hacking part was invented by fox news and perpetuated by shallow cool-hunting nathan barley types because they want desperately be attached to something rebellious and cool.
At the very least, I'm glad to seek rushkoff debunk the myth he and his ilk created.
I wonder if Rushkoff is furiously refreshing this page to see what people are saying about him and then fighting the urge to defend himself further than that one post.
@#25
I just assumed it was a copypasta, actually.
I think it's cute the way you guys are defending your little playground in cyberspace.
If Rushkoff and the rest of us are such pitiful noob losers, why does it really matter what we think?
meek,
Rushkoff has a life. And since he's guest blogged here before, he's quite used to the whoosh effect.
This needed some editing. Shorter Rushkoff:
There, fixed that up for you!
Kinda don't see the outrage over any of this, especially the outrage over Rushkoff's presumed outrage. Outrageous! But I do love how he gets all cranky old mannish in the last paragraph:
Sure, "Waiting" for more lulz like this, no doubt. O NOES TEH ELEMENTZ IS CONSPYRINGZ!
If you don't care for Rushkoff, feel free to read the Encyclopedia Dramatica entry yourself:
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/AT%26T
This trick works well for most Internet hijinks, btw -- Twitter outage? ED. Scientology? ED. All Your Base? ED. LOLCats? ED. You get the idea.
#11:He's a decade older than me. Will I be like that in ten years? The thought is disconcerting to say the least.
Yes you will. Just like every clever, open-minded, cool person in history. One day you will see a bunch of kids congratulating themselves for doing something boring and stupid and obvious, and ask "is that it?" and they'll say "You just don't get it, old man"
@ OP. Show us ur bewbs or GTFO!!!1!!!
Just Kidding, Rushkoff, It was a good article for newbs. (/s/ is where pr0n lives)
4chan- lurkers get teh joke^
Y'all what-nots posting in a troll thread.
Shallow article is shallow.
My only qualms with this piece are the "last hangout of hackers" claim (seriously? we used to call DDoS lamewads 'script kiddies', but Douglas is writing for "the Beast" and so he needed to Fox News it up a bit, huh?) and the tone of the piece.
Namely, Doug, you equivocate /4chan/ with /freedom on the internet/. Yes 4chan falls under that category, but to claim it's the "Wild West" of the Net, that it's the "last harbor for hackers", is sensationalist rubbish that speaks FOR the "guard-rails for the web" crowds agenda.
Basically the whole essay reads like a sensationalist hit piece on a website that's entire worth is that it has none, while in the process distilling freedom on the Tubes to /b and child porn. Nice work.
Maybe next time you can remember:
if attack.style == "ddos"
s/hackers/lamers/
end
And also:
4chan != /b
kthxbye
why would anyone wish to discuss vampire movies anyway?
I think Rushkoff is a pretty cool guy. eh writs about hackers and doesn't afraid of anything.
Tdawwg, 4chan is a real community, and I respect that, but it isn't the internet.
Hrm, 4chan and hackers? Sounds like Rushkoff is on the right path. Deep down, the word is they are lead by a guy called, Jeff K. He is a cross between a religious guru and a super hacker. They say his skills are formitable and his eloquence is unparallelled. He hacks all night on an old PDP-10 in the basement of an abandonned AT&T building in AZ. This whole thing began with K and will end with him.
Of course not, Teresa! I was using hyperbole, satire, etc. But I do think it's interesting, following your idea of the chan as a "real community" (with which I obviously agree), to point out the similarities between "them" and "us" (or "not them"), between "outside" and "inside," as it were. For me, a lot of the alleged toxicity and scabrousness of the chan remains alleged: to me the similarities between the chan and other, seen-to-be-more-legit sites——porn, video games, insults abound on the former and on so many of the latter; both are lands of geekery; both are virtual worlds with both highly porous and highly policed "borders"——are so much more provocative than the differences. I was sorry to see Rushkoff avoid these similarities in his piece for what seemed to me easier, less truthful and interesting dichotimies: the hive o'hackers VS the Nice 'Net. Hence the satire!
steauengeglase,
http://www.somethingawful.com/hosted/jeffk/
http://www.somethingawful.com/hosted/jeffk/jeffkhack/index.htm
:D
(both links contain NSFW language)
@46, I knew BoingBoing was in with SA on the coverup.
4chan is certainly the biggest of the "chan" sites, and has a touch of everything. However, when it comes to "child porn", "hacking", hate speech, and offensiveness 4chan is far from the worst. Far, far, FAR from the worst.
Sleep tight...