2ch

:This article is about the Japanese forum. See 2CH for the Sydney radio station.

Culture

Several important and/or well-known social issues (incidents, social movements, etc) are known to have relation with this forum, and due to early shocking events such as the Neomugicha incident, this forum is somewhat acknowledged as "underground-ish" despite its wide acceptance, especially in the younger generations. On the other hand, these incidents helped 2ch to have huge publicity through mass-media coverings.

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2ch members participate in various distributed computing projects such as the United Devices Cancer Research Project and SETI@home. 2ch is the current leader of the UD project, with the highest results and point total, as well as having the largest number of participants.

Related Topics:
Distributed computing - United Devices Cancer Research Project - SETI@home

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Frequent visitors of 2ch usually call themselves

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"2??????" (meaning "2ch'er", pronouced "ni-chan-ne-rah", romaji is "ni channer?). Even though topics vary a lot between each thread or board, 2ch as a whole keeps its unity through its unique cultural backplane. "2ch slang", "2ch AA" (Shift_JIS encoded ASCII art) and "2ch Flash" are examples of such culture. Many virtual characters, such as Mona, and Onigiri have evolved out from these creations, and are now acknowledged as mascots representing the whole community. The now famous Soy Sauce Warrior Kikkoman parody character was created by members of the 2ch forums, as well as its flash movies.

Related Topics:
Shift_JIS encoded - ASCII art - Mona - Soy Sauce Warrior Kikkoman - Flash

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Trolling and off-topic posting on 2ch is tolerated and has become a common feature of its culture. In this way it is similar to early Slashdot, where trolls were commonplace, or the modern Something Awful Forums, where bad threads are quickly derailed or "saved" by mocking the original poster and changing the subject. However, 2channel does not tolerate spamming and flooding.

Related Topics:
Slashdot - Something Awful Forums - Spamming

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Due to its chaotic nature and large size, it is difficult to describe or define this emerging community. Several movements to self-describe it have been running, and so the reader is recommended to visit these materials. For that matter, similarities with Usenet are many.

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