Ask HN: What imageboards do you use?

[sdsd]

I fondly remember the imageboards (aka chans) I used as an adolescent, before they become highly political around 2016.

There are a few really great boards I currently use, like Lainchan, Sushichan, and 22chan.

Do you all use any? I'm especially curious about obscure, niche chans.

[toldyouso2022]

Vecchiochan is probably the most popular italian imageboard right now, it should have surpassed diochan.

On 4chan I prefer to check the generals instead of whole boards. I used to skip them but it was a mistake, they are quite comfy. I skip non-blue boards because there is too much chaos.

I like chans a lot. For some reason I would rather be insulted than downvoted. Maybe it's because I know I can respond, meanwhile downvoters are truly anonymous and cowards!

[sdsd → toldyouso2022]

>On 4chan I prefer to check the generals instead of whole boards.

Same, I really only go to the daily programming thread and the web dev general. Also, the judo thread on /xs/.

What do you like about Vecchiochan? I'm gonna request they add an /int/ so I can post in English there lol.

[solardev]

Can someone explain the appeal of an imageboard, please, like I'm an out of touch grandpa?

I know they're out there and I've seen a few "chans", but never understood why people use them. What's the draw?

[kypro → solardev]

I think the "image" part of it forces a certain type of content – typically more jokey / meme-like content which can be appealing to some.

The other thing that makes imageboards interesting is that they differ to how most platforms work today where the most agreeable thing (Reddit / HN) or the most controversial thing (Facebook / Twitter) gets surfaced.

Imageboards in contrast tend to be a free for all. People don't follow users or like posts, they must simply participate in whatever conversations are happening on the board or create a new conversation which others might ignore or engage with if they find it interesting.

I have an unpopular view that imageboards are some of the most tolerant places on the internet, and they are this way because there's no expectation of quality. I come to HN because I want quality discussions and articles, but I might go to an imageboard because I want to participate to some extent in the unknown. Someone could choose to post inflammatory stuff to an imageboard and there's little anyone can do if it's not against the board's moderation policy – you can't downvote or dislike. As a result imageboards tend to have a very diverse range of opinions because on an imageboard every view is equal. Of course, this has the downside of incentivising trolling, but having to engage with trolls is partly why imageboards are interesting and unique places. Users expect trolls and must learn to deal with them instead of demanding the platform solves the problem with some kind of censorship or moderation (flagging, downvoting, reporting, etc). For this reason users on imageboards tend to be quite self aware because users are so used to trolls poking fun at them and sometimes those trolls are touching on something true.

I don't think they're for everyone, but they're interesting places when contrasted with most places people go to discussing things online today. Old school forums capture some of this too, but most forums for whatever reason tend to have a culture of heavy moderation so tend lack some of what makes imageboards most interesting.

[idempotent_ → solardev]

Relatively light moderation, anonymity discourages "power users" and annoying personalities clogging up threads, and the unfiltered and transitory nature of discussion. Feels like a last vestige of the old pre-social media internet. Mostly they're just fun

[sdsd → solardev]

When people post on X, I feel like they tend to have "clout" in mind. Even if they're not chasing it, people think of a post with a lot of likes as "doing well". This conditions people to post certain kinds of content, but more insidiously, it conditions you to think a certain way.

If you go to a community like crystal.cafe (a femcel imageboard with an amazing community, which I lurk on but don't post because I'm a man) you'll see what I mean, it's a very different tone than you'd see on a conventional social media site with reputation.

Also the niche nature of the sites houses a certain type of person, NEETs and femcels, whose perspective I find interesting and occasionally enjoy conversing with, although it's not something I do a lot.

Also, most chans allow you to talk about controversial things very freely. I'm not a communist, but it's an interesting intellectual exercise to go on leftychan.net and argue against capitalism, and then halfway through the thread, change my idea and argue as a different ideology. Without identity, you can pursue ideas less consistently - without worrying about "winning" the argument so much.

If you have the patience for an older format that lacks the quick rush of modern social media, feel free to visit me at my imageboard: http://13channel.crabdance.com/b/index.html

I'll respond to anything within a day or so, so please do come back the next day. I'd love to have an imageboard penpal :)

[krapp → solardev]

The draw is the culture of specific boards. No one goes to /b/ because they're interested in high signal, low noise conversation for instance.

The images themselves are usually entirely superficial unless the board is about images or memes. I've sometimes said that Hacker News at its worst is basically /g/ (4chan's tech board) without the pictures, and with more forced civility.

If it's not for you that's fine, it isn't for everyone.

[gardenhedge → solardev]

Different strokes for different folks. Some people like texting, some people like phone calls. Some people prefer walking on a beach and others prefer walking in the mountains.

[sdsd]

OP here, I recently deployed an imageboard for fun: http://13channel.crabdance.com/index.html

Feel free to visit. Obviously it's the main chan I use, since I made it lol

[whatamidoingyo]

I built one a long time ago, it's not really good, there are lots of bugs, images are not stored properly, and it's just... incomplete.

Check it out and let me know what you think: kawaiichan.org

[sdsd → whatamidoingyo]

Awesome, I love it! Do you have the sourcecode anywhere, I'd love to read how it works.

[whatamidoingyo → sdsd]

I can open-source it, although the codebase is a bit embarrassing, haha. Were you the anon that uploaded the pics?

[sdsd → whatamidoingyo]

Yep! I am indeed that anon haha.

Embarrassing code is the most fun. I love seeing how devs code when no one's looking and there's no pressure. We're not in a job interview lol, you should see some of the React code I've been writing lately for some UIs that I made just for myself. Let's just say, I've used enough dangerouslySetInnerHTML that I've basically got the safety of jQuery at this point :)

I even pentest my own crappy apps sometimes and fix them up, all for fun. Code should be fun, especially if it's not professional!

[xandre_maxwell]

For anyone who doesn't know, the URLs for the boards OP posted are:

  sushigirl.us
  lainchan.org
  22chan.org

I personally highly recommend sushichan as well.

[11001100]

https://savee.it/ - for inspirations