4chan Chronicle//b/-day

(Aug 23 2006 - Aug 2006)

The /b/-day

The golden age of /b/ concluded with the notorious /b/-day: moot, tired with the direction /b/ has taken, makes a sticky where he declares he will impose much tighter rules, including the banning of jailbait and raids, the much-cherished traditions of /b/. The sticky was met with nothing short of outrage. Dissent was at an all-time high, even in the moderation ranks, which led to the thread being deleted, remade, and constantly stickied and unstickied. Threads claiming that putting rules on /b/ was betraying the board and its anonymous users were covering the front page. Calls for rebellion, uprising, and exodus were made everywhere. When the stickies reappeared, the drama and spam became so intense that 4chan's img server crashed, taking a plethora of boards with it. A number of /b/tards leave 4chan for dead and abandon it en masse. A declaration of independence written by exemplar /b/tard Captain_Cornflake is made that establishes Anonymous as a separate group with its home anywhere but 4chan. Two days later, /b/ was back again, but the board was submerged in a state of civil war; banned anonymous from 7chan script-flooded the board for days, with 4chan's /b/-tards retaliating in a similar manner. Ultimately, the /b/-day failed its purpose. At this stage, the users of /b/ were too numerous and aggressive to be moderated properly, and there was nothing that could be done on the administration’s end. This event foreshadowed what would become of imageboard culture during the following years.

The aftermath of the /b/-day was the diversification of *chan culture, with a rise in the number of alternate image boards, or better said, alternate /b/. Claims of an exodus became stronger and stronger, and many /b/tards would migrate from 4chan. A second generation of chans that were created after and during the /b/-day became populated by the exiled legion. Many sites were created or revived, such as 7chan, 12chan, 2ch.ru; a site that would become the birthplace of the Russian chanverse, 888chan; and already existing sites like the recently created 420chan, WAKAchan, AnonIB, WTFux, and others would benefit. The idea of independent, low-population, high-quality /b/s became a cultural trend in the imageboard communities that lasted for many years, reaching its peak in late 2006 and early 2007. The prohibition on raids also strengthened the raid mentality of those who were banned. From there on, there would be a presence of the /i/nsurgency as an extant identity that saw the idea of the anonymous legion as an independent force. They accused 4chan and /b/ of being shit and going against what they considered cultural staples of anonymous. The legion identity culminated in the creation of 7chan's /i/ - Invasion board. However, /i/ boards were highly problematic, and 7chan's board would later be deleted. With time, every major alternative site would house an /i/ board for a while.