2channel

2channel (2ちゃんねる) is a huge message board that covers a wide range of topics.

Contents [hide]

1 Overview

2 History

2.1 Early Life

3 Related Illustrations

4 Related Articles

5 External Links

5.1 English

5.2 Japanese

6 Article in Other Languages

Overview

2channel (2ちゃんねる, ni channeru), often called 2chan in western places and 2ch in its home country is a anonymous Japanese BBS founded by Hiroyuki Nishimura on May 30, 1999. Sense September 30, 2016 2channel moved and became 5channel (5ちゃんねる, go channeru).

2channel was used as a refuge for the electronic bulletin board site Amezou, which had become increasingly plagued with restrictions such as forbidden words, and server crashes.

One of the theories for the name 2channel comes from an Amezou post by Nishimura calling it "Amezou's second channel".

Another theory of 2channel's name is that it is because the channel selector switch on the back of the video game console Famicom that is used when connecting to Japanese television sets.

It also uses the alias jar (壺). This is believed to be because Amezou users refer to 2channel as a spitton (痰壷), which is why the front page has an image of a jar.

“Does the administrator Hiroyuki sell jars?” (管理人のひろゆきは壷でも売っているのか？).

Sometimes toilet graffiti is used as a derogatory term.

In the early days, the anonymity of the site was abused and self-staging was rampant, giving the site the image of a hotbed of crime. Later, an ID system was introduced in some boards to prevent self-staging, and IP addresses were stored. Currently, most boards have introduced this system.

History

Early Life

It was established after the then-popular Amezou bulletin board was disrupted by vandalism and pressure. In the Toshiba Kramer case of the same year, it played a role as the main venue for the disturbance.

2channel became famous when it was used as the stage for the Neomugicha bus hijacking incident that occurred in 2000, due to the hijack being done by a man who posted on the site. As a result, 2channel was often portrayed in drama and news reports as a den of evil (悪の巣窟). Nishimura, who was the administrator of 2channel at the time, commented on this matter, "The person who can’t recognize lie as lie is not suitable to use internet bulletin board." (嘘は嘘であると見抜ける人でないと難しい).

Although there were no problems at the time of its establishment, the site was on the verge of closure due to the server's inability to keep up with the increase in users, commonly known as the closure but this was resolved through the efforts of users.