5chan
5chan was another Imageboard similar to 4chan. While created during the existence of the first 4chan, 5chan offered an alternate haven to many people who visited the original 4chan daily after its fourth demise on June 20, 2004.
On August 6, 2004, it was closed due to a dispute with Idlechan. The site owner suggested that users migrate to RenChan, then later suggested 4chan.
On August 27, 2004, site admin Zabadab announced 5chan's comeback: "It's comming back... Yes that's right! Complete with new name, new staff, new ideas, new script, new server. Stay tuned! You're gona get sent to HentaiPalm in 5 seconds. Stay tuned for more infos. :D"
On September 17, 2004, the site opened again in "open beta" status.
Differences in 4chan and 5chan
While both 4chan and 5chan were similar in the fact that both were image boards, 4chan and 5chan offered different atmospheres and interfaces. The two most blatant differences were the interface and sponsors. 4chan relied mostly on volunteer work and donations (though 4chan did offer spaces for corporate web ads.) 5chan, on the other hand, was sponsored by hentai organizations. Because of this, they had a ToS agreement and restricted access to those who chose not to sign up with one of their sponsors though registration was free. The interface difference was self-explanatory to those who have visited both image sites. 4chan had short codes designating each image board subject while 5chan had the full subject name listed for each subject. 5chan offered more subdivision in terms of individual image board subjects compared to 4chan. While 5chan and 4chan both offered pornographic/nude material, 5chan was deceptively more pronounced in doing so due to the many evident subdivisions.
The terminology and how they handle things was quite a change as well. For example, 4chan has used "sage" which stands for "sageru" which means "to lower" in Japanese. After a certain amount of sages, the post can not be "bumped"/"age" ("age"/ageru is disucssed at 2chan.) In 5chan, there was no "sage" or even "age" but rather a gong. After a certain amount of gongs, a post was automatically deleted without moderator intervention. Gongs were meant to delete pictures that strayed too far from the subject category rather than as a rating system.
Perhaps because of these differences, the community was treated differently by the moderators/admins. The difference in atmosphere had caused some problems for 5chan as many of the 4chan regulars/visitors migrated to 5chan. The initial problems ranged from users not understanding the different interface to the trolling humor in the style of 4chan's Random board. Some 4chan regulars had found 5chan insufficent, concerning the tightly regulated atmosphere, and had moved onto Idlechan ().
In the past when both boards existed, there was some general but extremely restricted/light animosity between 4chan and 5chan regulars. These banters were mostly played out in the 4chan discussion/suggestion forums. Initially after the "migration" of 4chan'ers, there was a slight backlash from 5chan'ers due to 4chan'ers lamenting the loss of their image boards which resulted in a public statement by the moderators/admins of 5chan to the community.
With the opening of idlechan, most of the 4chan orphans left 5chan, and the light animosity went back to what it was before, perhaps a little heavier from the time the two groups spent confined together. All was relatively peaceful, and both boards struggled to deal with downtime and server overloads.
Available Boards
The boards hosted by 5chan were mostly self-explanatory:
(*)The category names listed above may be slightly altered when compared to the actual image board names given by 5chan. Despite this, the list given here should accurately reflect the actual image board names.
In addition to these image boards, 5chan also offered a "normal" BBS styled forums for discussion. The categories were:
- General
- 5chan Related
- Polls
- Translations
- Bugs/HowTo
- Suggestions
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