Motherboard

4chan, an anonymous web forum, was started in 2003 in the bedroom of a 15-year old student from New York City who purchased the server space using his mother’s credit card. While it consists of multiple boards, /b/ is the most infamous. Baltimore City Paper wrote “in the high school of the internet, /b/ is the kid with a collection of butterfly knives and a locker full of porn”. Others have described it as “the asshole of the internet”.

Besides dark humor and shock culture, 4chan is largely responsible for many internet pranks such as Rickrolling and memes like Pedobear, least of all the hacking of Sarah Palin’s email account.

Despite simply being a virtual entity of pranksters, 4chan has shown that it has the ability to create profound and concrete effects in the real world. A prank on iReport.com that stated that Steve Jobs suffered a major heart attack led to a significant fall in Apple stock for the month. A worldwide protest was launched against the Church of Scientology (Project Chanology). And perhaps most endearing is the vigilante efforts of the community who take it upon themselves to identify and report animal abusers and nuts posting bomb threats on the internet.

A 4chan documentary wouldn’t necessarily be about new or futuristic technology, it would be about what we can do with what we already have. It could also lead into the debate about internet censorship and privatization.

Love them or hate them- you can’t avoid them- they are the internet.

(info stolen from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4chan)