An imageboard or image board (also chan, which is short for channel) is a type of Internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. The first imageboards were created in Japan, and many English-language imageboards today are centered around Japanese culture. They are based on the textboard concept.
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Imageboards, similar to bulletin boards, are used for the discussion of a variety of topics. The primary focus of imageboards, however, is directed away from text posts, and is instead placed on picture posts. The two share many of the same structures, including separate forums for separate topics, as well as similar audiences. Imageboards are much more transitory with content—on some boards (especially highly-trafficked ones), the thread deletion time can be as little as 10 minutes. The most popular English-language imageboard 4chan tend to revolve around Japanese culture such as CG artwork or anime. In Japan, where imageboards are more common, topics vary widely, ranging from trains to current news.
Imageboards are also different from online galleries in that most of the works posted are not made by the poster, but instead are taken from other online sources: galleries, other imageboards, and edited pictures.
Most imageboards and 2channel-style discussion boards allow (and encourage) anonymous posting and use a system of tripcodes instead of registration. Anonymity is considered to be one of the advantages of an imageboard. Some boards have from time to time removed the ability to post with a name altogether (known as 'forced anonymous/anonymity'). Programs such as tripcode explorer[1] enable one to create custom tripcodes, in order to further cement one's identity. However, using a tripcode on some boards, such as 4chan, is generally discouraged by the community, who prefer to remain anonymous.
On many imageboards, if a user wants to reply to a thread but not bump it, they can put the word sage (Japanese: 下げ) in the e-mail field. "Ageing" can refer to either bumping a post or putting the word age (Japanese: 上げ) into the e-mail field. It is considered polite to sage when replying to your own thread. Sage is used by some board users generally to signify a bad thread.
In Japan, the imageboard is a much larger cultural symbol, with one estimate putting the total number of posts for Futaba's seven Nijiura (Japanese: 二次元裏) boards boards at over 56,000,000 and rising.[2]
There are two primary types of imageboard software packages in widespread use: linearly-directed imageboards modeled closely after Futaba Channel (in which content is posted through hierarchical subsections of topical interest, usually denoted by a forward slash such as "/f" for female), and nonlinear imageboards modeled after Danbooru (usually indicated by the usage of controlled folksonomic vocabulary for topical tagging and search).
There are currently four Futaba-based imageboard software packages in widespread use: Futallaby,[3] Wakaba,[4] Kusaba,[5] and Pixmicat.[6]
Futallaby is a PHP script based on the Futaba script from Futaba Channel. Although Futallaby is still in use at 1chan,[7] and the Futallaby source is still freely available, it is no longer in development, and the download page recommends using Wakaba instead, stating that "Wakaba can do everything Futallaby does and so much more." Futallaby started as a translation of Futaba, later retooled to support XHTML and customizable CSS styles. It is mostly notable for being the first English imageboard script. It requires MySQL to work.
Wakaba is written from the ground up in Perl, and a SQL backend to store thread information. Wakaba is very strictly modelled after the Futaba and Futallaby scripts. Wakaba borrows some HTML codes and translated text from Futallaby. It is designed to be more efficient and cleanly written than other scripts that are available, while preserving the same kind of functionality. Wakaba scripts are in use at iichan. Wakaba is one of most popular western imageboard software scripts , used most notably by iichan (Wakachan).[8]
Kusaba is modular, written from scratch with PHP for server side scripting, JavaScript for some client side scripting, and with ADOdb Lite for database abstraction to a database, MySQL. The main focus of the development of Kusaba was to code faster and more efficient software for multi-imageboard sites. The center feature of the software is the centralization of the backend for all boards by having a single installation controlling all boards. The creator has discontinued the project in favor of two other imageboards: PyIB[9] and TinyIB.[10] In August 2008, the domain hosting kusaba expired. The last version of the software (1.0.4) was hosted on another imageboard site, Megachan, and development has been picked up by Kusaba X[11] and OperatorChan.
Pixmicat is another PHP script based on the Futaba script. It supports flatfile, MySQL and SQLite storage. It also supports internationalization, modules, remote image storage and templating. It is widely in use in Komica,[12] a Taiwanese imageboard portal.
Unlike Futaba-inspired imageboard software packages, Danbooru and derivatives aim for a non-hierarchical semantic structure in which users are able to post content and add tags, annotations, translations, and comments.
There exists a number of different Danbooru-style imageboards, both those who have shared source code and those who are not released for others to use.
Some of imageboard engines have a public API which can be used to automate publication and post viewing.[13][14] A de-facto standard for the API, created by Danbooru and used by the other imageboards has been established for this. The feature is used by a number of board crawlers[15][16][17] and Firefox extensions.[18][19]
Shared:
Non-shared:
Danbooru[20] is a Ruby on Rails-based imageboard software that is released under a FreeBSD license.
Shimmie[21] is an imageboard written from scratch in PHP using MySQL as a database and GD or ImageMagick for image manipulation (thumbnails).
Gelbooru.com runs an unreleased branch of the Gelbooru software (0.2.x). An older branch (0.1.x) has been released for public use.[22]
Futaba Channel (ふたば☆ちゃんねる), or "Futaba" for short, is a popular, anonymous BBS and imageboard system based in Japan. Imageboard software packages Futallaby, Yotsuba, Kusaba X, and others which are used on many other imageboards, are all derived from Futaba's original PHP script. Its boards usually do not distinguish between pornographic and "clean" content, but there is a strict barrier between two-dimensional (drawn) and three-dimensional (CG and photographic) pictures that is heavily enforced and debated.[23]
4chan is an English language imageboard based on the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel. This imageboard is based primarily upon the posting of pictures (generally related to anime, manga, and popular culture) and their discussion. The Guardian describes it as "at once brilliant, ridiculous and alarming."[24]
The site and its userbase have received attention from the media for a number of reasons, including posts sporting terrorist threats against schools and sports stadiums,[25] attacks against Hal Turner on his Internet shows,[26] distributed denial-of-service attacks against eBaum's World,[27][28] Cyber Bullying , taking part in Project Chanology,[29] and multiple cases of anti-animal abuse reports.[30]
Many Internet memes have originated there, including lolcats,[31][32][33] rickrolling, and chocolate rain.
7chan is an English-based imageboard similar to 4chan, though it receives considerably less traffic.
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