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4chan Boards

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Tenshi Hinanawi edited this page Apr 30, 2012 · 1 revision

Board titles

Needs to be merged with the 4chan History Timeline.

I didn't keep track of the order in which 4chan boards were launched. The following list is collected mainly from 4chan news posts and web archives.

  • 30th September, 2003: Moot announces 4chan.net in Something Awful's ADTRW forum. Thread is titled "4chan.net - English 2chan.net!"

  • 2nd October 2003: 4chan's /b/ is already in place, according to a news post on a complaint. It is named after 2chan's /b/ board, and according to Everything Shii Knows was originally the only 4chan board. The rules page describes /b/ as a test board which will later become an anime board. moot describes /b/ in a news post as "a retard bin". 4chan's "/h/ - Hentai" board launched.

  • 6th October 2003: "/c/ - Anime/Cute" added as a place to post "cute anime/hentai pictures". "/d/ - Hentai/Alternative" added as a /h/ spinofff "to appease all those who thought the restrictions on /h/ were too Nazi-ish." "/y/ - Yaoi" and 4chan Oekaki BBS drawing board added.

  • 8th October 2003: 4chan's /b/ board is currently named "/b/- Anime/Random", although I can't remember if it had an earlier name. Archived thread reveals that the "/w/" board (wallpapers) existed by this date.

  • 9th October 2003: "/g/ - Guro" added to clean the most nasty images out of /h/. "/s/ - Sexy Beautiful Women" added, and is managed by Boco_T and PotatoSan. Boco_T also drew two of 4chan's title images: one of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh, and one of Cardcaptor Sakura drawn in the style of Fist of the North Star.

  • 8th November 2003: "/a/ - Anime" launched. "/l/ - Lolikon" launched to clean up /c/.

  • 22nd November 2003: Some time between 16th October and 22nd November, /b/ has been re-named to "Random", perhaps as there is now a dedicated anime board. A news announcement reveals that a board named "/r/ - TRAINZ" was running, but has been moved to 1chan (trains trains trains).

  • 28th November 2003: News announces that "/l/" has been removed.

  • 8th January 2004: "/l/" returns. Newspost reveals that "/r/" (Request) has been created to solve a problem with "/t/" (Torrents), which evidently had already existed for a while.

  • 25th January 2004: "/t/" removed.

  • 19th February 2004: "/f/ - Flash" added. "/t/ - Torrents" returns.

  • 21st February 2004: Two discussion boards added: "/amh/ - Anime-Manga-Hentai", and "/bbs/ - 4chan Discussion".

  • 28th March 2004: An old saved-out thread reveals that "/p/ - Photo" and "/u/" existed by this date. Top of page boards list: a/b/c/d/f/h/l/p/r/s/t/u/w/y.

  • 30th March 2004: Two discussion boards added: "/dis/ - Discussion" and "/sug/ - Suggestion".

  • 15th June 2004: 4chan's Paypal donations account is reported by TheRowan, owner of HentaiKey and host of rival imageboard 5chan. (Source: SA 4chan thread)

  • 20th June 2004: 4chan closes its doors for the fourth time. (Source: Something Awful original 4chan thread)

  • 7th August 2004: 4chan returns.

  • 16th August 2004: Saved thread reveals that the following boards existed already: "/m/", "/n/" (Trains), and "/cm/" (Cute Male) /cm/ was created to keep male content out of /c/. The discussion boards "/anime"/, "/ascii/" and "/game/" already existed. /r/ was named "/r/ - Request". Top of page boards list: a/b/c/d/f/g/h/l/m/n/p/r/s/t/u/w cm/y anime/ascii/dis/game/sug.

  • 8th September 2004: "/k/ - Weapons", "/o/ - Auto" and "/sm/ - Shota/Male" added.

  • 26th September 2004: "/n/" (Trains) mentioned in a news post.

  • 9th October 2004: "/ib/ - Oekaki Random", "/ip/ - Oekaki Pro" and "/v/ - Video Games" image boards added. Discussion board "/tech/ - Technology" added. "/n/ - Trains" removed.

  • 19th January 2005: "/e/ - Ecchi" added as a mid-way between /c/ and /h/. "/3/ - 3DCG", "/g/ - Technology" and "/n/ - Nature and Wildlife" added.

  • 26th January 2005: "/ic/ - Art/Critique" added. "/p/ - Photography" and "/x/ - General Photo" added, and replace "/p/ - Photo".

  • 26th February 2005: "/gif/ - Animated GIF", "/hr/ - High Resolution", and "/wg/ - Wallpapers/General" added. "/x/ - General Photo" removed.

  • 9th January 2007: "/sp/ - Sports" removed after a trial.

  • 12th February 2008: News post reveals that "/ck/" exists at this point.

  • 29th February 2008: News post reveals nine new boards added over several weeks: "/fa/ - Fashion", "/fit/ - Health & Fitness", "/hc/ - Hardcore", "/n/ - Transportation", "/sp/ - Sports", "/toy/ - Toys", "/trv/ - Travel", "/jp/ - Japan/General", and "/r9k/ - ROBOT9000".

  • 26th June 2008: News post reveals a former image board, "/q/ - Questions".

  • 6th July 2008: News post reveals that drawing board "/i/" exists by this date. "/i/" was created to merge Oekaki Random with Oekaki Pro.

  • 1st January 2010: The following boards are listed on the rules page, and must have been created before 2010: "/an/ - Animals & Nature", "/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL", "/co/ - Comics & Cartoons", "/m/ - Mecha", "/po/ - Papercraft & Origami", "/tg/ - Traditional Games, "/tv/ - Television & Film", and "/x/ - Paranormal". There is an upload board, "/rs/ - Rapidshares". Several discussion boards have been created and shut down over the site's run.

  • 28th January 2010: Six new image boards were added some time in January 2010: "/adv/ - Advice", "/lit/ - Literature", "/new/ - News", "/int/ - International", "/sci/ - Science & Math", and "/3/ - 3DCG". 3DCG previously existed and I'm pretty sure News used to exist as /n/. There is a Science & Math text board.

  • 18th January 2011: /r9k/ and /new/ removed. The current board list is:

    [a / b / c / d / e / f / g / gif / h / hr / k / m / o / p / r / s / t / u / v / w / wg] [i / ic] [cm / y] [3 / adv / an / cgl / ck / co / fa / fit / int / jp / lit / mu / n / po / sci / soc / sp / tg / toy / trv / tv / vp / x] [rs] [status / ? / @]

Boards sharing a letter

Several boards have used the same letter as another board at a different point in time. Usually, this occurs when a single-letter board is deleted and its letter is later re-used.

  • /g/ - Guro, Technology
  • /n/ - Trains, Nature & Wildlife, News, Transportation
  • /p/ - Photo, Photography
  • /x/ - General Photo, Paranormal

Secret boards

There were two secret boards I knew of. The first was /5/, which was for posting pictures of 5. The second was /z/, an exile board detailed at Everything Shii Knows.

Further information

Everything Shii Knows has an article on 4chan.

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