The Difference Between Reddit and 4Chan

You might be wondering where to find the best memes. Or maybe you're curious about some of the internet's seedier goings-on without traveling all the way to the dark web. No matter what the reason, it's a good idea to go into a new place knowing at least a little bit about the lay of the land ahead of time. This video was made with Ezvid Wikimaker.

What Do Reddit And 4chan Have To Offer?

While they're both online forums, there are plenty of ways to differentiate Reddit from 4chan. Knowing them can help steer you in the right direction, so that you know where to go.

Reddit 4chan
Pseudonymous Anonymous
Permanent Temporary
Social standing is tracked Gaining social capital is frowned upon
Anyone can create a subreddit Strictly defined boards
Incredibly broad audience Very deep audience

Alternatives To Reddit and 4chan

Just because these two sites have the biggest names doesn't mean that they necessarily have the community you are looking for. Here are some suggestions for where to go if neither of these is up your alley.

  • Metafilter: Similar to Reddit but with a culture that privileges longer form discussion.
  • Digg: The original reddit competitor, now significantly less used.
  • Quora: Closer to Yahoo! Answers, but full of useful information.
  • Hacker News: Aggregates news of interest to those invested in technology.
  • 9GAG: A meme aggregator that might steal your joke.
  • Something Awful: A discussion forum where a lot of internet humorists are born. There's also a website attached.

15 Mysteries Uncovered By 4chan

Conclusion

For many people, the internet barely exists outside of social media, YouTube, and some news. If that's you and you're looking to dive in a bit deeper, you should do so armed with foreknowledge. The internet might not be geographically distributed, but it still has cultural norms in different spaces. Keeping that in mind is a good way to approach what is sure to be a love affair with the weirdest the world wide web has to offer, whether you end up on Reddit or 4chan.

In Depth

If you're an avid user of the internet, then you've probably heard of both Reddit and 4chan. Both of them are influential websites. But what exactly are they, and what sets them apart from each other?

Let's start off with 4chan. It is an image-based bulletin board, also known as an image board, where people can start threads by posting pictures accompanied by text. It was founded in 2003 by Christopher Poole. The website is heavily inspired by Futaba Channel, which is a Japanese forum launched in 2001.

The website does not require users to register, which means that everyone is anonymous. Because of this, the site is watched over by a group of equally anonymous moderators who can delete posts, close threads, and ban users. They have a list of rules that everyone is expected to follow, and all of the boards have their own special rules.

Because of this, the site is watched over by a group of equally anonymous moderators who can delete posts, close threads, and ban users.

The site has several boards that deal with different topics such as news, fitness, and video games. Attempting to access any of these will show you a disclaimer stating that the contents of this site are intended for mature audiences only. It should be noted that some of these boards are tagged "N.S.F.W." or "not safe for work". This means that it potentially has content that's violent, sexual, or just generally vulgar.

Threads on 4chan are usually deleted after a few hours or days because each board has a limit of only ten pages. This is presumably done to keep content fresh and to cut down on server costs.

This website is known to be the birthplace of some of the most popular internet memes of the early 2000s. One of the most notable examples of these is the "Rickroll" bait-and-switch prank, which is where unsuspecting victims are redirected to the music video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". Another good example is the "lolcat" meme. "lolcats" are essentially just pictures of cats with humorous captions.

This website is known to be the birthplace of some of the most popular internet memes of the early 2000s.

Aside from memes, 4chan is also notorious for being the birthplace of the hacktivist group known as "Anonymous". They are a group of hackers that launch cyber attacks on government agencies, corporations, and even actual terrorist organizations. 4chan users are also known for raiding websites and polls for fun.

An example of a 4chan raid would be the time they targeted the "Dub the Dew" poll. It was a contest where users voted on the name of a new Mountain Dew flavor. Because of 4chan, the leaderboard was filled with offensive joke names like "Hitler Did Nothing Wrong".

Reddit, on the other hand, calls itself the "front page of the internet". It acts as a source for whatever is currently trending on the web. Here, people can share content about almost any topic imaginable. It was founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. One interesting note about Reddit is that during its early days, the creators used fake accounts to make the website feel alive. They kept doing this until the community grew to the point where it wasn't necessary anymore.

Here, people can share content about almost any topic imaginable.

Communities in Reddit are organized into "subreddits", which are user-created boards that cater to specific topics. Examples of these are Worldnews, Askreddit, and Gaming. Each sub has their own rules that are set by its creator, and people can volunteer to be its moderators. In order to create a subreddit, your account has to be at least 30 days old. You must also have an undisclosed amount of positive "karma", which is something the community uses to show how much a user has contributed.

Users gain karma when their posts are upvoted. On Reddit, people can "upvote" or "downvote" any post or comment. This is usually done to keep relevant content on the front page of a sub while pushing irrelevant or inappropriate content down.

Unlike 4chan, Reddit requires users to register before they can use most of its features. This removes the element of anonymity, which makes it easier to identify which users are participating in a discussion. It also allows one to track a person's activity and posting behavior.

This removes the element of anonymity, which makes it easier to identify which users are participating in a discussion.

Reddit also has its own set of global rules. Just like 4chan, users are prohibited from posting anything illegal or anything that contains other people's personal information. Reddit also requires people to tag any mature content or sub as "Not Safe For Work".

Both 4chan and Reddit have had their fair share of controversial moments. One example is the "Celebgate" incident where nude images of several celebrities were leaked online. These images were posted on 4chan's "Random" board and on several "N.S.F.W" subreddits. Moderators of both sites started panicking and deleting threads when it was revealed that some of the victims may have been underage.

At the end of the day, the only thing Reddit and 4chan have in common is that they're both online forums. Both have features that will appeal to different kinds of people. Reddit tends to attract more people though, presumably due to it being more organized. Discussions there are also less chaotic and easier to follow.