[sentenza]

Also, what about Slashdot? The Jargon file? Usenet?

I've been on the Internet since the mid-90s and have purposefully avoided 4chan since I first heared of it.

At no point has it been difficult to avoid 4chan. I gather it has been very influential in the niche of image memes and I vaguely remember something about teenagers calling everybody a "fag" a few years back, but otherwise I couldn't say what the influence has been.

[DanBC]

You'd have to make special effort to get some of the Usenet references.

meow? snuh? McQ sigs? borkborkbork? yEnc sucks!

None of these had much lasting impact. There's a bunch of stuff from 4chan that you have heard of, even if you don't know it came from 4chan.

[gozo]

The legacy of mediums like Usenet isn't jokes but companies, applications, organisations etc. If you grew up during the heyday of Usenet (or BBSes, IRC, some forums, mailing lists) you had a pretty good chance of going on to do something in computing. Joke can help people come together but they doesn't form the substance of a culture. I guess people from 4chan could go on and be the next generation of marketers or something, but I doubt it.

[9872]

Yeah, because it's not as if people like Mark Zuckerberg or Taylor Swift have any influence on the world today.

[gozo]

Not, what I can see, because of 4chan nor because of 4chan culture. By comparison, I know numerous people that started with BBSes, got involved in the demoscene, went on to work for and/or start games companies.

[Torgo]

plonk! ;-)

[tired_man]

I remember Plonk!

You must be a bit old ;-)

[bitzerlander]

Totse anybody?