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by h_anna_h 1722 days ago
Not really, I would go as far as to argue that it is less toxic than reddit, twitter, and even HN.
4 comments

Mmm... well, if you're received what you consider to be toxic interactions on twitter, reddit and even here, but not on 4chan, have you considered that the common factor is perhaps not that all of these platforms are toxic...

...but that your views are considered problematic by quite a lot of people?

Perhaps that could be some cause for self reflection before you universally declare the entire platform here hostile and toxic.

> your views are considered problematic by quite a lot of people

What I consider problematic is the fact these people will organize massive efforts on Twitter to ruin other people's lives because they posted wrongthink. They make the 4chan raids I've seen look amateurish.

Indeed. There is some downright grotesque "malice" in Twitter cancel-culture efforts. It's really strange they are not self-aware and call 4chan (~last bastion of free speech) toxic.

Yeah, 4chan is toxic and savage, but at least they are honest and humane in a candid kind of way.

The cyber-bullying's of 4chan is trash though...

Yeah. 4chan is supposed to represent people's unfiltered thoughts, what people really think when freed from social consequences. This produces a wider spectrum than what most people are used to seeing, both good and bad.

While 4chan posters occasionally get organized and manage to operate outside their borders, these incredibly malicious activities just aren't something I associate with them. They're the specialty of groups like kiwi farms who are responsible for the suicide of at least one video game console emulator developer. I was shocked when people told me about byuu's suicide here on HN.

People on 4chan will call you slurs and insults but it is never personal, part of it is due to the anonymous nature. People here will be personally vicious and hostile.

> ...but that your views are considered problematic by quite a lot of people?

You do not know what my views are. It's as if you are trying to prove me right honestly. (btw, I am not posting on reddit nor on twitter, nor 4chan for that matter)

Plus the same could be said for the toxic interactions that you had on there.

> Perhaps that could be some cause for self reflection before you universally declare the entire platform here hostile and toxic.

Again, same thing for you. "Perhaps that could be some cause for self reflection before you universally declare the entire platform there hostile and toxic."

> You do not know what my views are

I’m just going to politely remind you that on HN your entire comment history per account is public.

I do not believe that you went through my comment history in the few minutes that it took for you to respond to me.

Also, something that I did not mention before

> ...but that your views are considered problematic by quite a lot of people?

This is not a justification for toxicity.

Parts of it, yes. But the famous parts are horrible; I don't remember the last time HN ran an international cyberbullying campaign.
I thought it was called “YC Demo Day.”
There's a difference between vicious mockery of a company and its founders on a single website, and having randos holding knives knocking on people's windows.
> and having randos holding knives knocking on people's windows

Are you referring to some specific event?

An amalgamation of multiple events. (I was lying when I implied I remembered the last time 4chan did this kind of thing; it happens so often.)

The one I was thinking of, I misremembered: it was actually an (alleged) stabbing. https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/07/tenacity_maintainer_q...

This is patently ridiculous. The biggest boards on 4chan, particularly /pol/ have widespread support for the genocide of Jews, black people, Muslims and women. Well maybe not all women, a more common view is instead that they should be enslaved to men. This kind of correction should give an idea of what kind of ideas are popular there.
4chan is not only /pol/. The culture between boards is vastly different. Although I do not disagree, /pol/ specifically is toxic.

And it's not as if reddit does not have its own share of similar forums.

Of course 4chan is not just /pol/ but it is the biggest board, and together with /b/ contribute to plenty of hateful content as I mentioned. The culture between boards is different but /pol/ refugees in particular have been spreading to other boards for several years now and it's very annoying because even if a small group of them decide to visit a board regularly then they can ruin the culture because of relative sizes between the boards. Reddit and Twitter have their own problems, particularly with echo chambers but the biggest subreddit on reddit isn't spewing anywhere near the same kind of shit as the biggest board on 4chan does.
Go to any board, /lit/, /g/, /fa/ (maybe less so), will all have a thread or two that you will be able to tell are directly influenced by /pol/ posters. Some boards call them out, most don't.
maybe on streamers with less than 50 viewers. every twitch stream i've seen the chat is easily 100x more toxic than any HN thread. ridiculous comparison
Huh? I am not talking about twitch. If anything this just shows that you disagree with https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28771025 which is the post that I am replying to.