Poll: Should 4chan be "hunted" down?

[Soviet Heavy]

Why is this place suddenly able to start accusing people of being assholes.

Saying stuff like "OP is a ******" is enough to get you suspended on this site.
I appreciate the fact that places like 4Chan exist, but if we're discussing it within a separate forum, we need to use a modicum of respect when doing so.

 

[Kittenmauler]

Sure, they occasionally ruin lives, but those people deserve it.

Really? Think about what you've just said there as a human being... not an anon on the web!
No one deserves to have their life destroyed because of something they did.
This is exactly the kind of attitude that sparks conversations such as the hunting of 4chan in the first place.
Let's be honest, people do horrible things every day, because the world as a whole tends to be a horrible place.
But seeking revenge on a person because of their actions, or because they made a stupid mistake is no way to punish them.
90% of the time the person in question isn't even going to learn anything from it anyway, much like me telling you all this isn't going to change your opinion is it?

Side note: calling someone a newfag is also not a good way to get others to side with your beliefs.

-Trodo (Trevor) Baggins

P.S. People should be held accountable for their own actions, be it the girl who drowned puppies, or the people on 4chan who hunt others down! But not for revenge, for justice.

What difference does it make how they are hunted down, can't justice and revenge happen together? People should be punished if they do something wrong, and and "they probably won't learn anything anyway" is a lousy argument against punishment. Some people do deserve to have their lives destroyed for something they did (murder?), you think people that do horrible things should be allowed to keep on doing them? How does that make the world a better place.

 

[Regular Guy]

Why is this place suddenly able to start accusing people of being assholes.

Saying stuff like "OP is a ******" is enough to get you suspended on this site.
I appreciate the fact that places like 4Chan exist, but if we're discussing it within a separate forum, we need to use a modicum of respect when doing so.

>implying OP isn't a ******

I'm sorry, I'm just having too much fun with this.

 

[noble cookie]

Hello? Is this Chuck Norris? Ah, yes Chuck, sorry to bother you but we have a little thing we need you to deal with.

MAEK TEH NASTY 4CHAN GEW AWAEY!!1

 

[Mr.Petey]

Sure, they occasionally ruin lives, but those people deserve it.

Really? Think about what you've just said there as a human being... not an anon on the web!
No one deserves to have their life destroyed because of something they did.
This is exactly the kind of attitude that sparks conversations such as the hunting of 4chan in the first place.
Let's be honest, people do horrible things every day, because the world as a whole tends to be a horrible place.
But seeking revenge on a person because of their actions, or because they made a stupid mistake is no way to punish them.
90% of the time the person in question isn't even going to learn anything from it anyway, much like me telling you all this isn't going to change your opinion is it?

Side note: calling someone a newfag is also not a good way to get others to side with your beliefs.

-Trodo (Trevor) Baggins

P.S. People should be held accountable for their own actions, be it the girl who drowned puppies, or the people on 4chan who hunt others down! But not for revenge, for justice.

OP is a ******.

I think one of the great things about 4chan is anonymity and lack of accountability. It lets people be who they actually are, not bound by social or legal conventions. Is it that hard to believe that on the inside, people are heartless and cruel most of the time?

Either way, even if you wanted to bring down 4chan, you couldn't.

It really doesn't help with the name calling, so if you wouldn't mind? Trevor is right though. To what end would revenge and vigilante escapades finish at? If people are to be brought to justice and answer for their crimes, whatever that may be, it needs less anonymous troublemaking idiots making their own perverse sense of retribution and instead left in the hands of established authorities.
4Chan is not outside the law in any sense of the word. Ambiguity may be their cloak they like to hide behind and it's that which makes some delusional from what is down-to-basics right or wrong as we learnt as kids growing up.

 

[Lord Honk]

There are two things I'm proud of: I never heard a song by Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber, and I never saw 4chan "live", meaning I never was on the site(s?).
For all I know, it could be a huge Orwell-esque prank and I'm the last person on earth that doesn't get it.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

You guys give 4chan too much credit. Nothing needs to be done about them, other than making people shut the hell about them and stop regarding them with a near-religious reverence. Their site almost never interacts with ours, despite the overlap in demographics. Stop talking about them and they'll never concern you again.

That said, good fucking luck trying to take down humanity's closest analog to the Geth. Even if the proper amount of resources were expended shutting down 4chan, the users would not only migrate (thereby mitigating the consequences), but they'd also become the biggest martyrs on the internet, which would be a bullet placed firmly in the foot of those who want to see them "dethroned", so to speak. Seriously, if a site gets shut down because an ominous entity like the government found it "distasteful", the entire internet would be up in arms about censorship.

tl;dr this is a problem you can ignore, so do it already.

 

[Corporal Bill]

I imagine it's almost impossible to trace members of 4chan. As summed up by this pretty decent quote:

'There is no head to cut off. It's a conglomerate. If one of them betrays the principles of the accrual of money and power, the others betray him. What it is is human weakness. You can't kill that with a gun.'

Cookies for anyone that knows what this is a quote from. Without using Google.

Shooter I think?

 

[Trevor L. Cooper]

OP is a ******.

I think one of the great things about 4chan is anonymity and lack of accountability. It lets people be who they actually are, not bound by social or legal conventions. Is it that hard to believe that on the inside, people are heartless and cruel most of the time?

Either way, even if you wanted to bring down 4chan, you couldn't.

You have repeated what I just said... Here's a cookie!

If you really read clearly you'd find that I said that the world tends to be horrible as can the people in it. War, famine, murder, etc...
But what separates the "world" from the internet is accountability.
Now, I know that people are going to continue to do whatever they want on the net no matter what I say...

But think for 2 seconds about these peoples' lives. Sure you here about someone's Facebook account being hacked and you lol. But what about people like my family who get their bank account hacked, simply so you can buy a few more months on WoW.
Meanwhile, my family goes hungry for night... Where's the lol there my friend?

Side: I don't know who OP is, and I don't care, but it's that kind of language and behavior that gives these fanatic groups steam to try and get rid of net-neutrality and make courts listen to banning video games cases. If we all took a little time and thought about the back-biting and name calling that occur in these artistic mediums, then maybe people would begin to accept us "Gamers" as fellow people and we wouldn't be looked at as "Freaks"!

-Trodo (Trevor) Baggins

P.S. I already said that i was pro 4chan. I think it's great that people have a place where they feel accepted, but it's when I hear about those same people cyber-terrorizing someone that I have a problem with it. No one should have the right to play Judge/Jury/Executioner. Not on 4chan, not IRL.

 

[Wicky_42]

You are pretty much acting the part of the ignorant parent trying to get video games banned because they have never truly endeavored to understand what they were dealing with. From reading your post, your information is almost exclusively hearsay and entirely indirect.

To answer your question, no, I don't believe 4chan should be "hunted down". As a matter of fact I believe it should be protected. It is one of the places where freedom of speech can occur on the most pristine level available. (Mind you, the place is still moderated and is subject to rules.) The fact that people can use it as a platform for many kinds of discussions, or indeed, to plan an attack, virtual or otherwise, is irrelevant. You can do all those things in your own home, on the street, anywhere.

I'm going to have to agree with you there. I've been afraid of 4chan, and angry at some of its stunts in the past, but I want the future of the internet to be as free a place as possible. If a site can be taken down because of uninformed public opinion and its members persecuted for chatting on it then it's no longer a free place. That's be like closing a public park because people in a different city think druggies hang out there and shoot people or some bullshit.

The liberal in me would protect 4chan on principle.

 

[blubbyblubbyblub]

NO! Sure 4chan is the asshole of the internet, but the internet needs an asshole goddammit. Plus they bring some good, i mean, their probably the ones who are gonna stop the Justin Bieber crusader kid.......they are our only hope!

Yes the internet needs an asshole but the bieber crusader kid is a troll himself tho,

Love your avatar!

<--------/b/tard

 

[Luke5515]

No, they are a necessary evil. For the safety of the internet, for revenge against kitten abusers, and yes indeed for the lulz.

 

[Trevor L. Cooper]

What difference does it make how they are hunted down, can't justice and revenge happen together? People should be punished if they do something wrong, and and "they probably won't learn anything anyway" is a lousy argument against punishment. Some people do deserve to have their lives destroyed for something they did (murder?), you think people that do horrible things should be allowed to keep on doing them? How does that make the world a better place.

Justice from the law, court, etc.. is different from revenge.
To clear up my general statement earlier: no, I don't think people should go unpunished for their crimes. I happen to believe in the the death penalty for murderers. What I was trying to convey is that cyber-hunting is wrong! You have no more right to judge a person than I do... That is why we have a legal system, do I think it always works? no. Do I think that it's the best option we've got? for now yes.

Do you get what I'm trying to say here people? apparently not...

-Trodo "Trevor" Baggins

 

[Ham_authority95]

You can't "hunt down" an entire website.

Besides, all they want is a reaction. "Hunting them down" would be just what they want you to do...

 

[Nouw]

4chan as a whole isn't bad, that Veteran thing was a good act and it's annoying when people use /b/ as the whole of 4chan. It's like the internet, there's so many bullshit and that spark of awesomeness it's hard to decide whether or not it is a good thing or not. But you have to think, their good acts can be deemed normal behavior for people not in 4chan.

And Anon steps in, thinking they're some badass internet version of Batman that works for the 'greater good.'They are not a force to be reckoned with, they're just like you and me.

Also, I counter the 'impossible' with the Internet Killswitch.

So in summary it's a mixed bag.

I tend to side on the '4chan needs to be stopped' but I don't really think that exactly. I think the internet vigilantism of 'Anonymous', which often crosses over into real life assaults, needs to be stopped or seriously curtailed.

Take the Gene Simmons website crash, if a bunch of people stormed into a record store in real life and took everything, or stormed into a record company headquarters and smashed everything with baseball bats, we'd condemn them, and the police would hunt them down and arrest them, but suddenly because it's on the internet and it's anonymous we're all cheering for the glorious attack on a filthy capitalist society?

Wake the fuck up, you wouldn't stand for it in real life, so why do people cower in fear when Anonymous are mentioned on the internet? They are bullies, tyrants and dictators who feel obliged to stamp on whatever they don't like out of some hyper-inflated sense of entitlement.

This guy has the right attitude. I'd love to see Anonymous do all their antics and tricks in real-life and in person.

 

[sheogoraththemad]

no fuck no,
I lurk 4chan an regular basis, the site is always a bit offensive but never boring.
and "hunting" them down sounds like censorship and if there is something I will die fighting for than it is: no censorship on the Inthawebz.

 

[Temple of Dregs]

"Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill."

 

[PrototypeC]

You cannot slay anonymous! It's like an infinitely-headed hydra, and half the heads are penises.

OT: I don't think that the whole of 4chan, or even most of /b/, needs to be hunted. The very fact that the website exists is a good thing; it's a place for various types of internet users to congregate, and as long as the trolls and other people doing things "for the lulz" are confined to /b/, despite the occasional breakout, then that is better than them being everywhere else, like the Escapist.