Chris Poole What is 4chan? 405Million page views month, 6.4 million visitors/month 340 million posts total, 2nd largest BBS. Users contribute 550,000 posts day 18-34 years old, 2:1 male female What does 4chan look like? 43 image boards there are also discussion boards, but no one uses them. 4chan is responsible for memes, via net culture What is a meme? diea, behavior, style, catchphrases, internet phenomena, viral content 4chan is unique in that: zero barrier to entry, no registration, no captcha, no nothing Wide-range of topics, wide-range of countries, including vatican city. There is no archiving at all, you can NOT go back to see what was posted there. Anonymous: all information is treated equally; only an accurate argument of work moot shows us /a/ in class /b/ is the random board no rules for posters, no rules for moderators. /b/ gets 450,000 posts/day, out of 550,000 per day for all of 4chan Most users post anonymously. Uncensored, unfiltered place. LOLCats started on /b/. Started 5 years ago. icanhascheezburger was bought for 2 million dollars, because people like cats. Rickrolling charted on 4chan. Nancy Pelosi is rick-rolling the nation. --- People average 18 minutes per 4chan visit. That's LOTS of time How to make a meme, repost the same thing over and over and over and over and over ... Memes spread first to 4chan, then to WOW and other nerdy sites. Then outside of them to friends and family, AIM, facebook, then elsewhere eventually. --- How do memes spread? is it a mystery? It must be appealing, it must be accessible, it cannot be cryptic. If your mother can understand it, you might succeed. Timing is important, relevance is important. It's unpredictable.