Revised Proposal

Proposal

Issue:
The issue our group has chosen pertains to online communities, like social news sites, image-boards, and forums. Reddit, Gaia Online, 4chan, and Something Awful are all exampIes of these communities.  For the most part, each of these sites have their own way of moderating material that is posted by users.  However, in the past few years, 4chan has been gaining a “notorious” reputation from the general public.  They have been the subject of various news articles who describe 4chan as a hangout place for hackers, pedophiles, rapists, and murderers.  In this report, we are going to compare the moderation between these sites and determine if 4chan really deserves the bad reputation or if more moderation is needed.  


Why we are interested in it: 4chan’s /b/ board is notorious for its invasions, attacks, and general tomfoolery both in virtual space and in reality. However, this image-board has also sparked creativity, activism, cooperation, and brotherhood within its community. Acts of Internet vigilantism, a topic in the grey-area, is also apparent within the board and has led the judicial system to the offenders.

• Creativity: internet memes, Oekaki board, photography board, artwork/critique board, food & cooking board etc.

• Activism: Project Chanology, DDoS attacks on RIAA, MPAA, AiPlex Software, hacking Sarah Palin’s email

• Cooperation/brotherhood: Anonymous, support groups,
• Misconceptions of 4chan: “4chan.org is unofficially a meeting place for pedophiles, rapists and murderers.” http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41981969336
• Controversial: internet vigilantism, pornography, discussion of taboo topics such as rape, pedophilia

What should be done: Our group believes that 4chan ought to be keep their current rules because it may be the last place where users can truly express their thoughts.  But we propose that the image-board use more moderators so that they can reduce the amount of libel, slander, incitement of criminal behaviour, and illegal content, like child pornography. We believe that because there are so many different sites that users can go to without seeing such “offensive” material, we should leave 4chan alone.  They public can exercise their own judgement and decide not to participate in sites such as 4chan.  We will use the workable ethical theories, such as Kantianism, to defend our position.

Arguments to address this issue:
Many Internet users are no doubt disturbed by the actions taken by Anonymous.  Here are a few examples:

• Oprah and her over 9000 penises incident.
• 4chan and other websites assaulted Hal Turner by launching DDos attacks and prank calling his phone-in radio show. The attacks caused Turner's website to go offline.
• 4chan tries sending Justin Bieber to North Korea.
• Steve Jobs’ cardiac arrest hoax caused Apple stock to plummet
• Habbo Hotel raid, where the virtual hotel was raided by Anonymous

Many in society, especially the targeted organizations, are calling for a complete shut down of 4chan because they believe it is responsible for reckless attacks on “innocent” people.  They view the actions of 4chan as detrimental to society because they find no purpose in what they do. These critics can argue that they are acting in the interest of protecting others from unprovoked attacks. In addition, if other messages boards can operate successfully without the need for anonymous posters, why can’t 4chan?

However, there are those who waive off these incidents as harmless pranks, simply as a means for entertainment.   A stronger proponent for the “no rules” /b/ forum would be Anonymous themselves.  They see their existence as a source of vigilante justice. Examples of such are:

• Dusty the cat abuse incident. Anons from 4chan tracking down the poster of those videos and contacting the police to arrest the suspect
• High school bombing incident. A student posted images of pipe bombs and another of him holding them saying that he will blow up his high school. The users of 4chan tracked down the student and contacted local authorities.
• School shooting incident. 4chan provided the IP of the poster who claimed to shoot at St Eskils Gymnasium in Eskilstuna, Sweden.

• Major player in Project Chanology, an activist movement against the Church of Scientology through organized protests worldwide coupled with DoS attacks on Church websites
• 4chan as a centre of Internet memes and creativity

Supporters of the “no rule” forum can also argue that the anonymity gives a voice to those who are too afraid to speak; afraid to be judged on their opinion.  Perhaps it can also be viewed as a way to fight back against larger corporations or governments whose policies are questionable when compared to the needs of the general public.  

In addition to 4chan, Gaia Online has strict guidelines on what users can post because their target audience are mostly teenagers. These include banning their users from “cybering” and posting nonconstructive messages.

Something Awful requires users to pay a membership fee before they can post anything. Like 4chan, there is a random forum, known as FYAD, where users can post almost anything they want. But unlike 4chan, only those who are members have access.

Reddit uses less stringent measures for moderation but they forbid users from posting hoaxes and asking others to troll for you (ie. asking others to post messages that purposefully antagonizes others).




List of Potential Resources:

http://www.slate.com/id/2297492/

A description of 4chan by an author - gives a brief over view of history and current events of the board /b/.

http://torrentfreak.com/new-4chan-ddos-targets-hated-anti-piracy-law-firm-100922/

More information about the DDos attack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7liYfhRgXGk&feature=player_embedded

Oprah Winfrey and her over 9000 penis moment.

http://boingboing.net/2010/07/05/4chan-prank-means-ju.html

Extra information regarding the prank pulled on Justin Bieber by 4chan.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0220/1224241467858.html

A blurb on the Dusty the cat abuse.

http://4chanarchive.org/brchive/dspl_thread.php5?thread_id=39168208

Highschool bombing incident in more detail

http://www.thelocal.se/17354/20090204/

Local news on school shooting

http://www.lisamcpherson.org/pc.htm

Website detailing the Project Chanology social movement

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/210605645
     News article on the Steve Jobs cardiac arrest hoax
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41981969336

Facebook group against 4chan.org

http://www.gaiaonline.com/info/index.php?mode=rules

Rules from a more restricted forum site

http://www.reddit.com/help/reddiquette

Reddit rules and guideline.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/forum-rules/forum-rules.php

Something awful rules and guidelines.

Breakdown of tasks:

Howie:
    Intro
    Arguments for 4chan
    Gaia online rules

Diana:
    Issue
    Arguments against 4chan
    Something awful rules

Ricardo:
    The Solution
    Reddit rules
    Conclusion

Timeline:
    By Wednesday, July 20th: finish researching all online communities we wish to discuss
    By Friday, July 22nd: find all arguments for and against 4chan
    By Sunday, July 24th: finish writing individual sections
    By Monday, July 25th: revise and edit final report + start rehearsing for presentation