For those of you who have not had the pleasure (or displeasure in some cases) of perusing the message threads of 4Chan (some boards NSFW), allow me to summarize. 4Chan is an image board with anonymity in mind where users can post about and discuss whatever they wish. Therein lies a loose-knit community who refer to themselves as simply “Anonymous.” The 22-year-old founder of the website, Moot (Christopher Poole), has been dealing with the users’ shenanigans for quite some time, as he seems to always come under fire when the users do something ridiculous.
Recently, Moot was called in to testify in the case against the alleged hacker of Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account. The proceedings were pretty interesting, to say the very least. Moot was asked a variety of questions about his involvement in the website, about the website’s users, its culture and in perhaps one of the stranger moments in a federal trial, Moot was asked about some of the terminology used on 4Chan. Some of the testimony goes like this:
Q. Is there a certain language that is commonly used for users of 4chan?
A. In what sense?
Q. Certain terms, have a meaning unique to 4chan?
A. Yes.
Q. Like “OP,” what is “OP”?
A. OP means original poster.
…
Q. And is there any significance to “new fags”?
A. That is the term used to describe new users to the site.
Q. What about “b tard”?
A. It’s a term that users of the /b/- Random board use for themselves.
…
Q. “Rickroll”?
A. Rickroll is a mean (SIC) or Internet kind of trend that started on 4chan where users — it basically a bait and switch. Users link you to a video of Rick Astley performing Never Gonna Give You Up.
Q. And the term “rickroll” you said it tries to make people go to a site where they think it is going to be one thing, but it is a video of Rick Astley, is that RIGHT?
A. Yes.
Q. He was some kind of singer?
A. Yes.
Q. It’s a joke?
A. Yes.
The entire transcript can be found here (courtesy The Smoking Gun). As an occasional denizen of 4Chan myself, I can’t help but wonder if the court would have been better served not opening that can of worms. I mean, couldn’t they find something a little bit more relevant?
Haha. Gotcha.
