a manifesto

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>>4905050
Firstly, it is important to divulge the overall mindset and posting patterns of the board's majority during it's different
phases. I like to reference the natural birth, growth, and phases of most natural things in our world in breaking down
the different esfores' we all believe in. The first month was the chaos of birth, elements of many different boards made
up a primordial soup that was [s4s]. We all know well enough the creation story, the boards original purpose as a joke
and the subsequent rampant shitposting that took place in those first two weeks so I will not spend too much time with it.
In early May we started to see the first signs of regularity in respect to what ended up becoming the most agreed upon overall
posting style on esfores. Characters were appearing, each with unique posting styles. Gets and threads without post limits or
threads that had been altered by purple palm tree men garnered the most attention around this time, being that the board had
a considerably low amount of unique posters, names were useful and added to the fun of the poster. By attaching a name to a get
or OC, it was stamped with your likeness in a way, which also started to emerge more frequently.

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>>4905051
There were different groups of posters in these days but it was not an idea that was announced. The [a/jp] collective was born,
Gippo Dudee through constant spamming and reminding became known as the owner of the board, the first /s4s/ oriented OC started
to emerge. The presence of dubs attracted many of us, including myself, who remembered the fun old /b/ was when it had dubs and
the OC that gets produced in those days. I cannot speak for everyone when accounting these days and only aim to give one posters
perspective on the inception of /s4s/.

There were a few realizations that I had in these days, the most important being that I was having alot of fun. I had gotten to
know personalities on the board. The rules were made and a constitution and there seemed to be an order becoming present to the
chaos. A culture was being formed, unique ideals on what /s4s/ should be were discussed and the joke that had resulted in the
boards creation certainly contributed to these ideas. The joke was that we were to keep our privilege checked, That we were to be
nice to one another and refrain from offending anybody. This unique idea was what attracted me, I was scared to make a name, I
have always been anon and I doubted that I could be the sort of poster that the ones I enjoyed on the board were, but I went
ahead anyway and posted as Captain Kek. Board referencing OC became big when it became apparent the board wasn't being deleted
and /s4s/ pride was born. Gets were taken from other boards, catalog art on /po/, Bateman's rebirth as the god of dubs, flags
and a coat of arms.

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>>4905053
This idealism was accepted by the board's majority and nobody questioned it. Namefigs poked fun at one another, literature about
/s4s/ was created. Self-referencing or "meta" OC became a good source of entertainment for everyone. Different opinions in /q/
eventually led up to moot weighing in on what he thought about what had been taking place over at /s4s/ and it was very positive.
This was the highest form of validation /s4s/ could have expected. Taking pride in our uniqueness we even renamed moot to mot and
he posted as mot once, further giving us validation and inflating our ego as a board.

Things were good for a while, very good. Then Mari made a post that will live in infamy and a new kind of past-time was bore on
/s4s/, namefig impersonation. There have been alot of things about esfores that have defied expectation, the fact that we could all
get along and agree on things, the fact that we were polite and thoughtful in our posts, and the fact that though we could not use
tripcodes, a named user could retain the sole use of their identity, at least for the most part. After Mari was impersonated we started
seeing it alot more, I was one who saw quite a bit of it.

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>>4905054
I have many beliefs concerning the nature of identity on this board, it can be and was once, a very positive thing. It allowed esfores
to transcend OC creation that was taking place anywhere else at that time. Our namefigs were characters and esfores was like a colony
or town on 4chan. Board projects and OC like Parliament, Presidential elections, and the many fine papers all owe the majority of their
existence to our ability to identify each other and even ourselves. Things were very good and entertaining and soon our board was becoming
pretty well known and our achievements made it attractive. Here is where I believe the seeds of today's problems were planted.

/s4s/ validated as being good by mot, turned to [s4s] at request of a user majority, a partially identity based egocentric board. Creating
and forcing memes at an alarming pace, eating up all the repeating digits it can where ever they may be found on 4chan and being constantly
hungry for more. To a user coming in after the events that led up and contributed to the board of June, July, we must have seemed quite a
tight community. There was alot to learn, namefigs to get to know, memes to identify with. We had our "regulars" who were visible by their
names that they posted with. Nobody meant for this to look like [s4s] was occupied by an "in" crowd or that it has certain posters who
dictated what the board was, nobody meant to make it appear as if one poster had more influence than any other. We only meant to
funpost and contribute to the narrative unfolding before our eyes, but soon the resistance to a solidified, idealistic board became apparent.

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>>4905057
We were not the little board that did whatever it wanted anymore, we dictated rules and ideas as a collective and we abided by them.
Anyone breaking them was publicly scorn, [s4s] was considered to self-moderate. We worked and posted in a harmonious environment but
it was only a matter of time until a poster who had contributed to bringing the board into the glorious state it was in those days was
criticised by someone who believed they were in the right and got offended by it. Namefigs used their history and past achievements
to justify their actions if questioned and they often weren't. Whether we meant to or not, there were perceived statuses and things
one poster or group of posters could do than another could not. Example [a/jp] spams that [s4s] belongs to them and users who consider
[s4s] as their home board consider it an invasion. [a/jp] defends their actions by claiming that they are inherently [s4s] and had
a prominent role in shaping the board's culture. Disagreements are met and users defend their own points passionately as anyone who
had been here since April considers themself an expert or at least empowered with a heightened ability to make points.

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>>4905059

These disagreements form speculations about the real nature of the board's ability to have opinions, make decisions, and produce content.
External communication between users comes into question, rumors are formed concerning skype groups, another board's IRC, and plug.dj/kek.
An air of distrust begins to form, new users coming in see it and sense it and soon the glory of [s4s]'s harmonious community is veiled
by a layer of entitlement, malice, and accusation. Criticisms of namefigs by other namefigs starts to take place and instead of discussion
and reperations taking place like they once did on the democratic [s4s] of the past, an assertion that anonymous posters criticising anyone
or anything are namefigs trying to influence the [s4s] collective. In it's more extreme cases impersonation is used to discredit namefigs
and paint them in negative lights, I don't need to tell you that this has been something I have dealt with for the majority of my time here.

Arguements of what [s4s] is, how it should be, how it once was, who is contributing positively, who is contributing negatively, all become
daily occurences and the board suffers. With the negativity becoming more and more apparent everyday users start to grow more and more
frustrated. Blame starts to be thrown around and a very shitty vision of [s4s] is born, a vision in which secret groups organize off-board
to slander certain users, to gain power and influence, to do whatever they can to make the board how they want it, regardless of what
anybody else thinks. The situation is volatile and following natural law of the internet, trolls begin to appear. There are some of us
who believe [s4s] is meant to be fun and nothing else and if trolling your fellow users into 200+ post flamewars or simply pouring gas
on the flames that already exist is your idea of fun, then it is fair game.

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>>4905061
[s4s] descends into chaos, the foundation that we played and created upon for so long, the infrastructure, it all breaks down. Namefigs
cannot operate under the conditions they once did, their entire past is scanned through and anything that can be used against them will be,
positive or negative information forms profiles in the minds of users, a post made by a namefig is no longer treated for it's content but
the opinions the subsequent posters in that specific thread have about the user. Privilge checking is replaced on the rules by fortune
checking, there is nothing saying that we need to try and get along in any official sense. Blinded by envy, jealousy, malice, and anger,
frusrated namefigs stop producing OC and spend most of their time defending their right to post what and how they want, most of such
threads devolve into the same arguements and the same trolls trying to keep the flames on high. We, the users of [s4s] are watching what
was once considered the greatest most productive board on 4chan slip through our fingers. I will come out and say that I am surely guilty
of contributing to this and I am willing to do what it takes to fix it.

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>>4905062
We all have differing opinions in when [s4s] was at it's best and whether what we believed in then was right or not, we need to discuss them
in an orderly manner like our former selves did. We need to think back to who we once were on this board, the poison has infected all of us
but we were once mature and decisive and could operate in harmony. When that harmony was compromised, we made reperations where necessary
to re-establish it. I intend to request just that of you, if we cannot return to equilibrium then I fear we are destined for war.

Yours,

Captain Kek.

ass

ass

>>4905050
>>4905051
>>4905053
>>4905054
>>4905057
>>4905059
>>4905061
>>4905062
>>4905064
top write
>>4905147
steven pinker

>>4905062
All my posts are perfect so there's nothing to scrutinise me over.

>>4905064
Fair enough. I'm old oldfig. Tunnel Snakes rule, Mari Makinami imposterization, Gippo Dudee board control, Hello John, etc. I helped with all those things. I liked this board back then because it was silly and fun and not full of anus-holes being anus-holes. We were somehow all being pretty chill in an anonymous environment. It was something to behold.
It would be nice to go back to that level of things, but you know you can't. That only existed in that tiny bubble of time where the board was still here but not listed and only a few of us even remembered it existed so we were having a fun time on it. Things have changed, so methods have changed. And tbh I still have a pretty good time on this board, it's just that you have to do things differently and consciously try to ignore the element that you so eloquently describe in your posts. I don't see any easy solutions to that problem though, as I've discussed with my anonymous friend on this board recently. Anywho that's my two cents

>>4905470
>in an anonymous environment

DING DING DING. namefags ruined everything, especially morons like yuji and sparkles

it doesn't matter if le shit nigger and poopboi are hilarious they're only 2 against a horde of shitposters

>>4905476
Yeah but we're talking about a time with thousands of namefigs. One of them wrote this thread we're posting in. Your reasoning doesn't really make sense. I only meant anonymous in the sense that none of us know who we are and we're not attached to usernames. There are no tripcodes on this board. Did you realize that? There's a specific reasoning as to why it's never been implemented on this board

>>4905486
oh sorry my point was faggots shit up this board

I don't really care about s4s it was never good I only come here to shit post. Only weird fucks like you insist this place was ever "Great" and anything more than spam and retardation

"no guys..we're ironically being retarded"

>>4905488
Yeah but the only reason you would say this is because you weren't here for that. Sorry if you don't understand but it's not like any amount of words is going to help you get it. And you're the reason this board sucks now anyway, so I guess you only have yourself to blame. I'm not totally sure what your point even is. You're saying you hate this place and that you shit it up and you still find something to complain about? You should really just be on /b/ or /r9k/ or /pol/. You're the reason this board sucks now, so if you could leave that would be awesome (I know you won't because your whole MO is to annoy people, so this is actually a very subtle way of psychologically manipulating you into posting more :)

>>4905289
prove it

le fart lol

>>4905476
i don't know who you are. i don't know what you want. if you are looking for shares i can tell you i don't have many followers, but what i do have are a very particular set of skills. skills i have acquired over a very long posting career. skills that make me a nightmare for people who take pride in the contents of their minibars

I'm going to read this, please hold on

I've never ever been in a board that wasn"t complaining of the poor quality it has come to

is it a meme??

is it like a subtle joke that i've missed all these years?

Your fortune: Excellent Luck

>>4905733
dint miss thos dub bb

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>>4905050
>>4905051
>>4905053
>>4905054
>>4905057
>>4905059
>>4905061
>>4905062
>>4905064
Me, newer namefig... Me, joined April 2015! Old [s4s], me don't know... but literature, interesting!

Your fortune: Good news will come to you by mail

>>4905733
literally this

it's like, if you hate it so much fucking move on with your life

>>4906043
DUDE THATS LIKE A SENTENCE MAN XDDD

ERADICATE ALL NAMEFIGS

>>4906077
dubs confirm

>>4905516
I am a living example of what it means to be great.

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cowe

>>4906077
but then who would i impersonate
great dubs btw

>>4905053
>fun old /b/ was when it had dubs
>old /b/
>dubs

>>4905733
it's a meme, but it's a meme based in some truth

people are generally nostalgic for times gone, but also comedy is the most funny when it's fresh and novel. Once you've heard a joke, it's less funny the next time you hear it.

For first time users on /b/ for example, ylyl threads are HILARIOUS. But for people who are used to the style of humor and the individual jokes those threads are boring cancer.

Also, as this website as grown many of the boards went from comfy places to discuss an interest to general threads about a thing they like among a sea of old memes dressed up as board culture.
Also plenty of boards have had a golden age at one point or another. /sp/ was apparently a very fun board in 2012(?) for example, but now is just a bunch of general threads full of tripfigs. My guess is that /b/ 2003-2006 was a lot of silly fun, but I wasn't around then. By 2007, it was combo spam, raids, gore spam and already pretty cancerous, but still a lot of fun.
I don't have a closing statement to wrap this up.

>>4907023
this manifesto was written around 2 years ago so