{"id":4,"date":"2008-12-23T20:09:47","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T01:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/?p=4"},"modified":"2008-12-23T20:09:47","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T01:09:47","slug":"the-2ch-community-and-its-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/2008\/12\/23\/the-2ch-community-and-its-influence\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2ch community and its influence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c2ch\u201d has several characteristics which separate it from other internet forums. The first major difference is the broadness of the topics that it covers. It has countless \u201ccategories\u201d which covers a broad topic, and each category is consisted of numerous \u201cboards.\u201d On each board a user can make a \u201cthread,\u201d in which the actual discussion about a particular topic takes place. For example, a discussion about the recent decrease in Harvard\u2019s endowment has its own \u201cthread\u201d on the \u201cInternational News\u201d board, which is categorized in the \u201cWorld Affairs\u201d category.<\/span><\/p>\n

One characteristic that keeps 2ch constantly active is that each thread only allows up to 1000 posts. Because newer threads appear higher on the \u201cboard,\u201d this limitation of the number of posts makes it possible to maintain new topics at the top of the board. Furthermore, it also helps 2ch restrict the amount of data stored on the severs, because older \u201cthread\u201d are put in a database that the public cannot access for free.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second major characteristic of 2ch is its culture. \u201c2ch\u201d hosts a unique culture, which is different from that of the general Japanese population and other major internet forums in the US and in Japan. Such culture can be seen in the terminology used in 2ch, the special rules that as expected from a 2ch poster, and in how it has influenced popular culture in general.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are many terms that coined in 2ch, and can only be seen in it. Some are terms are relevant to posting on a internet forum, such as \u201cage\u201d (pronounced uh-gay<\/em>), which is used when one wants a particular thread to appear on top of the board. Others, seem bizarre, even in the eyes of non-2ch using Japanese users. For example, people who regularly post on 2ch are called \u201cresidents\u201d of 2ch. Instead of writing suman<\/em> (literally \u201csorry\u201d in Japanese), a user may write sumaso<\/em>, because the Japanese character for n<\/em> (<\/span>\u30f3<\/span>) and so<\/em> (<\/span>\u30bd<\/span>) look very similar. ROM may be used as short for \u201cread-only member,\u201d instead of the common used technological term, \u201cread-only memory.\u201d The video sharing site is referred to as Yoh-two-bay,<\/em> because Romanizing the Japanese gives the same spelling as \u201cYoutube.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The culture of 2ch is so different from that of the general Internet that the users of 2ch are often considered to be \u201cgeeky computer freaks,\u201d or a \u201cotaku\u201d.<\/em> Such geeky students may spend long hours of their time on the internet, posting articles on 2ch. A typical otaku may have a lifestyle that is opposite to most people in society, actively making posts in the earlier hours of the day. The typical stereotype is that they often carry a large backpack and walk around in a seemingly \u201cdorky\u201d or \u201clame\u201d outfit. Akihabara, a district in Japan formerly famous for the numerous of electronic stores, and more recently famous for its anime and otaku culture, is regarded as a \u201cMecca\u201d to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>A widely know example of 2ch culture infiltrating that of the general public was when the movie \u201cDensya-otoko\u201d (Train Man) was release to the public. The movie, based on actual postings on 2ch (on the \u201cSingle Men\u2019s\u201d boards), is about a otaku boy who accidently meets a girl on the train. Because all his life, he had been obsessed with computers and animation, he does not have the social stills he needs to make the girl interested in him. However, in the end succeeds in getting a \u201creal world\u201d girlfriend. The movie, even though it emerged from 2ch and showcased the geeky culture of the internet forum nevertheless succeeded in getting more than 2 million viewers with in the first 40 days of its released, and latter even grew into a popular television drama series. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The term \u201c2ch\u201d often comes up on the news as well. Because it has social influence, criminals have repeatedly used the website to harass or threat someone, prior to committing a crime, for example. A prominent example was when the 25 year old man wrote multiple posts on 2ch stating that he would kill people in the Akihabara district. Only minutes after the man posted similar statements on another internet forum from his cell phone, the man really did ram into a pedestrian-only part of Akihabara, using his truck. Because the man also killed people by running into people with his knife, his actions killed 7 people in total and injured 10 more. Especially after this incident, the police also started to take notice of the internet forum, and in several cases, people have been arrested for posting threats on 2ch.<\/span><\/p>\n

It goes without saying that how the internet community should deal with contents on 2ch is crucial for protecting users from defamation, and copyright owners from infringement of their rights.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c2ch\u201d has several characteristics which separate it from other internet forums. The first major difference is the broadness of the topics that it covers. It has countless \u201ccategories\u201d which covers a broad topic, and each category is consisted of numerous \u201cboards.\u201d On each board a user can make a \u201cthread,\u201d in which the actual discussion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2002,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/2chlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}