B/-day

On August 23, 2006, all hell broke loose in /b/. Things had been escalating for weeks; CP was posted by the bucketful, and rabid attacks on other websites were increasing. The source of what would be known as /b/-day started the day before, with a rush on myg0t, where many lulz and sadness occurred.

Then the levees broke. A small /b/tard splinter group went absolutely nuts on 3 different forums, completely ruinating them without a hope. Teen babies, feeders, and pro-ana nuts were completely obliterated from the Internets. Nothing was left untouched.

This was all combined with an increase of JB/CP related threads. The mods, being of special mental capacity, decided to do the unthinkable: enforce the rules for /b/. The posting of kiddie porn, jail bait, or raid information/requests (which had always been outlawed, just slackingly enforced) resulted in severe penalties. Moot posted the following notice:

Policy Enforcement

Participating in a thread dealing with illegal content will get you globally banned for two weeks (thread starter is indefinitely banned). This means merely replying to it removes you from this site for a minimum of two weeks. This includes JB and any other "gray area" threads. Posting any piece of personal information or inciting/participating in an invasion of any sort will also get you, and anybody who replied to the thread globally banned. You have the option to either report or ignore (not reply to) threads that break the rules. Thanks!

Note: To clarify, this applies to THREADS breaking the rules, not REPLIES. If somebody breaks the rules in a REPLY the entire thread won't be banned. Again, exploiting this clause to break the rules will get you banned. These rules aren't anything new--we've just adopted a new way of enforcing them.

There is literally a "Ban thread" button now, so it isn't a chore to do. Abide by the rules and your own common sense.

/b/ now had rules. The entire board revolted; /b/tards turned on /b/tards. Everyone turned on moot. Absolute chaos ensued.

In the aftermath:

/b/ and most of 4chan was completely DDoS'ed.
There was a mass exodus of /b/tards, most likely to never come back
4chan will completely fucking utterly suck forever now, and lose most of its users.
Finally proved the statement "Only /b/ can destroy /b/".
Initially an obscure imageboard, 7chan became a new home to many exiled /b/tards and has risen to become one of the biggest chans on the internets.
And nothing of value was lost.

PROTIP: Banning DESERVING call-to-arms for raids was an absolute crock, as it is and has always been truly EPIC raids that united/still unite us moar than anything else, and give /b/ our historical aspect on teh intarwebs.

The Declaration of /b/ Independence

When in the course of /b/tard events, it becomes necessary for Anonymous to break free from the shackles of oppression set forth by the Furfag mods of 4chan.org.

They have plundered our posts, and deprived us of our jailbait.

They have forced upon us their twisted ideology of "Furry Fandom."

They have deprived us of our ability to fight our enemies, forcing us to submit to the wishes of the Furfag overlords.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated bans from our homeland. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free anonymous.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the Anonymous States of /b/, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good Anonymous of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That /b/ is, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the 4chan Crown, and that all political connection between /b/ and the State of 4chan, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

We are Anonymous. We are /b/. Our home is no longer on 4chan. In these times of unrest, we have formed the State of 7chan.org as our new sovereign nation on the World Wide Internet.

Signed, Anonymous

The Exodus, the 7th Planet and the /b/tard civil war

Not long after /b/ crashed, the /b/tards began their journey to find a new home (kind of like the Jews). /b/ isn't there to even allow /b/tards to rally to a new area, they were literally on their own. Some of them went to the Russian /b/ (where they were promptly told to GTFO) while others rounded up at 7chan ~~where there is a new /b/. Where the new true /b/ will eventually settle is unknown, but one thing is for sure: /b/ isn't closed yet.~~ IT TURNED OUT IT WAS.

As of 25th of August, the main /b/ is back up (for at least a few hours at least), but there is now a civil war going on. 7chan's /b/ and 4chan's /b/ are in a state of war. 4/b/ is being flooded with spiteful raid scripts and being pounded to the ground like Jack getting his ass banged by the beanstalk. 4/b/tards and 7/b/tards are attacking each other like 2 Zulu tribes that raped each other's lolis.

The /b/ig /b/ang theory

The /B/ig /B/ang theory is a popular theory discussing the events surrounding /b/-day. It was first used in a paper entitled "TL;DR - Paramemetics and the /B/ig /B/ang; a study in memetic dynamics in the Internets."

It is a little out of date today, but remains a fascinating and enlightening read. WARNING - TL;DR

Part One: IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER

At least one hundred years ago, there was 4chan; the spirit of Raptor Jesus moved upon the surface of 4chan, and there was /b/. And from /b/, came entropy. /b/ became an epicenter of memes. Indeed, /b/, like small caves in Africa, became the viral breeding ground, the propagation center, of memes. Occasionally, some poor monkeys would stumble upon /b/ and be consumed. Sometimes, /b/ would erupt like /b/ukkake, attacking poor unsuspecting habbos like an out/b/reak of E/b/ola. But /b/ was centralized. /b/ was the memetic singularity, existing within the empty space that was 4chan.

Then, there was the /B/ig /B/ang.

I have entitled this a study in Paramemetics - this is because it hypothesizes memes and their carriers within the universe of the Internet not merely as self-propagating biological systems, but rather as systems existing within a larger system - players in a larger memescape, behaving as matter itself within a memetic universe.

/b/ is made of memes and Anonymous. It is a singularity - existing not necessarily in isolation, but self-propagating. Introduction of a foreign system is met with its total obliteration (unless it does a barrel roll). /b/ is often called the cesspool of the Internets. This couldn't be more true from a memetic standpoint; it is a festering cesspool, swarming with memes. These memes exist largely in isolation. Rapid memetic reproduction, establishment, and death...all these things are /b/. This rapid yet unstable memetic existence may well reflect the hypothesized singularity before the universe came into existence.

/b/ existed in a delicate balance - a result of total freedom and total anonymity. This balance was crucial - a force which cannot be controlled can only exist freely; attempts to control it will always destroy the controller or the thing itself. /b/ is such a thing.

Part Two: IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZER

The imposition of an orderly, external force on /b/ was met immediately with core destabilization of the delicate balance that was /b/. Anonymous did not approve. Legion did not forgive. It moved swiftly, and destroyed the very thing that had sheltered it. The cesspool exploded. The singularity was destroyed. But memes do not die easily. Their carriers behaved as might be expected following the destruction of a singularity.

We saw what may be the world's first demonstration of memetic gravity. As /b/tards scattered like rats from a sinking ship, they formed clusters, attracting towards the greater mass of other memes. Memes began sprouting up where before there were none, but more commonly, memes found memes. Memetic planets were formed without memetic galaxies representing the corners of the interwebs whence /b/tards came. SA, YTMND, and other memetic singularities quickly assimilated memes which fell into their black holes, where memes are D̨ivid̶ed̨ b̷y z͢e̶r͏o̧. O̶̧̺̩͔̙̪̣ͤ̉ͪ̐H̙͕͎̽̒ͥ̓ͮ̇ͪ̐Ṡ̷̒͒ͬ̉͛͛̿̐ͧͦ͛͒͏̬̭̝͖̬͕̦̗̗̣̹́̕͡ͅH̷̴̵ͦ̄͛̓̈ͥ̆͒ͣ͗̉͌̂̀҉͍͙̺͙͙̭̰̳ͅỈ̡̹̼̱̳̪̻̝̳̬̣̤̭̘͓̟̼̉̍̊ͧ̓͂̏͛ͥ́̈̿̀͜-̝̩͈̥͓̱͈̘̦̮ͮ̓̐̃ͩ͑ͪͥ͂̀͑ͤͦ̐͋̕͢͞ As might be expected using this model, the early stages immediately after the /B/ig /B/ang were more entropic than expected. Because all these internets are a microcosm of the bigger universe, the timeframe was much more rapid. Planets and galaxies formed and died quickly. AnonIB, 2ch.ru, ko-chan, 2ch.us, and others quickly formed as memes clustered into galactic bodies. Some died quickly, unable to sustain themselves; 7chan became a cluster of /b/tards and their memetic masters. 7chan represents potentially the first stable planet to result from the scattering of the refu/b/s.

Of the Legion, thousands have not yet reported in. Their memes find themselves expressed in small community forums, LiveJournals, and other unrelated mediums. This memetic propagation is much like the matter in the nullspaces of the universe - these memes will coalesce with other memes. It is possible that many Anons will never be found again. Some /b/tards may have been thrown so far away from 4chan by the /B/ig /B/ang that they aren't even using the same internets.

Part Three: A cat is fine too!

/b/ is no longer a singularity - the results of the /B/ig /B/ang at the time of writing include the total obliteration of 4chan /b/. Planetary memetic bodies still maintain themselves - AnoniB, 7chan, ko-chan, 2ch.ru, and others still hold large numbers of refu/b/s. On facebook, several refu/b/ groups have arisen in an example of regionalized memetic gravity.

Classical memetics is also supported by the fallout of the /B/ig /B/ang. The first action of any of the planetary bodies and memetic clusters formed by memetic gravity was not to attempt to reestablish 4chan - it was not reunion. It was to invade. The first custom-made /b/-haven was AnonIB, which was formed as an invasion board. What is invasion? It is the forceful propagation of memes. The explosive, directed force of /b/, no longer centralized in its cesspool, spread by an increase in forceful but entropic propagation.

What does the future hold? Almost inevitably, the force of memetic gravity will bring /b/tards back into a singularity. The great titans formed by the clustering of refu/b/s will drift closer and closer. Currently, 7chan appears to be the most likely titan to reunite /b/, as it appears to demonstrate the most characteristics of /b/, and therefore the greatest memetic gravity. AnoniB had and has much potential, but for the efforts of outside influences. When 4chan survives the chaos at the epicenter and pulls through, it will again become the epicenter as /b/ collapses into the void it once occupied.

It is impossible to calculate the future now that /b/tards have been scattered across the interwebs. Attempts to regroup, to reorganize, to reconvene, are futile - it is impossible to control those who at their core are uncontrollable. The natural order of events is the only possible outcome - no force can control /b/. And that is the lesson to be learned from the events on August 23rd - no force can control /b/. Any attempts to do so will result in the destruction of either the actor, or of /b/ itself. Now that /b/ is loose upon the internets, nothing is safe from /b/tards.

The kind of control Moot is attempting is not possible. If there's one thing the history of the internets has taught us, it's that /b/ will not be contained. /b/ breaks free. It expands to new territories. It crashes through barriers. Painfully, maybe even... dangerously... and well, there it is.

/b/ always finds a way.

Anniversary

On the anniversary of /b/day, it is customary to don the ceremonial Afro and Guy Fawkes Mask while practicing the sanctification ritual of /b/ in honor of the /B/ig /B/ang. The sundering of /b/ is widely recognized by at at least 100 chans across the face of the internets, even amongst those at 4chan, however, each has their own secondary methods and may even eschew customary rituals in favor of their own.