The story begins on November 3rd, 2021, when Hiroyuki (Gookmoot) made the decision to close the /qa/ board. That decision set events into motion that few could foresee. It resulted in the birth of the Soyjak Party, a board that the jannies initially dismissed as a one trick pony, for how long could a site last based on one joke (see 8chan if you want an idea)? They had a comfy, tidy gig - /b/ was full of porn, /g/ was full of the same tedious arguments, /pol/ was just collective seething over Twitter screenshots, /r9k/ was one blackpill after another.
Sure, it didn't have the same vitality as before. But that didn't matter - the site was now at retirement age, and things were kept stable thanks to its band of devoted jannies (they did it for free). It didn't need any maintenance - because who knows or cares about PHP in 2025? They were confident that as things had been, so they would always be. 4chan had calcified, and that meant it was basically unbreakable.
On April 14th, 2025, 4chan was BRUTALLY hacked by a soyteen who promptly leaked images of the site's admin board. Emails, jannies' family info, and so on were all released to the public as well. As of April 15, 2025, 4chan is down. And, hey.. maybe this is the end of 4chan. If it is, so long and thanks for all the fish. (until they arise from the ashes again a few days later and continue ofc)
