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Anonymous
For far too long Encyclopedia Dramatica has gone without proper information regarding the Anonymous collective, mainly due to the fact that, for years, such a write-up was completely unnecessary. These were the ages when Anonymous was simply the army of /b/, an anarchistic troll force with a slight touch of moralfaggotry that progressively grew stronger. Today, the masses know Anonymous as "a hacktivist collective" that, through means of packets (read: LOIC), protesting, and web defacement work to defend and preserve such ideologies as free speech, freedom of the press, etc. At the same time, news stories occasionally float up detailing 4chan campaigns to bring grief to grieving families, or send pop stars to communist nations. Any reader looking to inquire knowledge on such people, and with a solid lack of e-culture knowledge, would now be asking themselves questions that can broadly be placed under the what, who, and why categories.
To better answer these, this article has thus been rewritten so that the Jews at Know Your Meme are no longer the only entity with "credible information" regarding the elevation and accomplishment (for better or worse, depending on point of view) of Anonymous.
What?
The easiest of these puzzles to solve would be "what is Anonymous".
Anonymous is simply a loose coalition of anybody who chooses to be Anonymous.
A brief history of Anonymous
Because none of us are as cruel as all of us.
The word "Anonymous" originated from the *chan scene, which most readers probably know by now. Anonymous simply was anyone choosing to post as Anon on any given imageboard (as there were multiple "big" ones back in the day).
4chan was founded on October 3, 2003 and for its first few years was yet another e-base for all things weeaboo (and was almost completely destroyed by the GNAA in its early years). Here the first incarnation of Anonymous rose, among the endless posting of Desu and Mai Waifu. The GNAA and YTMND influences brought in a troll spirit to the boards of 4chan, primarily /b/ who began such early "invasions" and trolls such as cyberman and numerous conquests of (at the time) similar web venture Gaia Online.
Such actions became a favorite past-time of /b/, leading to bigger and better trolls to the likeness of Pools Closed and Harry Potter. No better man could explain this era of Anon than Phil Shuman in the infamous HACKERS ON STEROIDS news report (protip: that "former hacker" is Alex Wuori):
One classic series of raids of this time being those on white nationalist turned informant Hal Turner. It was then that the moral side of Anonymous and 4chan began to flourish, taking pride in subtly attacking a man for his racist values as oppose to doing it strictly for the lulz.
More troll targets and trolls came and went, including Tom Green and Girl Talk, Wikifur, and Grawp. However in the year 2008, in the midst of the SOHH defacement and Epilepsy Forums invasion, Project Chanology began. Such was the birth of the "mainstream anonymous", who worked for good and media attention via protests and firing their LOIC at seemingly random targets.
Skip ahead to 2010 and the birth of AnonOps, Anonymous is now known by the masses as a force for moral justice through destructive means (and carrying around those stupid Guy Fawkes masks).
Who
There are many distinct flavors of anons, all of which can be found below.
The Newfag
Moar info: newfag.
| |
| Hangouts | /b/, KYM, Cheezburger Network |
| Past-times | Raids, Memes, Cancer |
The newfag has newly discovered the presence of e-culture. They are dumbfounded by such discoveries, and thus can turn in any given direction, but for the time being are known for their abuse of meme-spam and breakings of Rules 1 and 2.
The Oldfag
Moar info: oldfag.
| |
| Hangouts | /v/, 420chan, 7chan |
| Past-times | Reminiscing |
The Oldfag was once a newfag, and likely either a moral or /i/ fag, but now has found more productive ways of spending their time than epic times oti. Probably hangs out on /v/, 7chan, or other forgotten imageboards discussing how cool /b/ was 2-3 (give or take) years ago.
The /i/nsurgent
Moar info: i.
|
/i/ is dead |
| |
| Hangouts | /i/, partyvan.info |
| Past-times | Raids, Spam, Ordering Pizza |
The /i/nsurgent has one purpose: to cause as much grief as possible. Developed from overzealous raid-newfags, they eventually picked up enough CSIII knowledge to control a botnet or preform a simple crapflood. Although /i/ is dead, the /i/nsurgent brand lives on, always willing to completely demolish random furries or youtube vloggers who stand in the way of Anon's e-domination.
The Moralfag
Moar info: moralfag.
| |
| Hangouts | AnonOps, Whatistheplan |
| Past-times | Occupying, shouting memes at people, protesting |
The Moralfag is the more media-friendly side of the Anonymous legion. Encouraged by self-gratifying pats on the back, the moralfag army continues to operate much like evolved-newfags, only semi-organized.
Assorted Channers
Moar info: chan.
| |
| Hangouts | /a/, /cg/ /mu/, all other non-notable boards |
| Past-times | Posting |
While far less notable, The *channer remains an important part of the Anonymous backbone. They are, much like Anon himself, one and many, driven without a purpose (other than fapping to hentai on a daily basis) they continuously spend day after day driving the force of the imageboard scene.