About

Chanarchive (site domain: chanarchive.org), formerly known as 4chanarchive, is a website dedicated to archiving and curating notable threads from the imageboard hubsite 4chan. The site content consists of 4chan imageboard threads that have been requested by users, which are reviewed by the moderation team to be published in the archive. Distinguished by its editorial screening process and user rating system, the site has become a preferred alternative to 4chan's raw feed for many users.

Online History

The website was originally launched under the name 4chanarchive^[1] by the administrator capsized. The domain for the website was registered on November 24th, 2006. According to the FAQ page^[2], capsized launched the site in 2006 after becoming frustrated with the increasingly high volume of content that was being cycled through 4chan's /b/ (random) board. During the first several months of its existence, the website solely focused on archiving /b/ threads which were selected and archived by capsized alone. In April 2007, capsized added an automated request interface^[3] to the site, which allowed its viewers to submit their own archived threads. This feature brought a drastic growth to the site traffic.

In June 2007, 4chanarchive started covering threads on imageboards outside of /b/ (random) board, beginning with /v/ (video games) and /a/ (anime/manga) boards. Eventually, the website established itself as a portal archives site featuring notable threads from all 4chan imageboards.

In June 2008, capsized launched a mirror version of 4chanarchive under the domain Chanarchive^[4], which has a cleaner site design and user interface. In May 2011, it was announced that 4chanarchive will be merged with Chanarchive.

Closure

On November 2nd, 2012, the homepage of Chanarchive was replaced with a short bulletin post^[7] from the administrator Capsized announcing that the site will no longer remain in operation due to financial difficulties in server maintenance and a permanent ban on the site recently imposed by Paypal.

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that chanarchive.org and 4chanarchive.org are no more. ;_;
More details to follow within the next days.

Reflecting the legacies of the site on 4chan's subculture, Capsized's announcement was met by grievances from the site's patrons in the official discussion thread, 4chan's /q/ (site-related discussion) board^[8] as well as on Reddit's /r/4chan subreddit forum.^[9]

As of November 8th, 2012, Chanarchive is back online and under the management of Encyclopedia Dramatica.

Notable Archives

Since its launch in 2006, chanarchive has documented numerous 4chan threads that subsequently became the seed of widespread internet memes, including Caturday, Read This in My Voice and That's Racist! among others. The website also hosts a number of 4chan-specific events and thread games like GET, Duckroll and Greentext Stories and mfw threads.

Features

• The archive takes requests from 4chan users when they think that a thread is archive-worthy. When enough people vote for archival a thread is permanently archived. After archival, the threads are pending to be reviewed and several janitors go through them and pick the best ones to officially publish them in the archive.

• Readers can sign-up for Gold Account Membership, which allows users to read and rate unreviewed threads, bookmark threads to your favorites list and toggle off ad displays. Unlike other Gold Account Membership trolling schemes, this premium membership is a valid feature of the site.

• The site offers a kind of virtual currency known as "cones" to its Gold Account members, which can be gained by rating user-submitted threads. Each time a user provides feedback on a pending submission, the user gains one cone. Once ten cones are accumulated, the user can submit a thread for direct archival.

• A submitted thread requires a minimum of 5 requests from other users to be archived, except for /b/ which needs 8 requests. Once a thread has reached the sufficient number of user requests, it is sent to the moderation team for final approval.

• The site also runs a Twitter account^[5] to highlight the best of user requested threads.

Moderation Team

According to Encyclopedia Dramatica^[6], Chanarchive is run by administrator capsized with assistance from a team of four moderators and two janitors:

capsized !9Ew9kRK.gE ##Admin##
smokey !NoTripcode ##Mod##
mute !!RR4RD4H7RHo ##Mod##
Nakamura !A/Sun6NMjs ##Mod##
dancube !/Fa5guM8io !!Fr2ffU8io ##Mod##
OldDirtyBtard !NoTripcode ##Janitor## (no longer active)
[Razor] !YgQRHAJqRA ##Janitor##

Traffic

As of October 2011, 4chanarchive has a Alexa rank of 18,000 and about 6,000 to 8,000 visitors per day that are accessing roughly 30,000 pages daily.

Search Interest

External References