Rituals that allow an individual to become something or someone they were not before are named

Van Gennep, who coined the term liminality, published in 1909 his Rites de Passage, a work that explores and develops the concept of liminality in the context of rites in small-scale societies.[10] Van Gennep began his book by identifying the various categories of rites. He distinguished between those that result in a change of status for an individual or social group, and those that signify transitions in the passage of time. In doing so, he placed a particular emphasis on rites of passage, and claimed that "such rituals marking, helping, or celebrating individual or collective passages through the cycle of life or of nature exist in every culture, and share a specific three-fold sequential structure".[8]

This three-fold structure, as established by van Gennep, is made up of the following components:[10]

• preliminal rites (or rites of separation): This stage involves a metaphorical "death", as the initiate is forced to leave something behind by breaking with previous practices and routines.
• liminal rites (or transition rites): Two characteristics are essential to these rites. First, the rite "must follow a strictly prescribed sequence, where everybody knows what to do and how".[8] Second, everything must be done "under the authority of a master of ceremonies".[8] The destructive nature of this rite allows for considerable changes to be made to the identity of the initiate. This middle stage (when the transition takes place) "implies an actual passing through the threshold that marks the boundary between two phases, and the term 'liminality' was introduced in order to characterize this passage."[8]
• postliminal rites (or rites of incorporation): During this stage, the initiand is re-incorporated into society with a new identity, as a "new" being.

Turner confirmed his nomenclature for "the three phases of passage from one culturally defined state or status to another...preliminal, liminal, and postliminal".[11]

Beyond this structural template, Van Gennep also suggested four categories of rites that emerge as universal across cultures and societies. He suggested that there are four types of social rites of passage that are replicable and recognizable among many ethnographic populations.[12] They include:

• Passage of people from one status to another, initiation ceremonies in which an outsider is brought into the group. This includes marriage and initiation ceremonies that move one from the status of an outsider to an insider.
• Passage from one place to another, such as moving houses, moving to a new city, etc.
• Passage from one situation to another: beginning university, starting a new job, and graduating high school or university.
• Passage of time such as New Year celebrations and birthdays.[12]

Van Gennep considered rites of initiation to be the most typical rite. To gain a better understanding of "tripartite structure" of liminal situations, one can look at a specific rite of initiation: the initiation of youngsters into adulthood, which Turner considered the most typical rite. In such rites of passage, the experience is highly structured. The first phase (the rite of separation) requires the child to go through a separation from his family; this involves his/her "death" as a child, as childhood is effectively left behind. In the second stage, initiands (between childhood and adulthood) must pass a "test" to prove they are ready for adulthood. If they succeed, the third stage (incorporation) involves a celebration of the "new birth" of the adult and a welcoming of that being back into society.

By constructing this three-part sequence, van Gennep identified a pattern he believed was inherent in all ritual passages. By suggesting that such a sequence is universal (meaning that all societies use rites to demarcate transitions), van Gennep made an important claim (one that not many anthropologists make, as they generally tend to demonstrate cultural diversity while shying away from universality).[12]

An anthropological rite, especially a rite of passage, involves some change to the participants, especially their social status.;[13] and in 'the first phase (of separation) comprises symbolic behaviour signifying the detachment of the individual...from an earlier fixed point in the social structure.[14] Their status thus becomes liminal. In such a liminal situation, "the initiands live outside their normal environment and are brought to question their self and the existing social order through a series of rituals that often involve acts of pain: the initiands come to feel nameless, spatio-temporally dislocated and socially unstructured".[15] In this sense, liminal periods are "destructive" as well as "constructive", meaning that "the formative experiences during liminality will prepare the initiand (and his/her cohort) to occupy a new social role or status, made public during the reintegration rituals".[15]

Victor Turner

Turner, who is considered to have "re-discovered the importance of liminality", first came across van Gennep's work in 1963.[6] In 1967 he published his book The Forest of Symbols, which included an essay entitled Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites of Passage. Within the works of Turner, liminality began to wander away from its narrow application to ritual passages in small-scale societies.[6] In the various works he completed while conducting his fieldwork amongst the Ndembu in Zambia, he made numerous connections between tribal and non-tribal societies, "sensing that what he argued for the Ndembu had relevance far beyond the specific ethnographic context".[6] He became aware that liminality "...served not only to identify the importance of in-between periods, but also to understand the human reactions to liminal experiences: the way liminality shaped personality, the sudden foregrounding of agency, and the sometimes dramatic tying together of thought and experience".[6]

'The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae ("threshold people") are necessarily ambiguous'.[16] One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation, but also the possibility of new perspectives. Turner posits that, if liminality is regarded as a time and place of withdrawal from normal modes of social action, it potentially can be seen as a period of scrutiny for central values and axioms of the culture where it occurs.[17]—one where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are undone. In such situations, "the very structure of society [is] temporarily suspended"[8]

'According to Turner, all liminality must eventually dissolve, for it is a state of great intensity that cannot exist very long without some sort of structure to stabilize it...either the individual returns to the surrounding social structure...or else liminal communities develop their own internal social structure, a condition Turner calls "normative communitas"'.[18]

Turner also worked on the idea of communitas, the feeling of camaraderie associated among a group experiencing the same liminal experience or rite.[19] Turner defined three distinct and not always sequential forms of communitas, which he describes as "that 'antistructural' state at stake in the liminal phase of ritual forms."[19] The first, spontaneous communitas, is described as "a direct, immediate, and total confrontation of human identities" in which those involved share a feeling of synchronicity and a total immersion into one fluid event.[19] The second form, ideological communitas, which aims at interrupting spontaneous communitas through some type of intervention which would result in the formation of a utopian society in which all actions would be carried out at the level of spontaneous communitas.[19] The third, normative communitas, deals with a group of society attempting to grow relationships and support spontaneous communitas on a relatively permanent basis, subjecting it to laws of society and "denaturing the grace" of the accepted form of camaraderie.[19]

The work of Victor Turner has vital significance in turning attention to this concept introduced by Arnold van Gennep. However, Turner's approach to liminality has two major shortcomings: First, Turner was keen to limit the meaning of the concept to the concrete settings of small-scale tribal societies, preferring the neologism "liminoid" coined by him to analyse certain features of the modern world. However, Agnes Horvath (2013) argues that the term can and should be applied to concrete historical events as offering a vital means for historical and sociological understanding. Second, Turner attributed a rather univocally positive connotation to liminal situations, as ways of renewal when liminal situations can be periods of uncertainty, anguish, even existential fear: a facing of the abyss in void.[20]

Liminality has both spatial and temporal dimensions, and can be applied to a variety of subjects: individuals, larger groups (cohorts or villages), whole societies, and possibly even entire civilizations.[6] The following chart summarizes the different dimensions and subjects of liminal experiences, and also provides the main characteristics and key examples of each category.[6]

Another significant variable is "scale," or the "degree" to which an individual or group experiences liminality.[6] In other words, "there are degrees of liminality, and…the degree depends on the extent to which the liminal experience can be weighed against persisting structures."[6] When the spatial and temporal are both affected, the intensity of the liminal experience increases and so-called "pure liminality" is approached.[6]

The concept of a liminal situation can also be applied to entire societies that are going through a crisis or a "collapse of order".[6] Philosopher Karl Jaspers made a significant contribution to this idea through his concept of the "axial age", which was "an in-between period between two structured world-views and between two rounds of empire building; it was an age of creativity where "man asked radical questions", and where the "unquestioned grasp on life is loosened".[6] It was essentially a time of uncertainty which, most importantly, involved entire civilizations. Seeing as liminal periods are both destructive and constructive, the ideas and practices that emerge from these liminal historical periods are of extreme importance, as they will "tend to take on the quality of structure".[6] Events such as political or social revolutions (along with other periods of crisis) can thus be considered liminal, as they result in the complete collapse of order and can lead to significant social change.[15]

Liminality in large-scale societies differs significantly from liminality found in ritual passages in small-scale societies. One primary characteristic of liminality (as defined van Gennep and Turner) is that there is a way in as well as a way out.[6] In ritual passages, "members of the society are themselves aware of the liminal state: they know that they will leave it sooner or later, and have 'ceremony masters' to guide them through the rituals".[6] However, in those liminal periods that affect society as a whole, the future (what comes after the liminal period) is completely unknown, and there is no "ceremony master" who has gone through the process before and that can lead people out of it.[6] In such cases, liminal situations can become dangerous. They allow for the emergence of "self-proclaimed ceremony masters", that assume leadership positions and attempt to "[perpetuate] liminality and by emptying the liminal moment of real creativity, [turn] it into a scene of mimetic rivalry".[6]

Jungians have often seen the individuation process of self-realization as taking place within a liminal space. "Individuation begins with a withdrawal from normal modes of socialisation, epitomized by the breakdown of the persona...liminality".[21] Thus "what Turner's concept of social liminality does for status in society, Jung [...] does for the movement of the person through the life process of individuation".[22] Individuation can be seen as a "movement through liminal space and time, from disorientation to integration [...] What takes place in the dark phase of liminality is a process of breaking down [...] in the interest of "making whole" one's meaning, purpose and sense of relatedness once more"[23] As an archetypal figure, "the trickster is a symbol of the liminal state itself, and of its permanent accessibility as a source of recreative power".[24]

Jungian-based analytical psychology is also deeply rooted in the ideas of liminality. The idea of a 'container' or 'vessel' as a key player in the ritual process of psychotherapy has been noted by many and Carl Jung's objective was to provide a space he called "a temenos, a magic circle, a vessel, in which the transformation inherent in the patient's condition would be allowed to take place."[12]

But other depth psychologies speak of a similar process. Carl Rogers describes "the 'out-of-this-world' quality that many therapists have remarked upon, a sort of trance-like feeling in the relationship that client and therapist emerge from at the end of the hour, as if from a deep well or tunnel.[25] The French talk of how the psychoanalytic setting 'opens/forges the "intermediate space," "excluded middle," or "between" that figures so importantly in Irigaray's writing".[26] Marion Milner claimed that "a temporal spatial frame also marks off the special kind of reality of a psycho-analytic session...the different kind of reality that is within it".[27]

Jungians however have perhaps been most explicit about the "need to accord space, time and place for liminal feeling"[28]—as well about the associated dangers, "two mistakes: we provide no ritual space at all in our lives [...] or we stay in it too long".[29] Indeed, Jung's psychology has itself been described as "a form of 'permanent liminality' in which there is no need to return to social structure".[30]

In the context of rites, liminality is being artificially produced, as opposed to those situations (such as natural disasters) in which it can occur spontaneously.[6] In the simple example of a college graduation ceremony, the liminal phase can actually be extended to include the period of time between when the last assignment was finished (and graduation was assured) all the way through reception of the diploma. That no man's land represents the limbo associated with liminality. The stress of accomplishing tasks for college has been lifted, yet the individual has not moved on to a new stage in life (psychologically or physically). The result is a unique perspective on what has come before, and what may come next.

It can include the period between when a couple get engaged and their marriage or between death and burial, for which cultures may have set ritual observances. Even sexually liberal cultures may strongly disapprove of an engaged spouse having sex with another person during this time. When a marriage proposal is initiated there is a liminal stage between the question and the answer during which the social arrangements of both parties involved are subject to transformation and inversion; a sort of "life stage limbo" so to speak in that the affirmation or denial can result in multiple and diverse outcomes.

Getz[31] provides commentary on the liminal/liminoid zone when discussing the planned event experience. He refers to a liminal zone at an event as the creation of "time out of time: a special place". He notes that this liminal zone is both spatial and temporal and integral when planning a successful event (e.g. ceremony, concert, conference etc.).[32]

In time

The temporal dimension of liminality can relate to moments (sudden events), periods (weeks, months, or possibly years), and epochs (decades, generations, maybe even centuries).[6]

Examples

Twilight serves as a liminal time, between day and night—where one is "in the twilight zone, in a liminal nether region of the night".[33] The title of the television fiction series The Twilight Zone makes reference to this, describing it as "the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition" in one variant of the original series' opening. The name is from an actual zone observable from space in the place where daylight or shadow advances or retreats about the Earth. Noon and, more often, midnight can be considered liminal, the first transitioning between morning and afternoon, the latter between days.

Within the years, liminal times include equinoxes when day and night have equal length, and solstices, when the increase of day or night shifts over to its decrease. This "qualitative bounding of quantitatively unbounded phenomena"[34] marks the cyclical changes of seasons throughout the year. Where the quarter days are held to mark the change in seasons, they also are liminal times. New Year's Day, whatever its connection or lack of one to the astrological sky, is a liminal time. Customs such as fortune-telling take advantage of this liminal state. In a number of cultures, actions and events on the first day of the year can determine the year, leading to such beliefs as first-foot. Many cultures regard it as a time especially prone to hauntings by ghosts—liminal beings, neither alive nor dead.

In religion

Christian worship

Liminal existence can be located in a separated sacred space, which occupies a sacred time. Examples in the Bible include the dream of Jacob (Genesis 28:12–19) where he encounters God between heaven and earth and the instance when Isaiah meets the Lord in the temple of holiness (Isaiah 6:1–6).[35] In such a liminal space, the individual experiences the revelation of sacred knowledge where God imparts his knowledge on the person.

Worship can be understood in this context as the church community (or communitas or koinonia) enter into liminal space corporately.[35] Religious symbols and music may aid in this process described as a pilgrimage by way of prayer, song, or liturgical acts. The congregation is transformed in the liminal space and as they exit, are sent out back into the world to serve.

Of beings

Various minority groups can be considered liminal. In reality illegal immigrants (present but not "official"), and stateless people, for example, are regarded as liminal because they are "betwixt and between home and host, part of society, but sometimes never fully integrated".[6] Bisexual, intersex, and transgender people in some contemporary societies, people of mixed ethnicity, and those accused but not yet judged guilty or not guilty can also be considered to be liminal. Teenagers, being neither children nor adults, are liminal people: indeed, "for young people, liminality of this kind has become a permanent phenomenon...Postmodern liminality".[36]

The "trickster as the mythic projection of the magician—standing in the limen between the sacred realm and the profane"[37] and related archetypes embody many such contradictions as do many popular culture celebrities. The category could also hypothetically and in fiction include cyborgs, hybrids between two species, shapeshifters. One could also consider seals, crabs, shorebirds, frogs, bats, dolphins/whales and other "border animals" to be liminal: "the wild duck and swan are cases in point...intermediate creatures that combine underwater activity and the bird flight with an intermediate, terrestrial life".[38] Shamans and spiritual guides also serve as liminal beings, acting as "mediators between this and the other world; his presence is betwixt and between the human and supernatural."[39] Many believe that shamans and spiritual advisers were born into their fate, possessing a greater understanding of and connection to the natural world, and thus they often live in the margins of society, existing in a liminal state between worlds and outside of common society.[39]

In places

The spatial dimension of liminality can include specific places, larger zones or areas, or entire countries and larger regions.[6] Liminal places can range from borders and frontiers to no man's lands and disputed territories, to crossroads to perhaps airports, hotels, and bathrooms. Sociologist Eva Illouz argues that all "romantic travel enacts the three stages that characterize liminality: separation, marginalization, and reaggregation".[40]

In mythology and religion or esoteric lore liminality can include such realms as Purgatory or Da'at, which, as well as signifying liminality, some theologians deny actually existing, making them, in some cases, doubly liminal. "Between-ness" defines these spaces. For a hotel worker (an insider) or a person passing by with disinterest (a total outsider), the hotel would have a very different connotation. To a traveller staying there, the hotel would function as a liminal zone, just as "doors and windows and hallways and gates frame...the definitively liminal condition".[41]

More conventionally, springs, caves, shores, rivers, volcanic calderas—"a huge crater of an extinct volcano...[as] another symbol of transcendence"[42]—fords, passes, crossroads, bridges, and marshes are all liminal: "'edges', borders or faultlines between the legitimate and the illegitimate".[43] Oedipus met his father at the crossroads and killed him; the bluesman Robert Johnson met the devil at the crossroads, where he is said to have sold his soul.[44]

In architecture, liminal spaces are defined as "the physical spaces between one destination and the next."[45] Common examples of such spaces include hallways, airports, and streets.[46][47]

In contemporary culture viewing the nightclub experience (dancing in a nightclub) through the liminoid framework highlights the "presence or absence of opportunities for social subversion, escape from social structures, and exercising choice".[48] This allows "insights into what may be effectively improved in hedonic spaces. Enhancing the consumer experience of these liminoid aspects may heighten experiential feelings of escapism and play, thus encouraging the consumer to more freely consume".[48]

In folklore

There are a number of stories in folklore of those who could only be killed in a liminal space: In Welsh mythology, Lleu could not be killed during the day or night, nor indoors or outdoors, nor riding or walking, nor clothed or naked (and is attacked at dusk, while wrapped in a net with one foot on a cauldron and one on a goat). Likewise, in Hindu text Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu appears in a half-man half-lion form named Narasimha to destroy the demon Hiranyakashipu who has obtained the power never to be killed in day nor night, in the ground nor in the air, with weapon nor by bare hands, in a building nor outside it, by man nor beast. Narasimha kills Hiranyakashipu at dusk, across his lap, with his sharp claws, on the threshold of the palace, and as Narasimha is a god himself, the demon is killed by neither man nor beast. In the Mahabharata, Indra promises not to slay Namuci and Vritra with anything wet or dry, nor in the day or in the night, but instead kills them at dusk with foam.[49]

The classic tale of Cupid and Psyche serves as an example of the liminal in myth, exhibited through Psyche's character and the events she experiences. She is always regarded as too beautiful to be human yet not quite a goddess, establishing her liminal existence.[50] Her marriage to Death in Apuleius' version occupies two classic Van Gennep liminal rites: marriage and death.[50] Psyche resides in the liminal space of no longer being a maiden yet not quite a wife, as well as living between worlds. Beyond this, her transition to immortality to live with Cupid serves as a liminal rite of passage in which she shifts from mortal to immortal, human to goddess; when Psyche drinks the ambrosia and seals her fate, the rite is completed and the tale ends with a joyous wedding and the birth of Cupid and Psyche's daughter.[50] The characters themselves exist in liminal spaces while experiencing classic rites of passage that necessitate the crossing of thresholds into new realms of existence.

In ethnographic research

In ethnographic research, "the researcher is...in a liminal state, separated from his own culture yet not incorporated into the host culture"[51]—when he or she is both participating in the culture and observing the culture. The researcher must consider the self in relation to others and his or her positioning in the culture being studied.

In many cases, greater participation in the group being studied can lead to increased access of cultural information and greater in-group understanding of experiences within the culture. However increased participation also blurs the role of the researcher in data collection and analysis. Often a researcher that engages in fieldwork as a "participant" or "participant-observer" occupies a liminal state where he/she is a part of the culture, but also separated from the culture as a researcher. This liminal state of being betwixt and between is emotional and uncomfortable as the researcher uses self-reflexivity to interpret field observations and interviews.

Some scholars argue that ethnographers are present in their research, occupying a liminal state, regardless of their participant status. Justification for this position is that the researcher as a "human instrument" engages with his/her observations in the process of recording and analyzing the data. A researcher, often unconsciously, selects what to observe, how to record observations and how to interpret observations based on personal reference points and experiences. For example, even in selecting what observations are interesting to record, the researcher must interpret and value the data available. To explore the liminal state of the researcher in relation to the culture, self-reflexivity and awareness are important tools to reveal researcher bias and interpretation.

In higher education

For many students, the process of starting university can be seen as a liminal space.[52] Whilst many students move away from home for the first time, they often do not break their links with home, seeing the place of origin as home rather than the town where they are studying. Student orientation often includes activities that act as a rite of passage, making the start of university as a significant period. This can be reinforced by the split of town and gown, where local communities and the student body maintain different traditions and codes of behaviour. This means that many university students are no longer seen as school children, but have not yet achieved the status of independent adults. This creates an environment where risk-taking is balanced with safe spaces that allow students to try out new identities and new ways of being within a structure that provides meaning.[53]

In popular culture

Novels and short stories

Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk makes use of liminality in explaining time travel. Possession by A. S. Byatt describes how postmodern "Literary theory. Feminism...write about liminality. Thresholds. Bastions. Fortresses".[54] Each book title in The Twilight Saga speaks of a liminal period (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn). In The Phantom Tollbooth (1961), Milo enters "The Lands Beyond", a liminal place (which explains its topsy-turvy nature), through a magical tollbooth. When he finishes his quest, he returns, but changed, seeing the world differently. The giver of the tollbooth is never seen and name never known, and hence, also remains liminal. Liminality is a major theme in Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald, in which the characters live between sea and land on docked boats, becoming liminal people. Saul Bellow's "varied uses of liminality...include his Dangling Man, suspended between civilian life and the armed forces"[55] at "the onset of the dangling days".[56]

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre follows the protagonist through different stages of life as she crosses the threshold from student to teacher to woman.[57] Her existence throughout the novel takes a liminal character. She can first be seen when she hides herself behind a large red curtain to read, closing herself off physically and existing in a paracosmic realm. At Gateshead, Jane is noted to be set apart and on the outside of the family, putting her in a liminal space in which she neither belongs nor is completely cast away.[58] Jane's existence emerges as paradoxical as she transcends commonly accepted beliefs about what it means to be a woman, orphan, child, victim, criminal, and pilgrim,[59] and she creates her own narrative as she is torn from her past and denied a certain future.[59] Faced with a series of crises, Jane's circumstances question social constructs and allow Jane to progress or to retract; this creates a narrative dynamic of structure and liminality (as coined by Turner).[59]

Karen Brooks states that Australian grunge lit books, such as Clare Mendes' Drift Street, Edward Berridge's The Lives of the Saints, and Andrew McGahan's Praise "...explor[e] the psychosocial and psychosexual limitations of young sub/urban characters in relation to the imaginary and socially constructed boundaries defining...self and other" and "opening up" new "liminal [boundary] spaces" where the concept of an abject human body can be explored.[60] Brooks states that Berridge's short stories provide "...a variety of violent, disaffected and often abject young people", characters who "...blur and often overturn" the boundaries between suburban and urban space.[60] Brooks states that the marginalized characters in The Lives of the Saints, Drift Street and Praise are able to stay in "shit creek" (an undesirable setting or situation) and "diver[t]... flows" of these "creeks", thus claiming their rough settings' "liminality" (being in a border situation or transitional setting) and their own "abjection" (having "abject bodies" with health problems, disease, etc.) as "sites of symbolic empowerment and agency".[60]

Brooks states that the story "Caravan Park" in Berridge's short story collection is an example of a story with a "liminal" setting, as it is set in a mobile home park; since mobile homes can be relocated, she states that setting a story in a mobile home "...has the potential to disrupt a range of geo-physical and psycho-social boundaries".[60] Brooks states that in Berridge's story "Bored Teenagers", the adolescents using a community drop-in centre decide to destroy its equipment and defile the space by urinating in it, thus "altering the dynamics of the place and the way" their bodies are perceived, with their destructive activities being deemed by Brooks to indicate the community centre's "loss of authority" over the teens.[60]

In-Between: Liminal Stories is a collection of ten short stories and poems that exclusively focus on liminal expressions of various themes like memory disorder, pandemic uncertainty, authoritarianism, virtual reality, border disputes, old-age anxiety, environmental issues, and gender trouble. The stories, such as "In-Between", "Cogito, Ergo Sum", "The Trap", "Monkey Bath", "DreamCatcher", "Escape to Nowhere", "A Letter to My-Self", "No Man's Land", "Whither Am I?", and "Fe/Male",[61] apart from their thematic relevance, directly and indirectly link the possibilities and potential of liminality in literature for developing characters, plots, and settings. The experiences and expressions of the in-between states of living ‘betwixt and between’ in a transitional world that intricately changes the constants and perpetuities of human life are eminent in the stories that are associated with the theoretical concepts such as permanent and temporary liminality, liminal space, liminal entity, liminoid, communitas, and anti-structure. The significance of liminality in the short stories is emphasised by conceptualising the existence of the characters as "living not here, not there – but somewhere in a space between here and there".[61]

Plays

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a play by Tom Stoppard, takes place both in a kind of no-man's-land and the actual setting of Hamlet. "Shakespeare's play Hamlet is in several ways an essay in sustained liminality ... only via a condition of complete liminality can Hamlet finally see the way forward".[62] In the play Waiting for Godot for the entire length of the play, two men walk around restlessly on an empty stage. They alternate between hope and hopelessness. At times one forgets what they are even waiting for, and the other reminds him: "We are waiting for Godot". The identity of 'Godot' is never revealed, and perhaps the men do not know Godot's identity. The men are trying to keep up their spirits as they wander the empty stage, waiting.

Films and TV shows

The Twilight Zone (1959–2003) is a US television anthology series that explores unusual situations between reality and the paranormal. The Terminal (2004), is a US film in which the main character (Viktor Navorski) is trapped in a liminal space; since he can neither legally return to his home country Krakozhia nor enter the United States, he must remain in the airport terminal indefinitely until he finds a way out at the end of the film. In the film Waking Life, about dreams, Aklilu Gebrewold talks about liminality. Primer (2004), is a US science fiction film by Shane Carruth where the main characters set up their time travelling machine in a storage facility to ensure it will not be accidentally disturbed. The hallways of the storage facility are eerily unchanging and impersonal, in a sense depicted as outside of time, and could be considered a liminal space. When the main characters are inside the time travel box, they are clearly in temporal liminality. Yet another example comes from Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke in which the Forest Spirit can only be killed while switching between its two forms.

Photography and Internet culture

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Liminal spaces.

In the late 2010s, a trend of images depicting so-called "liminal spaces" has surged in online art and photography communities, with the intent to convey "a sense of nostalgia, lostness, and uncertainty".[63] The subjects of these photos may not necessarily fit within the usual definition of spatial liminality (such as that of hallways, waiting areas or rest stops) but are instead defined by a forlorn atmosphere and sentiments of abandonment, decay and quietness. Additionally, it has been suggested that the liminal space phenomenon could represent a broader feeling of disorientation in modern society, explaining the usage of places that are common in childhood memories (such as playgrounds or schools) as reflective about the passage of time and the collective experience of growing older.[64]

The phenomenon gained media attention in 2019, when a short creepypasta originally posted to 4chan's /x/ board in 2019 went viral.[65] The creepypasta showed an image of a hallway with yellow carpets and wallpaper, with a caption purporting that by "noclipping out of bounds in real life", one may enter the Backrooms, an empty wasteland of corridors with nothing but "the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in".[66] Since then, a popular subreddit titled "liminal space", cataloguing photographs that give a "sense that something is not quite right",[67] has accrued over 500,000 followers.[68][69] A Twitter account called @SpaceLiminalBot posts many liminal space photos and it has accrued over 1.2 milion followers.[citation needed] Liminal spaces can also be found in painting and drawing, for example in paintings by Jeffery Smart.[70][71]

Research indicates that liminal spaces may appear eerie or strange because they fall into an uncanny valley of architecture and physical places.[72]

Music and other media

Liminal Space is an album by American breakcore artist Xanopticon. Coil mention liminality throughout their works, most explicitly with the title of their song "Batwings (A Limnal Hymn)" (sic) from their album Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2. In .hack//Liminality Harald Hoerwick, the creator of the MMORPG "The World", attempted to bring the real world into the online world, creating a hazy barrier between the two worlds; a concept called "Liminality".

In the lyrics of French rock band Little Nemo's song "A Day Out of Time", the idea of liminality is indirectly explored by describing a transitional moment before the returning of "the common worries". This liminal moment is referred as timeless and, therefore, absent of aims and/or regrets.

In 1974, Victor Turner coined the term liminoid (from the Greek word eidos, meaning "form or shape"[12]) to refer to experiences that have characteristics of liminal experiences but are optional and do not involve a resolution of a personal crisis.[2] Unlike liminal events, liminoid experiences are conditional and do not result in a change of status, but merely serve as transitional moments in time.[2] The liminal is part of society, an aspect of social or religious rites, while the liminoid is a break from society, part of "play" or "playing". With the rise in industrialization and the emergence of leisure as an acceptable form of play separate from work, liminoid experiences have become much more common than liminal rites.[2] In these modern societies, rites are diminished and "forged the concept of 'liminoid' rituals for analogous but secular phenomena" such as attending rock concerts and other[73] liminoid experiences.

The fading of liminal stages in exchange for liminoid experiences is marked by the shift in culture from tribal and agrarian to modern and industrial. In these societies, work and play are entirely separate whereas in more archaic societies, they are nearly indistinguishable.[2] In the past play was interwoven with the nature of work as symbolic gestures and rites in order to promote fertility, abundance, and the passage of certain liminal phases; thus, work and play are inseparable and often dependent on social rites.[2] Examples of this include Cherokee and Mayan riddles, trickster tales, sacred ball games, and joking relationships which serve holy purposes of work in liminal situations while retaining the element of playfulness.[2]

Ritual and myth were, in the past, exclusively connected to collective work that served holy and often symbolic purposes; liminal rites were held in the form of coming-of-age ceremonies, celebrations of seasons, and more. Industrialization cut the cord between work and the sacred, putting "work" and "play" in separate boxes that rarely, if ever, intersected.[2] In a famous essay regarding the shift from liminal to liminoid in industrial society, Turner offers a twofold explanation of this sect. First, society began to move away from activities concerning collective ritual obligations, placing more emphasis on the individual than the community; this led to more choice in activities, with many such as work and leisure becoming optional. Second, the work done to earn a living became entirely separate from his or her other activities so that it is "no longer natural, but arbitrary."[2] In simpler terms, the industrial revolution brought about free time that had not existed in past societies and created space for liminoid experiences to exist.[2]

Examples of liminoid experiences

Sports

Sporting events such as the Olympics, NFL football games, and hockey matches are forms of liminoid experiences. They are optional activities of leisure that place both the spectator and the competitor in in-between places outside of society's norms. Sporting events also create a sense of community among fans and reinforces the collective spirit of those who take part.[19] Homecoming football games, gymnastics meets, modern baseball games, and swim meets all qualify as liminoid and follow a seasonal schedule; therefore, the flow of sports becomes cyclical and predictable, reinforcing the liminal qualities.[19]

Commercial flight

One scholar, Alexandra Murphy, has argued that airplane travel is inherently liminoid—suspended in the sky, neither here nor there and crossing thresholds of time and space, it is difficult to make sense of the experience of flying.[74] Murphy posits that flights shift our existence into a limbo space in which movement becomes an accepted set of cultural performances aimed at convincing us that air travel is a reflection of reality rather than a separation from it.[74]

• Androgyny
• Bardo
• Cognitive dissonance
• Critical point (thermodynamics)
• Limbo
• Liminal being
• Liminal deity
• Limit situation
• Locus amoenus
• Phase transition
• Transitioning (transgender)
• Trance
• Entity

1. ^ "liminal", Oxford English Dictionary. Ed. J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. OED Online Oxford 23, 2007; cf. subliminal.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Turner, Victor (July 1974). "Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology". Rice Institute Pamphlet - Rice University Studies. 60 (3). hdl:1911/63159. S2CID 55545819.
3. ^ Guribye, Eugene; Lie, Birgit; Overland, Gwynyth, eds. (2014). Nordic Work with Traumatised Refugees: Do We Really Care. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 194. ISBN 978-1-4438-6777-1.
4. ^ "Liminality and Communitas", in "The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure" (New Brunswick: Aldine Transaction Press, 2008).
5. ^ Katznelson, Ira (11 May 2021). "Measuring Liberalism, Confronting Evil: A Retrospective". Annual Review of Political Science. 24 (1): 1–19. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-042219-030219.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Thomassen, Bjørn (2009). "The Uses and Meanings of Liminality". International Political Anthropology. 2 (1): 5–27.
7. ^ Horvath, A.; Thomassen, B.; Wydra, H. (2009). "Introduction: Liminality and Cultures of Change". International Political Anthropology. 2 (1): 3–4.
8. ^ a b c d e f Szakolczai, A. (2009). "Liminality and Experience: Structuring transitory situations and transformative events". International Political Anthropology. 2 (1): 141–172.
9. ^ Barfield, Thomas (1997). The Dictionary of Anthropology. p. 477.
10. ^ a b van Gennep, Arnold (1977). The rites of passage. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-7100-8744-7. OCLC 925214175.
11. ^ Victor W. Turner, The Ritual Process (Penguin 1969) p. 155.
12. ^ a b c d e Andrews, Hazel; Roberts, Les (2015). "Liminality". International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. pp. 131–137. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.12102-6. ISBN 978-0-08-097087-5.
13. ^ Victor Turner, "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage", in The Forest of Symbols (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1967).
14. ^ Turner, Ritual p. 80
15. ^ a b c Thomassen, Bjørn (2006). "Liminality". In Harrington, A.; Marshall, B.; Müller, H.-P. (eds.). Routledge Encyclopedia of Social Theory. London: Routledge. pp. 322–323.
16. ^ Turner Ritual p. 81
17. ^ Turner, Ritual p. 156
18. ^ Peter Homas, Jung in Context (London 1979) p. 207
19. ^ a b c d e f g John, Graham St (2008). Victor Turner and Contemporary Cultural Performance. Berghahn Books. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-85745-037-1.
20. ^ Horvath, Agnes (2013). Modernism and Charisma. doi:10.1057/9781137277862. ISBN 978-1-349-44741-1.[page needed]
21. ^ Homans 1979, 207.
22. ^ Hall, quoted in Miller and Jung 2004, 104.
23. ^ Shorter 1988, 73, 79.
24. ^ Robert Pelton in Young-Eisendrath and Dawson eds. 1997, 244
25. ^ Rogers 1961, 202.
26. ^ E. Hirsh, in Burke et al. eds. 1994, 309n
27. ^ Quoted in Casement 1997, 158.
28. ^ Shorter 1988, 79.
29. ^ Bly, 1991, 194.
30. ^ Homans 1979, 208.
31. ^ Getz 2007, 179.
32. ^ Getz 2007, 442.
33. ^ Costello 2002, 158.
34. ^ Olwig, Kenneth R (April 2005). "Liminality, Seasonality and Landscape". Landscape Research. 30 (2): 259–271. doi:10.1080/01426390500044473. S2CID 144415449.
35. ^ a b Carson, Timothy L (2003). Transforming Worship. Chalice Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-8272-3692-9.
36. ^ Kahane 1997, 31.
37. ^ Nicholas 2009, 25.
38. ^ Joseph Henderson in Jung 1978, 153.
39. ^ a b Takiguchi, Naoko (1990). "Liminal Experiences of Miyako Shamans: Reading a Shaman's Diary". Asian Folklore Studies. 49 (1): 1–38. doi:10.2307/1177947. JSTOR 1177947.
40. ^ Illouz 1997, 143.
41. ^ Richard Brown in Corcoran 2002, 211.
42. ^ Joseph Henderson, in Jung 1978, 152.
43. ^ Richard Brown in Corcoran 2002, 196
44. ^ El Khoury, 2015, 217[full citation needed]
45. ^ Asuncion, Isabel Berenguer (13 June 2020). "Living through liminal spaces". INQUIRER.net.
46. ^ Matthews, Hugh (2003). "The street as a liminal space". Children in the City. pp. 119–135. doi:10.4324/9780203167236-11. ISBN 978-0-203-16723-6.
47. ^ Huang, Wei-Jue; Xiao, Honggen; Wang, Sha (May 2018). "Airports as liminal space". Annals of Tourism Research. 70: 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2018.02.003.
48. ^ a b Taheri, Babak; Gori, Keith; O’Gorman, Kevin; Hogg, Gillian; Farrington, Thomas (2 January 2016). "Experiential liminoid consumption: the case of nightclubbing". Journal of Marketing Management. 32 (1–2): 19–43. doi:10.1080/0267257X.2015.1089309. S2CID 145243798.
49. ^ "Vritra". Encyclopedia of Religion. Macmillan Reference USA/Gale Group. 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
50. ^ a b c Peters, Jesse (2014). "Intra Limen: An Examination of Liminality in Apuleius' Metamorphoses and Giulio Romano's Sala di Amore e Psiche". CiteSeerX 10.1.1.840.7301. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
51. ^ Norris Johnson, in Robben and Sluka 2007, 76
52. ^ Heading, David; Loughlin, Eleanor (2018). "Lonergan's insight and threshold concepts: students in the liminal space" (PDF). Teaching in Higher Education. 23 (6): 657–667. doi:10.1080/13562517.2017.1414792. S2CID 149321628.
53. ^ Rutherford, Vanessa; Pickup, Ian (2015). "Negotiating Liminality in Higher Education: Formal and Informal Dimensions of the Student Experience as Facilitators of Quality". The European Higher Education Area. pp. 703–723. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-20877-0_44. ISBN 978-3-319-18767-9. S2CID 146606519.
54. ^ Byatt 1990, 505–06.
55. ^ Elsbree 1991, 66.
56. ^ Bellow 1977, 84.
57. ^ Brontë, Charlotte (1816–1855). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. 2017-11-28. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.3523.
58. ^ Clark, Megan (2017). "The Space In-Between: Exploring Liminality in Jane Eyre". Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism. 10.
59. ^ a b c Gilead, Sarah (1987). "Liminality and Antiliminality in Charlotte Brontë's Novels: Shirley Reads Jane Eyre". Texas Studies in Literature and Language. 29 (3): 302–322. JSTOR 40754831.
60. ^ a b c d e Brooks, Karen (1 October 1998). "Shit Creek: Suburbia, Abjection and Subjectivity in Australian 'Grunge' Fiction". Australian Literary Studies. 18 (4): 87–99.
61. ^ a b Mathew, Raisun (2022). In-Between: Liminal Stories. Authorspress. ISBN 978-93-91314-04-0.[page needed][self-published source?]
62. ^ Liebler, pp. 182–84
63. ^ "Architecture: The Cult Following Of Liminal Space". Musée Magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
64. ^ "How liminal spaces became the internet's latest obsession". TwoPointOne Magazine. 18 June 2021. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
65. ^ S, Michael L.; al (2020-04-30). "'The Backrooms Game' Brings a Modern Creepypasta to Life [What We Play in the Shadows]". Bloody Disgusting!. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
66. ^ "We will find where the Original Backrooms Photo was taken. But, we need your help. - YouTube". YouTube. 2020-10-30. Archived from the original on 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
67. ^ "Liminal Spaces may be the most 2020 of all trends". Earnest Pettie Online. 2020-12-31. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
68. ^ "Will the mall survive COVID? Whatever happens, these artists want to capture them before they're gone | CBC Arts". CBC. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
69. ^ "LiminalSpace". Reddit. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
70. ^ Kenyon, Nick (2022-03-02). "The Exhibition Spotlighting One Of Australia's Greatest Artists". Boss Hunting. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
71. ^ "Jeffrey Smart - 155 artworks - painting". www.wikiart.org. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
72. ^ Diel, Alexander; Lewis, Michael (1 August 2022). "Structural deviations drive an uncanny valley of physical places". Journal of Environmental Psychology. 82: 101844. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101844. S2CID 250404379.
73. ^ Illouz, Consuming p. 142
74. ^ a b Murphy, Alexandra G. (October 2002). "Organizational Politics of Place and Space: The Perpetual Liminoid Performance of Commercial Flight". Text and Performance Quarterly. 22 (4): 297–316. doi:10.1080/10462930208616175. S2CID 145132584.

• Barfield, Thomas J. The Dictionary of Anthropology. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997.
• Bellow, Saul. Dangling Man (Penguin 1977).
• Benzel, Rick. Inspiring Creativity: an Anthology of Powerful Insights and Practical Ideas to Guide You to Successful Creating. Playa Del Rey, CA: Creativity Coaching Association, 2005.
• Bly, Robert. Iron John (Dorset 1991).
• Burke, Carolyn, Naomi Schor, and Margaret Whitford. Engaging with Irigaray: Feminist Philosophy and Modern European Thought. New York: Columbia UP, 1994.
• Byatt, A. S. Possession; a Romance. New York: Vintage International, 1990.
• Carson, Timothy L. "Chapter Seven: Betwixt and Between, Worship and Liminal Reality." Transforming Worship. St. Louis, MO: Chalice, 2003.
• Casement, Patrick. Further Learning from the Patient (London 1997).
• Corcoran, Neil. Do You, Mr Jones?: Bob Dylan with the Poets and Professors. London: Chatto & Windus, 2002.
• Costello, Stephen J. The Pale Criminal: Psychoanalytic Perspectives. London: Karnac, 2002.
• Douglas, Mary. Implicit Meanings Essays in Anthropology. London [u.a.]: Routledge, 1984.
• Elsbree, Langdon. Ritual Passages and Narrative Structures. New York: P. Lang, 1991.
• Getz, D. 2007. Event studies: theory, research and policy for planned events. Burlington, MA:Butterworth-Heinemann.
• Girard, René. "To Double Business Bound": Essays on Literature, Mimesis, and Anthropology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1988.
• Girard, René. Violence and the Sacred. London: Athlone, 1988.
• Homans, Peter. Jung in Context: Modernity and the Making of a Psychology. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1979.
• Horvath, Agnes (November 2009). "Liminality and the Unreal Class of the Image-making Craft: An Essay on Political Alchemy". International Political Anthropology. 2 (1): 51–73.
• Horvath, Agnes; Thomassen, Bjorn (May 2008). "Mimetic Errors in Liminal Schismogenesis: On the Political Anthropology of the Trickster". 1. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Illouz, Eva. Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. UCP, 1997.
• Jung, C. G. Man and His Symbols. London: Picador, 1978.
• Kahane Reuven, et al., The Origins of Postmodern Youth (New York: 1997)
• Liebler, Naomi Conn. Shakespeare's Festive Tragedy: the Ritual Foundations of Genre. London: Routledge, 1995.
• Lih, Andrew. The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia. London: Aurum, 2009.
• Mathew, Raisun (2022). In-Between: Liminal Stories. Authorspress.
• Miller, Jeffrey C., and C. G. Jung. The Transcendent Function: Jung's Model of Psychological Growth through Dialogue with the Unconscious. Albany: State University of New York, 2004.
• Nicholas, Dean Andrew. The Trickster Revisited: Deception as a Motif in the Pentatech. New York: Peter Lang, 2009.
• Oxford English Dictionary. Ed. J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. OED Online Oxford University Press. Accessed June 23, 2007; cf. subliminal.
• Quasha, George & Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill's Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009. Foreword by Lynne Cooke.
• Ramanujan, A. K. Speaking of Śiva. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
• Robben, A. and Sluka, J. Editors, Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
• Rogers, Carl R. On Becoming a Person; a Therapist's View of Psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961.
• Shorter, Bani. An Image Darkly Forming: Women and Initiation. London: Routledge, 1988.
• St John, Graham (April 2001). "Alternative Cultural Heterotopia and the Liminoid Body: Beyond Turner at ConFest". The Australian Journal of Anthropology. 12 (1): 47–66. doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.2001.tb00062.x.
• St John, Graham (ed.) 2008. Victor Turner and Contemporary Cultural Performance Archived 2010-05-07 at the Wayback Machine. New York: Berghahn. ISBN 1-84545-462-6.
• St John, Graham (June 2013). "Aliens Are Us: Cosmic Liminality, Remixticism, and Alien ation in Psytrance". The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture. 25 (2): 186–204. doi:10.3138/jrpc.25.2.186. S2CID 194094479.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Liminal spaces.

•   The dictionary definition of liminal at Wiktionary
•   The dictionary definition of liminality at Wiktionary
•   The dictionary definition of liminoid at Wiktionary

The majority of posting on 4chan takes place on imageboards, on which users have the ability to share images and create threaded discussions.[6][7] As of August 2022[update], the site's homepage lists 75 imageboards and one Flash animation board. Most boards have their own set of rules and are dedicated to a specific topic, including anime and manga, video games, music, literature, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. Uniquely, the "Random" board—also known as /b/—enforces no particular rules.[8]

4chan is the Internet's most trafficked imageboard, according to the Los Angeles Times.[9] 4chan's Alexa rank is 853 as of March 2022[update][10] though it has been as high as 56.[11] It is provided to its users free of charge and consumes a large amount of bandwidth; as a result, its financing has often been problematic. Poole has acknowledged that donations alone could not keep the site online, and turned to advertising to help make ends meet.[12] However, the explicit content hosted on 4chan has deterred businesses who do not want to be associated with the site's content.[13] In January 2009, Poole signed a new deal with an advertising company; in February 2009, he was $20,000 in debt, and the site was continuing to lose money.[14] The 4chan servers were moved from Texas to California in August 2008, which upgraded the maximum bandwidth throughput of 4chan from 100Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s.[15]

Unlike most web forums, 4chan does not have a registration system, allowing users to post anonymously.[16][17] Posting is ephemeral, as threads receiving recent replies are "bumped" to the top of their respective board and old threads are deleted as new ones are created.[2] Any nickname may be used when posting, even one that has been previously adopted, such as "Anonymous" or "moot".[18] In place of registration, 4chan has provided tripcodes as an optional form of authenticating a poster's identity.[19] As making a post without filling in the "Name" field causes posts to be attributed to "Anonymous", general understanding on 4chan holds that Anonymous is not a single person but a collective (hive) of users.[20] Moderators generally post without a name even when performing sysop actions. A "capcode" may be used to attribute the post to "Anonymous ## Mod", although moderators often post without the capcode.[21] In a 2011 interview on Nico Nico Douga, Poole explained that there are approximately 20 volunteer moderators active on 4chan.[note 1] 4chan also has a junior moderation team, called "janitors", who may delete posts or images and suggest that the normal moderation team ban a user, but who cannot post with a capcode. Revealing oneself as a janitor is grounds for immediate dismissal.[22]

4chan has been the target of occasional denial of service attacks. For instance, on December 28, 2010, 4chan and other websites went down due to such an attack, following which Poole said on his blog, "We now join the ranks of MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, et al.—an exclusive club!"[23]

The site was launched as 4chan.net on October 1, 2003, by Christopher Poole, a then-15-year-old student from New York City using the online handle "moot".[24] Poole had been a regular participant on Something Awful's subforum "Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse" (ADTRW), where many users were familiar with the Japanese imageboard format and Futaba Channel ("2chan.net").[16] When creating 4chan, Poole obtained Futaba Channel's open source code and translated the Japanese text into English using AltaVista's Babel Fish online translator.[note 1][25] After the site's creation, Poole invited users from the ADTRW subforum, many of whom were dissatisfied with the site's moderation, to visit 4chan, which he advertised as an English-language counterpart to Futaba Channel and a place for Western fans to discuss anime and manga.[7][26][27] At its founding, the site only hosted one board: /b/ (Anime/Random).[note 1]

Before the end of 2003, several new anime-related boards were added, including /h/ (Hentai), /c/ (Anime/Cute), /d/ (Hentai/Alternative), /w/ (Wallpapers/Anime), /y/ (Yaoi), and /a/ (Anime). Additionally, a lolicon board was created at /l/ (Lolikon),[29] but was disabled following the posting of genuine child pornography and ultimately deleted in October 2004, after threats of legal action.[30][31] In February 2004, GoDaddy suspended the 4chan.net domain, prompting Poole to move the site to its current domain at 4chan.org. On March 1, 2004, Poole announced that he lacked the funds to pay the month's server bill, but was able to continue operations after receiving a swarm of donations from users.[32] In June 2004, 4chan experienced six weeks of downtime after PayPal suspended 4chan's donations service after receiving complaints about the site's content.[33] Following 4chan's return, several non-anime related boards were introduced, including /k/ (Weapons), /o/ (Auto), and /v/ (Video Games).[34] In 2008, nine new boards were created, including the sports board at /sp/, the fashion board at /fa/ and the "Japan/General" (the name later changed to "Otaku Culture") board at /jp/.[35] By this point, 4chan's culture had altered, moving away from the "early, more childish," humour, as evident by the likes of Project Chanology; trolling underwent a so-called "golden age", taking aim at American corporate media.[36][37]

In January 2011, Poole announced the deletion of the /r9k/ ("ROBOT9000") and /new/ (News) boards, saying that /new/ had become devoted to racist discussions, and /r9k/ no longer served its original purpose of being a test implementation of xkcd's ROBOT9000 script.[38] During the same year, the /soc/ board was created in an effort to reduce the number of socialization threads on /b/. /r9k/ was restored on October 23, 2011, along with /hc/ ("Hardcore", previously deleted), /pol/ (a rebranding of /new/) and the new /diy/ board, in addition to an apology by Poole where he recalls how he criticized the deletion of Encyclopedia Dramatica and realized that he had done the same.[39]

In 2010, 4chan had implemented reCAPTCHA in an effort to thwart spam arising from JavaScript worms. By November 2011, 4chan made the transition to utilizing Cloudflare following a series of DDoS attacks. The 4chan imageboards were rewritten in valid HTML5/CSS3 in May 2012 in an effort to improve client-side performance.[15] On September 28, 2012, 4chan introduced a "4chan pass"[40] that, when purchased, "allows users to bypass typing a reCAPTCHA verification when posting and reporting posts on the 4chan image boards"; the money raised from the passes will go towards supporting the site.[41]

On January 21, 2015, Poole stepped down as the site's administrator, citing stress from controversies such as Gamergate as the reason for his departure.[42][43][44] On September 21, 2015, Poole announced that Hiroyuki Nishimura had purchased from him the ownership rights to 4chan, without disclosing the terms of the acquisition.[27][45][46] Nishimura was the former administrator of 2channel between 1999 and 2014, the website forming the basis for anonymous posting culture which influenced later websites such as Futaba Channel and 4chan;[47] Nishimura lost 2channel's domain after it was seized by his registrar, Jim Watkins,[48][49] after the latter alleged financial difficulties.[50] Wired later reported that Japanese toy manufacturer Good Smile Company, Japanese telecommunication Dwango, and Nishimura's company Future Search Brazil may have helped facilitate Nishimura's purchase, with anonymous sources telling the publication that Good Smile obtained partial ownership in the website as compensation.[51]

In October 2016, it was reported that the site was facing financial difficulties that could lead to its closure or radical changes.[52] In a post titled "Winter is Coming", Hiroyuki Nishimura said, "We had tried to keep 4chan as is. But I failed. I am sincerely sorry", citing server costs, infrastructure costs, and network fees.[53]

On November 17, 2018, it was announced that the site would be split into two, with the work-safe boards moved to a new domain, 4channel.org, while the NSFW boards would remain on the 4chan.org domain. In a series of posts on the topic, Nishimura explained that the split was due to 4chan being blacklisted by most advertising companies and that the new 4channel domain would allow for the site to receive advertisements by mainstream ad providers.[54]

In a 2020 interview with Vice Media, several current or past moderators spoke about what they perceived as racist intent behind the site's management. They described how a managing moderator named RapeApe is attempting to use the site as a tool for the alt-right, and how Nishimura is "hands-off, leaving moderation of the site primarily to RapeApe." Neither Nishimura nor RapeApe responded to these allegations.[55] Far-right extremism has been reported by public authorities, commentators and civil society groups as connected, in part, to 4chan, an association that had arisen by 2015.[56][57]

Christopher Poole

Poole kept his real-life identity hidden until it was revealed on July 9, 2008, in The Wall Street Journal. Prior to that, he had used the alias "moot".[24]

In April 2009, Poole was voted the world's most influential person of 2008 by an open Internet poll conducted by Time magazine.[58] The results were questioned even before the poll completed, as automated voting programs and manual ballot stuffing were used to influence the vote.[59][60][61] 4chan's interference with the vote seemed increasingly likely, when it was found that reading the first letter of the first 21 candidates in the poll spelled out a phrase containing two 4chan memes: "mARBLECAKE. ALSO, THE GAME."[62]

On September 12, 2009, Poole gave a talk on why 4chan has a reputation as a "Meme Factory" at the Paraflows Symposium in Vienna, Austria, which was part of the Paraflows 09 festival, themed Urban Hacking. In this talk, Poole mainly attributed this to the anonymous system, and to the lack of data retention on the site ("The site has no memory.").[63][64]

In April 2010, Poole gave evidence in the trial United States of America v. David Kernell as a government witness.[65] As a witness, he explained the terminology used on 4chan to the prosecutor, ranging from "OP" to "lurker". He also explained to the court the nature of the data given to the FBI as part of the search warrant, including how users can be uniquely identified from site audit logs.[66]

Main article: /b/

The "random" board, /b/, follows the design of Futaba Channel's Nijiura board. It was the first board created, and has been described as 4chan's most popular board, accounting for 30% of site traffic in 2009.[67][68][2] Gawker's Nick Douglas summarized /b/ as a board where "people try to shock, entertain, and coax free porn from each other."[6] /b/ has a "no rules" policy, except for bans on certain illegal content, such as child pornography, invasions of other websites (posting floods of disruptive content), and under-18 viewing, all of which are inherited from site-wide rules. The "no invasions" rule was added in late 2006, after /b/ users spent most of that summer "invading" Habbo Hotel. The "no rules" policy also applies to actions of administrators and moderators, which means that users may be banned at any time, for any reason, including for no reason at all.[69] Due partially to its anonymous nature, board moderation is not always successful—indeed, the site's anti-child pornography rule is a subject of jokes on /b/.[11] Christopher Poole told The New York Times, in a discussion on the moderation of /b/, that "the power lies in the community to dictate its own standards" and that site staff simply provided a framework.[70]

The humor of /b/'s many users, who refer to themselves as "/b/tards",[70][71] is often incomprehensible to newcomers and outsiders, and is characterized by intricate inside jokes and dark comedy.[71] Users often refer to each other, and much of the outside world, as fags.[11] They are often referred to by outsiders as trolls, who regularly act with the intention of "doing it for the lulz", a corruption of "LOL" used to denote amusement at another's expense.[70][72] A significant amount of media coverage is in response to /b/'s culture, which has characterised it as adolescent, crude[70][11] and spiteful,[6] with one publication writing that their "bad behavior is encouraged by the site's total anonymity and the absence of an archive".[2][73] Douglas cited Encyclopedia Dramatica's definition of /b/ as "the asshole of the Internets [sic]".[6] Mattathias Schwartz of The New York Times likened /b/ to "a high-school bathroom stall, or an obscene telephone party line",[70] while Baltimore City Paper wrote that "in the high school of the Internet, /b/ is the kid with a collection of butterfly knives and a locker full of porn."[11] Wired describes /b/ as "notorious".[71]

Each post is assigned a post number. Certain post numbers are sought after with a large amount of posting taking place to "GET" them. A "GET" occurs when a post's number ends in a special number, such as 12345678, 22222222, or every millionth post.[74] A sign of 4chan's scaling, according to Poole, was when GETs lost meaning due to the high post rate resulting in a GET occurring every few weeks. He estimated /b/'s post rate in July 2008 to be 150,000–200,000 posts per day.[75]

/mlp/

See also: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom

/mlp/ is 4chan's Pony board, which is dedicated to the discussion of Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise, particularly the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and its spin-offs. While discussion of the show on 4chan initially began on /co/ (the comics and cartoons board), /mlp/ was eventually created in 2012 to discourage its proliferation to other boards.[76] As of August 2022[update], in accordance to 4chan's global rules, pony-related threads and images may only be posted on /mlp/.[8]

First proposed in early 2019, the Pony Preservation Project is a "collaborative effort by /mlp/ to build and curate pony datasets" with the aim of creating applications in artificial intelligence.[77][78][79] The developer of the popular text-to-speech web application 15.ai has worked closely with the Pony Preservation Project. The Friendship Is Magic voices on 15.ai were trained on a large dataset crowdsourced by the Pony Preservation Project: audio and dialogue from the show and related media—including all nine seasons of Friendship Is Magic, the 2017 movie, spinoffs, leaks, and various other content voiced by the same voice actors—were parsed, hand-transcribed, and processed to remove background noise by the contributors of the Pony Preservation Project. According to the developer, the collective efforts and constructive criticism from the Pony Preservation Project have been integral to the development of 15.ai.[77]

/mu/

The music board, /mu/, is dedicated to the discussion of music artists, albums, genres, instruments.[80] Described as "4chan's best kept secret" and a "surprisingly artistic side of 4chan", /mu/ is used by users to share their music interests with similar minds and discover "great music they would never have found otherwise" with many moments of insightful candor that can affirm or challenge their own musical tastes.[81][82] The board has gained notoriety for earnestly focusing upon and promoting challenging and otherwise obscure music.[83][84] Some common genres discussed on /mu/ include shoegaze,[85] experimental hip hop,[82] witch house,[81][86] IDM,[87] midwest emo,[88] vaporwave,[89] and K-pop.[81] There is a significant overlap between user bases of /mu/ and music site Rate Your Music.[90] The board's culture has inspired many online music communities and meme pages on social media that emulate /mu/'s posting style.[91]

Publications such as Pitchfork and Entertainment Weekly noted the board played a significant role in popularizing various music artists, such as Death Grips,[92][93] Neutral Milk Hotel,[94] Car Seat Headrest,[95] and Have a Nice Life.[96][97][98] Prominent music critic Anthony Fantano began his career on /mu/ and developed a significant following there.[99] Some artists, like Zeal & Ardor and Conrad Tao, admitted to posting their music anonymously on /mu/ to get honest feedback, as well as find inspiration from the board.[100][86] In particular, Zeal & Ardor said their sound, which mixes black metal with spirituals, came from suggestions by two users.[100] Andrew W.K. did a Q&A with the board's users in 2011, causing the servers to crash from the increased traffic.[101] Death Grips seeded various clues on /mu/ in 2012 about their then-upcoming albums The Money Store and No Love Deep Web.[102] A rendition of "Royals" by Lorde appeared on /mu/ in 2012 before its official release, although she denied ever writing on the board in 2014.[103] Singer Lauren Mayberry shared on Twitter in 2015 a link to a thread on /mu/ about her band's song "Leave a Trace" to showcase what online misogyny looks like.[104] An alleged unreleased Radiohead song, titled "Putting Ketchup in the Fridge" and "How Do You Sit Still", was initially reported as genuine by NME and Spin until CNN revealed it was a hoax promoted by the board's users.[105][106]

The board has been acknowledged for sharing rare music recordings and unreleased materials, as well as finding albums thought to be lost. Notable examples include the works of Duster,[107] D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L by Panchiko,[108] and All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.[109] This was described by NPR as resembling "a secret club of preservationists obsessed with the articulation of a near-dead language".[107] The board has attracted further attention for various projects done by its users. A group called The Pablo Collective posted a 4-track remix album of Kanye West's The Life of Pablo titled The Death of Pablo to /mu/, claiming it was based on a recurring dream from one of the board's users.[110] A role-playing game based on Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, designed with help from the board's users, received coverage from Polygon[111] and Pitchfork.[112]

/pol/

Main article: /pol/

/pol/ ("Politically Incorrect") is 4chan's political discussion board. A stickied thread on its front page states that the board's intended purpose is "discussion of news, world events, political issues, and other related topics."[113] /pol/ was created in October 2011 as a rebranding of 4chan's news board, /new/,[39][114][115] which was deleted that January for a high volume of racist discussion.[38][114]

Although there had previously been a strong left-libertarian contingent to 4chan activists, there was a gradual rightward turn on 4chan's politics board in the early-mid 2010s, with the fundamentalist approach to free speech contributing.[56][116] The board quickly attracted posters with a political persuasion that later would be described with a new term, the alt-right.[117] Media sources have characterized /pol/ as predominantly racist and sexist, with many of its posts taking an explicitly neo-Nazi bent.[118][119][120][121] The site's far-reaching culture of vitriolic and discriminatory content is "most closely associated" with /pol/, although only it features predominant Alt-Right beliefs; /pol/, like other boards, has been prominent in the dissemination of memes, in cases, featuring coordination to disperse Alt-Right sentiments.[4][56] /pol/ "increasingly became synonymous with 4chan as a whole".[122] The Southern Poverty Law Center regards /pol/'s rhetorical style as widely emulated by white supremacist websites such as The Daily Stormer; the Stormer's editor, Andrew Anglin, concurred.[119] /pol/ was where screenshots of Trayvon Martin's hacked social media accounts were initially posted.[123][124] The board's users have started antifeminist, homophobic, transphobic, and anti-Arab Twitter campaigns.[120][125][126][127]

Many /pol/ users favored Donald Trump during his 2016 United States presidential campaign. Both Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr., appeared to acknowledge the support by tweeting /pol/-associated memes. Upon his successful election, a /pol/ moderator embedded a pro-Trump video at the top of all of the board's pages.[128][129][130][131]

/r9k/

/r9k/ is a board which implements Randall Munroe's "ROBOT9000" algorithm, where no exact reposts are permitted.[132][133] It is credited as the origin of the "greentext" rhetorical style which often center around stories of social interactions and resulting ineptness.[36][134] By 2012, personal confession stories of self-loathing, depression, and attempted suicide, began to supersede /b/-style roleplaying, otaku, and video game discussion.[135][136]

It became a popular gathering place for the controversial online incel community.[137][138] The "beta uprising" or "beta rebellion" meme, the idea of taking revenge against women, jocks and others perceived as the cause of incels' problems, was popularized on the sub-section.[139][140] It gained more traction on the forum following the Umpqua Community College shooting, where it is believed that hours prior to the murders, while other users encouraged him, 26-year-old perpetrator Chris Harper-Mercer also warned people not to go to school, "...in the Northwest."[141][142][143] The perpetrator of the Toronto van attack referenced 4chan and an incel rebellion in a Facebook post he made prior to the attack, while praising self-identified incel Elliot Rodger, the killer behind the 2014 Isla Vista killings.[144][145] He claims to have talked with both Harper-Mercer and Rodger on Reddit and 4chan and believes that he was part of a "beta uprising", also posting a message on 4chan about his intention the day before his attack.[146][147]

/sci/

/sci/ is 4chan's science and mathematics board. On September 26, 2011, an anonymous user on /sci/ posted a question regarding the shortest possible way to watch all possible orders of episodes of the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in nonchronological order. Shortly after, an anonymous user responded with a mathematical proof that argued viewers would have to watch at least 93,884,313,611 episodes to see all possible orderings. 7 years later, professional mathematicians recognized the mathematical proof as a partial solution to a superpermutations problem that was unsolved for 25 years. Australian mathematician Greg Egan later published a proof inspired by the proof from the anonymous 4chan user, both of which are recognized as significant advances to the problem.[148]

/vp/

/vp/ is 4chan's Pokémon board. Developed by members of /vp/, Pokémon Sage is an upcoming role-playing fangame that is set to feature an entirely new region, plot, and cast of human characters and Pokémon creatures.[149][150][151]

On April 11, 2020, an anonymous user leaked the source codes of Pokemon Blue and Yellow, which contained references to Pokémon Pink, a canceled companion game to Pokémon Yellow.[152]

/x/

The "paranormal" board, /x/, is dedicated to discussing topics regarding unexplained phenomena, the supernatural, and non-political conspiracy theories. /x/ was initially launched in January 2005 as 4chan's general photography board; in February 2007, it was repurposed as a paranormal-themed board.[153]

Many of the earliest creepypastas (Internet horror-related legends) were created on /x/.[154] The idea of the Backrooms gained popularity thanks to a thread on /x/ created on 12 May 2019, where the users were asked to "post disquieting images that just feel 'off'." There, the first photo depicting the Backrooms was uploaded and another user commented on it with the first story about the Backrooms, claiming that one enters the Backrooms when they "noclip out of reality in the wrong areas". After the 4chan post gained fame, several Internet users wrote horror stories relating to the Backrooms. Many memes were created and shared across social media, further popularizing the creepypasta.[155]

American model Allison Harvard first gained notoriety in 2005 as an Internet meme on the /x/ board where she became known as Creepy Chan.[156] Known for her large eyes and peculiar interests like fascination with blood, photos she posted on her blog were widely circulated on the board. She gained mainstream notoriety in 2009 and again in 2011 by appearing on America's Next Top Model. She would visit /x/ after new episodes of America's Next Top Model would air to see what was being written about her and participated in discussions.[157]

The SCP Foundation, a fictional secret organization documented by the collaborative writing wiki project of the same name, originated on /x/ in 2007, when the very first SCP file, SCP-173, was posted by an anonymous user.[158] Initially a stand-alone short story, many additional SCP files were created shortly after; these new SCPs copied SCP-173's style and were set within the same fictional universe. A stand-alone wiki was created in January 2008 on the EditThis wiki hosting service to display the SCP articles. The EditThis website did not have moderators, or the ability to delete articles. Members communicated through individual article talk pages and the /x/ board.[159]

/x/ was the first place where the 2015 viral video 11B-X-1371 was posted.[160] The board also contributed to investigating and popularizing the controversial Sad Satan video game.[161]

"[A] significant and influential element of contemporary internet culture", 4chan is responsible for many early memes and the site has received positive attention for its association with memes.[2][4] This included "So I herd u liek mudkipz" [sic], which involved a phrase based on Pokémon and which generated numerous YouTube tribute videos,[16] and the term "an hero" [sic] as a synonym for suicide, after a misspelling in the Myspace online memorial of seventh grader Mitchell Henderson.[162] 4chan and other websites, such as the satirical Encyclopedia Dramatica, have also contributed to the development of significant amounts of leetspeak.[163]

A lolcat is an image combining a photograph of a cat with solecistic text intended to contribute humour, widely popularized by 4chan in the form of a weekly post dedicated to them and a corresponding theme.[164][165]

In 2005, the installment of a word filter which changed "egg" to "duck", and thus "eggroll" to "duckroll", across 4chan led to a bait-and-switch meme in which users deceitfully linked to a picture of a duck on wheels.[166] This was then modified into users linking to the music video for Rick Astley's 1987 song "Never Gonna Give You Up". Thus, the "rickroll" was born.[37]

A link to the YouTube video of Tay Zonday's song "Chocolate Rain" was posted on /b/ on July 11, 2007 and than subsequently circulated by users, becoming a very popular internet meme.[167][168][169] The portion of the song in which Zonday turns away from the microphone, with a caption stating "I move away from the mic to breathe in", became an oft-repeated meme on 4chan and inspired remixes.[167][170] Fellow YouTuber Boxxy's popularity was due in part to 4chan.[171]

In his American incarnation, Pedobear is an anthropomorphic bear child predator that is often used within the community to mock contributors showing a sexual interest in children.[172] Pedobear is one of the most popular memes on non-English imageboards, and has gained recognition across Europe, appearing in offline publications.[173][174] It has been used as a symbol of pedophilia by Maltese graffiti vandals prior to a papal visit.[175]

Anonymous and anti-Scientology activism

See also: Anonymous (group) and Project Chanology

4chan has been labeled as the starting point of the Anonymous meme by The Baltimore City Paper,[11] due to the norm of posts signed with the "Anonymous" moniker. The National Post's David George-Cosh said it has been "widely reported" that Anonymous is associated with 4chan and 711chan, as well as numerous Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels.[176]

Through its association with Anonymous, 4chan has become associated with Project Chanology, a worldwide protest against the Church of Scientology held by members of Anonymous. On January 15, 2008, a 4chan user posted to /b/, suggesting participants "do something big" against the Church of Scientology's website. This message resulted in the Church receiving threatening phone calls. It quickly grew into a large real-world protest. Unlike previous Anonymous attacks, this action was characterized by 4chan memes including rickrolls and Guy Fawkes masks. The raid drew criticism from some 4chan users who felt it would bring the site undesirable attention.[11]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom

Main article: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom

The adult fandom and subculture dedicated to the children's animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic began on the "Comics & Cartoons" (/co/) board of 4chan. The show was first discussed with some interest around its debut in October 2010.[76][177][178][179][180] The users of /co/ took a heightened interest in the show after a critical Cartoon Brew article was shared, resulting in praise for its plot, characters, and animation style.[76] Discussion of the show extended to /b/, eventually to a point of contention. Discussion then spread forth to communities external to 4chan, including the establishment of the fan websites, causing the show to reach a wider audience across the internet.[76]

See also: Anonymous (group) § 4chan raids (2003–2007), and Sarah Palin email hack

According to The Washington Post, "the site's users have managed to pull off some of the highest-profile collective actions in the history of the Internet."[181]

Users of 4chan and other websites "raided" Hal Turner by launching DDoS attacks and prank calling his phone-in radio show during December 2006 and January 2007. The attacks caused Turner's website to go offline. This cost thousands of dollars of bandwidth bills according to Turner. In response, Turner sued 4chan, 7chan, and other websites; however, he lost his plea for an injunction and failed to receive letters from the court.[182]

KTTV Fox 11 aired a report on Anonymous, calling them a group of "hackers on steroids", "domestic terrorists", and collectively an "Internet hate machine" on July 26, 2007.[183] Slashdot founder Rob Malda posted a comment made by another Slashdot user, Miang, stating that the story focused mainly on users of "4chan, 7chan and 420chan". Miang claimed that the report "seems to confuse /b/ raids and motivational poster templates with a genuine threat to the American public", arguing that the "unrelated" footage of a van exploding shown in the report was to "equate anonymous posting with domestic terror".[184]

On July 10, 2008, the swastika CJK unicode character (卐) appeared at the top of Google's Hot Trends list—a tally of the most used search terms in the United States—for several hours. It was later reported that the HTML numeric character reference for the symbol had been posted on /b/, with a request to perform a Google search for the string. A multitude of /b/ visitors followed the order and pushed the symbol to the top of the chart, though Google later removed the result.[9]

Later that year, the private Yahoo! Mail account of Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election, was hacked by a 4chan user. The hacker posted the account's password on /b/, and screenshots from within the account to WikiLeaks.[185] A /b/ user then logged in and changed the password, posting a screenshot of him sending an email to a friend of Palin's informing her of the new password on the /b/ thread. However, he forgot to blank out the password in the screenshot.[186] A multitude of /b/ users attempted to log in with the new password, and the account was automatically locked out by Yahoo!. The incident was criticized by some /b/ users. One user commented, "seriously, /b/. We could have changed history and failed, epically."[187] The FBI and Secret Service began investigating the incident shortly after its occurrence. On September 20 it was revealed they were questioning David Kernell, the son of Democratic Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell.[188]

The stock price of Apple Inc. fell significantly in October 2008 after a hoax story was submitted to CNN's user-generated news site iReport.com claiming that company CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack. The source of the story was traced back to 4chan.[189][190]

In May 2009, members of the site attacked YouTube, posting pornographic videos on the site.[191] A 4chan member acknowledged being part of the attack, telling BBC News that it was in response to YouTube "deleting music".[192] In January 2010, members of the site attacked YouTube again in response to the suspension of YouTube user lukeywes1234 for failing to meet the minimum age requirement of thirteen.[193] The videos uploaded by the user had apparently become popular with 4chan members, who subsequently became angered after the account was suspended and called for a new wave of pornographic videos to be uploaded to YouTube on January 6, 2010.[193] Later the same year, 4chan made numerous disruptive pranks directed at singer Justin Bieber.[194]

In September 2010, in retaliation against the Bollywood film industry's hiring of Aiplex Software to launch cyberattacks against The Pirate Bay, Anonymous members, recruited through posts on 4chan boards, subsequently initiated their own attacks, dubbed Operation Payback, targeting the website of the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America.[195][196][197] The targeted websites usually went offline for a short period of time due to the attacks, before recovering.

The website of the UK law firm ACS:Law, which was associated with an anti-piracy client, was affected by the cyber-attack.[198] In retaliation for the initial attacks being called only a minor nuisance, Anonymous launched more attacks, bringing the site down yet again. After coming back up, the front page accidentally revealed a backup file of the entire website, which contained over 300 megabytes of private company emails, which were leaked to several torrents and across several sites on the Internet.[199] It was suggested that the data leak could cost the law firm up to £500,000 in fines for breaching British Data Protection Laws.[200]

In January 2011, BBC News reported that the law firm announced they were to stop "chasing illegal file-sharers". Head of ACS:Law Andrew Crossley in a statement to a court addressed issues which influenced the decision to back down "I have ceased my work ... I have been subject to criminal attack. My e-mails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threats."[198]

In August 2012, 4chan users attacked a third-party sponsored Mountain Dew campaign, Dub the Dew, where users were asked to submit and vote on name ideas for a green apple flavor of the drink. Users submitted entries such as "Diabeetus", "Fapple", several variations of "Gushing Granny", and "Hitler did nothing wrong".[201][202]

Threats of violence

On October 18, 2006, the Department of Homeland Security warned National Football League officials in Miami, New York City, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland, and Cleveland about a possible threat involving the simultaneous use of dirty bombs at stadiums.[203] The threat claimed that the attack would be carried out on October 22, the final day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.[204] Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security expressed doubt concerning the credibility of the threats, but warned the relevant organizations as a precaution.[205] The threat turned out to be an ill-conceived hoax perpetrated by a grocery store clerk in Wisconsin with no terrorist ties. The FBI considered it a clearly frivolous threat and the 20-year-old man was charged with fabricating a terrorist threat, sentenced to six months in prison followed by six months' house arrest, and ordered to pay $26,750 in restitution.[206][207]

Hello, /b/. On September 11, 2007, at 9:11 am Central time, two pipe bombs will be remote-detonated at Pflugerville High School. Promptly after the blast, I, along with two ther Anonymous, will charge the building, armed with a Bushmaster AR-15, IMI Galil AR, a vintage, government-issue M1 .30 Carbine, and a Benelli M4 semi auto shotgun.

—The Pflugerville threat[208]

Around midnight on September 11, 2007, a student posted photographs of mock pipe bombs and another photograph of him holding them while saying he would blow up his high school—Pflugerville High School in Pflugerville, Texas—at 9:11 am on September 11.[208] Users of 4chan helped to track him down by finding the perpetrator's father's name in the Exif data of a photograph he took, and contacted the police.[209] He was arrested before school began that day.[210][211][212][213] The incident turned out to be a hoax; the "weapons" were toys and there were no actual bombs.[214]

Jarrad Willis, a 20-year-old from Melbourne, Australia was arrested on December 8, 2007, after apparently posting on 4chan that he was "going to shoot and kill as many people as I can until which time I am incapacitated or killed by the police".[215] The post, accompanied by an image of another man holding a shotgun, threatened a shopping mall near Beverly Hills.[216] While the investigation was still open, Willis was charged with criminal defamation for a separate incident[217] but died before the case was heard.[218]

On February 4, 2009, a posting on the 4chan /b/ board[219] said there would be a school shooting at St Eskils Gymnasium in Eskilstuna, Sweden, leading 1,250 students and 50 teachers to be evacuated.[220] A 21-year-old man was arrested after 4chan provided the police with the IP address of the poster. Police said that the suspect called it off as a joke, and they released him after they found no indication that the threat was serious.[221][222]

On January 21, 2014, an anonymous poster started a thread on /b/ identifying a student named Westley Sullivan who apparently went to the same high school as the poster. The original post included a link to Westley Sullivan's Facebook profile, which has since been taken down, and a screenshot of a post which said "if fairview isn't closed tomorrow im going to blow it up", referring to Sullivan's high school, Fairview High School, in Ashland, Kentucky. A few anonymous individuals went to Sullivan's Facebook profile and found his address, phone number, school ID number, school schedule and teachers, and other personal information. Information like his teachers and ID number had been posted directly, and the more personal information like his address was found in the EXIF data of some of the pictures posted on his profile. These individuals then contacted Fairview school officials and the local police department, as well as the FBI. The next day it was learned that police had arrested Sullivan in his home and he had been charged with 2nd degree terroristic threatening, a Class D felony in Kentucky.[223][224]

On June 28, 2018, a man named Eric M. Radulovic was arrested following an indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice "on one count of transmitting in interstate and foreign commerce a threat to injure the person of another."[225] The indictment alleged that Radulovic posted anonymously to /pol/ the day after the Unite the Right rally, communicating an intention to attack protestors at an upcoming right-wing demonstration, ostensibly to elicit sympathy for the alt-right movement. "I'm going to bring a Remington 700 and start shooting Alt-right guys. We need sympathy after that landwhale got all the liberals teary eyed, so someone is going to have to make it look like the left is becoming more violent and radicalized. It's a false flag for sure, but I'll be aiming for the more tanned/dark haired muddied jeans in the crowd so real whites won't have to worry," wrote Radulovic, according to the indictment.[225]

Incidents of child pornography

A fixture of media attention, child pornography has been posted to 4chan various times.[36][226]

"This post is art"

On July 30, 2014, an anonymous user made a reply in a thread on the board /pol/ "Politically Incorrect" of 4chan, criticizing modern art in an ironic fashion, saying:

Art used to be something to cherish

Now literally anything could be art

This post is art.

— Anonymous[227]

Less than an hour later the post was photographed off the screen and framed by another user who posted another reply in the thread with a photo of the framed quote. Later the user, after endorsement by other anonymous users in the thread, created an auction on eBay for the framed photo which quickly rose to high prices, culminating in a price of $90,900.[228][229][230][231]

Celebrity photo leaks

Main article: August 2014 celebrity photo leaks

On August 31, 2014, a compromise of user passwords at iCloud allowed a large number of private photographs taken by celebrities to be posted online,[232] initially on 4chan.[233] As a result of the incident, 4chan announced that it would enforce a Digital Millennium Copyright Act policy, which would allow content owners to remove material that had been shared on the site illegally, and would ban users who repeatedly posted stolen material.[234]

Gamergate

See also: Gamergate controversy

Also in August 2014, 4chan was involved in the Gamergate controversy, which began with unsubstantiated allegations about indie game developer Zoë Quinn from an ex-boyfriend, followed by false allegations from anonymous Internet users.[235] The allegations were followed by a harassment campaign against several women in the video game industry, organized by 4chan users,[236] particularly /r9k/.[136] Discussion regarding Gamergate was banned on 4chan due to alleged rule violations, and Gamergate supporters moved to alternate forums such as 8chan.[237][238]

Murder in Port Orchard, Washington

According to court documents filed on November 5, 2014, there were images posted to 4chan that appeared to be of a murder victim. The body was discovered in Port Orchard, Washington, after the images were posted.[239] The posts were accompanied by the text: "Turns out it's way harder to strangle someone to death than it looks on the movies." A later post said: "Check the news for Port Orchard, Washington, in a few hours. Her son will be home from school soon. He'll find her, then call the cops. I just wanted to share the pics before they find me."[239] The victim was Amber Lynn Coplin, aged 30. The suspect, 33-year-old David Michael Kalac, surrendered to police in Oregon later the same day; he was charged with second-degree murder involving domestic violence.[240] Kalac was convicted in April 2017 and was sentenced to 82 years in prison the following month.[241]

Bianca Devins murder

Main article: Murder of Bianca Devins

On July 14, 2019, 17-year-old Bianca Devins was murdered by 21-year-old Brandon Clark of Utica, New York after the two went to a concert together.[242] The suspect took pictures of the victim's bloodied deceased body and posted it to Discord and his own Instagram page.[243] The photos were widely shared on Instagram and other sites, particularly on 4chan, where many users mocked and celebrated her death, saying she deserved it and praising the killer while depicting Devins as a manipulative young woman.[244][245] Devins had developed a small following online and was a 4chan user herself.[246] Clark later pleaded guilty to the crime[247] and was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years' imprisonment.

Death of Jeffrey Epstein

Main article: Death of Jeffrey Epstein

A report of Jeffrey Epstein's death was posted on /pol/ around 40 minutes before ABC News broke the news. It was originally suspected that the unidentified person who made the posts may have been a first responder, prompting a review by the New York City Fire Department, who later stated that the post did not come from a member of its department.[248][249]

2022 Buffalo shooting

Main article: 2022 Buffalo shooting

On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, USA. The accused, Payton S. Gendron, is reported to have written a racist manifesto released May 12 (two days before the shooting), with the manifesto including birth date and other biographical details, that match the suspect in custody.[250] The author wrote that he began to frequent 4chan, including its Politically Incorrect message board /pol/, beginning in May 2020, where he was exposed to the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.[251]

On July 26, 2009, AT&T's DSL branch temporarily blocked access to the img.4chan.org domain (host of /b/ and /r9k/), which was initially believed to be an attempt at Internet censorship, and met with hostility on 4chan's part.[252][253] The next day, AT&T issued a statement claiming that the block was put in place after an AT&T customer was affected by a DoS attack originating from IP addresses connected to img.4chan.org, and was an attempt to "prevent this attack from disrupting service for the impacted AT&T customer, and... our other customers." AT&T maintains that the block was not related to the content on 4chan.[254]

4chan's founder Christopher Poole responded with the following:[255][256]

In the end, this wasn't a sinister act of censorship, but rather a bit of a mistake and a poorly executed, disproportionate response on AT&T's part. Whoever pulled the trigger on blackholing the site probably didn't anticipate [nor intend] the consequences of doing so. We're glad to see this short-lived debacle has prompted renewed interest and debate over net neutrality and Internet censorship—two very important issues that don't get nearly enough attention—so perhaps this was all just a blessing in disguise.

Major news outlets have reported that the issue may be related to the DDoS-ing of 4chan, and that 4chan users suspected the then-owner of Swedish-based website Anontalk.com.[257][258]

Verizon temporary ban

On February 4, 2010, 4chan started receiving reports from Verizon Wireless customers that they were having difficulties accessing the site's image boards. After investigating, Poole found out that only the traffic on port 80 to the boards.4chan.org domain was affected, leading members to believe that the block was intentional. Three days later, Verizon Wireless confirmed that 4chan was "explicitly blocked". The block was lifted several days later.[259]

Telstra ban

On March 20, 2019, Australian telecom company Telstra denied access to millions of Australians to 4chan, 8chan, Zero Hedge and LiveLeak as a reaction to the Christchurch mosque shootings.[260]

New Zealand

Following the Christchurch mosque shootings, numerous ISPs temporarily blocked any site hosting a copy of the livestream of the shooting, including 4chan. The ISPs included Spark, Vodafone, Vocus and 2degrees.[261][262]

•  Internet portal
•  Comedy portal

• Katawa Shoujo
• List of Internet phenomena
• Pepe the Frog

International:

• 2channel, Japan
• Ilbe Storehouse, South Korea

1. ^ a b c As explained by Poole during a live-video online interview with Hiroyuki Nishimura, founder of 2channel, on the Japanese website Nico Nico Douga during his trip to Japan in 2011.[28]

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• Nagle, Angela (2017). Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right. Winchester and Washington: Zero Books. ISBN 978-1-78535-543-1.

• Alfonso, Fernando III (October 1, 2013). "Now 10 years old, 4chan is the most important site you never visit". Interview with Christopher Poole. Daily Dot.

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