@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

Early 4chan – before it’s spectacular decay – was quite conscious where it’s memory resided – in users.

You’d have to understand the peculiar software architecture to know why, but 4chan has no ability to preserve posts. When a thread maxes out it is deleted.

The /y/ and other board’s user’s were openly conscious that the communities memories were their responsibility, maintained by reposting older material, simply because the code didn’t support anything else. But the result was real community and collective memory, explicitly maintained. Though conjured up by a teenage programmer there’s much profundity in there, accidental or otherwise. (I suspect the former but having talked to him at a conference once he was at least aware of it after.)