4chan Undergoing Major Revision, Getting Public API 166
AdmiralXyz writes "Even the darkest corners of the internet aren't immune to the Web 2.0 boom: BoingBoing reports that 4chan is working on the largest codebase update in its history. The new 4chan will include as standard the functionality of popular browser plugins for using the site, as well as a JSON API so- hooray?- anyone can have immediate access to the contents of 4chan for any purpose they like. This represents a significant update to the heretofore haphazard development process of 4chan, and opens up the possibility of third-party 4chan apps... though probably not on the App Store."
Uh oh... (Score:5, Interesting)
You got to love it when 4Chan makes a headline here on Slashdot...
I never saw that coming, seriously...I didn't.
Re:Uh oh... (Score:4, Interesting)
You didn't see it coming? I thought this place was news for nerds?
They were pretty much forced to (Score:4, Interesting)
They were pretty much forced to go the JSON API route. Every power user of 4chan (which is pretty everybody) uses the 4chan x extension, that pounds the servers for thread updates (it downloads the complete page and parses it every 10 seconds (default is 30, but most change it to 10 for doing well in troll chess)).
Re:We need a rethink (Score:4, Interesting)
We need a rethink of forum/chat systems.
My suggestion is do whatever these guys [ycombinator.com] have done to keep eternal September at bay as long as possible.
ITT: Others brightly chime in with awesome ideas of how to innovate in forums
As far as Slashdot, disallowing AC posts might help raise the level of discussion. Maybe remove the karma cap and make the number publicly available maybe beside the user name. Since the community is large and healthy, disallow new users from posting for at least 3 days to stop some of the hit and run trolling. Something else that could be tried is maybe make a person lose some karma points everytime they post. That way people would more likely post things they think will get modded up rather than "me too" type stuff. Last but not least, how about bringing on the mighty "hell ban"? When a user trolls and trolls until his karma gets terrible, instead of just starting off his posts at -1 from then on, you bring in the hell ban. From the posters perspective, he is posting as normal and he can see his posts like he always could. But from the perspective of everybody else, his posts never actually appear. What happens is the poster eventually seeing that nobody is feeding his trolling, moves on or starts another account hopefully with a better attitude.
Re:The Internet cancer (Score:4, Interesting)