This is a holding cell for all the information edited out of the main article (world2ch.net) or otherwise not important enough to appear on the front page.

I wrote the following short article but I don't remember where it was published, though. Was it wikichan? By the way, the new Wikichan article skips important parts about world2ch being THE FIRST FUCKING IMAGE BOARD EVER SUCK IT MOOT.

This site began its short life on around March 3, 2003. Wholly owned by a sixteen year old Japanese kid named Taichirou Kosugi (posting under the screen name “RIR6”) who did not speak English, the BBS code was translated by the same with often comical results. Text boards made up all of the site initially, covering various general interest topics including the “hobbies” of “Military” and “Gamble” and “Education” sub-topics such as “Examination” and “Diplomaism.” A couple of English speaking users posted here as did a some Japanese speakers. Very little cultural exchange took place, but we did learn that Golgomois wanted to bomb US military bases in Okinawa in nearly every thread in which English was spoken.

World2ch added a 2chan style imageboard a few months after its inception and therefore was the first public English language imageboard (beating out 4chan by mere months). In its last days, all of the text boards were broken thanks to attempted modifications on the admin's part, and only the imageboards remained with no upward limit on the number of posts. As the site fell into disuse with the rise of 4chan, the imageboards were eventually loaded full of questionable pornography and guro, driving the site well over the disk space allowed by its free hosting company. It was shut down and the domain is now being squatted.

Apparently he was someone of minor import in the 2-ch universe. I found this site which is an archive of his work. Still attempting to confirm if this is in fact the same guy or not. Contacting “ymrl” over there, I got the following response (edited down to the pertinent parts):

Currently, he is fine, lives in Tokyo, and using Internet with the other name. I want to tell you where to contact him, but I don't know whether I should do that. So I forwarded your mail to him, and I am waiting his response to that.

Emphasis mine, of course.

Since things have a tendency to disappear, this is an archive of the big drama from 2 October 2003 off the 4chan announcements page:

WORLD2CH by moot - 10/02/03 @ 6:37PM EST

In order to resolve the rampant misconceptions and flames I'm getting on world2ch (without my knowledge), I'll post some quick points:

1.4chan is a Something Awful/ADTRW run conspiracy.

Please stop mixing 4chan up with “SA's hentai forum is trying to steal our thunder!!”, it's a stupid argument that is untrue. The reason that the ADTRW users outnumber the non-ADTRW users is because I posted it there first, and rather than embrace this site, others are holing themselves up into what I will call “the elitist brooding state of mind” ™.

2.4chan is supposed to be ADTRW only, and consist primarily of pictures of animated children (pedo anime), with some added women and children with penises (dickgirlz).

Sorry, but no. 4chan is open to everyone, and I WANT people outside of ADTRW to use it. The quote “a comprehensive english based resource for the collection and distribution of yaoi and dickgirlz” (previous title), is simply one of comical value, a kind of inside joke. Why did I choose this seemingly horrid sentence as a quote? I had no clue it would offend anybody… sorry guys, but sarcasm is prevalent on the internet as well as real life!

3.But the /b/ image board is full of it!

If you bother to read the rules, you'll see /b/ is meant to be nothing short of a retard bin for now. It will be changed within the week. The site has existed for only two days now guys, sorry if I can't put up forty boards at once.

4.You stole world2chan's code and didnt even plug us! How RUDE.

I never even knew futaba was public until I edited the ENTIRE code of GazouBBS (the base of futaba). I was then cheerfully informed that, all of my efforts had just been wasted, as 2chan freely shares their PHP coding. Before this, I had never frequented world2ch much, and also had no clue their Engrish translation of futaba (0ch is it?) was released as well. 4chan's script has been further modified (more than you can actually see), and will continue to be modified as scripters offer their help.

Time 4chan has had code to work with: 72 hours. Time 2chan/world2ch has had code to work with: Years?

5.4chan sucks, moot sucks, ADTRW sucks, SA sucks, Apis sucks…

Awsome. I whole heartedly thank those who have e-mailed me voicing their opinions and concerns (to date: 0) regarding 4chan. Furthermore, posting threads on another board is the best way to attract my attention, keep at it. (If you haven't noticed, this is the “sarcasm” I was talking about earlier)

6.You're immature, and this response has done nothing to sway my opinion.

If this is the way some of you are thinking right now, I am truly sorry for you. The above is meant to be my serious response (as anything posted on the main page will be), to the discontent peoples of world2ch and abroad. For the tenth time I will reiterate: E-MAIL ME. If you're either too immature or incompetant to have a real two-way conversation with me, without hiding behind the magic of the internet, you very well could be an idiot. If the previous is true, please do not waste my time, or your time… by e-mailing me I am requesting a decent piece of writing sent to me outlaying your concerns, suggestions, or questions. Please refrain from sending me “WORLD2CH ALLIANCE WILL CRUSH YOU”, as I have just stated you are an idiot.

I hope that clears some things up. You can read my previous response on world2ch's ongoing thread (as well as my host's) here.

Shii/Menchi being little bitch, also from the announcements page:

E-MAIL by moot - 10/02/03 @ 4:13PM EST

Here is an e-mail my host recieved today:

“A website which you appear to be hosting, http://img.4chan.org/b/ , is in my opinion violating your Acceptable Use Policy. If you browse through its the archives, you will see many uploaded pictures that are definitely pornographic and involving children (albeit technically not *illegal* child porn), as well as some other rather gruesome pictures.”

Dear valued anonymous 4chan user:

Thank you for informing me that my website does not contain illegal content. I am sorry to inform you that although this site is “in [your] opinion” violating the AUP, it is not.

(this section was edited out of the front page because it's schizophrenic commentary unrelated to history or reality)

I’m not completely sure how I found it but, but I believe it was through the 2chan appreciation thread on SA’s ADTRW, the ultimate source of all this nonsense (4chan, it’s many competitors and spin-offs). It was a poor little site with the (even then) outdated graphics and style of Japan’s 2ch board. Founded by a Japanese high-school student (RIR6) world2ch did shine dimly and briefly as one of the few places on the Internet where East and West actually met and carried on conversations. It was far more famous (in my mind, anyway) as being home to many Japanese trolls that interrupted every conversation, many comical translations in the script, terrible glitches, and zero moderation.

Three months before 4chan stumbled into existence, world2ch added its imageboard becoming the first English-language board of its type. It was not popular and it never was. Most of the content was simply reposts from 2chan, anime junk, etc. The w2ch imageboard developed no culture of its own and was basically a poor emulation of 2chan. The script utilized flat files (as I assume 2chan still does today) which made it highly inefficient. No one noticed of course because there was never enough traffic to stress it.

You may notice that I don’t speak very kindly of w2ch. To me it’s sort of the Betamax argument all over again (I picked Betamax). You can say that w2ch was superior and it was in a way (before it was irreparably broken). It was closer to the 2ch culture and style sure, but it turned out only Japanophiles wanted that. 4chan brought the format without the hassle of the previous cultural overhead (wait, what?) and in the end succeeded where w2ch failed (except for all that money it lost and continues to lose).