I congratulate moot for the job. 4chan's change over the years has been minimal. The biggest change was probably the captcha - initially it was a temporary fix to flooding and spam at the time, but it stayed since there doesn't seem to be an alternative. Those that use 4chan enough for the captcha to get annoying, the $20 yearly pass was a great way to get around it and to allow us to support the site as well.
Also the introduction of some of those boards was simply to get shitposts out of other boards (e.g. /soc/ was created to cleanup /b/ and /r9k/). Worked great.
However, I have to disagree with the sage thing. While originally the term was used to not bump a thread (implying that your own post was not worthy of bumping a thread back to the front page), in the last five years (and before that, to some extent) it HAS been used as a way to 'down vote' a thread.
>it HAS been used as a way to 'down vote' a thread.
Sage as a method of downvoting a thread is insane and encourages even more shitposting. 4chan actually does have a "karma" that manifests in the way of replies to your posts/threads. So when you reply to a thread using sage as a downvote, you encourage the poster by giving him replies. Using sage is just a flag to the other guy that his post is irritating enough for you to sage it.
This used to be a huge problem when it was popular to post troll pony threads on macho boards like /v/, /sp/, or /fit/. What would happen is there would be 10 replies in the first minute, all sages, calling the OP a retard and reminding everyone to sage and report the thread. These replies would just feed him, to which he would reply to the sages and egg people on even more - to which he would receive even more replies.
The only acceptable analogue to "downvoting" on 4chan is to not reply to the thread. Nothing can dissuade a shitposter more than having put some effort into writing a good baity OP post, and not getting a single reply before the janitors delete it.
Even without sage, there are other popular ways to kill threads including "this thread is now about X" posts that race to the max image limit. (Where X is usually spiderman for some reason...)
>it HAS been used as a way to 'down vote' a thread.
If you're determined enough to sage bomb the thread to image limit, especially now that there's a captcha, sorta, but not really.
Also cheers to moot. I've noticed the improvement in moderation first hand recently, even getting banned myself, whereas previously that board felt like it had zero mods.
Can someone explain how the sage thing works as a downvote? I'm aware of 4chan, its style and run a forum (with anonymous posting too) myself, but I'm not familiar with any karma/scoring 4chan might have. Keen to stay aware of options to keep my forum on track.
When you add a comment to a thread, it bumps the thread to the top of the list for that board. If you add 'sage' into the email (?) field, it will add the comment without bumping the thread. Each thread has an image post limit that will max out the thread and prevent the thread from bumping anymore (letting it slowly fall down the listing and eventually die).
So, using sage as a way to 'downvote' is just a way of adding towards the thread limit without bumping the thread. It's a round-about way to do it though (vs. direct downvoting).
"sage" originates from 2chan (aka Futaba Channel), which was the inspiration for 4chan. 'sage' is short for sageru.
iiuc sage comes from sageru which is a Japanese word meaning "lower." Its use is a polite way of saying "my comment is not important enough to bump the thread to the top of the page."
If this is true, sage can not be used to downvote at all, EXCEPT if there are enough sages to make the thread expire. However, that limit is something in the 100s. No one has the time and dedication to "sage a thread into non-existence," even though they sometimes call for it.
As was alluded to with "SAGE GOES IN EVERY FIELD," people hope to cause a snowball effect where others join in an sage the thread (by announcing loudly that they are sage-ing). In general, the idea of using sage as a downvote has been around for a while, even though it's anything but.
Threads rely on posts/images to get bumped to the front page.
Not bumping a thread is therefore a passive downvote because other threads are being bumped while the saged thread isn't.
Technically it isn't a downvote though, there is an actual way to do so (called 'hiding the thread').
When you sage your post (adding "sage" into your e-mail field), your name will turn blue. This is very visible especilly in a barebone software like Yotsuba is.
Also the introduction of some of those boards was simply to get shitposts out of other boards (e.g. /soc/ was created to cleanup /b/ and /r9k/). Worked great.
However, I have to disagree with the sage thing. While originally the term was used to not bump a thread (implying that your own post was not worthy of bumping a thread back to the front page), in the last five years (and before that, to some extent) it HAS been used as a way to 'down vote' a thread.