Chanosphere

The Chanosphere is a ruby.

A chart made to showcase the chanosphere.

The Chanosphere (also known as the *chans or the Chanverse by Bibliotheca Anonoma) is a term meant to encompass all more or less anonymous imageboard websites, starting with 2channel. If the websites are NOT 4chan, 2chan or 2channel, they may be called Altchans. Occasionally, textboards and wikis are also included in the Chanosphere. The Soysphere is considered to be a subsection of the Chanosphere, and, along with the 8chan-adjacent free speech absolutist imageboards, it currently constitutes the only major subcultural movement still relevant activity-wise (this, however, does not mean all relevance is lost if we are talking about other subspheres). The Chanverse is an immense rabbit hole, and reliable information regarding the Chanosphere is sparse and sometimes contradictory.

Subspheres of the Chanosphere

The sheer amount of websites involved means we need a way to consistently organize most *chans in subcategories. This does not affect single-website cultural movements (e.g. Shrekchan, Wojchan, Otterchan and mlpol).

	Name (official or otherwise)	Representative imageboards, wikis, textboards etc.	Adjacent websites/factions	Era/Time Period during which subsphere was/is relevant
1	First wave of English-speaking imageboards	world2ch, 4chan.net, 1chan, Burichan, 5chan, iiChan, Gurochan	Something Awful, Raspberry Heaven, 2channel, 2chan (Japanese-speaking IBs)	Originalfag era (June 1st, 2003: foundation of world2ch - June 20th, 2004: fourth death of 4chan)
2	First wave of textboards (taking inspiration from Ayashii Warudo)	4-ch.net, etherchan, (recently) Angeleno's world2ch and Heyuri	world2ch	Textboard era (Late 2004: 4-ch.net founded - present day, revival courtesy of newfag LARPers)
3	Idlechan Federation	iiChan, Wakachan and about a dozen forgotten imageboards	-	Mootxico era; the Idlechan Federation was little more than an alliance between the administration of iiChan and Wakachan (at that time, 4chan was experiencing its fourth death)
4	The camgirl subsphere	AnonIB, the LURKMORE collective (textchan, intern3ts, tranchan and male general)	LURKMORE wiki, both the Russian and the English versions	The Camwhore Era (late 2000s - present day, as the lurkmore collective still exists; ends on 4chan the very moment /soc/ is created as a containment board) Did You Know: textchan has a copypasta board called /cp/?
5	The Lulzsphere	4chan's /b/, 7chan, 711chan, (partially) 420chan, Raidchan (IRC-only website), 78chan, 99chan, 315chan, Krautchan, 888chan, 808chan, Encyclopedia Dramatica	Anonymous (a faction which will splinter during and after Project Chanology)	The Lulz era (August 23, 2006: /b/-day - March 2023, 711chan is defeated by soyjak.party) August 21st, 2008: Chanocalypse happens, Lulz era reaches its peak.
6	First pedophile wave	not4chan, 12chan, AnonTalk, (partly) 7chan and old4chon	Darknet 'p websites	October 31, 2004: /l/ is moved to not4chan - January 2010, 12chan is (most likely) partyV&
7	/int/osphere	Dvach, Krautchan, Vichan, Britchan, HUEchan, Hispachan, (recently) Kohlchan, 1500chan	-	May 1st, 2007: foundation of Krautchan - present day
8	Shitpostsphere (or funpostsphere)	United Chans Federation (GETchan, Ponychan, Dubschan, efchan, Equestriachan, Funchan, Oniichan. MLPchan, Lupchan) 4chan's [s4s] and 8chan's /intl/, /leftypol/ Bunkerchan, now known as Leftypol United Chans wiki	Leftybooru NOTE: initially, communist thought was not a core tenet of the Funpostsphere, however Bunkerchan heavily infuenced the UCF during the late 2010s. [s4s] and /intl/ are not affiliated with leftypol or the leftybooru.	November 6th, 2011: GETchan's foundation - present day, courtesy of Leftypol
9	Pre-/pol/ right wingers and incels	nu4chon, Wizardchan, 4chan's old /r9k/ and /new/	-	May 1, 2009: nu4chon, which has little to no relation to old4chon, is founded - August 2015, Wizchan is raided by 8chan's /cow/, and thus a generation of chuds is replaced by another
10	Culture War Generation	4chan's /pol/, 8chan	Heckin' bigoted nazi networks, according to mainstream media	December 6, 2013: beginning of GamerGate (started by Wizardchan) - March 15, 2019: Brenton Tarrant's mass shooting
11	The 8sphere/Norulescucksphere	8kun, 8che, 8pl, 9chan, Endchan, (partially) Sleepychan	NOTE: all of these websites follow 8chan's blueprint, so to speak, which is why in most of them users can create their own boards	October 2013: 8chan is founded - present day
12	Tier I Soysphere	4chan's /qa/, soyjak.party, Big 'Ki, Schlog, Shroom	SoyBooru, SPVA, Reddit colonies, 'cords and 'grams, Shiwi	Soyfag era (December 30th, 2017: first soyjak created by the Swede - present day)
13	Tier II Soysphere	The Jarty, The Big Three (The Swinny, The Shemmy, The Chinny), The Kuzzy, The Sidty, The Zarty, SNCApedia	Orbiters such as Edgecore members, as well as the Jassy (which WNBA Soysphere site) RoachBooru, SWAbooru	July 18th, 2022: anti-kuzist website jakparty.soy appears - present day August 14th-22nd, 2023: Soypocalypse and First Splintered Age Second Splintered Age: ?
14	Tier III Soysphere (splinters made during Quote's ownership)	The Sneedy, The Gitty, The Chaddy, The Sloppy, The Sboardy	Various boorus	Quotist era (May 9, 2025: Quote steps up as the fifth admin of soyjak.party - present day)
15	Oldfag revival websites	Angeleno's world2ch, Heyuri, Mootxico, 22chan	Heyuri Historical Society	Late 2010s - present day
16	"Underground" *chans	Lainchan, Uboachan, modern Desuchan, Wapchan, Kissu moe	NOTE: I chose to put more somewhat unrelated *chans into one category since they all give off a similar feel. Intended to be /comfy/ and center around niche topics.	Since the beginning of IBs - present day
Last, and certainly least...	Edgecoresphere	Clarty, 67chan, Dwinny, (partially) Chinny etc.	Skibidi Farms, Fella Farms, Labubu Farms, TFD Forums, 764 'cords	November 2nd, 2022: Clarty is founded - present day Late 2023 - January 24th, 2024 (SF is fedded due to Antioch High School shooting): peak of Edgecore era

Current rivalries within the Chanosphere

Without a doubt, war is the most important part of history. As of right now, it is possible for us to map a few conflicts which have yet to die down.

• 4chan - Sharty conflict (yet to have a concise name): Ever since the first soyjak was posted on /int/, may of 4chan's janitors have shown an irrational disdain towards 'jakking, while allowing Pepe/Wojak threads, which are similar in quality, to stay up. Once /qa/, the home of soyposters, brutally raided /lgbt/, it was swiftly dealt a disastrous blow, an event now called Operation Clean Stable (November 3rd, 2021). Soyjak.party's userbase would eventually outgrow 4chan's in terms of fighting power, as demonstrated by their constant catalog wipes, and a sole user colloquially referred to as Captain Gem would retaliate (?) against the banishment of their homeland via The Great Cuckset (April 14th - 25th, 2025). Whatever his true intentions were, the Sharty claimed a resounding victory nonetheless, and, as SOI1337 is mostly inactive, it is impossible to know all the whys and wherefores. To this day, soyposters are give the banhammer, while the sharty still raids/baits specific 4chan boards.
• 8che - zzzchan rivalry: To understand the shitshow that is 8che, we first need to talk about its founding father, Mark Mann, who is a disgusting pedophile and a lolcow first and foremost (a Kiwifarms thread is dedicated to him, wherein most information displayed here was initially shared with others). He made the /v/ board for 8chan before the GamerGate incident took place, which was well-received since it had a pretty alright community and a fitting PPH. After Jim Watkins buys 8chan from Cripplekike, the former pays Mark to become a moderator/beta-tester, who does not actually do that much. After Tarrant shows his love to about 50 muslims, 8chan is deplatformed, which prompts Mark to create a bunker which will be relevant for a few months, as 8chan, now 8kun, re-brands itself. Due to the powerful position he had, xe could decide which boards actually moved to 8kun, which is why historical ones such as /intl/ became lost to time (/pol/ died too for some reason). Around this time, something unusual in 8chan history happens: the Watkins brothers decide to ban loli 'p altogheter. Obviously, Mark was furious and stated having arguments with Jim, who finally fired him. Mann, after trying and failing to negotiate regarding the permissibility of loli 'p on 9chan's /v/ with Null, then launched 8che without actually being its owner (that would be AcidFag) in order to once again become the owner of /v/; it is worth mentioning one of the first boards created on 8che is /hebe/ and that /v/ was also poisoned with pedophiles who migrated from 8/v/'s "SARGON" general. Those who were tired with Mark's shenanigans went on and created zzzchan, which is arguably the gemmiest (unless you count Endchan which saved the sharty a couple of times) and least pedophillic^{[That's not saying much]} splinter of the 8sphere. From what it seems, they are vnbqthered when it comes to 8che, as they do not whine about its existence constantly. 8che, on the other hand, loves to obsess over the "niggerpill" (something related to GamerGate2 demoralization which isn't even that much of a thing), LCP, zzzchan and Kiwifarms (they did get like 4000 PPH during The Cuckset though, which also meant the degenerate boards would be kicked off the top boards page for a while). Their main domain -ACKed for a while during the end of 2025.
• Soysphere - altchan rivalry: Especially in the early years of the Sharty, there would be raids organized that would be directed towards altchans. Virtually no altchan would be safe from soyjak.party's inside-jokes and cattywipes. The first major conflict happened in the same month soyjak.party was founded, the enemy being mlpol. It was a costly war for both sides, however soyjak.party would avenge their losses (/raid/ being spammed with ML'P) by raiding mlpol again in early 2021. Mlpol now filters sharty to donkey. In October of 2021, soyteens would raid 1chan, the third-oldest English-speaking imageboard after world2ch and 4chan false, that title goes to iiChan: this is, in fact, the moment when oldfags started scorning soyfags. 711chan, Desuchan, Lainchan, Endchan and 1chan were the first websites truly affected by the sharty's raids and the first *chan to actually shut down due to a soyteen raid was late.city, followed by kasumi (the latter now shows an anime image when accessed; insecure site so I will not link). Chances are, if you are on an altchan and you admit being a soyteen, you will be stigmatized and possibly B& if you post 'jaks. A recent example of a Soysphere raid on an altchan is the Sboardy raid on Wirechan.
• Plus about a hundred undocumented useless nigger wars.

Notable Wikis

Here are some very helpful websites that document the culture and events across various *chans:

This very wiki

Especially when it comes to Soysphere splinters or, occasionally, SNCA *chans.

Encyclopedia Dramatica

This was the go-to website back in the day when *chan users wanted to record their history - it is more strict against SNCA imageboards or namefags however. (You) cannot make an account unless you contact their staff. Due to its constant correlation with the *chans, it is considered by some to be part of the chanosphere, at least honorarily.

Soyjak Wiki

Despite their censorship campaigns, their "Happenings" page can come in very handy when it comes to learning about soyjak.party history.

Nameless Rumia's personal wiki

Has excellent articles on various BBS websites, especially on obscure japanese/chinese ones. It is also full of citations.

Bibliotheca Anonoma

By far the most useful source. Contains information not only about the chanosphere, but also about many other websites, such as Something Awful. Its role is to preserve Internet folk life.

BonziPEDIA

the now shut down official wiki for the now shut down Bonziworld.org. had many useful articles about obscure larp clans and BonziWORLD-trollbox-OWOT-sleepycat related drama along with many smaller SNCA discord dramas and has been archived in its entirety on the wayback machine. (you WILL rearchive these to megalodon or ghostarchive NQW)

Decline

The Chanosphere is currently in a dire state due to Edgecore members, Metachan, the Jassy^{(doe it's dnb)}, advertisers and other failtrolls constantly spamming CP, an increasingly dull PPH on all websites and due to a general loss of interest for imageboards (also caused by the generational shift from millennials to gen Z). The negative reception it receives from the outside internet (especially from (((Wikipedia))) and (((YouTube)))) does not make the situation any better.