Shitposting

About

“Shitposting” is an Internet slang term describing a range of user misbehaviors and rhetoric on forums and message boards that are intended to derail a conversation off-topic, including thread jacking, circlejerking and non-commercial spamming. On 4chan, the byproduct of shitposting is referred to as cancer.

Origin

The exact origin of the term “shitposting” is unknown, but the earliest-known instance was submitted to the Something Awful Forums^[14] on April 10th, 2007, when member OhSNAP!Tray used the expression when referring to worthless threads on the site’s BYOB forum.

Spread

On June 28th, 2007, Penny Arcade Forums^[6] member IHasABucket commented in a thread about various types of electronic dance music in which he criticized other members for “shitposting.”

On January 4th, 2008, Urban Dictionary^[5] user jarrynkell submitted an entry for the term “shitpost.”

“To make utterly worthless and inane posts on an internet message board.”

On March 26th, 2010, Urban Dictionary^[4] user Chunky Milk submitted an entry for “Shit Posting,” defining it as the act of making an unconstructive post on an online forum.

“1: The failure to make a constructive post
2: The inability to add useful information to a forum
3: Worthless overly offensive generally racists posts written in a manner which aggravates others.”

On April 27th, 2011, an entry titled “Shitpost” was created on the Internet culture wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica,^[8] which listed the /s4s/ (shit 4chan says) board and the /r/circlejerk subreddit as online communities associated with the practice. On October 22nd, the /r/shitpost^[9] subreddit was launched for discussions regarding low-quality posts across Reddit. On November 11th, 2012, Redditor RustledHard submitted a screenshot from a 4chan thread titled “Now this is what I call shitposting” to the /r/4chan^[10] subreddit, gaining more than 3,100 up votes and 40 comments prior to being archived (shown below).

On August 5th, 2013, FunnyJunk^[12] user Nahyon posted an expand dong-style Pokemon box art image titled “Le shitposting faic” (shown below, left). On November 6th, 2013, Redditor hardycoreman submitted an MS Paint illustration of a king standing in front of the computer titled “The Shitpost King” to the /r/Braveryjerk^[11] subreddit (shown below, right).

Related Terms

Funposting

Funposting is the satiric synonym of the term shitposting.^[15] It is generally used as a mock classification against plaintiff opinions on shitposts.
Its earliest apperence comes from one of the thread on /a/ board when an anonymous user started to complain about how the shitposts derailed the older thread.^[16]

It’s Still Shitposting Even If You Are Being Ironic

“It’s Still Shitposting Even If You Are Being Ironic” is an expression used to criticize shitposters on 4chan often used in image macros featuring the character Keine Kamishirasawa from the Japanese game series The Touhou Project.

[s4s]

The [s4s]^[2] (shit 4chan says) board is often cited as a shitposting forum, known for popularizing the Topkek, gippo dude^[3] and dubs guy memes. The 4chan FAQ^[13] describes “shitposting” as “knowingly contributing low quality, off-topic, or ill intentioned posts.”

Desu

Desu is a Japanese suffix often spammed on imageboards and discussion forums associated with the character Suiseiseki from the Japanese anime Rozen Maiden.

Chickun

Chickun, a.k.a “Arise The Chickun,” are 4chan threads includes posts of photoshophed, edited or face-swaped image macros of My Little Pony character Scootaloo.

Le Lenny Face ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) is an emoticon created with unicode character symbols that is often used to spam discussion forums and imageboards.

Spurdo Spärde

Spurdo Spärde is a poorly drawn character based on the sprite image of Pedobear. It was originally conceived in the Finnish imageboard Kuvalauta to mock the newcommers. The character is coarsely drawn on purpose and accompanied by captions that are misspelled and stylized in all cap with overly emoticon usage.

This Post Gave Me Cancer

That Post Gave Me Cancer is an image macro series commonly used in response to nonsensical or insubstantial posts submitted by the original poster (OP) or other users in a given thread.

Search Interest

References