2ch? WTF is that

As a Hello! Project fan, you are very aware of all the forums and discussion boards on the internet, in a variety of different languages. Even with the advent of fast and easy to use social media platform like Twitter, Instagram, and tumblr,  forums and BBS boards continues to a play a major role for latest news and general discussion in the idol fans sphere. Western fans tends to gather on the few major English websites such as Hello! Online and Jplop, while Japanese fans mostly socialize on the anonymous board 2ch (pronounced “knee chan”, short for 2channel “knee chan nee ru”). What is 2ch you ask. Simply put, it’s like a Japanese version of reddit where you don’t have to register to use (not a perfect analogy, since 2ch began in 1999, and not until 2005 did reddit start). I’m not going to get too much into the history of 2ch here, but if you are interested to know more, Wikipedia is a good place to start your reading from.

So why am I telling you about a Japanese message board. 2ch, like reddit, it is divided into many sub-boards. If you guessed there is a Hello! Project sub-board, you are absolutely correct! Maybe you have heard of people talk about the Ookami or “Wolf” board, that’s the name of the H!P board on 2ch (Ookami is Japanese for Wolf). Many of the latest H!P news and gossips originate from this place. Other than the fact that Ookami users speaks their mind about H!P, the Western fan community knows little to nothing about what actually happens on this boards. While I can not teach you how to understand Japanese, I will at least show you how to navigate your way into Japanese message boards.

Which way to Ookami?

Hold your hourses! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Although I did mentioned that 2ch is like a Japanese reddit, it is not laid out quite as nicely as its English counterpart. The URL to 2ch is http://www.2ch.net/. Following is a screenshot of their front page.

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Not much to see isn’t it. If we click on the logo in the center…

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We’re shown to the directory page.

モ娘（狼） (Ookami) is located almost at the bottom of the directory, under the sub-heading 雑談系２ (Miscellaneous chat 2). There are also two other H!P sub-boards on 2ch,  モ娘（羊） (Hitsuji “Sheep” or Ai no Tane) and モ娘（鳩） (Hato “Pigeon” or Zurui Onna), as well as a general female idol sub-board 女性アイドル, all under the 芸能 (entertainment) sub-heading. We will only be focusing on Ookami because the other two H!P sub-boards sees so little action in comparison, while the general female idol sub-board is for every other female idols and idol groups not related to Hello! Project.

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This is what you will see once you enter Ookami’s main page. Basically a list of rules and guidelines. Scroll down to find all the threads in this sub-board.

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WHAT THE CLUSTER F@#$

Ahem, excuse my language. Now you see why 2ch seems like such an impossible place for westerners, even those with Japanese knowledge, to navigate.

Well that’s just great, now what?

You could, like an idiot (I once was), try to make out all the thread titles from this collage of links and then click on them one by one and waste your life away.  You could also continue to scroll down the page to find excerpts from the latest few threads that has been replied to, but that’s practically useless. Or you can stay with me here to see what I’m about to teach you, and read 2ch like a boss.

Do you remember the featured image of this article? No? Let me show you again:

Kanatomo_typing

It’s a screen shot of Kanatomo showing us her speed typing. As a joke, someone has photoshopped her monitor to display 2ch instead of a word processor. Wait, that’s 2ch? It looks nothing like what you just showed me above. What you see here on her monitor is a dedicated 2ch browser. Such program arranges 2ch’s directories, boards, and threads into an easy to navigate format, just like the file explorer in your computer’s operating system.

There are numerous 2ch browsers available, as stand alone programs as well as internet browser add-ons. Many are free to download and use. However, 2ch browsers programs are mostly written for Japanese computers and many of the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox add-ons have ceased development. Luckily for us without access to a Japanese computer, there is one Unicode 2ch browser we can use.

JaneXeno, written based on Jane, one of the most popular 2ch browser platform used by the Japanese, is designed to be used on non-Japanese based Windows, such as English. (Sorry Mac OS and Linux users, I have no idea which browser might work for you, but here’s a list of 2ch browser on Wikipedia for you to can check out.)

A screen shot of the JaneXeno download page:

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To download JaneXeno, right click and save as the link I have pointed with the big red arrow. It is a zip file. Once downloaded, upzip the file somewhere in your computer, go into the folder and double click on Jane2ch.exe to launch the program.

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This will popup on the first launch. It says the board directory index is not found, would you like it to be retrieved. Click Yes.

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JaneXeno is now opened, but it’s empty. Look at the directory list on the left, go all the way to the bottom to find 雑談系２ and click on it.

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The directory tree expands. Now look for モ娘（狼） and click on it, that’s the Ookami board.

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Now you are inside the Ookami board. All the threads are listed up at the top in descending order based on when it was last posted in. Click on a thread title to open up the thread in the bottom half of the browser.

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To do a search within the board, type in the field shown as A in the above screenshot and press enter. To search within the thread that’s opened, type into field B and press enter.

To refresh the entire board manually, double click on the tab button モ娘（狼） above the A search field.

How about if I want to read 2ch on my phone?

There are a good amount of 2ch browser apps for both Android and iOS. 2chmate is a popular choice for Android. Not sure about iOS since I don’t own any Apple products. Which app to use is ultimately based on your personal preference, but I recommend you to at least read user reviews to see what other people have experienced. Once you have installed your app, it’s simply a matter of navigating from 雑談系２ into モ娘（狼） to start browsing through all the threads.

Yay! I’m a 2ch l33t now!

Not so fast. There are a few things you must understand before venturing to the Japanese anonymous underground world known as 2ch.

  • Read only, DO NOT POST. I have deliberately left out instructions for how to post on 2ch due to a couple main reasons. Posting on 2ch is very complicated, especially for people outside Japan because their servers have imposed post bans on non-Japanese IP ranges. Even if your country’s IPs are not banned, if you do not take measures to protect your identity when posting, your IP address will be used as your poster name instead of “Anonymous”. There are criminals constantly lurking on 2ch searching for easy targets who do not mask IP addresses.
  • 2ch is a message board where anything goes. There will be insults, profanity, nudity, blood and gore, and more. It is NSFW, in fact, it might even be NSFL to some people. On PC, be cautious clicking on website and image links you find in threads. On phones, if possible, set your app to not automatically download images.
  • There are anti’s and haters everywhere. Don’t be surprised if you click on a thread about your favorite idol only to find half the posts are telling her to die. And you thought Western fans calling Zukki fat was bad.
  • Ookami, while it is mainly a Hello! Project message board, you will find non-belonging threads from ones about other idol groups, to anti-Korean hate topics.
  • Unlike forums that you are used to reading, threads on 2ch ends once it reaches 1000 posts. It is up to the OP to determine if a continuation thread is to be created or not. Use the board search field to find continuation threads.

If all this does not scare you, then this guide should be enough to at least get your thru the doors of 2ch.

Happy reading~

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damages caused to your computer and/or phone. This is merely a guide on what you could do.

 

Update

Starting March 13th 2015, due to increasing operating cost to run one of the biggest message boards in the world, the operators of 2ch.net with the help of 2ch browser creators have decided to implement ads to appear inside 2ch browsers to generate revenues. For those who does not want to see ads have the option to subscribe to 2ch’s new premium service, Ronin. Here is the official statement regarding the changes written in Japanese.

What does this mean to us?

Due to the changes required for 2ch.net to serve ads along with their data, many end user browser platform are no longer supported, including JaneXeno which this article is heavily based upon. Currently the JaneXeno team has no plans to make their program compliance with the new 2ch.net ad tactics, but all is not lost.

Here is a list of browsers on various operating systems that have been updated to support the new 2ch.net:

Windows

Mac

iOS (iPhone, iPad)

  • BB2C v1.3.53 and up

Android

Those looking for a direct replacement for JaneXeno will find Jane Style to function similarly with the main difference of no Unicode support. In other words, all the menus will be displayed as ???? unless you run a Japanese version of Windows.

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The safest way is to just install Jane Style, load up the Ookami board with the board’s URL http://hello.2ch.net/morningcoffee/ and don’t touch any of the settings.

Did you know there are more than one 2ch out there?

To be exact, there are many 2ch.net clones on the web. Some were created out of displeasure of how 2ch.net is operated, others from people who were sick and tired of trolls and criminals, etc etc.

2ch.sc is pretty much a direct mirror of 2ch.net. This site was created when 2ch.net started to protect its data against matome sites (Such as Jiichan, Wota in Translation and many of our Japanese counterparts) When 2ch.net began putting 転載は禁止 (Reproduction prohibited) in every user’s post in March 2014, 2ch.sc came to the rescue by copying every thing over to its own site and allowing others to copy off them. I’m not sure of the legal clause involved in this issue, but copying off 2ch.sc is not illegal, which is what is now being done by all matome sites. To access a 2ch.net thread via 2ch.sc, simply change the .net to .sc in the URL.

Another major 2ch.net clone is Open2ch. Open2ch takes the structure of 2ch.net and replicate it on it’s own site. Different from 2ch.sc, Open2ch does not copy thread data from 2ch.net, but rather it provides users with a familiar looking environment for discussion. People on Open2ch tends to be nicer to each other and there are less trolls and haters. Open2ch also encourages matome websites to use its contents. Open2ch can be read using JaneXeno.