In the last year and a half, we've had two separate fundraisers. Today, I'd like to ask the community to support a different kind of cause.
I've used imageboards since I was 14, and I'm sure between everyone reading this there are untold thousands of hours spent on them. This culture this community imbibes is not the result of a forum or a wiki, it comes from something more simple. While I like forums, I understand their faults. The mere fact that an avatar is present next to my words has altered your opinion of what you are reading. You have internalized everything said thus far differently than you would without those elements, for better or for worse.
Imageboards do not have that. They, of course, center around anonymity. Each idea floats freely in every thread, and are judged only on their own merits. This is why sites like 4chan and 8chan are so influential. There are no barriers; it's the closest thing to a pure exchange we are capable of.
@copypaste runs 8chan, and at some point in September I contributed to its open-source codebase. If you are unfamiliar with development, open-source means
anyone is capable of downloading the program for free and modifying it as they see fit. Think Wikipedia, but for entire websites and applications. See, 8chan runs on Infinity, which forks Vichan, which is built off Tinyboard. These three different repositories have many different authors, and in the 5 years or so of development, it has become dilapidated. copypaste's efforts and oversight is by far the brightest spot in this chain, but there's only so much one person and a few bitcoins can do.
Having worked on the code and having shopped around for alternatives, I know that the future for 4chan alternatives is bleak. As 4chan itself is proprietary and increasingly becoming less of a bastion for free speech (as is the rest of the Internet), this is unacceptable. In the last few years I've come to recognize and appreciate the fleeting existence of true free speech on the Internet, and I feel strongly about wanting to preserve it. So, I'm building my own open-source software with the intent of replacing what 8chan runs on.
https://larachan.org/
Larachan is my current passion project and I would like to expose it to you all. Despite being in very early stages, at only a few weeks old, its framework has allowed me to flesh out basic posting, account registration, and a fully functioning donation system. With proper funding, I could continue to develop this codebase at such a rate, until it supersedes anything currently available. I estimate this would take only half a year.
I'm not asking for much. At around $2,000 a month, I can work full-time on this project. With that amount, I can fuel my soda addiction and keep the Internet going until my project is complete. Programming is my love, and I don't need much else besides it. Even if this fundraiser fails or falls short and I am forced to pick up another office job, I will continue to work on it, just at a much slower rate.
Even if you have not a penny to give, I can still use your help. Just by reading the fundraiser pages and helping me identify typos, improving my word choice, and giving general advice is helping tremendously and is very well appreciated. I encourage anyone with suggestions to email me at
josh@larachan.org, or just PM me.
That's all I have to say. The banner on the index page will be taken down in a few days. Thank you for reading.
