![[Everything Shii Knows]](../mediawiki/skins/common/images/wiki.png)
world2ch was an awesome website. It was launched by a 16-year-old Japanese fella named RIR7 on 3/3/2003 as an English version of 2ch.
world2ch was really a world of its own. It is the only place I know of where Japanese otaku were constantly and substantively talking with Americans. These otaku came from 2ch, the Japanese mega-BBS. world2ch was an attempt at recreating 2ch in English, and among 2chers it was well-known, but it never really took off. Thanks to its steady stream of free porn 4chan quickly overtook world2ch and eventually became notorious among Japanese otaku as well.
Here is some information that has long been lost from the Internet and would be gone forever if I hadn't reposted it... to me, this kind of seems like I am publicizing the private treasures of a lucky few people's minds that ought to be left to obscure books hidden in the corners of libraries... but don't worry, there's a lot more forgotten annals of the Internet (and even of world2ch) that will probably never be published. Without further ado, here were some of world2ch's biggest personalities!
- RIR7, the owner of world2ch, did not know English too well. While he did good work such as translating some of the humorous Anonymous names from 2ch (he translated nanashi as "nameless"), a lot of what he did was very silly. He installed an early imageboard, making one of the first translations of Futaba. In early 2004 he started fiddling with the "reply" field on the text boards, making world2ch extremely difficult to use. Since he didn't prune posts on the imageboard it filled up with guro and his hosting account was terminated, meaning the end of world2ch.
- 0037 was a mysterious English-speaking individual who seemed to know a whole lot about the Internet world, but didn't say very much. After world2ch shut down he appeared infrequently on 4chan and perhaps even once on 4-ch but then disappeared. (update: 0037 is alive and well!)
- golgolmois was an amazing Japanese racist who came to world2ch to tell the United States to remove "all their base" from Okinawa. His best thread is still extant in the Internet Archive. It's not clear to me what happened to him; it seems like he may have been arrested for trying to break into the base, or maybe that was a joke played by other world2ch users. In any case, you can still visit his website including his famous ASCII art of an anime girl with ahoge holding up a gun.
- (;-;) (pronounced shikushiku, or as he translated it keepweep) was a guy whose life seemed to consist primarily of expressing his love for the 2ch ASCII art she-cat named Shii, constructing profiles on websites, and making short, pointless Flash movies. Although this might seem kind of sad, he came off as a very happy and friendly person and most of world2ch liked him. His website is still up at http://weepjp.com/ .
- Menchi was an utter loser who started out by making banners for world2ch and promoting it on anime forums, but eventually he mainly wanted to rant against Something Awful and their "unfair" $10 charge for entry. When 4chan came out he wanted to attack that too. At some point in October 2003 he realized that he was being stupid and the people at SA were far more mature than him, and he got really embarrassed. He decided to dissociate his posts from his old nickname and invent a fake identity--a teenage girl who liked cats and Flash movies. For one reason or another the facade was eventually dropped but he kept using the name. That name can now be revealed: it is Shii. Shii (Menchi) is a 4-ch.net admin and his website is at http://shii.org/ . Until this article was written nobody figured out they were the same person. Mission accomplished!
- lolocaust is a current 4-ch.net user. He likes 2ch memes and stuff. He hasn't changed much since 2003.
- Lemur was a pretty normal person who didn't have a tripcode. I didn't keep in touch with him and I don't know what happened to him.
- CAVEMAN WAS ORIGINAL GIMMICK OF WORLD2CH. CAVEMAN ENJOY POUNDING HEAD WITH KEYBOARD. CAVEMAN NOT SURE WHETHER CAVEMAN WAS ONE PERSON OR MULTIPLE PEOPLE. CAVEMAN POST ON 4CHAN AND 4-CH FOR A WHILE THEN DISAPPEARED.
Some memorable lines from world2ch
These are some gibberish "catchphrases" from world2ch. Only I remember these and they had no impact on Internet culture, but this is an encyclopedia of what I know so screw all y'all.
- It is regretful and it opens.
- originally "開けてしまった"
- It is the severe internet here.
- originally "ひどいインターネット" ("The Internet is terrible")
- versions you can find on Google: "Is completely it the severe Internet here?" "This is the severe internet! Funky dancemen! People wonderful at dope in the world!"
- hey,hybrid american.
i don't your future and killing soon!- wonderful line of golgomois
- destroy all US base in okinawa home / destroy all US naval base in okinawa home
- the exact phrasing can no longer be remembered.
- You is a big fool man. Hahahaha.
- Explained here