Imageboards

[Akiba]

So, online, there are a bunch of these sites called imageboards. They're really just sites where people upload, tag, and view pictures. But their importance should not be underestimated. They're a huge part of Japanese/weeb culture.

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Some notable examples are (the ones without links have NSFW content):

- danbooru
- zerochan
- Nico Nico Seiga
- pixiv for the heck of it
- Minitokyo
- e-shuushuu
- Sankaku Complex
- Konachan
- yande.re
- safebooru
- 2ch
- 100gazou
- gelbooru
- booru
- booru
- booru
- etc.

booru literally translates to board. Danbooru is the king of all imageboards, so it's a shame that I couldn't link it.

An interesting thing about danbooru is that it has spawned a whole breed of imageboards, including any booru listed above, as well as these few that I randomly selected:

- PokéBooru
- My Little Pony Booru
- NekoBooru
- Five Nights at Freddy's Booru >.>
- Footbooru lol
- rule 34 booru
- lolibooru
- furrybooru
- Adventure Time Booru
- MS Paint Adventures Booru YES, WITH LOTS AND LOTS OF HOMESTUCK
- Homestuck Cosplay Booru AS IF ONE HOMESTUCK BOARD WAS NOT ENOUGH
- Homestuck Rule 34 Booru YEP OKAY I'M DONE

And a long list of even more booru

It's very impressive how many images each of these boards have, especially because they're all community contributed. I don't even know what to say.

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I go on danbooru most of the time, because it has the highest quality and widest selection (it's the one that started it all, of course).

I often go on zerochan as well, because it's nice to be able to just spend an hour or two clicking though and downloading whole albums of pictures.

Pixiv is always nice, because it's the source of most of the art that goes on danbooru and zerochan. It's where the some of the most talented artists in Japan (basically in the world) post their artwork.

Nico Nico Seiga is basically the other pixiv, run by NND. Most artists have both a seiga and a pixiv.

I dread Sankaku Complex, though. One tab will turn into five, which turn into 25, which turn into 125 (you can see where this is going). Before I know it, I've spent five hours and downloaded 10GB of art. It's a love-hate relationship.

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Here's one of my favorite images, by Akitsu Taira, a fantasy artist:

Spoiler:

I originally found it on danbooru.

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Do you go on imageboards? If so, which ones do you frequent?

 

[Skip Class]

There was one point where I went on zerochan (although it didn't last very long) and it was a while back when I started getting into anime. I only pretty much stick to pixiv and deviantART (since it's where the original art can come from), since most of the time they come from there.

Ever since I started focusing more and more on my art, design and graphics I'm not really keen on imageboards personally because I'm really big on the whole sourcing thing - especially living on tumblr, where art gets reposted without the original source.

Yes, these sites (and tumblr) are getting better at the whole sourcing thing, but sometimes some artist asks not for their art to be reposted or reuploaded (even if it's sourced) anywhere else, but sometimes it's ignored because that person reposting the art doesn't understand Japanese and do it anyway without asking. Sure it isn't going it isn't going to stop and it will always happen... It's more or less because of this most of my themes will be gifs or graphics made from real anime than fanart.

I have a personal hate for weheartit since I've had a couple of graphics edits of my taken from my tumblr, reposted there, then taken and placed back on tumblr and somehow getting more attention than my original one... it's an utter pain being on the creator side of it.

 

[Candy]

I rarely go to imageboards. idk, I just generally have no interest in them. Sure, fan art is always nice to see, but really, I'm not too keen on fan art aside from Touhou haha. Yeah, that's really the only reason why I go to some imageboards. The Touhou fandom has a lot of amazing artists after all.

And if I do go to imageboards, I'd normally lurk around pixiv.

And regarding art thefts, reposting and the like... yeah, that is really the only reason why I don't draw fan art that often.

 

[Raine]

Never been quite the fan of them, but I've been through a number of them to find wallpapers and back when I was web designing during my own time, looking for pictures to use.

Whenever I have the sudden urge to scroll through, I tend to find myself going on Pixiv, for the most part and then MiniTokyo for wallpapers. Although one that I absolutely cannot stand, is 4chan. I don't understand how people can maneuver around that site when there's content everything, it just looks like a mess...

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

I love going to imageboards for "reasons." However, I see myself visiting Safebooru more often than Danbooru because of my limit on how many times I see NSFW content. Unfortunately, Safebooru has been giving me pop-ups for a virus called rs.js, whereas Danbooru doesn't. I go to Derpibooru all the time for any impressive/hilarious images, and I go to Footbooru, zerochan, and e-shuushuu from time to time. I would argue to the OP that Gelbooru has a more collective images than Danbooru, because the latter doesn't have the whole collection from some artists from Pixiv and other places.

 

[Chikara]

I don't use image boards nearly as much as I did in the past. I used to have a huge list of all the Pixiv tags I checked regularly, and used to surf safebooru quite often.

Now a days, I just use google. It turned into kind of a hassle to check all my tags every day, or even once a week 8( Plus, DANbooru's NSFW posts were sometimes gross as fuck(and NSFW usually doesn't even cause me to bat an eyelash). I got tired of accidentally running into them. Then I just got tired of SAFEbooru.

 

[Kenchiin]

I go to Zerochan when I need specific art for signatures adn stuff. Apart from that, not really.

I used to be one of the many anons of 4chan, but it's been a while since I got tired of that.

 

[cream]

there's a five nights at freddy's booru? now i've seen everything. :pink_no:

i go on safebooru a lot. i regularly check specific tags, mostly of my favorite characters. i love collecting fanart.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Only Sankaku when I go to read some articles, I sometimes check what's new in the art part as well.

 

[Akiba]

I'm not really keen on imageboards personally because I'm really big on the whole sourcing thing - especially living on tumblr, where art gets reposted without the original source.

...

I've had a couple of graphics edits of my taken from my tumblr, reposted there, then taken and placed back on tumblr and somehow getting more attention than my original one... it's an utter pain being on the creator side of it.

I totally feel this. But yeah, danbooru is way better than most sites. It's strict policy that for any upload, the original source must be posted, and the artist must be credited. And the artist tag is one of the first things you see on the page. Even if an artist's work gets edited, s/he is still credited. And people aren't allowed to upload their own art, so the entire system is based on what others think of an artist's art. If you're good, other people will bring you more fans by posting your art to danbooru.

 

[derozio]

I use danbooru and gelbooru if I need naughty shit (or just looking for good-looking art in general). And Safebooru if I'd like to stay away from NSFW but that's what all of us use it for, right? :p

Apart from that, I guess I go with minitokyo most of the times. Since I generally prefer working with high quality scans (both for signature and stuff + because my phone's 1080p makes most normal quality pics look like shit), minitokyo is a godsend. If you want super-high quality scans (9000x5000 pixel shit available too LOL. Although most is just 1080p+ stuff. 2k/4k stuff.) from the artbooks of animu, that's the best place to go. Although the fanart over there isn't much to speak of. It is safebooru/danbooru/gelbooru for fanart for me.