I'm going to define "web forums" broadly as anything that allows you to publicly post content -- images, text, web links, etc -- with the goal that other random people out there will see it. This definition is broad and includes all range of things from Reddit, 4chan, and Tumblr all the way to things like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

We've all noticed that these different web forums attract different kinds of people, but what I'd like to know is: why? Is it the subtle differences in the programming that attracts autists to 4chan and cringey liberals to Reddit? Is it the fact that 4chan and Reddit are already populated with these kinds of people?

It's probably a bit of both, but I've noticed that there is a great deal of animosity between people from different forums. "Take that shit back to Redit" "Facebook plz" etc is common. "This isn't Tumblr." "You aren't on 4chan, you can't talk like that here."

The animosity is so dramatic that it reminds me of nignogs who are getting into beefs about which hood they rep, or Balkan ultranationalists. These web forums all fundamentally do the same thing, but attract very different kinds of people.

Why is that?

(I'm putting this effortpost into /vip/ because I'm hoping the paywall will make the discussion more intelligible without removing us from our own internal 4chan perspective.)