General thread

On /lit/

General threads (colloquially "generals") are long-term, recurring threads about a specific topic. When a general hits bump limit or is archived an interested poster can create a successor. There is no organization or prior agreement of who will make the new thread. It is etiquette to link back to the previous thread when creating a new one. A happy side effect of this is long chains about the topic can be backtracked by archivists. The opening post typically features guides, resources, and FAQs to establish a baseline of discussion of the topic.

There is a sense of mundane in the frequented meeting space like there is in the overarching board, but at a much smaller, personal scale. Despite anonymity, posters occasionally recognize each other by posting style across the recurring threads. The social dynamics in general threads are comparable to a chat room like IRC, or even to a real life pub.

General threads bud in high-activity boards. Competition for the thread slots in the board is fierce, hence, posters with mutual interests and desire for slower discussion cooperate inside the general. When a new post is made in the general, all previous posts—yet unanswered questions or simply informative posts which aren't meant to get replies—are bumped together in solidarity. Generals can be summarized as unions of posters towards a common goal or space, where individual posts needn't compete with each other—in contrast but nonetheless within the chaos and competition for virality in a system (i.e. 4chan boards) that prunes threads based on lack of replies. Generals enable a posting style that would not survive in the wider board.

Examples

• /vg/ - Videogame Generals is s spin-off of the high-activity board /v/, created in 2012. /v/ prohibits generals since the creation.
• Threads behave like generals in boards for dumping images such as /c/ and /w/ (or most pornography boards), for organization.

Are generals good?

As a component of a board, generals house recurring topics that would otherwise pollute the board with redundant threads. At the same time, generals are held by some to be a "cancer" that kills boards. /vg/ was created to contain generals off /v/; /a/ does not allow blatant generals or "template" threads. Recurring generals appear as repetitive opening posts that monopolize the top of the catalog from sheer bump frequency: one reply bumps all the other discussions housed in the general. Outsiders "alright what is this about" that enter the thread from curiosity may feel alienated by uninteresting posts (freeloading off the rest) and a cliquish culture.