I totally understand where you're coming from. 4chan was my refuge for a very long time through some tough times in my life, and 8chan is the only alternative I've used that captures the feeling of 4chan. I tried many other english "chans" over the years (7chan, 99chan, 420chan, the wakachan/iichan "network", the easymodo/warosu ghost boards, SAoVQ, etc), yet I didn't stick around with any of them. They had their own unique communities, sometimes with greater average "quality", if you can measure such a thing, but nothing could match the excitement and energy of 4chan. I think this is because even the notable ones tried to distance themselves from the "4chan mentality" and community, and attracted different but much less significant audiences in the process. And who could blame them: why would you go to a blatant and insignificant 4chan clone that didn't have anything different to offer?

8chan was once just like that, a ghost town of a somewhat more modern AnonIB clone that wasn't really going anywhere. It owes its success entirely to the fiasco of Gamergate discussion being banned from 4chan, which caused a (literally) overnight exodus of a significant minority of 4chan who wanted to discuss it, along with those who (like me, in spite of the fact that I sometimes defend it on HN) were mostly appalled by the blatant abuse of power. These people weren't trying to "get away from" 4chan or its culture, they were forced to leave. They weren't curmudgeony "oldfags" or the like trying to enforce some new cultural norms in their secret club to increase the "quality", they were 4chan.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the site is now thriving as a community "for people who loved 4chan, by people who loved 4chan." And that's what's I love about it. It's just like 4chan, with a lot of the same people and ideas, but now, the community is running the show, not some guy trying to distance himself from "his creation" and a team of mods that often don't even use the boards they're supposed to protect enforcing arbitrary rules from afar.

Give it a shot. For all the negative attention that boards like /gamergate/ and /baphomet/ receive, they're in their own worlds. The rest of the site is very welcoming towards anyone that understands "4chan culture" and isn't obnoxious about it. Also, webms with sound.

Haha, yep, I've been around for all of those other chans too.

I'm starting to browse 8chan alongside 4chan today and we will see where it goes.

Welcome aboard.