The Russian alternative platforms are actually usable. Over the past few years I've been gradually migrating my news reading to Russian sites, especially finance and tech. The 4chan equivalent (dvach), is pretty fun too.
@coolboymew@moi@MeBigbrain@moyi@noyoushutthefuckupdad@takao you used to be able to say much anything on reddit, and 4chan used to not be astroturfed, but now they're both pretty astroturfed and both frequently censorous, but 1. on 4chan the only people caring about your post history are mods, vs. on reddit where everyone does that. 2. on 4chan the way to primary way disagree with a post is to express disagreement, vs. on reddit were normal disagreement is expressed by downvoting, and there's an elaborate system of post limits and punishments that convert a person getting mobbed into that person being silenced by the platform. they're both deteriorated hellscapes but anonymity still has benefits and dystopian 'nudge' panopticons are still creepy and dystopian.
@laurel@apropos@moi@MeBigbrain@coolboymew@noyoushutthefuckupdad@takao@moyi >is it to bait people who don't know Rus imageboard history Sorta. The first admin, Vitalik, was very insistent on positioning his site as "resurrected dvach", and as such used the same branding everywhere and banned people for using "forced names". The branding remained even after he sold it to Nariman "Abu" Namazov, who was a little more lax about unofficial names, but by that point site's popularity suprassed the original dvach. >Also why do they call women тян? "Chan" and "kun" were often appended to site mascots, notable figures and such as a part of weeaboo cargo cult, then it morphed into a slang terms for women and men in general.