2ch Chronicle/Anti-Matome Blog Movement

One of 2ch's most controversial community developments in recent years has been the ブログ (Matome Blog), aka アフィ (Affiliate Blog). These blogs were originally volunteer efforts meant to summarize the weekly threads of 2ch for the general population.

Unfortunately, like all good things, these blogs became deeply corrupted when view-count advertising money came into the picture, as they could easily grab eyeballs by sensationalizing 2ch posts and slandering otaku culture. Eventually, the most successful blogs resorted to underhanded tactics, such as making false 2ch threads in a textbook case of yellow journalism, or exploiting the power of viral marketing to gain more cash.

The problem was escalated to an unacceptable extent after the 2013 Credit Card Leaks, which ruined lives by revealing the identities and posting history of many anonymous tripcodes: real or fake. As a result, 2ch users began organizing the 嫌儲 (Anti-Matome Blog Movement), igniting a divisive conflict of corruption, abuse of power, and public shaming against both sides that literally tore 2ch apart.

ブログ/アフィ (Matome Blog)
ブログ (Matome Blogs), aka アフィ (Affiliate Blogs), are sites designed to summarize the daily events on 2ch's boards. They became popular as a way for the general public of Japan to hear the latest gossip without having to take time to acclimate to the abrasive culture of 2channel's infamous boards.

Volunteer Efforts
Matome Blogs began out of frustration with the unchanging, spartan design of 2channel, which was beginning to repel a general public acclimating to social media. In addition, 2channel's culture was about as abrasive as 4chan, and took quite a lot of lurking to understand. Finally, there existed a need for news from 2channel to be spread out to the rest of the Internet.

As a result, some bloggers began to summarize news from 2channel as a public service. Aya.shii.org is an example of this early one-man effort.

Yellow Journalism
Like all good things, the Matome blogs became deeply corrupted when view-count advertising money came into the picture, as they could easily grab eyeballs by sensationalizing 2ch posts and slandering otaku culture. Eventually, the most successful blogs resorted to underhanded tactics, such as manufacturing fake 2ch threads, or exploiting the power of viral marketing to gain more cash. Thus, Matome blogs began to achieve a flavor not unlike that of 9gag or Ebaum's World.

The last major Japanese-language Matome Blog still active is 痛いたいニュース itai News/DQNPlus. There were other major sites (はちま起稿きこう,オレ的てきゲーム速報そくほう＠刃は,やらおん！,ハム速そく,ニュー速そくVIPブログ), but they stopped posting about 2ch when Jim Watkins accidentally translated "All Rights Reserved" to "Redistribution Not Allowed". A fitting punishment.

One of the few English-language Matome Blogs is the infamous Sankaku Complex, known for it's unabashed writing style that pokes fun at otaku culture. (Though they seem to be posting less about 2ch these days, which may indicate a serious population decline on the website.)


 * Source: Reddit /newsokur/ - About Matome Blogs