4chan Undergoing Major Revision, Getting Public API

Posted by timothy on Sunday September 9, 2012 @06:28AM from the waiting-on-the-verticals dept.

AdmiralXyz writes "Even the darkest corners of the internet aren't immune to the Web 2.0 boom: BoingBoing reports that 4chan is working on the largest codebase update in its history. The new 4chan will include as standard the functionality of popular browser plugins for using the site, as well as a JSON API so- hooray?- anyone can have immediate access to the contents of 4chan for any purpose they like. This represents a significant update to the heretofore haphazard development process of 4chan, and opens up the possibility of third-party 4chan apps... though probably not on the App Store."

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Uh oh... by MindPrison · 2012-09-09 06:33 · Score: 5, Interesting

You got to love it when 4Chan makes a headline here on Slashdot...
I never saw that coming, seriously...I didn't.

--
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
They were pretty much forced to by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-09 06:39 · Score: 4, Interesting

They were pretty much forced to go the JSON API route. Every power user of 4chan (which is pretty everybody) uses the 4chan x extension, that pounds the servers for thread updates (it downloads the complete page and parses it every 10 seconds (default is 30, but most change it to 10 for doing well in troll chess)).