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Anthem: "The Wind Whistles" "Fischia il Vento"
Slogan: "Through Dick, Unity." | |||||||||
| Preceded By | 4chan's /int/ board | ||||||||
| Launch Date | 4 February, 2013 | ||||||||
| Reason For Creation | Flag collecting discussion | ||||||||
| Most Active Board | /ref/ | ||||||||
| Official Language | English | ||||||||
| Demonym | /ref/ugee, flaggot | ||||||||
| Affiliations | IBM5100 (former) | ||||||||
| URL | http://www.getchan.net/ref/ | ||||||||
/ref/ (Full name: Refugees' Soviet Socialist Camp) is a general-themed, discussion-oriented board on GETchan. While it was an independent imageboard it was the sixth member of the United Chans from 22 July, 2013 until it merged into GETchan.
Flag collecting[]
Flag collecting is a competitive imageboard game that came into existence when flags were first introduced on 4chan. On 4chan's /int/ and /sp/ boards, users' posts contain a flag next to their name that shows which country the user is posting from. This is based on IP address, so it is possible to exploit through proxies and VPNs. The images are savable, so when a flag collector comes across a new flag, they save it and add it to their collection. Many flag collectors also paste their flags onto a world map and color in the countries they have so that they can compare their collections to the collections of other users. Getting a flag through a method other than the one stated here is frowned upon and seen as cheating. This means that sharing flags or saving them from the 4chan database or any other site are completely off limits. It is, however, allowed to save flags that are obviously proxied. Some users even separate their legitimate flags and their proxied flags in their collections to add even more autism. While some rules are universal, some rules are up to the collector. Some people save flags exclusively from one board, though most save from both.
Humble beginnings[]
/ref/ was created on 4 February, 2013 by an /int/ user by the name of Boris Grishenko. He created /ref/ as a place for flag discussion, as well as a refugee camp for those who had suffered the wrath of the relentless /int/ janitor. /ref/ is but a small part of what Boris created, however. He also made a flag hunter for both /int/ and later /sp/, as well as a list that updates with the word trends on /int/. Due to the janitor deleting every rare flag he came across, he continued to be a source of displeasure for /ref/. Extreme nationalists also came to be seen in an unfavorable light because of the fact that they would scare posters from rare countries, such as many African countries, away. In an attempt to scare these nationalists off, /ref/ adopted a communist stance. With the exception of a few nationalists trying to change the views of the board during /ref/'s advertisement phase, the system has worked to keep the nationalists away from the chan. /ref/ has been described as having an anarchistic system.
June /int/ Uprising[]
On 18 June, 2013, /int/ was wiped clean of all its threads and some countries were banned without explanation. Many users complained about it on /q/, but to no avail. Some users were even restricted to posting on /q/ because their country was banned on /int/. It is certain that the United Kingdom, Canada, and France were among those banned at some point during the confusion. This led users to rise up against the janitor and the board was filled with communist threads that spoke out against the janitor and nationalists. Due to these nations being banned, this greatly reduced the amount of support that the uprising could have reached. It is estimated that there were about 64 users protesting the janitor during the uprising. The rest were either banned or opposed to the uprising. The main supporter of this uprising was /ref/, which acted as a base of operations for the uprising. Eventually, non-/ref/ posters began to post threads as well. Soon the entire board had it out for the janitor. Threads were deleted for some time, but eventually the flow of threads proved to be too much for the janitor to handle and the threads simply stopped disappearing. Determined to make the entire board red, the /ref/ugees rallied support from the users. No explanation for the wiping of the board and banning of countries was ever given, but everything was back to normal the next day. One thing did change, however. Without warning, the janitor simply seemed to disappear overnight. Whether he decided to be more lenient or he was simply deposed is unknown. This event is remembered with much pride from many /ref/ugees. A similar event, the April /sp/ Uprising, is currently taking place. /ref/, along with GETchan, have joined the outlaws in an attempt to rid the board of the corrupt janitor. Unlike the June /int/ Uprising, the conflict has gone on for multiple days without either side so much as budging. Recently, though, the oulaws have seen numerous victories in the form of what they call "bro culture threads", threads which contain material that used to not be banned but are banned now. The janitor appears to be acting more lenient towards these threads, though there is a rising risk of a civil conflict between the /sp/ users due to the growing reslessness of forces sympathetic to the janitor's regime.
Contact with GETchan[]
The backpack girl of doom
Also in mid-June, /ref/ was discovered by users from GETchan. The two boards quickly formed close bonds due to their shared decidation to imageboard games and communism. On 15 July, 2013, /ref/ disappeared and was replaced with a commercial website featuring a girl with a backpack. /ref/ users were shocked about this sudden development and they made threads on /int/ in order to try and group together. Word of this reached GETchan and the admin made a temporary /ref/ board and gave refuge to the /ref/ugees. He promised that if /ref/ was not up within a day that he would recreate /ref/ and the flag hunter. As soon as a day passed, work began on this project. However, it was abandoned a day later when /ref/ reappeared with Boris saying that he had forgotten to renew the domain. The /ref/ugees were relieved that their board was back, but they were also grateful to the GETchanners for keeping them together and starting work on recreating /ref/. This event seemed to strengthen the bond between the boards and /ref/ joined the United Chans five days later. Recently, in an attempt to increase traffic, /ref/ added two more boards to their chan, /his/ and /news/. GETchan attempted to help /ref/ bring in more traffic by paying for an advertisement on 4chan.
Formation of the USSC[]
Flag of the USSC
Main article: USSC
/ref/ was one of the original three boards to decide to join the USSC, alongside GETchan and /leftypol/. Unlike Lunachan and GETchan, it did not have to go through a rebranding due to the fact that it was already a single board.
Talk of the formation of a union of leftist chans had been going on since early May of 2014, but serious talks began in mid-January of 2015. By 24 January, GETchan, /ref/, and 8chan's /leftypol/ had decided to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Channels. The Union remained a loose confederation rather than merging and the project eventually collapsed on 31 August, 2015.This in combination with the effects of the Era of Stagnation resulted in GETchan being temporarily shut down.
Soon after, /ref/ was shut down for unknown reasons and merged with both the remnants of GETchan as well as Lunachan to form a new GETchan. Today /ref/ is a board on GETchan, though it still faces the stagnation that has troubled it for so long. A /ref/2 was eventually founded on 10 January, 2016 by former user PK, though this board is solely dedicated to the flag collecting aspect and PK himself does not see the board as a successor to /ref/.
Gallery[]
