Evolution of Anonymous

As many of you are aware, and for those of you who aren't, Anonymous began as a satire on the unruly, chaotic nature of the Internet. All of this is discussed in The Anonymous Meta-Agreement. I apologize in advance for the tl;dr (Too Long; Didn't Read) nature of this post, but this is all very important for clarification and figuring out how to get everyone who is here on the same page.

Anonymous has been alive as a concept since 2004. During the seven years of its life as an idea, it has evolved through successive phases into what we see today. And this evolution is continuing.

The first phase of Anonymous, the *chan Anonymous, that is, the Anonymous that was conceived and embraced by users of 4chan /b/, then 7chan /b/, and then 711chan, 420chan, the Partyvan Wiki, etc., necessarily carried with it elements of those communities. One of these elements was referring to everyone as some sort of *fag. Newfag, oldfag, modfag, lulzfag, etc. I acknowledge that this tradition of referring to everyone as a *fag is extremely juvenile, immature, and hateful, and can be chalked up to those who saw Anonymous the concept and, with little respect for its power, imposed upon it their own South-Park-style turns of phrase. Yet we still should respect the fact that Anonymous would not exist at all if not for them. The era of the *chan Anonymous morphed into something else at the dawn of Project Chanology, out of an organic development of a collective realization of what could be accomplished with this idea.

The second phase of the development of Anonymous I will call the Chanology Anonymous. This period was marked by a civil war between those who saw the concept of Anonymous as a means to do good works and bring about positive change in the world, in the form of activism against the cult of Scientology, and those who saw Anonymous as their own prized possession, their own power game, an idea that no one else who didn't accept the channer way of life on the Internet could share in, or even have their own idea about. This era of the Chanology Anonymous, the great Anonymous civil war, and the subsequent wars between communities that held conflicting ideals, has lasted for about three years.

The real turning point in this war was marked by the Iranian protests in 2009, when Anonymous found wider appeal in causes to prevent the censorship of the Internet itself. I, myself, was a key player in this war on the *channer front, running trolling/Counter-Intelligence interference against these *channer groups who wanted to organize Denial of Service attacks against Chanology Anonymous websites, such as WhyWeProtest.net. Everyone should note that this *channer form of Anonymous is still active in many places, most especially in 711chan.org and the Partyvan Wiki at partyvan.info. They could still be a threat to us. In addition, we still carry with us, here on this forum, many who were around for that *channer phase, and still reminisce about the fun that was had during that period. The umbrella of Anonymous is widening, and as it widens, we can't leave out those *channers who are intelligent enough to know when we need to be serious and when it's ok to have fun.

The third phase of the evolution of Anonymous, which I will call the AntiSec Anonymous began in earnest with the Wikileaks US State Department cable leak, which resulted in attacks by world governments and credit card companies against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. With this apparent attempt at censorship, the Streisand Effect sprang into motion once again, and we witnessed the Operation Payback of AnonyOps, a coordinated Denial of Service campaign against the major credit card companies, as well as a coordinated effort to distribute and digest the leaked State Department cables. During this phase, of note, we have also witnessed the rise of LulzSec, their astonishing string of hacks against symbols of government and corporate corruption, and the leaks of some very damning information. Thanks to the actions of AnonyOps and LulzSec, we can now proudly inherit the evolved idea of Anonymous in the form of AntiSec, and everything that it stands for:

We level the playing field by making information free, and we do it for the lulz.

Here on What Is The Plan, we are carrying out the third phase of Anonymous, which will see the development of Anonymous into its full potential as an agent of positive change in the world. To paraphrase Thomas Paine, "We have it in our power to create Anonymous anew." The events of this AntiSec phase have presented to us a unique opportunity in the history of Anonymous, the Internet, and although it risks sounding presumptuous, of humanity itself. In this phase we are welcoming with open arms newcomers to the idea of Anonymous, while we are still fully aware of its history.

To quote George Orwell, "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." As a movement, we are going to be lambasted and smeared by the mainstream media, because those who control the media are part and parcel of the very same System against which we have declared war. In other words, they have a vested interest in ensuring that the Anonymous movement does not garner a wider appeal than it already has.

There are some elements of the historical culture of those who held Anonymous the idea in common that are no longer necessary, and are indeed detrimental to our cause. Yet, many of the ideas that were developed in the *channer culture can still be useful to us. This I have demonstrated with the development of the culture of the /b/ board on What Is The Plan.

Trolling is a tool that can be used for good or for evil, or indeed, for any purpose to which it applies. For us, trolling can be useful in order to quickly and efficiently expose individuals who have Unwarranted Self Importance, and who may cause drama farther down the line. With 18,000 users and growing, this community is moving at a very rapid pace, and we need to weed out the troublemakers we will inevitably attract just as rapidly.

Lulz, a very biting and satirical sense of humor, similar to the German concept of Schaudenfreude, or laughing at someone's expense, is useful for the purpose of a community, simply because a community needs to be entertained. People need a reason to keep coming back, above and beyond the serious work we have set out to do. If we don't find ways to have fun, we will risk burning out quite rapidly. I was a part of Project Chanology for the full course, I've seen it happen. People burn out and turn into monsters, cause drama, and "ragequit", usually in a drama storm that leads to others burning out and quitting as well.

For the purposes of organizing ourselves as a movement, Anonymous as an idea is so elegant yet so well-developed, that it either contains within it everything that we will need to organize as a global movement, or provides us avenues of further developing this idea. We no longer have to call users "newfag, oldfag, modfag". Just as surely as we don't have to understand Tibetan culture to understand Buddhism, we don't have to understand *chan culture to understand Anonymous. But this begs the question, what do we call users now? Do we call them Anons? This is what I propose:

Admin of Anonymous - The true philosophical leaders of the ideological construct of Anonymous; those who understand the life of Internet communities and Anonymous the idea so well that they are capable of further evolving and developing this idea so as to better facilitate the organizing and conducting of operations towards the end of Leveling the playing field by making information free. Anonymous is an idea, and those who understand this idea the best, as well as how to leverage the community effectively with this idea, become the leaders. The admin leads not by doing, but by facilitating, and understanding that a website belongs to its community.

Moderator of Anonymous - Those who have been so active and influential for the purposes of organized operations that they become teachers of Anonymous, by their example

OP of Anonymous (Original Poster) - Those who have lurked so well that they are capable of organizing operations in the spirit of Anonymous

Anonymous - Those who have lurked sufficiently so that their posts won't "fail" and end up in the /b/asement. Self-aware Anonymous.

Lurker - Those who need to "Lurk Moar" and integrate themselves into the community. Also those who are not yet self-aware Anonymous.

We are no longer *channers.
We are no longer Project Chanology.
We are the third phase of Anonymous.
We are evolving this idea of Anonymous to its full potential as an agent of change, and we fully realize and accept that it is an idea that anyone can share in, or even have their own idea about.

As a new person to this site I am overwhelmed by the intelligence. Its nice to see people my age sharing their vision. In my opinion, Anonymous needs to gain support by doing the right things. I do understand that there are people out for their own empowerment. We will always have that factor in the mix anyway you slice it without enforcing the simple rules of common sense. The problem I see (right or wrong) is below.

I see people attacking computer systems and threatening Government websites. By doing this, they are triggering a National Security Alert. By using the name "Anonymous" in doing so, makes us all guilty and we are fair game to those government defenders. That is a list you don't want to be on. That is not a fear statement, its a fact. We cannot beat fire with fire. We must flow like water.

There are going to be times when we feel like giving up. That is not an option. The Revolution must be non-violent although many will try to trigger a fight. We can not let that happen. If we can figure out how to do good things in the peoples mind, we gain support worldwide. If others attack we lose support and damage the Anonymous idea forever. Remember it takes 3 "at a boys" (at least) to fix 1 "ah shit". So the question I ask you is, what can we do to help the people without breaking the rules?

Just reading these posts tells me there is a internal battle going on in Anonymous. I am not here to tell you all how to think. I think your all smart enough to think for yourselves. So how can I help? I am working on ideas to add to these posts but they must be carefully thought out and I cant just blurt them out at this time. When I have a solid idea, I will share it. Sometimes it pays to just listen for awhile so that is where I am at right now. Keep posting because you all are inspiring me. Thank you.

Yes,, there is an [I think eternal] war within Anonymous. This is nothing new. And it is always a superficial threat that someone claiming to act in the name of Anon will cause harm.

But the flip side is that Anonymous is an idea, nothing more. I have recently seen Anons take down other Anons because they strayed too far from the idea, but within the idea, there is a lot of room for debate.

Anonymous is a different...well...culture [I guess that word will do]. When you start to learn the culture (and I'm definitely still learning) then you start to understand that it is an idea of personal/individual action and responsibility, entwined as one. You cannot be Anonymous and NOT share an opinion. You cannot be Anonymous and expect solidarity. Anonymous is NOT your friend. Anonymous is NOT your personal army. All is gauged by the power of the idea, by the idea of Anonymous and by the individual ideas presented. You can be nothing in Anonymous, and then spark a revolution. Or you can be everything but then pwned in a minute. This is the power of the collective. This is the power of the hivemind. It does not forgive. It does not forget.

When you 'expect it', then you can find yourself on the side of powerlessness, or the side of utmost power. And eventually, when the purposes begin to collide, you realize there is no difference