Tommaso Casaburi
3c3236c0bd
Explain why emoji render as raw Unicode but get no picker, shortcode/emote system, or Twemoji styling: imageboard expressive norms (greentext, reaction images, kaomoji/ASCII art), emoji as an outsider marker, and structural-not-cosmetic differentiation from 4chan. Add the matching DESIGN.md guardrail and regenerate the LLM index.
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Product
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product
Users
5chan is for people who already understand classic imageboards, especially users whose habits depend on dense boards, terse navigation, reply flows, catalog scanning, familiar colors, and old-school post mechanics. The primary user should be able to land on 5chan and feel that the interface behaves like an imageboard they already know.
Secondary users include board owners, board moderators, and contributors building decentralized features around Bitsocial. Their tools should still feel native to the same imageboard environment instead of becoming a separate admin dashboard aesthetic.
Product Purpose
5chan exists to preserve the classic imageboard habit while removing the dependency on global admins. It keeps the familiar imageboard directory structure and browsing experience, but runs on the Bitsocial protocol so anyone can create, own, and moderate boards independently.
Success means experienced imageboard users do not need to relearn how to browse, post, reply, search, use catalogs, read threads, or understand board identity. The decentralization should matter structurally, but it should not make the core user experience feel unfamiliar.
Brand Personality
5chan should feel familiar, blunt, resilient, and low-friction. It is not polished in the startup sense. It should feel like a functional old internet place that kept its original interface discipline while replacing the governance layer underneath.
The voice is plain and direct. Prefer short labels, conventional imageboard wording, and visible system behavior over explanatory product copy.
Anti-references
Do not make 5chan look like a modern social network, crypto app, SaaS dashboard, mobile-first content platform, or polished community product. Avoid feed algorithms, engagement framing, large hero layouts, decorative cards, rounded modern controls, soft gradients, animated brand flourishes, and "Web3" visual language.
Do not modernize classic imageboard affordances unless there is a concrete usability, accessibility, or protocol-driven reason. When 5chan needs custom decentralized features, they should look like they belong inside the existing classic imageboard UI.
Do not imply official affiliation with any existing imageboard. The design goal is alignment with long-standing imageboard user expectations, not brand ownership or endorsement.
Text and Expression
5chan adds no emoji affordances: no emoji picker, no shortcode or custom-emote system, and no Twemoji-style emoji styling. Emoji a user types or pastes pass through as raw, unstyled Unicode, neither encouraged nor blocked — the same posture 4chan itself takes, which renders Unicode but ships no emoji tooling.
This is deliberate. On imageboards the expressive vocabulary is greentext, reaction images, and text faces (kaomoji and ASCII / Shift-JIS art), not graphical emoji. Heavy emoji use reads as an outsider, other-platform, or phone-poster marker, and persistent personal-expression tokens cut against the anonymous, no-personal-branding norm the format depends on. The native surfaces — greentext, image replies, and plain-Unicode text faces — already do what emoji do elsewhere.
It is also strategic. 5chan improves on classic imageboards structurally — independent board ownership, no global admins, the Bitsocial protocol underneath — not by modernizing the posting experience. Imageboard history is consistent: "more modern UX" does not win users and erodes the authenticity that does, and an emoji picker is exactly that kind of modernization. With no global admins to run wordfilters or per-board character rules, the norm holds simply by not building the affordances and by leaving emoji as plain Unicode; board-level moderation can address the rest.
Design Principles
- Classic parity first. For boards, threads, posts, replies, catalogs, post forms, navigation, and theme behavior, familiar imageboard behavior is the baseline.
- Preserve muscle memory. Existing imageboard users should not have to learn new interaction patterns for familiar tasks.
- Make decentralization invisible until it matters. Board ownership, competing directories, Bitsocial addresses, and moderation differences should be clear when relevant, but should not dominate routine browsing.
- Custom features inherit the old UI language. Passes, board creation, mod queues, challenges, subscriptions, and directory competition should use compact, flat, text-first imageboard patterns.
- Favor density over polish. The interface should optimize for scanning, comparison, and repeated use, not marketing impact.
Accessibility & Inclusion
Keep the nostalgic interface, but do not use nostalgia as an excuse for broken accessibility. Preserve keyboard access, readable focus states, sufficient contrast within each theme, reduced-motion safety, predictable tab order, and responsive behavior on mobile.
When accessibility improvements conflict with exact visual parity, choose the smallest adjustment that fixes the usability issue while preserving the classic imageboard feel.