8chan was gone, but it looks like it is about to return and possibly be re-branded into 8kun -- according to the official Twitter account of 8chan. Check out this tweet, with the video having 277,000 views at the time of writing:
Nothing is official yet, but the video clearly displays '8kun' in different animations -- so we could expect 8kun.com or 8kun.org or 8kun.net to make an appearance, but if you visit 8kun.com you're greeted with an Apache 2 Test Page.
What is 'kun'? Well, it is one of the titles that are given to Japanese people to address each other, in the same wway 'san', 'chan', and 'sama' are used. Kun is the 'informal and mostly used for males, such as boys or juniors at work. It is used by superiors to inferiors, by males of the same age and status to each other, and in addressing male children. In business settings junior women may also be addressed as kun by superiors' according to this website.
Kun is similar to Chan, so the move from 8chan to 8kun makes sense... given that Chan is a "san used to refer to children and female family members, close friends and lovers. The change from san to chan is a kind of "baby talk" in Japanese where "sh" sounds are turned into "ch" sounds, such as chitchai for chiisai, "small"".
San is above them all and the most common honorific title, with San the equivalent of "Mr", "Ms.", "Mrs", and so on.
#WWG1WGA
