The concept of the anonymous board was born on the Japanese site 2channel in 1999 (Ayashii actually, but who cares). The essential idea is that every poster is completely anonymous. The board may be strictly text or it may be image and text (commonly referred to as an imageboard).
This means the site has no registration and no barriers, anyone can post at any time instantly; in addition to this, anyone may view any part of the site freely without attaching themselves to a specific name. Beyond the ease of user, users can no longer be judged by their name and instead can only be judged by their individual comments. Hiroyuki, the creator of 2channel, said this in regard to anonymous posting:
Another reason to begin posting on anonymous boards is the unique community and culture all boards seem to have. The ability to post anonymously allows for people to voice what they really feel or make comments/jokes about things that are normally taboo. They also develop numerous inside jokes which one will find often become more humorous than any normal joke could.
Forget everything you learned posting on any other type of forum/board. This is something you MUST do. Anonymous boards are NOT like the rest of the internet. You must come onto an anonymous board with an open mind and a willingness to spend time reading posts BEFORE posting yourself. There is an expectation that you will conform to and learn the board's culture. A common example is emoticons; many users are used to making kaomoji/emoticons such as ^_^ but these are not as popular elsewhere. You can learn all of this and more by reading the air of the board. Also remember that ANYTHING can be posted and thus chances are you will be offended by something eventually. After visiting anonymous boards for a while you will begin to be less offended and see why it is silly to be offended by anything as you probably have thoughts you don't say aloud in person that are also offending to others.
After you understand the board and how to post let your creativity run wild! Make witty posts, insightful posts, and any other enjoyable posts you want to make! But, before you post ask yourself "Will other users enjoy my post?" if the answer is no you shouldn't post it. Also do not make posts just to make yourself look good, you can tell us a story about your girlfriend that's INTERESTING or HUMOROUS but don't just make a post saying "Hi I have a girlfriend and we engage in coitus all the time".
On the index page of the textboards, you will see the board's threads. If the thread you are trying to read does not has more posts than it can show on the index, click "Read All" to read all the posts in the thread. To reply to one of these threads, you can type your reply into the Comment box and click "Post" from the post form on the index, or you can open the thread by clicking "Read All" and do the same at the bottom of the index page. Everytime you make a post in a thread, it will rise to the top of the board. This is called an age （上げ）. If you type "sage" （下げ） in the E-Mail field for your post, the thread will not rise to the top of the board. To start a new discussion, go to the bottom of the page to the "New Thread" form. Here you must put something in the "Subject" field, this is where you should put the main idea of the thread. Fill out the comment box then solve the captcha verification, click "Create new thread", and your thread will be created.
To post on the imageboard, click the "Reply" link beside the thread you wish to post in, type your reply in the Comment field (the other fields are optional), and click "Submit". To sage the thread and not send it to the top of the index page, type "sage" in the Link field when replying. To create a thread on the imageboard, do the same but on the index page, you must include an image when creating a new thread and it is more common to fill out the Subject field as well.
If you would like to reply and reference another post in a thread on either of these two above, simply enter the thread and click the post number (Ex. "14" on textboards and "No.4229" on imageboards), and that post will be mentioned in your reply. You can also do this manually by typing ">>" and then the number of post you're replying to.
Many anonymous boards provide a "Name" field and an "E-mail" field. You are simply expected not to fill in the field if your identity is not relevant to the discussion. The E-mail field is used primarily for the "sage" function, and only very rarely is it actually used to display someones E-mail. In anonymous boards, names are used only when the identity of the speaker is relevant to the discussion, but you may occasionally see regulars posting under a nickname.
To avoid impersonation when this risk matters, a tripcode system is frequently provided by the site: add a '#' followed by up to 8 characters at the end of the name field, and the part after the '#' will be displayed in a crypted form unique to each different combination of characters. For example, typing "Nameless#example" in the name field will show up as "Nameless!KtW6XcghiY" in your posts. You don't have to use a name with a tripcode, the tripcode can be used alone. ("#tripcode" = "!3GqYIJ3Obs")
For textboards, you can also type "fusianasan" in the Name field, and your IP address will be displayed in place of a name. This is useful if you want to be absolutely sure nobody else can impersonate you, unless they coincidentally live in your home.
If you actually need to use a tripcode, you will first need to know a few things:
Here is a good rule to pick a strong tripcode: make your tripcode exactly 8 characters long, with a few random, meaningless letters, a few random, meaningless numbers, and some of the following symbols: $ - + / ; @ ^
Examples: #f6/a8@g9, #uh-1-m13, #vbv3$$44
(It's also possible to put in Japanese characters, just make sure you will be able to retype them.)
Most importantly, have fun and ENJOY your board. I think everyone will find that once you are a part of an anonymous board it will be very difficult to go back to the regular internet as there is not a community quite like this anywhere else. You won't regret it!
This text comes from SAoVQ. Modified for use on world2ch.