Rules of the Internet

The Rules of the Internet are an informal set of guidelines and observations that emerged from early-2000s imageboard culture, primarily 4chan's /b/ board. They are part satire, part genuine observation about how people behave online. Not all numbers are accounted for — some rules were never agreed upon, others were lost or deliberately omitted.

#	Rule	Explanation
0	Don't fuck with cats.	Riffing on humans is okay because a human knows what they're getting into when they log on. Abusing animals for clout, on the other hand, will get you in a lot of trouble.
1	You don't talk about /b/.	There are some places you have to be part of to really appreciate. /b/ is one of them.
2	You DON'T talk about /b/.	A tongue-in-cheek echo of Fight Club. The first two rules forbid any mention of /b/ outside /b/, reinforcing the board's mystique.
3	We are Anonymous.	On the internet everyone is anonymous. It's part of being on the internet.
4	We are legion.	Many stones make a mountain. If we each do our part, we can make a larger impact than you can imagine.
5	We do not forgive, we do not forget.	The internet is forever. Nothing is ever really deleted, so don't be stupid unless you want to be remembered as stupid.
6	Anonymous can be a horrible, senseless, uncaring monster.	Remember G.I.F.T. and the internet troll: someone who deliberately sabotages a forum just to watch its occupants go ballistic.
7	Anonymous is still able to deliver.	If we all pitch in we can do amazing things together. Sometimes all it takes is one person doing something right.
8	There are no real rules about posting.	Site rules vary and nobody can force you to post or not post anything.
9	There are no real rules about moderation either — enjoy your ban.	Caveat to rule 8. The ban hammer is always stronger than you.
10	/b/ is not your personal army.	People tend to go on 4chan expecting others to solve their problems. The posters have better things to do.
11	No matter how much you love debating, keep in mind that no one on the internet debates. Instead they mock your intelligence as well as your parents.	On anonymous boards, logical debate is pointless.
12	Anything you say can and will be used against you.	The internet is forever. All it takes is one person with an incriminating copy.
13	Anything you say can and will be turned into something else.	Remember the G.I.F.T. compounded with the other rules.
14	Do not argue with trolls — it means they win.	Trolls are not interested in genuine debate. The only way to defeat them is to deny them attention.
15	The harder you try, the harder you will fail.	Which is more amazing: failing at making a LEGO elephant or failing at making an elephant-shaped house?
16	If you fail in epic proportions, it may just become a winning failure.	A blunder so spectacular can be re-memed into a win.
17	Every win fails eventually.	Nothing lasts forever. Enjoy your successes but don't dwell on them.
18	Everything that can be labelled can be hated.	No matter what you love there's bound to be someone who doesn't. Labels create judgment.
19	The more you hate it, the stronger it gets.	Hate is pointless.
20	Nothing is to be taken seriously.	If you take anything too seriously you've already lost.
21	Original content is original only for a few seconds before it's no longer original.	People save and repost things they like.
22	Copypasta is made to ruin every last bit of originality.	Every idea is a mutation of another idea.
23	Copypasta is made to ruin every last bit of originality.	Repeated for emphasis, which is itself the point.
24	Every post is always a repost of a repost.	Nothing is truly original.
25	Relation to the original topic decreases with every single post.	Discussions drift from the original subject with every reply.
26	Any topic can be easily turned into something totally unrelated.	Per rules 13 and 25.
27	Always question a person's sexual preferences without any real reason.	Trolling tactic. Not to seek truth.
28	Always question a person's gender — just in case it's really a man.	Anonymity means anyone could be anyone.
29	On the internet men are men, women are also men, and kids are undercover FBI agents.	Gender is a moot point in anonymous settings.
30	Girls do not exist on the internet.	Claiming to be a girl in an anonymous context is usually a bid for attention.
31	Tits or GTFO — the choice is yours.	Proof is demanded; refusal is dismissal.
32	You must have pictures to prove your statements.	Pics or it didn't happen.
33	Lurk more — it's never enough.	When in doubt, read. Your answer is already somewhere.
34	If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.	The most famous rule.
35	If there is no porn of it, porn will be made of it.	Corollary to 34.
36	No matter how fucked up it is, there is always worse than what you just saw.	Escalation is endless.
37	You cannot divide by zero (just because the calculator says so).	Nothing will never become something.
38	No real limits of any kind apply here — not even the sky.	The internet is all the world, both good and bad, in one place.
39	CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL.	A classic meme.
40	EVEN WITH CRUISE CONTROL YOU STILL HAVE TO STEER.	Use your internet wit sparingly and with common sense.
41	Desu isn't funny. Seriously guys. It's worse than Chuck Norris jokes.	Posting something over and over doesn't make a meme. These are "forced memes."
42	Nothing Is Sacred.	No matter what you hold dear, prepare for others who don't care about it. Learn to let go.
43	The more beautiful and pure a thing is — the more satisfying it is to corrupt it.	Trolling thrives on defilement.
44	If it exists, there is a version of it for your fandom... and it has a wiki.	Fandoms reinterpret everything.
45	When one sees a lion, one must get in the car.	JESUS CHRIST IT'S A LION GET IN THE CAR.
46	The internet is SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS.	Remember the MST3K Mantra.
47	The pool is always closed.	Slang for when jerks ruin something good. References the Habbo Hotel raids.
48	The only good hentai is Yuri, that's how the internet works. Only exception may be Vanilla.	Facetious hentai review.
49	No matter what it is, it is somebody's fetish.	No exceptions.
50	A Crossover, no matter how improbable, will eventually happen in fan art or fan fiction.	Audiences eventually mash everything up.
61	Chuck Norris is the exception, no exceptions.	The meme legend is the exception to every exception.
62	It has been cracked and pirated. You can find anything if you look long enough.	Persistence guarantees a free copy surfaces.
63	For every given male character, there is a female version of that character (and vice-versa). And there is always porn of that character.	An extension of Rule 34 for gender-swapped versions.
64	If it exists, it has "LOOOOORRRREE!"	People on the internet love to interpret things as narratives and stories.
65	If it doesn't, there will be.	Corollary to Rule 64.
66	The longer the LORE around something is, the weirder it gets.	What starts as simple fan theories evolves into incomprehensibly complex mythologies.
67	If it has lore, it also has lore from alternate timelines.	Popular fictional universes spawn infinite alternate timeline interpretations.
67/2	90% of fanfiction is the stuff of nightmares.	While 10% might be genuinely good, the vast majority is unintentionally disturbing.
68	Everything has a fandom, everything.	No matter how obscure or mundane.
69	Nice!	The automatic response to seeing the number 69 anywhere on the internet.
70	Do not talk about the 100M GET failure.	References a significant failure in 4chan's GET culture.
72	If a song exists, there's a Megalovania version of it.	The Undertale boss theme has been remixed into everything.
77	The Internet makes you stupid.	Prolonged internet use can lead to shortened attention spans and reduced critical thinking.
78	If something is popular, there's brainrot of it.	Popular content inevitably spawns low-quality derivative content.
79	If something is popular, and there's no brainrot of it, it's coming soon.	Corollary to Rule 78.
80	Gore is always present on the internet.	No matter how family-friendly a platform claims to be.
86	If something has two colors, it can play "Bad Apple!"	If something can show two different states, someone has made it play Bad Apple.

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Citation

Yotam, Kris · Apr 2026

Yotam, Kris. (Apr 2026). Rules of the Internet. krisyotam.com. https://krisyotam.com/blog/culture/rules-of-the-internet

@article{yotam2026rules-of-the-internet,
  title   = "Rules of the Internet",
  author  = "Yotam, Kris",
  journal = "krisyotam.com",
  year    = "2026",
  month   = "Apr",
  url     = "https://krisyotam.com/blog/culture/rules-of-the-internet"
}

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