The Rules of the Internet, Explained Rule by Rule
The Rules of the Internet are a tongue-in-cheek list of "laws" about online life that came out of 4chan's /b/ board in 2006–2007. Some of them, like Rule 33 ("Lurk moar") and Rule 34, became permanent internet vocabulary. Others only make sense if you were on /b/ that year.
Below is the full 47-rule list as it was widely copied in 2007, grouped by theme. Each rule comes with its original wording, what it meant, and our take on whether it's Still alive, Mutated into something else, or Aged out. Profanity is starred out; everything else is as written.
What Are the Rules of the Internet?
Born on 4chan's /b/ (2006–2007)
The rules started as in-jokes on 4chan and Anonymous-related IRC channels. An entry was submitted to Encyclopedia Dramatica in late 2006 and archived on January 10, 2007, and a set of fifty rules was posted to 4chan on February 15, 2007. The list mixes real board etiquette, running memes and deliberately absurd "laws", written in the voice of the board itself.
Why there's no "official" list
Nobody owned the list, so everyone edited it. The 47-rule version below is the one most copies descend from, but you will find lists that stop at 50, lists that run past 100, and wikis with hundreds of fan-added entries. That's why the same number can mean different things in different places. Rule 33 is a good example, and its page covers the alternatives.
The Famous Five: Quick Reference
Short on time? These are the rules people actually still quote.
| Rule | Says | Why it lasted |
|---|---|---|
| #1 & 2 | Do not talk about /b/ | The Fight Club opener everyone remembers. |
| #14 | Do not argue with trolls | Became the universal "don't feed the trolls". |
| #33 | Lurk moar | Read before you post. Still good advice. |
| #34 | There is porn of it, no exceptions | The most famous internet rule, full stop. |
| #63 | Gender-swapped versions of every character | A later addition that fandom adopted wholesale. |
Rules 1–2: Don't Talk About /b/
The list opens with a straight parody of Fight Club's first two rules. The joke was that /b/, 4chan's random board, was a secret club everybody already knew about.
- #1
“Do not talk about /b/”
What happens on /b/ stays on /b/.
Mutated - #2
“Do NOT talk about /b/”
The emphatic repeat, straight from Fight Club.
Mutated
Rules 3–9: “We Are Anonymous”
Every 4chan post defaulted to the name "Anonymous", so users joked that they were one giant collective. The phrases later became the slogan of the Anonymous hacktivist movement, which grew out of the same boards around 2008.
- #3
“We are Anonymous”
Everyone posting without a name is part of one hive mind.
Mutated - #4
“Anonymous is legion”
There are a lot of us.
Mutated - #5
“Anonymous never forgives”
Cross the board and it holds a grudge.
Mutated - #6
“Anonymous can be a horrible, senseless, uncaring monster”
The crowd has no conscience.
Mutated - #7
“Anonymous is still able to deliver”
…but occasionally it pulls off something impressive.
Mutated - #8
“There are no real rules about posting”
A rules list that admits it isn't enforceable.
Aged out - #9
“There are no real rules about moderation either - enjoy your ban”
Mods ban whoever they like, whenever they like.
Still alive
Rules 10–19: Trolls, Arguments & Epic Fails
The middle of the list is about arguing online, and how pointless it is. Several of these outlived the board that wrote them.
- #10
“If you enjoy any rival sites - DON'T”
Loyalty to the board, no cheating on it.
Aged out - #11
“All your carefully picked arguments can easily be ignored”
Effort doesn't win internet arguments.
Still alive - #12
“Anything you say can and will be used against you”
Screenshots are forever.
Still alive - #13
“Anything you say can be turned into something else - fixed”
Your words will be edited into a joke at your expense.
Still alive - #14
“Do not argue with trolls - it means that they win”
Don't feed the trolls.
Still alive - #15
“The harder you try the harder you will fail”
Trying too hard online is its own punchline.
Still alive - #16
“If you fail in epic proportions, it may just become a winning failure”
A big enough fail becomes a meme, and memes are wins.
Mutated - #17
“Every win fails eventually”
Nothing stays funny or popular forever.
Still alive - #18
“Everything that can be labeled can be hated”
Name a fandom and someone hates it.
Still alive - #19
“The more you hate it the stronger it gets”
Hate-watching is still engagement.
Still alive
Rules 20–26: Nothing Is Serious, Everything Is a Repost
These rules describe how content moves online, and they read even more accurately in the age of algorithmic feeds than they did in 2007.
- #20
“Nothing is to be taken seriously”
Irony is the default tone.
Still alive - #21
“Original content is original only for a few seconds before getting old”
OC gets copied almost instantly.
Still alive - #22
“Copypasta is made to ruin every last bit of originality”
Copy-pasted text drowns out anything new.
Still alive - #23
“Copypasta is made to ruin every last bit of originality”
Rule 22 again, word for word. The duplicate is widely read as the joke itself.
Still alive - #24
“Every repost is always a repost of a repost”
There is no original post; it's reposts all the way down.
Still alive - #25
“Relation to the original topic decreases with every single post”
Threads drift.
Still alive - #26
“Any topic can easily be turned into something totally unrelated”
…and can be steered off-topic on purpose.
Still alive
Rules 27–32: The Rules That Aged Badly
This stretch reflects the male-dominated, often hostile culture of mid-2000s imageboards. Most of it has aged badly, and the jokes about women online are widely seen as the list at its worst. One rule escaped and became genuinely useful: Rule 32.
- #27
“Always question a person's sexual preferences without any real reason”
Baseless teasing as a reflex.
Aged out - #28
“Always question a person's gender - just in case it's really a man”
Assume nobody is who they claim to be.
Aged out - #29
“In the internet all girls are men and all kids are undercover FBI agents”
Online identities can't be trusted.
Mutated - #30
“There are no girls on the internet”
A dismissive joke that aged out as the internet became everyone's.
Aged out - #31
“T*ts or GTFO - the choice is yours”
A crude demand aimed at women who revealed their gender. Now mostly cited as an example of what was wrong with old /b/.
Aged out - #32
“You must have pictures to prove your statements”
Claims need evidence. Survives as "pics or it didn't happen".
Still alive
Rules 33–36: Lurk Moar, Rule 34 and Its Sequels
The most famous block of the list. Rule 33 is advice, Rule 34 is the one everybody knows, and Rules 35 and 36 double down on it.
Rule 34: "There is porn of it. No exceptions." It is the best-known rule on the list, and it's older than the list. The line comes from an August 2003 webcomic by Peter Morley-Souter, drawn after he was shocked to find explicit parody art of Calvin and Hobbes. The 4chan rulebook picked it up a few years later, and it stuck around long after most of the other rules were forgotten. Today it's shorthand for a simple observation: if a character is popular, someone has drawn it. It also gave its name to the image archives whose per-character post counts are the numbers our game asks you to guess.
Rule 33 gets less attention, but it's the most useful rule on the list. Read what Rule 33 of the internet means.
- #33
“Lurk more - it's never enough”
Read a community before you post in it.
Still alive - #34
“There is porn of it, no exceptions”
If something exists, someone has drawn explicit art of it.
Still alive - #35
“If no porn is found at the moment, it will be made”
Rule 34's gaps get filled on request.
Still alive - #36
“There will always be even more f***ed up sh*t than what you just saw”
The internet has no bottom.
Still alive
Rules 37–47: The Weird Leftovers
The tail end of the list is a grab bag of in-jokes, many of them tied to specific 2006-era 4chan memes. A few are still quoted; most need a history lesson.
- #37
“You can not divide by zero (just because the calculator says so)”
Some limits are real, even here.
Mutated - #38
“No real limits of any kind apply here - not even the sky”
…but everything else is fair game.
Aged out - #39
“CAPSLOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL”
Typing in all caps doesn't make you right. Still a famous one-liner.
Still alive - #40
“EVEN WITH CRUISE CONTROL YOU STILL HAVE TO STEER”
The punchline to Rule 39.
Mutated - #41
“Desu isn't funny. Seriously guys. It's worse than Chuck Norris jokes.”
A complaint about "desu" spam floods on 2006-era 4chan.
Aged out - #42
“Nothing is Sacred.”
Any subject can be joked about.
Still alive - #43
“The more beautiful and pure a thing is - the more satisfying it is to corrupt it”
Wholesome things attract the most parody.
Still alive - #44
“Even one positive comment about Japanese things can make you a weaboo”
Anime fans get labeled fast.
Mutated - #45
“When one sees a lion, one must get into the car.”
A non-sequitur whose exact origin is disputed.
Aged out - #46
“There is always furry porn of it.”
A narrower Rule 34.
Still alive - #47
“The pool is always closed.”
A callback to /b/'s Habbo Hotel raids, where avatars blocked the pool.
Aged out
Beyond the Original List: Rule 63 and Later Additions
Later, expanded versions of the list kept adding numbers. The one that stuck is Rule 63: "For every given male character, there is a female version of that character; conversely for every given female character, there is a male version." Fandom adopted it wholesale, and "Rule 63" is still the everyday term for gender-swapped fan art. Most other late additions never caught on outside the lists they were written for.
Related Internet “Laws” That Aren't on the List
People searching for the rules of the internet are often thinking of these, which come from elsewhere:
Godwin's Law
Coined by attorney Mike Godwin in 1990: as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison to Nazis or Hitler approaches one. It predates 4chan by more than a decade.
Poe's Law
Named after Nathan Poe, who described it on a forum in 2005: without a clear signal of intent, a parody of an extreme view is indistinguishable from the real thing. It's the reason "/s" exists.
Which Rules Still Matter Today?
By our count, here's how the original 47 have held up:
- 25Still alive
- 12Mutated
- 10Aged out
The pattern is clear. The rules about how content spreads (reposts, thread drift, trolls, screenshots) describe today's social feeds better than they described 2007 forums. The rules about who was allowed online have aged out, and deserve to. And a handful, led by Rule 34, have escaped the list entirely and become part of the language.
Rules of the Internet FAQ
How many Rules of the Internet are there?
The most widely copied early version has 47 rules. A version claiming fifty rules was posted to 4chan in February 2007, and later fan-made lists run past 100. There is no official count.
Who made the Rules of the Internet?
Anonymous users on 4chan and related IRC channels. The list was documented on Encyclopedia Dramatica in late 2006 and archived in January 2007. No single author is known, except for Rule 34, which predates the list.
Where did Rule 34 come from?
An August 2003 webcomic by Peter Morley-Souter (TangoStari), captioned "Rule #34 There is porn of it. No exceptions." He drew it after being shocked to find explicit Calvin and Hobbes parody art. The 4chan list adopted the line later.
What is Rule 63?
Rule 63 comes from later, expanded lists: "For every given male character, there is a female version of that character; conversely for every given female character, there is a male version." Fans still use "Rule 63" as shorthand for gender-swapped fan art.
See Rule 34 in Numbers
Rule 34 is the only rule on this list you can actually measure. Rule34 Game turns those post counts into a higher or lower guessing game: two characters, one post count shown, and you guess whether the other is higher or lower. The Daily Challenge has 10 new rounds every day, the same for every player. Curious about the rule that comes right before it? Read what Rule 33 of the internet means.