I can't believe I'm replying to this. Also too long; didn't read ahead
This is probably going to be the only serious reply to MILKRIBS' so-called "podcast". (I cringed when typing "podcast" by the way; I hate that word.)
Well, I have to say, I listened to the whole thing. Where to start? A lot of the issues that you speak of have plagued 4chan for years, and like many online communities before it, has become a victim of its own "success".
It's a common formula that takes place in the long-term downfall of the quality of discussion on any community. This phenomenon was first noted back in 1993 on Usenet when America Online opened up Usenet access to their customers; the quality of posting on many newsgroups across the realm of Usenet began to decline. This phenomenon was later coined as "Eternal September". (You can read more about "Eternal September" on here
http://wiki.iiichan.net/Eternal_September and Wikipedia article here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September)
Basically, an Eternal September moment has hit 4chan; most on /b/ have referred to it as "The cancer that is killing /b/" and certainly the decline was first and is most notable there. But it's just history repeating itself: 4chan a site that copied a format of forums that was popular in Japan for at least two years (Futaba Channel or
www.2chan.net was founded in 2001) was (at the time) COMPLETELY new to the western Internet world; it was bound to become very popular.
There was a site founded months before the founding of 4chan called "World2ch". This site was to be not just an English but an international website in different languages to bring the anonymous style of forums at
www.2ch.net outside of Japan. World2ch was founded by a guy named RIR7 (basically World2ch's moot) on March 3
rd, 2003. It was mostly textboards but it had a imageboard section with two boards.
Unfortunately, the site didn't last long and died sometime in 2004. Most if not all the World2ch'ers moved on over to 4chan. Nowadays most of them are on various small imageboards and textboards and I'd be very surprised of any of them still visit this site. (If there are any of them still around that is.) You can read more about World2ch here
http://shii.org/knows/World2ch
What I've noticed is that most of the imageboards that have not swayed from their Japanese culture-centered roots actually contain much better discussion than imageboards that have. 4chan is the most notable in this. Of course it has boards like /a/ - Anime & Manga, /jp/ - Japan/General and the various hentai and other Japan culture based imageboards. However, the general attitude around 4chan today is that of dislike or discontent towards the interest of said culture.
I myself don't have immense interest in all aspects of 4chan, however I respect the roots of any community I may become a part of; learning the roots of how 4chan was founded came along with the territory. A bunch of people from the Something Awful forums (specifically the ADTRW sub-forum) used to browse Futaba Channel (
www.2chan.net) as a pastime. moot, of course, had the idea to register (at the time) 4chan.net just so he could have an e-mail address because it looked just like the 2chan.net address. But then he decides to try and start an American (or English-language) version of Futaba Channel since non-Japanese IP addresses and ISPs are disallowed from posting there. Others along side him joined in the project to help make 4chan flourish. Culminating in the 4chan before us today.
To discuss specially about /lounge/, there's a lot of posts on here that are not really notable. I don't hate you MILKRIBS; I don't hate anyone, but a lot of the things you post don't grab much interest from me. I don't know if you're just really naive or going to some truly great lengths at trolling. This "podcast" you've made seems to make you serious about being a positive contributor and a lot of the trolls (not labeling you as one) that I see on 4chan have potential talent, but chose to let it squander by trolling the place instead. I actually kind of feel sorry for them, because I believe some of them don't even realize they're are even doing it. The same could be said for those who decide to stay anonymous and troll instead of posting constructive criticism or being creative.
The low signal-to-noise ratio on some boards on 4chan are to blame, but it's not any single person's fault. Like I stated earlier in my post about "Eternal September" it just isn't really able to be fixed. There's no magical cure that will bring back 4chan to its former glory. 4chan is being the best 4chan it can be, and it is a shame when communities fall like this. So what can be done with the modern 4chan? Put up ads and make money. That's exactly what moot is doing and if I were in his shoes I'd have no other choice but to do the same.
*Sigh...* I don't really have a good way to end this... right now it's 4 AM here, (UTC-5) and I know I haven't exactly written 4chan's greatest post, but this is the truth. I know I can't speak for everyone here, but I'm sure most of you would somewhat agree with what I've written.
Anyway, good night.