Gah! Horrifying. After the slew of "an heros" years ago you think people would do something these days. Perhaps those who are currently on 4chan don't remember? After a couple years is the reset button pressed as older 4channers grow up and the younger ones take over? It's been a while since the last one but not that long. Also, my theory that "you know X is finished once Law & Order covers it" apparently doesn't work in this case.
Someone can write a dissertation about 4Chan, and probably has. Everybody who has roots in the "internet culture", whatever that constitutes, has spent some time on 4Chan, but I don't know anyone that was around back in the day that's still around on it. Maybe it's always refreshing. It'd be interesting to see what the ebb and flow is like. On the flip side of this, people used to make joke posts on 4Chan all the time about committing suicide, however I don't see how they can see someone on fire and assume it's not real.
I really don't know how to process this -_-