I haven't been on any of the chan boards in quite a while. I always viewed it as going to a garage sale. There are some incredible researchers with OCD who can get just about anything if it's anywhere online. They can really dig and find the goods. These folks will show their work as well with links or tell you where you can find it yourself. Lot's of crap and garbage too. It, to me, is like going to a garage sale. Gotta sift through the garbage to find the valuables.
I remember the days when Anonymous would post the fruits of some of their labors. Hysterical! Loved the 'I f**k my goat" themes they did to certain Twitter accounts. Those were the days.
The garage sale is a good analogy. i remember a line in a book (about intel in Vietnam) where the main character was characterized as sifting through the sewage to get the job done. That line stuck in my head