Chans: Various internet message boards that allow the board to be split into sub-boards (channels, hence “4-chan” or “8-chan”) dedicated to particular topics. They have a lot more than just four or eight (though the eight is actually supposed to stand for the infinity symbol turned sideways) different channels, though. For a long time, these were the most unregulated parts of the internet, and not only catered to fans of mainstream things like sports teams, but also to the most obscure and deviant types as well (including fetishes, child porn, and other vile and disgusting subjects). It is the Mos Eisley spaceport of the World Wide Web (Obiwan Kenobi: “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villiany...”).
Top kek: The massively multiplayer online video game World of Warcraft is separated into two competing factions. In global chat, in order to enforce separation of the factions, anything typed by the opposing faction to yours will get translated into gibberish (simulating a different language), usually by means of simple letter replacement (something like the “a” is changed to “f”, the “b” to an “m”, etc.). Players quickly noticed that the internet slang “LOL,” meaning “Laugh out-loud” was changed via replacement to KEK. So it showed your geek credentials to respond to posts with “kek” instead of “lol,” with “top” simply meaning an extreme amount of laughter.
Thank you so much. As I said, there is a big world out there, and many giant parts of it are unmapped wilderness to me.