# Sage Sage is an imageboard slang term posted in the email or Options field of a reply to keep the thread from bumping to the top of the catalog. The practice crossed from Japan's 2channel to 4chan by early 2006, when animator Brian "Okk" Raddatz gave the concept a cape-wearing mascot in the flash short Sage Man[1]. It stuck as one of the oldest pieces of chan etiquette still baked into 4chan's software. ## Origin The mechanic came from 2channel, the Japanese text board that inspired 4chan and Futaba Channel. "Sage" is a shortening of the Japanese verb "sageru" (下げる), which means "to lower"[3]. Typing it into the email field of a reply told the board not to bump the thread, and the convention carried over when 4chan copied Futaba's software. The earliest documented 4chan-facing appearance of the practice is the flash short Sage Man by animator Brian "Okk" Raddatz, hosted on 4chan itself[7] and mirrored to Newgrounds by user NCH on January 21, 2006[1]. The short gave the concept a cape-wearing mascot and had racked up over 36,300 Newgrounds views by 2020[1]. - **Platform:** 2channel (Japan) / 4chan (Western spread) - **Creator:** Unknown (practice inherited from 2channel); Brian "Okk" Raddatz created the Sage Man flash mascot - **Date:** 2006 ## Overview The word functions as both a posting flag and a piece of board etiquette. Typing "sage" into a reply's email field, or the Options field on modern 4chan, tells the software not to bump the thread to the top of the catalog[3]. The opposite is "age", which covers any normal reply that does bump. Users sage for a handful of reasons: to reply to a thread they think is bad without rewarding it with visibility, to add a low-effort comment they don't want pushing the thread up, or, on Japanese boards especially, to signal that their own post isn't worth the bump[5]. Sage also picked up a life as a trolling tool, with some 4chan users saging threads they actually like just for the joke[5]. On the Russian imageboard 2ch (двач), the word got renamed "sazha" because the English "sage" (the herb) sounded like the Russian word for soot (translated from Russian)[6]. ## How to Use On 4chan the common convention is to type the word "sage" (lowercase, no quotes) into the Options field of the reply form before posting. The reply still posts and still counts, it just does not bump the thread back to the top of the catalog[4]. Any other value, or an empty field, is treated as "age" and bumps as normal. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Sage? Sage is a slang word posted in the email or Options field of a 4chan reply that stops the thread from bumping to the top of the catalog[3]. ### Where did Sage come from? It came from the Japanese text board 2channel and its clone Futaba Channel, then crossed over to 4chan, with the earliest known 4chan-side appearance being the flash short Sage Man in January 2006[1]. ### What does Sage mean? The word is a shortening of the Japanese verb "sageru" (下げる), meaning "to lower", a reference to lowering the thread's spot on the board[3]. ### How do you use Sage? Type the word "sage" into the Options field on 4chan before posting a reply; the reply posts as normal but does not bump the thread[4]. ### Is Sage still popular? Sage is still functional on 4chan after the 2014 email-to-Options field swap[2] and is still documented in the site's official FAQ[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/290714]() 2. [https://blog.4chan.org/post/94542880437/sayonara-e-mail-field-and-delayed-thread-pruning]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sage]() 4. [https://www.4chan.org/faq#sage]() 5. [https://www.lurkmore.com/view/Age_and_Sage]() 6. [https://lurkmore.to/Sage]() 7. [https://www.4chan.org/flash?file=SageMan.swf]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/sage Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library