Mojang Studios has scrubbed a decade-old reference to 4chan from the Java version of Minecraft.
The loading screen splash text "Woo, /v/!" has been in Minecraft: Java Edition for over 10 years—a reference to the large part the imageboard site played in the game's initial success. Markus "Notch" Persson promoted the game heavily on 4chan, garnering a large amount of attention on the videogame topic /v/ board and contributing towards Minecraft's popularity (thanks, Kotaku). The reference never made it outside the Java version of the game.
The text is now gone though, with the change happening with the May 27 release of ver.1.17. Its removal isn't mentioned in the official patch notes, but those over on the Minecraft wiki documented the change after combing through the game's files.
The removal perhaps isn't a huge surprise—4chan has a solid reputation for being a cesspit of vitriol, bigotry, and general uncool behaviour. There's also some pretty NSFW stuff over there, making 4chan pretty low down on the "sites we should promote in a game mostly played by young children" list.
It's not the first time Mojang has pulled some potentially questionable splash text from Minecraft's Java version. The studio quietly plucked references to the game's creator Notch a couple of years ago. Since selling Mojang to Microsoft in 2014, the developer has made several homophobic and sexist comments on social media, which led to him being widely criticised.
