What Ever Happened to Q?
Divining fact from fiction in a conspiracy's wake
Q-related trivia
5 predictions Q got right and 5 that Q got wrong
Picture a digital bulletin board where faceless strangers swap secrets without names—an anonymous message board like 4chan, where anyone can post ideas, wild or mundane, shielded by a cloak of invisibility.
It’s there, in October 2017, that a figure dubbed “Q” sparked a wildfire called “QAnon.” An anonymous post claimed a shadowy cabal of elite pedophiles was locked in a secret war against then-President Donald Trump. They said Trump would soon unleash “The Storm” of mass arrests:
HRC extradition already in motion effective yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run. Passport approved to be flagged effective 10/30 @ 12:01am. Expect massive riots organized in defiance and others fleeing the US to occur. US M’s will conduct the operation while NG activated. Proof check: Locate a NG member and ask if activated for duty 10/30 across most major cities.
—October 28, 2017 post by an anonymous user with the ID "BQ7V3bcW.”
This was the initial "Q drop" that kicked off the QAnon conspiracy theory, claiming Hillary Clinton’s arrest was imminent, and predicting unrest.
From this obscure beginnings, QAnon surged to mainstream infamy, gripping millions with cryptic posts promising insider truths. Today, its blaze has dulled to embers, yet questions linger: Who was Q? Was it a Trump cheerleader or something else? Did any of its predictions hit the mark? And where do its traces hide today?
Read on for details.
QAnon’s saga began with a 4chan post on October 28, 2017. 4chan (at www.4chan.org) is an image-based bulletin board where users post anonymously, covering topics from anime to politics.
Of course that initial claim, that Hillary Clinton’s arrest was imminent, turned out to be a dud. Yet followers were intrigued.
Q’s “drops,” peppered with phrases like “Trust the plan,” urged people to scour news for hidden meanings.
A few of the posts did seem prescient: a 2018 hint at “resignations” preceded Jeff Sessions’ exit as Attorney General, and a 2020 call to “watch the news” came before Trump’s Covid diagnosis. But these were vague enough to fit countless headlines, like a fortune cookie’s promise.
Q’s flops were louder—Clinton remained free, Trump wasn’t reinstated in 2021, and “The Storm” never broke. Posts like “Future proves past” or “Dark to light” floated in mystery, inviting believers to graft meaning onto chaos, a tactic a 2022 OrphAnalytics study called deliberate bait to keep followers hooked.
Was Q a Trump loyalist, a foe, or neither?
Most evidence, like Q’s praise for Trump as a savior figure, screams pro-Trump, painting him as a warrior against a demonic elite. Yet, some speculated Q could’ve been anti-Trump, sowing chaos to mock his base.
Theories as to what the motive was range from rallying Trump’s supporters to exposing corruption. But a 2024 Harvard Gazette piece suggests that the Q phenomenon thrived on engagement, not truth, possibly to radicalize or just troll. No definitive goal is proven—Q’s silence leaves it murky.
The last known Q post was on December 8, 2020, on 8kun, and it consisted of a link to a pro-Trump YouTube video that has since been deleted. The video featured scenes of civil unrest, such as cars burning and fighter jets flying over a stadium, set to the song "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister. It also reportedly included an image of Donald Trump being sworn in with his hand on a Bible, implying he would remain president after his first term ended.
Read Sharyl’s bestseller “Follow the $cience: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails”.
Who is Q?
Who wrote these riddles? Early guesses tied QAnon’s spread to three promoters—a YouTube creator Athlete and two 4chan moderators—but not as authors.
A 2022 New York Times linguistic probe fingered Paul Furber, a South African tech journalist, for early posts, with Ron Watkins, 8chan’s boss, possibly steering later ones; but both denied it.
X whispers have named James Brower, linked to Michael Flynn’s 2016 campaign, or even Trump— but proof’s scarce.
Some see Q as a collective, passing the pen like a relay, while others muse it was a psyop by fringe or intelligence actors—none confirmed. The enigma drove QAnon’s pull, making 4chan and later 8kun digital shrines until Q’s last drop in December 2020.
At QAnon’s peak by 2021, 15% of Americans bought into it, per PRRI, with some of them storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Post-riot platform bans—Twitter, Reddit—crushed its reach, and failed prophecies splintered believers.
By 2024, Harvard Gazette noted 23% of people surveyed still nibbled at Q’s ideas, but QAnon’s organized punch is gone.
Curious? Check Telegram’s “QAnon Patriots” or “We Are The Storm” channels, where old drops are dissected. You can also look at X’s #QAnon and #TheGreatAwakening tags for chatter.
QAnon’s tale, like a misrouted package, vowed salvation but sowed discord. Its predictions, vague or wrong, hooked a nation, but its silence since 2020 hints the storm’s blown over—or maybe it’s just circling back.
QAnon’s Prediction Scorecard
Five Predictions Q Got Wrong:
Hillary Clinton would be arrested in October 2017—never happened.
“The Storm” of mass arrests of elites would occur in 2018—nope.
Trump would be reinstated as president in March 2021—didn’t happen.
John F. Kennedy Jr. was alive and would reveal himself in 2019—he didn’t.
A “ten days of darkness” blackout would hit in 2020—no such event took place.
Five Predictions Q Got Right (Sort of?):
“Resignations” hinted in 2018 preceded Jeff Sessions’ exit—already widely expected.
“Watch the news” in 2020 came before Trump’s Covid diagnosis—vague enough to fit many events.
“Panic in DC” in 2018 aligned loosely with Mueller probe developments—common news at the time.
“North Korea progress” in 2018 echoed Trump-Kim summit—but publicly anticipated.
“Military planning” in 2020 tied vaguely to Capitol security post-January 6—not a direct hit.
Five Predictions Too Vague to Pin Down:
“Future proves past”—impossible to verify, open to endless interpretation.
“Dark to light”—suggests revelation but lacks specifics.
“We have it all”—claims control of evidence, untestable.
“Trust the plan”—urges faith without detailing what.
“Patriots in control”—implies power shift, never clarified.
Q-related Trivia:
4chan was started by Christopher Poole, known as "moot," in 2003 when he was 15 years old.
Ownership was transferred in 2015 to Hiroyuki Nishimura, the founder of the Japanese message board 2channel.
There have been reports suggesting that the Japanese toy company Good Smile Company may have a partial stake in 4chan, based on documents from 2015, but Nishimura is recognized as the primary owner.
4chan is not generally a profit-earning venture. Poole was a fan of anime and Japanese culture and wanted to create an English version of the Japanese imageboard 2channel, where people could anonymously share and discuss niche interests like anime, manga, and internet culture. It was said to be a passion project driven by his love for the chaotic, creative freedom of online communities, not a profit motive.
Nishimura, who later bought it, was similarly inspired by his own experience running 2channel and saw 4chan as a cultural extension of that anonymous, unfiltered discussion space.
The first Q post, made on 4chan's /pol/ board on October 28, 2017, by an anonymous user with the ID "BQ7V3bcW.”
Subsequent Q posts on 4chan and later on 8chan/8kun used different IDs and tripcode identifiers. Initially, Q posts were anonymous without a consistent ID, but starting in November 2017, the poster began using tripcodes (like "!ITPb.qbhqo" and later "!4pRcUA0lBE") to authenticate their identity across threads.
While the core Q persona is tied to these tripcodes, debates persist about whether all posts were from one person or if others co-opted the identity, especially as the platform and posting style evolved. No single ID was exclusively considered Q; the tripcodes became the main marker.
A tripcode is a unique, hashed identifier used on imageboards like 4chan or 8chan, generated from a user-entered password, allowing anonymous posters to maintain a consistent, verifiable pseudonym across posts without revealing their real identity.
Read Sharyl’s bestseller “Follow the $cience: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails”.
I knew some Q followers but I could never believe or trust their “predictions”, I felt these people were being manipulated just to see how far followers would go/believe. Always seemed like BS to me.
Q was like a psychic: keep it nebulous and a true believer will believe whatever is said.