The most powerful people on the Internet don’t work for Microsoft, Google or the government. Rather, they’re a bunch of antisocial, foul-mouthed, clever nerds who congregate at a largely unknown Web site called 4chan.org.

When I first went to 4chan.org, I didn’t know what the heck was going on. It’s a pretty plain-looking site with long lists of random topics that users can click on. However, once I unlocked the secrets of this site, I realized that it’s basically like an internet army.

It’s turned into a place where people suggest pranks and get lots of others to participate. The peeps on this site make rumors so widespread that people think they’re true, they rig person-of-the-year contests and are even the ones behind Rickrolling, an internet bait-and-switch where users are tricked into clicking on a link that looks relevant—say, a trailer for “Grand Theft Auto IV”—only to find the music video for “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. After the jump, some other famous 4chan hijinx — some funny, others not so much.

In June, tons of users decided they wanted to make “Justin Bieber Syphilis” the number one Google search term. And they actually succeeded. It’s basically the equivalent of all the kids at the back of the classroom passing each other notes and being sarcastic.

When the website Gawker.com called 4chan out for being “ground zero for internet mischief,” “the Internet’s worst trolls,” and making a child cry, 4chan’s users responded with a series of denial-of-service attacks in an attempt to shut down Gawker by overloading its servers.

In other words, check out 4chan, but be cautious, and remember that if you piss off angry mega-nerds, they will f**k with your internet or wear scary masks in front of your house.