No Longer Anonymous: Washington Post profiles 4chan's Moot

[Milton]

washingtonpost.com - A Virtual Unknown

it's five pages long and full of some columnist's awful attempts at being funny and sounding e-trendy, but if you can get past how lame the writing occasionally is this is an extremely interesting article.

In person, Poole is considerate and measured, with Michael Cera appeal -- a dork who hasn't realized that he's also kind of cute. He confesses that he used to be fat before a healthy eating kick a few years ago. Now he's just "skinny-fat," he says. Slim but soft. Surprisingly sweet. A guy who still takes children's chewable vitamins, and talks in silly voices to his cats.

....

...He can't get a job...He's currently $20,000 in debt, living with his mom and pouring money and hours into the dark heart of the Internet.

....

His parents say they were benignly clueless about the empire their son was building in his bedroom throughout high school.

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What he does is foster community. He makes millions of people feel that they have a safe space for creative -- sometimes vitriolic -- discussion...

....

He seems so ready to graduate from 4chan to . . . whatever it is people do after 4chan.

"You get the sense that he's a little haunted by his creation."

[Mizango]

Interesting read for sure, thanks for sharing.




lol @ "The site, which he started at 15, now boasts 5 million visitors a month, but it still isn't profitable"

[0ni0n]

I am really surprised that he's not making money off 4chan given the amount of traffic the site attracts. Interesting stuff, will read again.

[Brill Weave]

Good article. Very interesting.

[Tristam]

good find, also surprised at the lack of $.

[Brill Weave]

Seriously.

[Khamsin]

I question the author's sexuality, with those "cute" descriptions.

[Dmitry]

That was quite interesting. It's interesting that he's so different than what 4chan has become.

[Khamsin]

How is some unemployed fat guy who lives in his mom's basement and spends all day on the internet "so different than what 4chan has become"? Unless that's a woosh or something.

[Mizango]

How is some unemployed fat guy who lives in his mom's basement and spends all day on the internet "so different than what 4chan has become"? Unless that's a woosh or something.

Exactly what I was thinking haha

[Kaylia]

I question the author's sexuality, with those "cute" descriptions.

Author is a woman...or at least I would think so with a name like "Monica".


The "no money" thing is kinda sad, but it's nice to see he didn't sell out the website like many people would have done.

[Kiro]

Dunno why you guys are shocked that 4chan hasn't sold out like most other websites of the same "category" (Newgrounds, eBaums, even ytmnd). There has to be something that won't be fucking "tainted" by money for people to enjoy.

Although the only parts of 4chan I enjoy now are /wg/ and /v/. :<

[0ni0n]

Dunno why you guys are shocked that 4chan hasn't sold out like most other websites of the same "category" (Newgrounds, eBaums, even ytmnd). There has to be something that won't be fucking "tainted" by money for people to enjoy.

Although the only parts of 4chan I enjoy now are /wg/ and /v/. :<

I don't see anything ethically wrong by cashing in, I mean he created and maintains the site anyway, what's wrong with harvesting what you sowed? It definitely beats living with your parents, 20k in debt, and jobless.

[The Blackrose]

I don't see anything ethically wrong by cashing in, I mean he created and maintains the site anyway, what's wrong with harvesting what you sowed? It definitely beats living with your parents, 20k in debt, and jobless.

Part of the issue could be that advertisers could attempt to pull the strings when it comes to particular boards. I'm pretty sure the peons would protest much if /b/ became more strict due to moot wanting to pull in more advertising revenue. It would come down to "Do we tell the more unruly people to go fuck off and cash in? Or do we continue as we are and barely make operating costs?"

The same thing could happen if 4chan was bought out entirely by an investor. "Hi, we just bought out your little space, and quite frankly we find these people disgusting, so we're just going to cut them out here and now..."

[Kiro]

If he "cashed in" the entire website would be forced to change by whoever he gets the money from. It ALWAYS happens. There have been tons of amazing websites that have turned to complete shit because of that exact reason. Once money becomes involved shit changes, and usually not for the better. Unless you're Ebaum and were born to be a sellout piece of shit thief.

[Khamsin]

Why would investors and advertisers want to change a site that was successful enough for them to want to invest in the first place? It never made sense to me. If it were me, I'd just advertise on the site and leave it exactly as is to generate the most views possible.

[MisterBob]

4chan would certainly have to change, its a huge liability. Whoever owns the site certainly risks getting sued, or at least getting a bad reputation as a company that essentially supports illegal activities.

[0ni0n]

I am not sure how 4chan can get any worse content wise. I mean there's a board constantly barraged by dick shiting nipples image and its equivalents. Besides having more annoying ads, I am not sure how bad it could get.

By the way, there are firefox extensions that will format 4chan all into one page and block out all ads.

[Khamsin]

Then smart investors wouldn't invest in 4chan. Advertisers could, though.

Although it would be cool to see a company buy out 4chan, so future "anonymous" attacks would say "We are legion. We are Electronic Arts."

[Acturus]

$20,000 is chump change to the cult of scientology.