4chan founder ‘Moot’ quits controversial site after 12 years

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

On Wednesday, 4chan founder Christopher Poole, better known by the moniker “moot,” announced his retirement from running the site. moot started 4chan 11 and a half years ago when he was 15, and the image-based bulletin board has grown into a staunch supporter of anonymity for its posters since. That notoriety has drawn some of the best and also a lot of the very, very worst to its 63 boards.

In his post today, moot explained the decision:
 

4chan has faced numerous challenges over the years, including how to continuously satisfy a community of millions, and ensure the site has the human, technical, and financial resources to continue operating. But the biggest hurdle it's had to overcome is myself. As 4chan's sole administrator, decision maker, and keeper of most of its institutional knowledge, I've come to represent an uncomfortably large single point of failure.moot continued to say that he has made sure the site will be financially secure in the foreseeable future and has delegated the tasks of running the site to “a few senior volunteers.”

Throughout moot's leadership, 4chan was most often in the news for stirring up controversy—while a lot of the site's boards are pretty standard fare, anonymous posters have a penchant for throwing startling stuff up there. In a TED talk that moot gave in 2010, he noted that 4chan is the place where Rickrolling and LOLcats started and said that one of the site's community-generated rules is "If it exists, there is porn of it. No Exceptions."
 

The site again became embroiled in controversy when someone posted the nude photos of several celebrities that had been stolen from the celebrities' cellphones on 4chan's /b/ Web forum. One of the ways 4chan has been able to get around concerns over the sharing of images (sometimes objectionable images) is that content tends to expire rapidly as new discussions appear and roll old ones off the site (although the site has turned over the IP addresses of people posting about illegal activities before). Still, heavy scrutiny after the celebrity photo debacle led to moot saying he would honor DMCA requests in cases of “bona fide infringement.”
 

moot has not indicated what he will do next, although the 4chan creator did launch a startup app in 2013 called DrawQuest. He invited users to join a livestreamed Q&A session this Friday afternoon and said he would be making updates to his personal blog in the coming months. (And, for the curious, the top post on his personal blog talks about him shuttering DrawQuest.)

 

Source : http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/01/4chan-founder-chris-moot-poole-steps-down/

[RichardsD]

I'm not really sure what to think of this.  

 

I suppose he didn't quit based on moral grounds, lol.  11 Years of 4Chan, I can't imagine.

[Enflics]

Its porn mostly anyways who cares?

[minibois]

I can't imagine being the 'leader' of 4chan.. 

 

Anyways, 4chan did bring some good stuff (I guess?) so cool to see him go at once too..

[JoaoPRSousa]

4chan leader is gone 4good

[Johannes_Lazor]

Meh, Everything has to pass at some time, Sooner or later.

It wont really have a impact in this case, 4chan is close to 100% community driven.

[Gofspar]

Its porn mostly anyways who cares?

I think you are regarding to the /b/tards the rest of the site is fine and Im sad that m00t is done with it.

[awesomes8wc3]

lol i went on /b/ today

people were posting pics of their dicks

[KakaoDj]

Finally the master of cuck has left. No more SJWs please

[StingBull]

27 is the age of maturity, confirmed.

[Guest]

[minibois]

4chan leader is gone 4good

[bogus]

Its porn mostly anyways who cares?

I think you don't quite know what actually happens in 4chan.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Oh well I just hope 4chan stays the same as it has always been. Has anyone ever stopped and noticed how much they love the internet how it is today and how they don't want it to change because I do every now and then. It makes me really happy that there is something for everyone and it's the only medium where you can do so many things. It should be protected for that very reason. I hope the internet never changes. 

[iHammmy]

He probably has some sort of condition after looking at most things on the site

[MrCthuntoo]

Goodnight sweet prince.

[killertek78]

Who cares? 

[The_Strict_Nein]

And with him, 4chan dies

[cae]

Can't be a teat sucking SJW if you're regularly blamed for bad things. He'll fit in with the rest of the litter now.

[GrimNeo]

What is 4chan lol? Never heard of it.

[ObeseWalrus]

I guess that you have to move on.

[Albatross]

Let the idiot drop out of the site. It is better without him and his vile support of SJWs. I mean he's the turd who fired/removed mods from the site who have been there nearly as long just because they didn't support SJWs. So he can piss off.

 

Can't be a teat sucking SJW if you're regularly blamed for bad things. He'll fit in with the rest of the litter now.

 

+42

[Zerokx]

The ride never ends

I'm not sure how much impact moot leaving will have on 4chan but there is no reason to panic. Sad to see moot go though.

I blame /pol/

[felixthemaster1]

What is 4chan lol? Never heard of it.

[Me1z]

Meh, at least he didn't shut it down completely. Personally, I avoid the place like the plague, but at the same time I want the site to forever live on in infamy, as a relic to what 12 year-olds on the internet are truly capable of. And by that I mean dick pics, poorly made gifs, and kiddie script hackers. 4chan is a failed experiment, the answer to the question; "if we give a generation of kids unmonitored internet access what's the worst that could happen?"