
4chan Founder “moot” to Speak at TED - Janteh
http://gigaom.com/2009/12/22/4chan-founder-moot-to-speak-at-ted
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kn0thing
I'm very excited about this. Chris Anderson asked for an intro to moot (who I
only barely know through ROFLCon[1]) earlier this year; when he said it was to
have him speak at TED, I was floored.

The thought, "Chris Anderson reads 4chan?! Maybe even /b/?" crossed my mind
only for a moment -- instead, it dawned on me just how obvious a speaker for a
session on "provocation" he would be. I was impressed he'd be on the TED
radar, frankly, which goes to show how ignorant I am.

The theme of the 2010 TED is "What the World Needs Now" -- for all of the
garbage on 4chan, it represents the 'cost' of the free and open exchange of
ideas that is the Internet.

I'm expecting a thoughtful talk from Chris. But even if he trolls TED, it'll
still make for a great talk. And in a way, further underscore the importance
of provocation (at least for some) in what the world needs now.

[1] <http://breadpig.com/blog/category/rofldna-project/>

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vaksel
it's not really surprising that he is on their radar, 4chan is pretty much
synonymous with the underbelly of the internet + they are a pretty big site by
traffic alone(Top 750 website)

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Perceval
I guess I'll be the first to speak up in defense of m♡♡tles speaking at TED.

It's clear that he's relevant to the HN community, given that 4chan is a
startup begun from his mom's basement when he was just 15 years old. Despite
misinformation about 4chan being run for a loss, he does make money and can
afford to run the site without ads from time to time.

He took some available code (2chan's), which was initially very simple, and
grew it into a profitable site that is ranked in the Top 1000 on Alexa and
that has an outsized influence on internet culture. That's an extremely rare
phenomenon, and one that most people here would ostensibly like to repeat.

I'm sure that even if his TED talk features inside jokes it has the potential
to be really interesting, and certainly doesn't warrant the _prima facie_
dismissiveness from the other commenters here.

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mquander
Personally, I just find it kind of shameful for anyone with credibility to
lend some of it to 4chan. From where I'm standing, it seems like the primary
exports of 4chan are the stifling of independent thought and social validation
for antisocial teenagers.

In brief, I think people who participate in shaping 4chan are bad and they
should feel bad.

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nailer
I think you underestimate the cultural influence of 4Chan.

\- The Times, the UK's largest and most well known conservative newspaper, now
has a regular column on 'lolpets'

\- Oprah dedicated an entire show to the 'rainbow parties' hoax

\- 4Chan have raised awareness of Scientology beliefs with protests that have
been memorable, interesting and fun enough to be covered wherever Tom Cruise
goes.

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whatusername
Ummm - pretty sure that the rainbow parties myth pre-dates 4chan. Wiki tells
me the oprah special was oct 2003 - the same mont. 4chan launched.

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c3o
I heard him speak at a media arts festival here in Vienna a few months ago.

I'm pretty sure he won't be trolling TED or throwing around in-joke
references: He actually seemed pretty sick of all the mindless repetition of
memes (and how could he not be?).

He's a smart and thoughtful guy, was very humble, self-deprecating and
sarcastic, and had a bunch of interesting anecdotes to tell -- although it did
appear that he fairly randomly stumbled into the situation and doesn't have
many deep, original insights on online communities/social software/the meaning
of life, the universe and everything.

Then again, I believe he same may be said of Jimmy Wales, for example...

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bugs
I don't really see any good from him speaking, at worst he will pull off a
giant troll and his whole speech will be a flop, and at best he will be
talking about 4chan's culture.

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randliu
He's spoken before at a conference at Harvard, and at least had some things
interesting to say. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E_bYRZT5-E> (part 1)

Don't ask him how to make money though

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TeHCrAzY
It's interesting, all up, the money making idea. Even though /b/ contains the
best and worst of the net, the other boards are quite reasonable (as long a
/b/ stays up to keep the trolls from wandering). Is the sites image so bad
that advertisers can overlook such an opportunity for targeted ads? (ie. its
unlikely anyone would be in the anime board if they weren't quite interested
in anime)

~~~
rms
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=484583>

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JCThoughtscream
Exactly what can Moot offer, in terms of discourse? Moot's fame was very much
a matter of happenstance and ungodly luck - the whims of the internet, rather
than anything innately genius about his approach or handling. It'd be like
asking a kid that's, by chance, made a paper airplane with an unusually long
flight time about aerodynamics.

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scythe
Considering the amount of failed *chans that showed up both before and after
4chan - world2ch, 5chan, etc, I wouldn't count Moot as merely lucky. At the
very least, he kept the site sane by continuing to run it -- in contrast with,
say, the constantly fluctuating staff at 7chan.

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Falaina
4chan survived out of his sheer stubbornness to run the site at a loss for a
long period of time and refusing to sell it to some porn network (possibly on
multiple occasions?) It's impressive he was willing to spend the past 6 years
running; 4chan clearly means a lot to him, god knows why.

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alex_c
_4chan clearly means a lot to him, god knows why_

Forgive me if I presume too much, but it sounds to me like you've never had a
wildly successful project of your own.

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Falaina
I was just making light of the... dubious content that springs forth from
4chan. I do understand how he could be quite proud of the fact he created such
an incredibly popular site.

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clistctrl
I was more excited to hear Bill Gates was going to speak.

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onewland
In all fairness, as much as you may not be a Bill Gates fan, it's pretty
difficult to suggest that he's as unimpressive as the founder of 4chan. All
the 4chan guy did was make an unmoderated message board.

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vaksel
here is a question...was 4chan the first image board, or did it just use the
main image board script?

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DanBlake
Better question- How does 4chan keep itself from getting raided for the
endless amount of CP that gets posted there?

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jgrahamc
What's CP?

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rms
NFSW

<http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/CP>

Also, CP stands for Christopher Poole. It is quite likely that Christopher
Poole is a fake name, chosen becase of the CP meme.

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pyre
I'm pretty sure it's a fake name. 4+ years ago I mailed something to him and
the name he gave with the mailing address was completely different (no I don't
still have the mailing address, I'm not that organized) and I've heard that
same name bandied about elsewhere (at least the same first name). But who
knows it could also be fake.

