

4chan Founder ‘Moot’ Raises $625K For Stealth Startup Canvas Networks - anateus
http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/14/4chan-founder-moot-raises-625k-for-stealth-startup-canvas-networks/

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asdflkj
People who've commented so far all don't understand 4chan. 4channers are not
moot's followers any more than Boston residents are John Cotton's followers.
Moot was simply the first who took the trouble to translate the software that
runs 2chan (the most popular site in Japan) into English and put it up on a
server. He inevitably became part of 4chan's vast culture, but so did the
gentleman known as "cockmongler". You don't see him getting funding.

Maybe there is room for business in imageboard culture, but moot really is a
sysadmin, whose previous attempts at being anything more (e.g. intrusive
advertising) have all failed. There are many other nearly identical
imageboards, with sizeable communities around them, and all it takes to switch
is remembering a new URL.

I haven't been to 4chan in a long time, but I think most 4channers help moot's
exposure in order to get lulz out of the investors and the public, just as the
investors and the public are using moot to tame and monetize 4chan. Trolls
trolling each other.

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mukyu
You confused Futaba Channel with 2ch which is orders of magnitude more popular
and not an imageboard. 2ch is very popular in Japan, but it is only in the top
10-20 now behind mixi and ameblo (social networking) and youtube and nicovideo
(video sites).

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asdflkj
Thanks--it's been a while. IIRC, Futaba and 2ch are run by the same people,
and moot copied both, though only the imageboard took off. Is that correct?

~~~
mukyu
No one knows who runs Futaba. 2ch was owned by hiroyuki until he sold it a few
years ago to some Singaporean company that no one knows about (probably
because of all of the lawsuits that he faced and lost).

4chan does have text boards (like 2channel). dis.4chan.org runs on shiichan
and is supposed to greatly resemble 2channel style, but it came later and as
you say it is not that popular. There is also the tinychan imported text
boards that are fairly recent and somewhat different.

~~~
asdflkj
Thanks!

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jdietrich
Holy shit, mootles is going legit. 4chan is absolutely enormous, but
completely unmonetisable. The question investors must be asking is whether he
can translate his obvious aptitude for community building into an arena that
isn't absolute anarchy.

On a personal level, I'm tremendously pleased for moot. He's been running
4chan on credit cards and goodwill for longer than any sane person would bear.
Closing /b/ might have made 4chan profitable or it might have killed the
community stone dead. I don't know why moot didn't chase anon out of town and
turn 4chan into a halfway legit community, but I think the world is all the
better for it. I might be being silly, but I think anon will be a far more
important figure in the history of the internet than any of us realise.

~~~
DeusExMachina
_I don't know why moot didn't chase anon out of town and turn 4chan into a
halfway legit community_

Some month ago he had a talk at TED on the importance of anonimity on the
internet.

[http://arstechnica.com/staff/palatine/2010/02/4chans-moot-
ta...](http://arstechnica.com/staff/palatine/2010/02/4chans-moot-takes-pro-
anonymity-to-ted-2010.ars)

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dzlobin
I can't believe he still goes by christopher poole

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astrange
Because people usually put fake names on SEC filings?

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dzlobin
Well that's not his real name, and unless he changed it, as suggested above,
then it sure looks like it.

Christopher Poole was only used because of the CP meme reference

~~~
astrange
Alternatively, you could be wrong and it is his real name.

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ericz
I wonder how 4chan factors into a VC's perception of moot.

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joshu
It ought to show that he's got a great sense of how to build and run a
community.

(I am an investor)

~~~
sachinag
I would love to hear how you were introduced to this opportunity and what was
exciting and what were your concerns as you considered it.

~~~
joshu
I suggested him as a speaker to TED. Later I introduced myself at the
conference. Introduced him to some other folks and the ball started rolling.

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johnconroy
Good luck to him: hope it goes well

