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Moot Retires From 4chan
vivaoporto writes Moot bids his final farewell as the administrator of the (in)famous imageboard. The full resignation letter can be read on the site blog (it's cool, it's SFW) but for those who are not brave enough to dwell in the "underbelly of the internet" here are some excerpts: "I founded 4chan eleven and a half years ago at the age of 15, and after more than a decade of service, I've decided it's time for me to move on. 4chan has faced numerous challenges... [B]ut 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. I've spent the past two years working behind the scenes to address these challenges,... [T]he site isn't in danger of going under financially any time soon,... and while I've still been calling the shots, I've delegated many of my responsibilities to a handful of trusted volunteers, most of whom have served the site for years. That foundation will now be put to the ultimate test, as today I'm retiring as 4chan's administrator.... I look forward to one day returning to 4chan as its Admin Emeritus or just another Anonymous,... I'm humbled to have had the privilege of both founding and presiding over what is easily one of the greatest communities to ever grace the Web."
I guess he's going back to reddit.
than /.Beta
To paraphrase Gene Spafford, "[4chan] is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive, difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it."
I know everyone loves to hate on 4chan but it is one site I enjoy visiting. Most sites are way too PC and monitored and I liked the anarchy and randomness of 4chan. I hope this doesn't bring about its demise.
one of the greatest communities to ever grace the Web.
lolwut
He's only 26-ish. He has no idea how elegant and wondrous the contributors of alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die were.
4chan is a cesspool of filth
but much like charlie hebdo or hustler, i'm glad it exists
it shows the society that tolerates it has moral superiority. i'm deadly serious
the thoughts that go on in media like this exist everywhere in the world
but by tolerating it, rather than repressing it, we show that we are confident, secure, and open minded
elsewhere in the world, where people often talk a lot about their "morality" in comparison to the "decadent" west, they have no problem using violence to repress simple human nonsense that is without real consequence. violence? in response to stupid immature shit? that's not morality at all. that's insecurity, weakness, lack of faith
4chan /b/ is a pile of useless crap. there is no reason to ever visit it unless you are an immature douchebag
but if any of it actually makes you feel insecure, or makes you angry, you have a problem. you are the immoral weak person with immoral thoughts. if it drives you to violence, YOU are what is wrong with the world
human nature has many good and bad aspects. the point is rise above your baser instincts. not go to war with them. like any troll, to fight filth simply feeds it, and announce to the world that it is your equal or it is your master
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
You know, I wonder about that. I'm not sure the CIA has to infiltrate anywhere to monitor peoples' thoughts in an age when everyone has developed a compulsion to share each and every one of their thoughts with the world. I mean, ISIS has twitter accounts for chrissake. Even Adam Baldwin has a twitter account, so at this point, the bigger problem is not collecting those "thoughts" but turning them into information that can be acted upon and ignoring the trolls and shitposters.
[true story: my favorite old keyboard died the other day. I didn't mention it to anyone, didn't tweet or email about it or put it on facebook. Not a word. Didn't search for new keyboards online or visit any stores that sell keyboards. Just plugged in an old cheapie I had laying about the house. It happened about 8:30am. By noon, I was getting targeted ads for these fancy new mechanical keyboards. Coincidence? Maybe. More likely, the NSA/Google industrial complex has set up mobile Stingray targets to monitor my thoughts. The bastards.]
[here, watch this. Hey CIA, I'm thinking of a number between one and ten. What is it?]
You are welcome on my lawn.
Three.
- the CIA
And by the way, your fly's open.
God dammit.
You are welcome on my lawn.
... I don't want to kick a man while he's down and it is nice that he's not taking any parting shots at anyone as he goes. But I think the stress of running the community was that at some point he forgot the point of 4chan.
4chan was the place you could say ANYTHING. People would go on the most insane rants on that site. Say some positively evil things. And judge that as you will, there are very few places on the internet that are well known that you could get away with that sort of thing. And was sort of cathordic in its wild west post apocalypic simplicity.
4chan was chaos and anarchy. It was full of people rhetorically stuffing kittens with explosives and then offering them to people with grin. The trolling was incredible.
But there was also a savage beauty to the place.
At some point, I think Moot tried to civilize it. And that was a huge mistake. These people... were already civilized. They spent every day being civilized and polite people going throughout their lives. And 4chan was a place people could go to be wild... people would spray paint their faces blue and randomly shiv someone because that was what they felt like doing. Wrong? that sort of thing is in us at some level. Might as well let it out on an internet forum rather then elsewhere.
Anyway, lets hope either 4chan returns to what it was or 8chan picks up the slack.
Those that say "8chan has something in it I don't like"... that's the point. Its there because it can't be anywhere else. Which is what 4chan used to be.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
So, what does it say when sites across the internet crack down on Gamergate discussion more than they crack down on gore, piracy, and neo-nazis?
Sorry but if you're coming from the position that 4chan is some haven of free speech, you're wrong. If you think the internet as a whole has fulfilled the promise of being a forum for free assembly and open discussion, you re doubly wrong. The internet has become an intertwined collection of hugboxes, propaganda outlets, and viral marketing solutions, all held together by increasingly valueless data mining operations.
The future of the internet was decided in 2014 and it is to be a 1-way medium, Cable 2.0, with the ability to post (moderated) content. The moment you post anything actually uncomfortable to anyone who even half matters, and especially the moment you believe the internet is a force for empowering the masses, is the moment you will discover that websites remain the private property of a privileged few.
The revolution will not be online.