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Tag: 4chan

  • 4chan Finds New Ownership – The Guy That Inspired The Site

    The man who inspired Chris Poole to create 4chan now owns 4chan.

    Poole, who stepped down in January, has announced that he sold the site to Hiroyuki Nishimura, founder of Japanese message board site 2channel.

    And according to Poole, the main inspiration for the creation of 4chan.

    “Hiroyuki is a pioneer in the world of anonymous communities, and can be thought of as the great-grandfather of 4chan. His creation of 2channel in 1999 sparked an era of anonymous-centric web culture in Japan that led to the creation of Futaba Channel, the site that inspired 4chan. None of us would be using 4chan today—or potentially any anonymous image board—if it weren’t for him,” says Poole (moot) in a post.

    “I met Hiroyuki in 2011 and we became fast friends, bonding over our shared passion for creating and managing online communities. He is one of few individuals with a deep understanding of what it means to provide a digital home for tens of millions of people for more than a decade. There is nobody more qualified than Hiroyuki to lead 4chan, and I can’t think of a person better suited for the task.”

    Poole left his role as 4chan admin earlier this year, saying it was time for him to move on.

    According to him, Nishimura is the man to take 4chan past its 2 billionth post.

    “4chan sits on the eve of two great milestones—its 2 billionth post and 12th birthday. It has been a great privilege to serve as 4chan’s founder and steward for almost twelve years, and I can’t wait to see what lays in store under Hiroyuki’s experienced leadership,” says Poole.

    Image via Joichi Ito, Wikimedia Commons (Nishimura in 2005)

  • 4chan Founder and Admin ‘moot’ Is Stepping Down

    Chris Poole, 4chan founder and admin, is stepping down.

    Known as “moot” on the site (anonymously until 2008), Poole says he is “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.”

    Here’s his farewell in its entirety:

    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 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.

    I’ve spent the past two years working behind the scenes to address these challenges, and to provide 4chan with the foundation it needs to survive me by bolstering its finances, strengthening its infrastructure, and expanding and empowering its team of volunteers. And for the most part, I’ve succeeded. The site isn’t in danger of going under financially any time soon, and it’s as fast and stable as ever thanks to continued development and recent server upgrades. Team 4chan is also at its largest, 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. From a user’s perspective, nothing should change. A few senior volunteers—including 4chan’s lead developer, managing moderator, and server administrator—have stepped up to ensure a smooth transition over the coming weeks.

    I’ll need time away to decompress and reflect, but I look forward to one day returning to 4chan as its Admin Emeritus or just another Anonymous, and also writing more about my experience running 4chan on my personal blog. The journey has been marked by highs and lows, surprises and disappointments, but ultimately immense satisfaction. 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. It was truly an honor to serve as 4chan’s founding administrator, and I look forward to seeing what the next decade holds for the site.

    In Poole’s 11.5 years as head of 4chan, the site racked up over 42 billion pageviews, 1.7 billion posts, and currently boasts 20.3 million monthly visitors. No matter what you think of 4chan’s overall contribution to internet culture, one cannot deny that it has been massive.

    Poole stresses that from a user standpoint, nothing should change as he exits.

    Image via Jscott, Wikimedia Commons

  • Snapchat Photo Hack, If Real, Wasn’t Snapchat’s Fault (Says Snapchat)

    Photos taken and transmitted via Snapchat may or may not have leaked on Thursday, but if they did, Snapchat assures you that its servers were never breached and it’s the fault of unauthorized third-party apps.

    Early Friday, Business Insider reported on “The Snappening”, a supposedly massive Snapchat hack that includes upward of 200,000 photos. The hack was reportedly organized and disseminated on 4chan, with databases of the stolen photos popping up online.

    Apparently, the leak has been in the works for some time.

    Snapchat has responded, blaming banned third-party apps for the security breach.

    “We can confirm that Snapchat’s servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks. Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users’ security. We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed,” said Snapchat.

    Reports vary, but apps like SnapSave and SnapSaved.com are said to be the culprits. These both allow Snapchat users to save photos – something the regular Snapchat app prohibits. Business Insider points out the SnapSaved.com now redirects to a Danish e-commerce site. That’s obviously a bit fishy.

    The initial report of “The Snappening” seems to have originated from a blog run by a guy named Kenny Withers, who claims to be a social media marketer. He posted some of the nude images, and well as various 4chan threads concerning the leaks.

    So, is this a real leak? Some have their doubts. This reddit thread pretty much sums up those doubts – mainly that most of these so-called “leaked” images have existed for some time and that if anything, this could be another attempt to make 4chan look bad in the wake of the celebrity nude leak “The Fappening”.

    But Snapchat’s statement carries an air of certainty regarding there at least being some sort of breach – even if the company isn’t taking responsibility for it.

    If hundreds of thousands of Snapchat photos were in fact stolen from a third-party app, there’s likely a ton of images of underage users – which poses its own set of problems apart from the general theft of private photos. We’ll update when we learn more about the alleged leak, but in the meantime, if you use Snapchat, you might want to be extra careful about the third-party apps you use.

    And for Snapchat, this is a bad time to be embroiled in a security scandal.

    Image via Snapchat, Twitter

  • “Bikini Bridge” Hoax And What We Can Learn From It

    By now you may have heard about the newest thinspo craze known as the “Bikini Bridge”. Now we’re learning that it’s really a hoax.

    …Or is it?

    It’s been pointed out that the photos featured online and in the media were very real. If you think about it, those type of poses are very familiar as ads are always featuring similarly thin and scantily clad models.

    What also can’t be called a hoax is the message behind many of the images. The idea that if you don’t look a certain way as a woman, you have little value as a human being is sadly nothing new. It is something that women have been dealing with for a long long time, and it has only gotten worse in recent decades.

    Also not surprising is how many men with wives, girlfriends, and young daughters are commenting on posts about the trend to declare that they don’t see the harm or “big deal”. Objectification of women has long been prioritized over the actual emotional harm it causes to women and girls, and it seems some people are determined to remain ignorant. However that doesn’t have to be you, especially as a “target”.

    Just because this particular trend was traced back to 4chan does not mean that the next ludicrous body fixation won’t originate elsewhere, and with someone looking to actually profit from the impressionable and insecure young women of the world.

    (image)

    So what really can be learned from the “Bikini Bridge” images and every other thinspo craze? Nothing good ever comes from letting unqualified strangers on the internet dictate your life choices and self-worth.

    If you are determined to lose weight, it needs to be for your own reasons, not to fit any one else’s standards. If you are looking for guidance in order to lose a certain amount of weight, don’t look to “thinspo blogs”. Talk to your doctor and possibly see if you can be referred to a nutritionist or dietician. Consider getting a personal trainer. The bottom line is the people you want to be telling you about your body and the best way to care for it need to be the people with the education, qualifications and experience to back up their words.

    At the end of the day, the internet is filled with harmful opinions and cruel individuals. It’s up to you to sort through it all in a sane and self-assured manner and separate what is useful from what is fodder.

    Image via TomoNews US

  • Death Star Petition Passes 25,000 Signatures, So You Know What That Means

    Your move, White House.

    Among the many pressing issues facing our great nation, the people have rallied together in support of the most pressing one of all: our reckless lack of functioning Death Stars.

    A petition asking the Obama administration to gather the resources and begin production of our very own Death Star has passed the signature threshold on the White House’s We The People petition site. Crossing that 25,000 signature barrier means that the White House is forced to issue an official response.

    “Forced,” in theory. The White House says that they “will do our best to respond to petitions that cross the signature threshold in a timely fashion, however, depending on the topic and the overall volume of petitions from We the People, responses may be delayed.” So maybe they’ll get to it, maybe they won’t. But at least it’s officially on the list.

    Unfortunately, that list has other official responses ahead of it. As you may remember, a flood of secession petitions inundated the We The People site following President Obama’s reelection. A few of those petition actually succeeded in breaking the 25,000 signature threshold. Those petitions have yet to receive a response.

    The Death Star petition has its roots in 4chan and received additional promotion from reddit. Here’s what it asks:

    Those who sign here petition the United States government to secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016. By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.

    As I said yesterday when I told you that the petition was nearing the signature threshold, this petition shows just how off the rails the White House’s online petition initiative has gone. Death Stars, secession – I’m pretty sure that this is pretty far from what they had in mind when they developed the portal back in 2011.

    But then again, the White House may have to respond to the people’s desire for a Death Star. Cool.

  • Death Star Petition Nears Signature Threshold on White House Site

    UPDATE: The petition has crossed the 25,000 signature threshold.

    ORIGINAL ARTICLE: In the near future, it’s possible that the White House will actually have to respond to the people’s suggestion that the U.S. Government begin construction on our own Death Star by the year 2016.

    That’s all thanks to the We The People online petition site, which has seen its share of publicity recently due to a flood of secession petitions that popped up shortly after the 2012 Presidential election. The White House started the We The People petition initiative in 2011 as a way to “provide a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country.”

    With the current rules, if a petition reaches 25,000 signatures in one month, the White House is supposed to issue an official response.

    Well, this Death Star petition has about 20,000 with two days to go.

    The actual petition, which was started on 4chan and further promoted on reddit, asks the Obama administration to “Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.” Here’s what the body of the petition says:

    Those who sign here petition the United States government to secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016. By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.

    If it garners another 5,000 signatures in the next two days, the White House will be forced to issue an official response. Well, kind of:

    “We will do our best to respond to petitions that cross the signature threshold in a timely fashion, however, depending on the topic and the overall volume of petitions from We the People, responses may be delayed,” says the White House. And we’ve yet to see any official responses for the secession petitions – and a few of those crossed the 25,000 signature threshold.

    But we can hope. Part of me sees this for what it is: a bastardization of a serious process. Then again, nobody really thinks these We The People petitions can actually do anything. Also, it’s a petition to build a mf’in Death Star – what the hell am I thinking?

    Anyway, some guy already calculated that is would take approximately 833,315 years to even produce enough steel to begin construction of a Death Star. At current prices, it would cost a number with over 15 zeros to make. Then again, the Death Star petition is probably more likely to work than any of those secession petitions.

  • 4chan, Purveyor Of Fine Internet Culture, Hits One Billion Posts

    4chan, Purveyor Of Fine Internet Culture, Hits One Billion Posts

    With all the attention focused on Reddit and the disappointing Digg reboot, we tend to forget one of the leading pioneers in making the Internet a better/worse place to live. Thanks to 4chan and its often wonderful /b/ board, we were exposed to a lot of firsts. The site just announced that it’s still one of the biggest influences on the Internet and has the numbers to prove it.

    It’s pretty impressive that 4chan has been able to weather the Internet for this long. Chans come and go with many not attracting the loyal fanbase that 4chan has. Sure, a lot of people left 4chan for other places like Reddit, but it’s still one of the best/worst places on the Internet. It’s come a long way since the days of people gathering around to talk about forced memes and OP being a you-know-what.

    Speaking of memes, that’s the number one reason that we should be thankful for the continued existence of 4chan. Despite how you feel about /b/ and the rest of the site, they were instrumental in spreading popular memes like Lolcats and Rickrolls. Reddit can complain all they want about 9GAG stealing their content, but Reddit stole their content from 4chan first.

    We also can’t forget that 4chan reportedly gave birth to Anonymous. Without them around, my and other tech writers’ jobs would be a lot more boring. You may not agree with their actions, but Anonymous is like 4chan personified. It’s chaotic in a way that only the Internet can provide.

    In an Internet with limitless options, it’s nice to see one of the major contributors to the culture still holding on and thriving. Even though it may seem like I’m saying nice things about them, you should stay away. Seriously, never go to /b/. You’re better off going to the WTF subreddit.

    [h/t: The Verge]

  • Burger King Employee Puts His Nasty Feet in Your Lettuce, Posts Image Online

    True story: I stopped eating a Burger King over four years ago following a peculiar incident with one of the company’s drive-thru employees. Upon stopping at the first window to pay for my order, I was greeted by a woman who appeared to be having an extremely bad day. Being the kind and considerate individual that I am (shut up), I asked the lady how she was doing. What I received in response was a diatribe about the company’s seemingly archaic break schedule, which she felt was a little strict considering she was currently on her period. Yes, I learned all about a perfect stranger’s menstrual cycle on that fateful day, which has kind of soured me on the whole Burger King experience. No offense to the company intended.

    Today adds yet another strike against the restaurant and their very unusual employees. According to the website Clevescene, an area Burger King employee thought it would be impossibly hilarious to post a picture of himself standing in two bins of lettuce to the popular website 4Chan. The caption positioned beneath the photograph read, “This is the lettuce you eat at Burger King.” Given that fast food lettuce already looks and feels like someone rubbed it vigorously against their unclothed backside for hours on end, this image doesn’t exactly get my mouth watering for a Burger King sandwich.

    Outraged, several users on 4Chan decided to take action against the troublemaker. Using GPS information located within the picture file, the offended folks managed to pinpoint Mayfield Heights, Ohio as the location of this alleged food-soiling incident. The impromptu investigation apparently only took 15 minutes to complete. Ah, the endless marvels of technology and the fools who think they’re doing things online with anonymity.

    Clevescene reportedly called the restaurant to see if any steps were being taken to oust the loser who defiled the company’s beloved lettuce supply. “Whoever this is is getting fired,” the breakfast shift manager explained. “And whoever the manager was at the time will be fired, too.”

    Burger King’s corporate offices have weighed in on the subject, as well, issuing the following statement to FOX8 Cleveland. “We are aware of the photo that was allegedly posted by an employee at a BURGER KING® restaurant in Ohio and are taking the issue very seriously,” the company said. “Food safety is a top priority for BURGER KING® restaurants and the company has strict policies regarding its food handling procedures. We are investigating the matter and will take appropriate action as necessary.”

    Unless that “appropriate action” is kicking the freak onto the sidewalk, I’d say my time with Burger King is officially over and done with. Besides, I can’t seem to disassociate the restaurant with that poor woman’s menstrual cycle. Some things simply cannot be forgotten or forgiven.

    Then again, I guess I asked for it.