My next chapter

[c3534l]

Moot has always appeared to me to be a very talented and bright person. I think it's a mistake to judge him by what some people will say on an anonymous image board. The influence of 4chan on internet culture cannot be ignored: everything from LOLCats to advice animals and countless internet slang terms. He's also had a very unique and unusual experience being in charge of a group of people who believe the internet should be controlled chaos. In my opinion, Moot is a lot like Mike Judge after he did Beavis and Butthead: it's too easy to dismiss him because what he created is a bit crass. But he's a smart and talented person who will most likely go on to build a reputation beyond his first big thing.

[Jerry2]

>The influence of 4chan on internet culture cannot be ignored: everything from LOLCats to advice animals and countless internet slang terms.

Moot is not community. You cannot credit him with the inventions that his community came up with. His site was the catalyst, of course, but how much credit should he personally get for it?

Maybe you could judge him by the success (or the lack of it) of DrawQuest and Canv.as.. the two projects that he spearheaded and got VC funding for.

[themoonbus]

I'm interested to see if this is part of a movement by Google towards a different notion of community & identity than Facebook.

Moot has very different position than Mark Zuckerberg when it comes to identity online: http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/13/4chan-moot-christopher-poo...

[Jerry2]

He backpeddaled from that position fairly quickly. Moot banned Tor use on 4chan, he banned VPN use, proxy use was banned, he added ban-tracking cookies, he added unique IDs, he aded country flags to many boards that didn't want them, etc.

He supported anonymity for publicity and did a lot on his site to dissuade its use. When he gave interviews on 4chan, he used to tell everyone that "4chan is not anonymous".

About the only thing that's left on 4chan that's "anonymous" is the default username: which is still "Anonymous".

You have more anonymity on HN with a throwaway account than you have on 4chan.

People also give him too much credit when it comes to community organizing as well. He got lucky with 4chan when he copied 2chan and catered it to english-speaking audience. When he tried to actually create something from scratch, both of his apps failed miserably.

[tlrobinson]

Google also had a very different position than Moot until about a year and a half ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymwars

[GuiA]

Everyone's gotta pay the bills. If you're thrifty, 4-5 years at a company like Google can get you .5-1 mil for your next venture (maybe more, maybe less, depending on your bonuses & promotions, how well the stock performs, etc.)

I wouldn't expect any meaningful new product or anything to come out of this - if I had to guess, he was probably hired as an IC. Don't expect him to become some sort of new figurehead at Google for anonymity or identity on the Internet.

Have fun Chris.

[ocdtrekkie]

I suspect very few people will ever admit they took a job for the money. Even though its usually true.

One of my favorite comments was actually by James Spader about Stargate. You can find the direct quote online, but he basically said it was an awful script but he took the job for the money, and doesn't think there's any shame in that.

[ForHackernews]

> hired as an IC

Please expand uncommon abbreviations.

[accounthere]

Apparently going to be Product manager on Photos according to some Anonymous Googler.

[sharkjacobs]

I would be fascinated to know what kind of position he was hired for.

[duskwuff]

New maintainer for Memegen?

(http://www.buzzfeed.com/reyhan/inside-googles-internal-meme-...)

[pinewurst]

Curious how he fits into the goals of "Googliness" for new hires.

[rdl]

Wow, congratulations!

[ybrah]

Everything moot does leaves a 4chan shitstorm in its wake.

[tychuz]

Who is moot?

[roadnottaken]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Poole

[kzhahou]

http://www.google.com

> Give a man a search result, and you help him for a day. Teach a man to google, and you help him for a lifetime.

[Raphmedia]

Founder of 4chan

[fredfoobar42]

I'm really not sure how I feel about this. Moot created the biggest, most toxic garbage fire of an internet community, refused to take management of it, and walked away when it became too toxic for anyone to deal with. In a way, he's a perfect new hire for Google, but Google usually doesn't leave quite so much devastation in its wake.

[JoshTriplett]

While it might be incredibly toxic at times, it's also the source of quite a lot of interesting Internet culture and movements, many positive works, and a ton of creativity. It's a microcosm of the worst and the best of what the Internet can pull off.

Don't dismiss it out of hand as exclusively negative.

[dang]

Not cool. No personal attacks on HN, please.

[vdnkh]

How is this assessment any better than judging a physical community based on their loudest/most controversial members? The "4chan garbage fire" is a rude stereotype.

[Laaw]

What devastation? 4chan is absolutely not a "toxic garbage fire of an internet community", and it's not even his concept or idea. He didn't "create" anything in that sense.

He also didn't, "walk away when it became too toxic for anyone to deal with." That sentence is literally too hard to parse, given what's publicly available information about Moot and 4chan.