4chan’s moot passes the keys back to its roots

4chan founder, Christopher Poole aka “moot”

If you’ve been a resident of the internet for a long time, you’ll most likely know the delightful community known as 4chan. In its 12 years of service, it’s been at the forefront of internet culture and memes. Everything from Rickrolling to LOLcats traced its origins to 4chan’s colorful community of anonymous users.

Today, Christopher Poole (or known to many as “moot”) has sold the website to the man who inspired him to create 4chan, Hiroyuki Nishimura, creator of the original 2ch BpBS. While the details of the deal are not disclosed, moot did take to the site’s news page to announce the transfer of ownership:

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.

Poole created 4chan 12 years ago as a place to discuss Japanese anime much like the original 2ch, however it has added a wide range of boards ranging from topic like technology, books, current events to its infamous anything goes board known as /b/ that have spun off into things such as the hacktivist group known as “anonymous”.

It should be noted that Nishimura left 2channel back in 2009 and currently heads Variety Japan as an editor-in-chief.

Hiroyuki Nishimura, founder of 2channel

Source: Engadget