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South by Southwest is going on right now, and odds are that you’re not there. Trust me, I know how much that sucks. One of the many things that you and I missed while not at SXSW was the keynote address by Christopher Poole, better known as “moot,” the founder of the infamous 4chan. During his address Poole addressed a number of issues but the one that caught the eye of most publications were the comments made about Mark Zuckerberg’s “totally wrong” view on anonymity:
Zuckerberg’s totally wrong on aonymity being total cowardice. Anonymity is authenticity. It allows you to share in a completely unvarnished, raw way. The cost of failure is really high when you’re contributing as yourself.
These views should surprise nobody. After all, 4chan is the place that birthed Anonymous, the activist group/Internet meme that is responsible for several protests against the Church of Scientology, their support of WikiLeaks, their actions during the various protests in the Middle East and the single most absurdly hilarious news report ever broadcast.
Of course, Anonymous is just one part of 4chan, which moot says is largely misunderstood by most people:
People want to think everyone on 4chan is a young, rambunctious male. That’s not accurate — it’s a wide range of people using it. One of the things that 4chan does that’s really special is the way people come together to collaborate en masse. It’s the process at hich you arrive at the product that is fascinating.
These are just a couple of the many highlights from moot’s speech. All three parts (part one posted above) of it have been made available on YouTube for those of you who haven’t had the chance to watch.
