4Chan's 'Moot': Zuckerberg's Single Identity Is 'Totally Wrong'

by Thomas Houston on March 13, 2011 at 06:49 PM

Christopher 'Moot' Poole, founder of 4chan and Canv.as, spoke at SXSW's Sunday keynote, and explored privacy, creativity and the importance of anonymity online. With persistent identities (often tied to our real names) from sites like Facebook, Twitter and Disqus tracking our actions across the Internet, Poole compared the loss of anonymity online to a loss of youth -- a time for experimentation. He noted, "The cost of failure is really high when you're contributing as yourself," an increasingly common situation as Facebook and commenting accounts tied to your identity spread. HR departments, college admissions and countless other professional organizations dig into your online activities and profiles, and most people are still coming to terms with just what it means to live online. Just take the example of journalist Nils Rosen and the fallout from his insensitive tweets about Lara Logan's sexual assault in Egypt. An offhand comment with few repercussions in the pre-digital era can now become a career-altering disaster in the Twitter age.

But Poole contends that the loss of anonymity isn't just about increasingly living in public and archived for eternity. He found that 4chan's anonymity and lack of archiving actually fuel creativity and experimentation; it's been a consistent force in creating new memes exactly because the system makes it so simple to ignore the failures. Where Zuckerberg contends real identity is the best path to authenticity, Poole argues "anonymity is authenticity."

Where most message boards and commenting systems often heavily favor personalities, 4chan's rules and structure reward what's being created, not the creator. If you make an awful rage face comic, it quickly dies in the stream but won't affect your online cred. If, instead, your face and real name were tied to a poorly done business cat image, you'd be less willing to quickly riff on the developing jokes. Interestingly, Poole's latest image-sharing and collaborative creation project, Canv.as, requires Facebook authentication, which he says cuts down on trolling and spamming even though users' identities aren't surfaced on the site. Sure, single, 'real world' identities have been extremely effective in cleaning up some common commenting issues, but with Facebook gaining support for its comment platform out across the Web, it's well worth considering a community's creativity and the value of anonymous comments and multiple identities.

Part 1 of 3 is embedded below:

Tags: 4chan, christopher moot poole, christopher poole, ChristopherMootPoole, ChristopherPoole, facebook, features, identity, moot, moot+sxsw, mootsxsw, sxsw, sxsw+moot, sxsw-2011, sxswmoot, top, twitter, zuckerberg

Comments

ConfusedMar 13th 2011 7:09PM

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Is there any place to see it online?

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thomas.houstonMar 13th 2011 11:51PM

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@Confused scratch that, found it on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DurQRZhREe0

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MarioMar 13th 2011 7:53PM

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Everyone around the world seems to revile common identity cards, yet we run around with driver's licences in our wallets and use them for identification even though - in most jurisdictions - a driver's license is just a permit to drive and isn't based on foundation identity documents. This illustrates our belief that identity management is a messy process predicated on another person's belief - during a particular transaction - that we are who we say we are. When it comes to the web, it's almost the opposite, where anyone can assume your identity and post a nasty comment on a forum so that it becomes part of your public (google search) persona.

A simple approach to limiting the exposure of your personal identity is to create an online version of your persona (ideal for making radical or incendiary comments on questionable topics and sites). While a good amount of sleuthing might make out that "joeproinsecundo" is actually Firstname Lastname, at least google will not be making those associations when someone googles your name.

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Thomas HoustonMar 13th 2011 11:48PM

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haven't seen one yet, though the sxsw are being livestreamed on the sxsw.com site

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AmazingrugsMar 14th 2011 7:30AM

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People want anonymity because no one wants to deal with the repercussions of the venom they spew. Racists and homophobes on XBox Live, people commenting awful things on CNN (read any international story on the iPad app), all hiding behind their wall. Meanwhile, I bet these are the same people who rally for an "open and free" Internet. Ok, so why so scared to be "open and free" about who you are?

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MajPMar 16th 2011 1:35PM

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@Amazingrugs
Yes, because since I made a comment when I was 13 on the internet I really still stand by it and want business associates to see it. I'm not saying racism or any kind of bigotry, simply things which no longer represent my opinion. I argue for anonymity, not because I am a bigot, which I am not, but because whether or not I have something to hide, how is that any of your business?

People have secrets and personal affairs; it is not necessary for everyone to be able to access them. And since people are social, you are less likely to get honest and open discussion without discarding existing community ties. You can't do that if you're not fully anonymous.

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adamkMar 14th 2011 2:49PM

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I'm hearing a fart at the 32-33 second mark of his speech. Listen and notice his facial expression.

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UberSilMar 15th 2011 3:16PM

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Meme's are not exactly the greatest thing on the planet. In fact if I had to rate them against everything else the internet has given us I'd rate them on the side of bad ideas. Sure they entertain us for a few moments but then they just get in the way of real humor and what not.

In all honesty, I'm not afraid if people know what's listed about me on the net. It doesn't define me and doesn't give anyone nearly half of the story about me. All anonymity does is give people the chance to shirk responsibility and if you want to be free then you need to act properly and let others be as well.

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