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> See: the sad story of Moot, who ran one of the most popular social websites in the world and ended up with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Normally “Really? I’ve never heard of it.” isn’t good evidence, but when you’re asserting that Moot was one of the most popular social websites in the world it does have some bearing.



Moot is the nick name for the founder of 4chan.


And the fact that a poster on a tech focused forum didn't even know who Moot is, is proof itself that he got nothing in the end.

And it's really weird. I assumed Moot was mega famous with tech folks.


Ok. Maybe it is me.

But that is weird. I mean I don’t really think that my finger is on the pulse of the tech community but I’ve been on this site for the past 10 years.


4chan is 18 years old and moot stepped down 7 years ago. I can totally see younger engineers having no idea who he is.


I mean, I've heard of 4chan of course. Never visited there, but heard of it. Never heard of Moot before today. In tech 30+ years.


Well, most of 4chan is weird, so this fits ...

(Nothing wrong with weirdness, though, up to a certain level of messed up)


> And it's really weird. I assumed Moot was mega famous with tech folks.

Only a certain subsection of us. My husband used 4chan in high school and college and told me about it and that's how I learned about him. 4chan is definitely a good case study in how being popular and engaging won't lead to monetary gains if your platform is too toxic. 4chan is still quite popular but half of the site is infested with actual "Hitler did nothing wrong" types.




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