Monday, March 14, 2011

The founder of 4chan defends his vision of anonymity on the Internet

Christopher Poole, 23, creator of 4chan. Mark Zuckerberg, 26, founder of Facebook. Three years apart, but also a vision of a radically different identity on the Internet. If Mark Zuckerberg defended the use of the real surname of the Internet to enhance the authenticity, Christopher Poole tackled this assertion at a conference at the SXSW Festival in Austin, USA.

"Zuckerberg is wrong when he says that anonymity leads to cowardice. Anonymity is the authenticity. It allows you to share in a totally raw and whole," said the creator of 4chan, a image board (platform to post images) based on total anonymity to its users: no account creation necessary to participate, and absence of nicks.

In contrast, Mark Zuckerberg calls for the end of pseudonyms for the benefit of the use of real names of the user. A philosophy which is illustrated with the features of Facebook Connect, which allows users to identify sites using the system, and can comment, not a pseudonym, but under the name of their Facebook profile - often their real surname , which is also filled with the profession or place of residence recently.

Purpose of the operation, prevent users do not write anything on the ground that they are anonymous and thus enhance the production quality on the Internet. "We are moving towards a world more and more transparent," explained Mark Zuckerberg in an interview quoted in the book The Facebook Effect.

"You only have one identity. By having different depending on whether you are with your colleagues or friends, it is nearly done. Having two identities of yourself is an illustration of a lack of integrity. " HAVE THE RIGHT TO A MISTAKE vision completely opposite to that of Christopher Poole, 4chan which would be the epitome of positive consequences of anonymity in the creative process.

"One of the characteristics of 4chan is very unique way in which users collaborate in bulk [text in French]. The production process is fascinating," said the young man at the SXSW conference. The site is in fact behind many memes, the most famous are the LOLcats, but Rage Guy, Rickrolling, Troll Face ...

A piece of the Internet culture that owes its existence to anonymity, which allows everyone to experiment without risking this has an impact on their "real life". "The price of failure is too great when you contribute [online] under your real identity," said Christopher Poole. Instead, 4chan allows everyone to upload a photo montage of their choice without that we can identify: if it is funny or interesting, it will be taken by the community and commented.

If it is irrelevant, it will disappear within minutes of the site, buried under the hundreds of productions posted by contributors 4chan. According to Christopher Poole, risk-taking is much higher if the user is anonymous, something that threatens Facebook. "With sites where you must register must we lose the innocence of youth.

We can no longer make as many mistakes in the past. Before, changing schools, they could reinvent themselves. Now with Facebook, it is no longer possible. And if you do not have Facebook, you're looked funny. " CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS "We believe the content rather than the creator. On other sites, which account is your identity.

People are judged on their contribution. On 4chan, there is a creative change," said Christopher Poole taking the example of the implementation of captcha (type words before posting a message) to prevent the influx of spam on 4chan. "We had at least five hundred emails to say that it would sign our death.

And then the Internet have turned it by saving the captcha and creating humorous content." To reinforce these "creative conversations" Christopher Poole has launched a few weeks ago in private beta site Canvas, which allows everyone to create his collages without needing to master Photoshop, the site offers its own tools.

"It allows a lot of people that would not usually because they have not mastered the tools to participate. We made sure that people can come without fear of failure." Because obviously, Canvas is anonymous.

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