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4chan founder Chris Poole will try to fix social at Google

57 points by bane 11y ago

ank_the_elder 11y ago
I can't decide if this is a stroke of genius or one of the stupidest things Google has ever done.
- danko 11y ago
  I put my money on the former. 4chan is... itself. But it is definitely a vibrant community. And Poole himself has some thoughtful, unique insight into what makes a community vibrant and what kills it.
  - andrewvc 11y ago
    Maybe. Creating successful online communities has a huge luck element to it. I don't think there's anyone who can reliably create new online communities out of nothing.
    - blakesterz 11y ago
      Indeed. That, and timing. It seems like Google with all its money and talent and unbeatable built in audience, pushed so hard and still couldn't get it done with Google+, it'll be interesting if they can get it done now.
      - Shorel 11y ago
        It's a bit hard to 'lurk' into a theme related community in Google+. Everything is too personal, too related to a particular individual and in that sense there are no communities, only egos.
  - 467568985476 11y ago
    Would you mind elaborating on his insight into online communities? I'd love to read his perspective in depth
    - CPLX 11y ago
      That's an impressively on-topic username you've got there.
    - bydo 11y ago
      His TED talk, for one: http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for_anonymity_online http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for...
- killwhitey 11y ago
  Can't be worse than when they hired Kevin Rose.
- trungaczne 11y ago
  The title is misleading, there hasn't been any statement about what he's going to be working on. The way I see it Poole is just a good programmer who has experience working with a large user base. I think if you ignore the controversy over his user base, he's a good addition to any engineering team.
yuhong 11y ago
I dislike real name policies, but I do want to push to fix some of the problems with using real names. This includes moving the business world closer to Cluetrain for example.
stevenh 11y ago
Vacuous e-celeb worship. All noise, no signal. "Mediocre coder gets a job at Google." Big deal.
structAnkit 11y ago
Misleading headline aside, I doubt he will have much impact in terms of revamping Google's social platform. 4chan became a thing because of the community it attracted (and then evolved into), combined with the preservation of anonymity in a world becoming less anonymous. The site's success is not due to some crazy genius foresight, just a matter of supplying a need for an insanely niche community and then becoming a space for all sorts of inside jokes and (not so decent?) content to reside, again all catering to a niche community. As much as I enjoyed lurking 4chan back in the day, it's very difficult for me to see most of its innovations or ideas actually transfer to the mainstream. Google may have been better off buying Digg and turning it into a more accessible version of Reddit, and even that's a terrible idea.
astrange 11y ago
I think techcrunch should be congratulated for not spelling it "4Chan" for once.

57 points by bane 11y ago

ank_the_elder 11y ago

I can't decide if this is a stroke of genius or one of the stupidest things Google has ever done.

danko 11y ago
I put my money on the former. 4chan is... itself. But it is definitely a vibrant community. And Poole himself has some thoughtful, unique insight into what makes a community vibrant and what kills it.
- andrewvc 11y ago
  Maybe. Creating successful online communities has a huge luck element to it. I don't think there's anyone who can reliably create new online communities out of nothing.
  - blakesterz 11y ago
    Indeed. That, and timing. It seems like Google with all its money and talent and unbeatable built in audience, pushed so hard and still couldn't get it done with Google+, it'll be interesting if they can get it done now.
    - Shorel 11y ago
      It's a bit hard to 'lurk' into a theme related community in Google+. Everything is too personal, too related to a particular individual and in that sense there are no communities, only egos.
- 467568985476 11y ago
  Would you mind elaborating on his insight into online communities? I'd love to read his perspective in depth
  - CPLX 11y ago
    That's an impressively on-topic username you've got there.
  - bydo 11y ago
    His TED talk, for one: http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for_anonymity_online http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for...
killwhitey 11y ago
Can't be worse than when they hired Kevin Rose.
trungaczne 11y ago
The title is misleading, there hasn't been any statement about what he's going to be working on. The way I see it Poole is just a good programmer who has experience working with a large user base. I think if you ignore the controversy over his user base, he's a good addition to any engineering team.

yuhong 11y ago

I dislike real name policies, but I do want to push to fix some of the problems with using real names. This includes moving the business world closer to Cluetrain for example.

stevenh 11y ago

Vacuous e-celeb worship. All noise, no signal. "Mediocre coder gets a job at Google." Big deal.

structAnkit 11y ago

Misleading headline aside, I doubt he will have much impact in terms of revamping Google's social platform. 4chan became a thing because of the community it attracted (and then evolved into), combined with the preservation of anonymity in a world becoming less anonymous. The site's success is not due to some crazy genius foresight, just a matter of supplying a need for an insanely niche community and then becoming a space for all sorts of inside jokes and (not so decent?) content to reside, again all catering to a niche community. As much as I enjoyed lurking 4chan back in the day, it's very difficult for me to see most of its innovations or ideas actually transfer to the mainstream. Google may have been better off buying Digg and turning it into a more accessible version of Reddit, and even that's a terrible idea.

astrange 11y ago

I think techcrunch should be congratulated for not spelling it "4Chan" for once.