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I think Mootles left more because he couldn't find a way to really monetize the site. He tried — and failed — to rein things in, but by that point it was far to

I think Mootles left more because he couldn't find a way to really monetize the site. He tried — and failed — to rein things in, but by that point it was far too late. Even with heavy moderation by the janitors, what mainstream company would ever risk their banner ad appearing on a page that might feature rather exotic forms of pornography, potentially illegal content, radical political statements from both sides of the spectrum (there's now a /leftypol/), racism, furries, etc.? It's not like Nike or Coca-Cola were exactly beating down his door.

DoItToMe81 4y ago
It was definitely financial. 4chan was hemorrhaging money, and as long as it stayed the way it currently is, it would have opened him up for lawsuits he could not possibly afford. There were many efforts from the 2010s onwards to defang the site, most likely for advertisers or to pretty it up for sale, but all failed. He tried to use 4chan to springboard financial projects when monetization failed, but obviously, they failed, too. All the Chans I've seen have to rely on self-serve ads from their users, or ads from porn companies that don't care about the controversy, and even that's fading now. It's pretty much an inherently chaotic and edgy format, and that does not appeal to advertisers at all.