4chan founder Christopher Poole announces he will step down

HE’S the man behind one of the world’s most controversial sites — responsible for some of the best and worst of the internet. So why is the 4chan founder suddenly leaving?

THE man behind controversial website 4chan will step down from the site he founded at age 15.

New Yorker Christopher Poole, also known as ‘moot’ founded the site in 2003, but overnight said he would retire from his role to “decompress and reflect”.

Today I announced my retirement from @4chan, a community I founded at the age of 15 and have served for 11.5 years: https://t.co/jEMsDf5nfz

“I’ve decided it’s time for me to move on” Mr Poole wrote in a blog post online.

“4chan has faced numerous challenges over the years, including how to continuously satisfy a community of millions, and ensure the site has the human, technical, and financial resources to continue operating. But the biggest hurdle it’s had to overcome is myself. As 4chan’s sole administrator, decision maker, and keeper of most of its institutional knowledge, I’ve come to represent an uncomfortably large single point of failure.”

MORE: Everything you need to know about 4Chan

The site, which began as a niche space for the anime community, has exploded into one of the most popular spaces on the web, with more than 1.22 million visitors a day and 620 million monthly page views.

Eleven and a half years of @4chan, in numbers: pic.twitter.com/YhzUy0XbvQ

The “simple image-based bulletin board” allows anonymous users to post and share images and is responsible for some of the best and worst the internet has to offer.

While the LOL cats memes and ‘rickroll” videos — where users trick people into watching a video of Rick Astley’s “Never gonna give you up” — originated on the site, it’s also responsible for the nude celebrity photo hack that is now the subject of an FBI investigation.

MORE: Who is this 4chan person anyway?

Another controversial event dubbed ‘the Snappening’ saw hackers warn up to 200,000 nude pictures from snapchat would be published online.

The actions of users even forced Christopher Poole to give an entertaining testimony at the trial of David Kernell, a man convicted of breaking into Sarah Palin’s email in 2008 and posting her password on the site.

News_Image_File: Chris Poole founded the site at 15.

Mr Poole said the site is in good financial position, is “fast and stable as ever” with a large team of volunteers including a lead developer, moderators and a server administrator who will run the site when he leaves. He said he may return one day and will continue to write on his personal blog.

“The journey has been marked by highs and lows, surprises and disappointments, but ultimately immense satisfaction. I’m humbled to have had the privilege of both founding and presiding over what is easily one of the greatest communities to ever grace the Web,” he wrote.

“It was truly an honour to serve as 4chan’s founding administrator, and I look forward to seeing what the next decade holds for the site.” he said.

Users have reacted to the news in 4chan style, posting images and sharing the news online.

After 11yrs @moot retiring from 4chan as sole Admin #4chan #moot #Anonymous , pic.twitter.com/t9L2xC36vk

With moot retiring, it's going to happen eventually. The internet will never be good again. pic.twitter.com/BDglTEun1N

https://t.co/VrtsxSoDuB Pretty sad to hear this. Honestly never envisioned moot retiring for some reason. I'm feeling feelings right now

So moot founded 4chan as a teenager and is retiring from it as a grownup. Sounds about right.

Moot's retiring. I feel like we've lost a real internet pioneer. https://t.co/2NuWJmi8Ke pic.twitter.com/nIsiNNe9XT

Mr Poole announced he would hold a live question and answer session on Friday to “hold court with the community one last time”.