User:Skomorokh/moot



Christopher Poole, known online as moot, is the founder and owner of 4chan.org. His real-world identity in connection with the site was revealed on July 9, 2008 in The Wall Street Journal. He was profiled in TIME on the same day by Lev Grossman, who described moot's influence as a non-visible administrator as "one of the most [significant]" on the evolution of content collaboration", calling him "in his own way,…one of the most powerful people on the Web".

Although Grossman's article began with the confession that "I don't even know his real name", he claimed to identify moot as Christopher Poole. However, it was later revealed by Anonymous users on 4chans /b/ board that his name is Robert Goin. Later, on July 10, Grossman admitted that there was an outside chance that Christopher Poole was not moot's real name, but instead an obscure reference to a 4chan inside joke. The Washington Post agreed that "Christopher Poole" could be "all a big hoax, a 'gotcha.' It would be just what you'd expect from the creator of 4chan". Prior to the Wall Street Journal and TIME interviews, moot deliberately kept his real identity separate from 4chan. He told Grossman "my personal private life is very separate from my Internet life ... There's a firewall in between." The Observer describes moot as "the most influential web entrepreneur you've never heard of".

Poole grew up in New York City, United States, and started 4chan in his Long Island bedroom at the age of 15. A fan of the popular Japanese imageboard 2chan, Poole intended 4chan to be an American equivalent where he could share his fascination with manga and Japanese television shows. As of July 9, 2008 he was 20 years old and attending college. "My personal private life is very separate from my Internet life," he has stated, "There's a firewall in between." He has spoken at conferences at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In February 2009, The Washingon Post reported that Poole had attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia for a few semesters before dropping out. It reported that Poole was living with his mother while looking for a way to make money from owning 4chan. In March 2009, TIME further gave note to moot by placing him on the 2009 Time 100 Finalists List. In a talk at TED he revealed that he was no longer living at home, and was now undertaking a degree in urban planning to "take what [he] has learned in online communities and apply it to physical communities."