4chan’s new Ultra-Meme Factory – Canvas
I admit I’ve never been on 4chan – I just popped over to its famous message board, /b, and found it very NSFW. Nonetheless, their culture is the stuff of dark, comedic sci-fi novels. Their community has done everything from hack Sarah Palin’s email to save an abused dog from its tween owner, all just using the power of the Internet. Whether you approve or not, you have to admire its power, and even more than that, it’s ability to challenge power with the mass spread of absurdity.
4chan’s reputation as troublesome hackers made it surprising when its founder, Christopher Poole, received impressive investments for his new project, Canvas. I read about it on The New York Times and immediately requested an invite, which I just got yesterday.
Here’s what the interface looks like. As you can see, it feels like Tumblr – a site famous for reblogging – mixed with Pinterest, a billboard-style site where people post images. What makes it different is its image editing tools, letting you remix photos by adding drawings and text. This means there is a collaborative aspect of “meme development” at play, which is funny to watch happen in real time.
Many 4chan devotees are disappointed that Poole didn’t make Canvas an anonymous site, especially after all of his public declarations in favor of anonymity. Users can only sign in with Facebook Login, and the content has to be SFW. This is probably because of the $625,000 the site gained from investors.
What about the visual software? It reminds me of good old Microsoft Paint – simple, usable, capable of more than you’d think. Soon the site will add video and audio features, hopefully with equally simple “remix” functionality. Sounds pretty cool.
Check it out at Canv.as.