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Google Technology

4chan Founder Chris 'Moot' Poole Has Left Google (cnbc.com) 91

Posted by BeauHD from the greener-pastures dept.
Chris Poole, who founded controversial online community 4chan before joining Google in 2016, has left the search giant after jumping among several groups within the company, CNBC has learned. From the report: Poole's last official day at Google was April 13th, according to an internal repository viewed by CNBC, which described his last role as a product manager. Oftentimes, employee shares attached to hiring vest at the five-year mark, though it's unclear if that's a reason for Poole's departure now. Poole, who goes by the moniker "Moot," founded 4chan in 2003 at age 15. It grew into one of the most influential and controversial online communities to date. Rolling Stone famously called him a boy-genius and the "Mark Zuckerberg of the online underground." [...]

Poole revealed in 2016 that he'd joined Google as a continuation of his work, and in a now-removed post, stated he'd use his "experience from a dozen years of building online communities" and "grow in ways one simply cannot on their own." He joined as product manager in the photos and streams unit, which oversaw social networking efforts under VP Bradley Horowitz at the time. That sparked speculation that the company hired him to help it revamp its social media ambitions, some of which aimed to compete with Facebook. Poole jumped between several different roles during his five years. At one point, he reportedly became a partner at Google's in-house start-up incubator, Area 120, which was just getting off the ground in 2016. He then became a product manager in Google's Maps division, according to Crunchbase.
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4chan Founder Chris 'Moot' Poole Has Left Google More

4chan Founder Chris 'Moot' Poole Has Left Google

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  • Can't... resist... pun ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Friday April 23, 2021 @06:21AM (#61304098)

    Poole jumped between several different roles during his five years.

    Well... whatever he did there it's now, um... moot.

  • Why did he leave? What is he going to do?
    Will he ever post on 4chan again as Admin emeritus?
    He's so secretive, but I guess that's just the culture he created

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Friday April 23, 2021 @08:34AM (#61304358) Journal
      Jumping between different roles so quickly could mean that he didn't find a role suitable to him at Google, especially if he sought to use his experience in building online communities... his started out as a hobby, which is a very different thing from communities run by corporations. Or maybe Google overestimated the abilities of this "boy genius"; the question is whether 4Chan's success is more or less accidental, or because of smart choices made by Poole along the way... and whether those choices and ideas translate well to a corporate setting.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Falos ( 2905315 )

        His capabilities probably aren't that remarkable. Might be adequate, but nothing genius.

        I'd think his value is in consult. On the occasion that people talk about the site's merits they always mention the melting pot that can produce a diamond-in-the-shit, the unique set of chaotic and inclusive conditions. Similarly, Poole would have a bit of perspective from being in a unique vantage point not reproduced elsewhere. But don't let me oversell that, some of that will be little different than what is gleaned b

      • Maybe he saw all his friends spooling up startups and fleecing VCs and became envious.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Friday April 23, 2021 @08:52AM (#61304406)

      Those guys who push unmoderated free speech with no limits, sure do love their privacy.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Gee might that be because the brown shirt brigade has shown a tendency to show with violent mobs?

        • Gee might that be because the brown shirt brigade has shown a tendency to show with violent mobs?

          But he's the one that gave them a platform. Why would they focus their violence on him?

        • They form violent mobs, because they are getting bad information seems legitimate because of the number and size of such unrestricted free speech sites.

          The big problem is these people in these violent mobs, are not trying to be bad people, but have been fed so much false information that what they think they are doing is right, and when they are caught and arrested many are actually surprised that they are being treated like criminals.

          I grew up in a conservative household. However I was taught by my very co

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pimpy ( 143938 )

      The initial announcement was that he was going to improve G+. It turns out that even trying to force all of their personal and business users onto the failed abandonware Google project of the week can't produce a sustainable outcome. In this regard, I'd say he succeeded - where there was previously no opt-out method before, G+ was shut down completely during his tenure, which is a marked improvement.

      • G+ was shut down completely during his tenure, which is a marked improvement.

        It just drove nerds to Facebook. Huge improvement for corporate mind control.

  • Underground? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Friday April 23, 2021 @06:37AM (#61304116)

    There's nothing underground about 4chan. Filthy yes. Full of the scumbags of the internet, absolutely. But underground? Last I checked you get to it from a normal domain and it shows up in normal search results.

    • I don't think they mean underground as in dark web; underground as in punk or counter culture.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by suss ( 158993 )

      Living in mom's basement counts as underground, right?

    • There's nothing underground about 4chan. Filthy yes. Full of the scumbags of the internet, absolutely. But underground? Last I checked you get to it from a normal domain and it shows up in normal search results.

      It is (or was at least) a watering hole for all sorts of things that occurred off the books.

    • There's nothing underground about 4chan. Filthy yes. Full of the scumbags of the internet, absolutely. But underground? Last I checked you get to it from a normal domain and it shows up in normal search results.

      I'm no fan of them, but being pushed out of the public square and needing to seek odd hosting and getting banned in various countries and so forth is pretty much literally "underground" - in the usage of the word here.

      (Not "literally" like as in below sea level, with dirt above you, etc., true.)

    • Ordinarily I'd disagree with you about 4chan being filthy and full of scumbags. But post 2016 election cycle and mobile poster increases make that assessment bang on the money.

      The fact that OC was replaced with mountains of pepe and wojack variants have destroyed whatever quality 4chan had. Flags were also a huge mistake.

  • Who cares? He left? That's the story? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pierre Pants ( 6554598 ) on Friday April 23, 2021 @07:50AM (#61304278)
    You don't know why he left, but you know that he did leave, and that's enough of a story to earn a place on Slashdot? Why should we care? I mean... WHO CARES? MAYBE if he left for some interesting reason, we would care, and maybe if he did something actually interesting at Google and then oh no he left and now what would Google do without him, we would care?.. But there's no story. Let's say he really simply left to "pursue further career opportunities", then, OK, what would the "story" be then? Eh whatever.
    • Yep. Dumb story. "He's no longer working there. Let's speculate why."

      My guess: he is young and does not know what to do with himself. Next.

  • 5 years? Not much of a GET.

  • He then became a product manager in Google's Maps division, according to Crunchbase.

    Antisocial maps.

  • "Poole revealed in 2016 that he'd joined Google as a continuation of his work, and in a now-removed post, stated he'd... joined as product manager in the photos and streams unit, which oversaw social networking efforts"

    Oh, so he's the one responsible for shitting up Google Photos?

  • Unlike Zuckerberg Moot didn't steal his brainchild from his dorm-mates.
    Moot sold the site to Hiroyuki Nishimura in 2015.
    4chan is only controversial because its free.
    A post has to try really, really hard to get smacked with the ban hammer and then mainly because 4chan mods can be morons.
    Read the whole brony affair that lead up to /mlp for a laugh.
    They are not playing politics like, FaceBook, Twitter, cough-Slashdot-cough.
    So you see a lot of ugly truth and stupid.
    Just like a free forum is supposed to be.

  • 8chan was twice as bad.

  • The summary speculates:

    Oftentimes, employee shares attached to hiring vest at the five-year mark, though it's unclear if that's a reason for Poole's departure now.

    Google stock granted at hire vests over four years, in equal amounts each year. Further, annual "refresh" grants are given, each vesting over four years, and those refreshes aren't generally much smaller than the hire grant (as least for well-performing employees) and are often larger. This means that at any point in a Google employee's career the

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