4chan is now owned by founder of 2ch.

http://www.4chan.org/news

moot wrote

Today I'm pleased to announce that Hiroyuki Nishimura, best known as the founder of 2channel, has taken my place as the owner of 4chan.

Hiroyuki is a pioneer in the world of anonymous communities, and can be thought of as the great-grandfather of 4chan. His creation of 2channel in 1999 sparked an era of anonymous-centric web culture in Japan that led to the creation of Futaba Channel, the site that inspired 4chan. None of us would be using 4chan today—or potentially any anonymous image board—if it weren't for him.

I met Hiroyuki in 2011 and we became fast friends, bonding over our shared passion for creating and managing online communities. He is one of few individuals with a deep understanding of what it means to provide a digital home for tens of millions of people for more than a decade. There is nobody more qualified than Hiroyuki to lead 4chan, and I can't think of a person better suited for the task.

4chan sits on the eve of two great milestones—its 2 billionth post and 12th birthday. It has been a great privilege to serve as 4chan's founder and steward for almost twelve years, and I can't wait to see what lays in store under Hiroyuki's experienced leadership.

–moot

Is this a good thing and will it push 4chan into the right direction, or is it for the worse? Hiroyuki was removed from his position prior due to many controversial decisions including censorship, selling userdata, etc.

For more info on the reason why he was removed: http://www.anonymous-japan.org/fake2ch/

>Is this a good thing and will it push 4chan into the right direction, or is it for the worse?
it's probably worse but 4chan has gone to shit anyways, I'm glad that I stopped going there

I guss it being owned by the 2channel founder isn't that bad. I just hope it doesn't change to much.

I'm not sure if it will improve or worsen the state of the website, but I feel that the culture will rapidly change under this new ownership. 4chan is like a new playground for Nishimura. He's definitely going to push forward some experimental adjustments and changes.

It'll also be interesting to see his management in regards to how radically different and unique of a community 4chan is.

Can't be worse than /pol/ becoming the second /b/ back in the day. Or am I wrong...
Anyways. Can't really be that bad. Apart from the obvious Japanese mentality concerning the censorship.

I couldn't really have thought of a better person to step into his role, as of now I'm definetly more optimistic than not.

Eh, might be interesting to see what happens. 4chan is pretty bad nowadays, so it won't matter much if he screws up.

I'm hoping that he doesn't completely kill it, I still prefer the 4chan community to 8chan's community, where pretty much every board is influenced by /pol/.

First thing he should do is make a guro and loli board. I don't want to go to /b/ for loli and guro ;_;

19200
Yeah, it's pretty scary that the ownership of 8chan changed on the sly. Jim seems pretty chill though.

I rarely used 4chan so I really don't see what's the problem. But I can tell this guy might make it worse than it is already.

I honestly don't know what to make of this, but I'm sure it can't be good in the long run.  I hate 4chan's community but I love how easy it is to use and how fast-paced it is.  The problem is there aren't enough anonymous communities out there, and none of them move as fast as 4chan.

I don't think it'll really change much, but maybe I'm not really grasping the situation. From what I've seen, change of management is usually good or unnoticeable.

Anyone else watching the QandA threads? They are painful to keep up with, my wrist hurts from all the scrolling.
I think this might be the beginning of the end for 4chan.

Looks like /l/ might become a real thing.

I have a little bit of hope for Hiroyuki, but I gues only time will tell how he will really do at running 4chan.

Lately I see more and more alternative/niche *chans.
They've always been a thing, I know, but I seem to notice more and more since the big "8chan exodus" took place.
Feature-wise, 8chan simply has more than 4chan - but for a lot of people, they've been going to 4chan for years. Some people have left imageboards behind entirely, some people dig in their heels and won't move until the site itself goes down for good. They've spent more time talking with random, nameless users than they have with people they see on a daily basis. 8chan itself seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis on certain boards. Do they want to become New 4chan, the only difference being fewer site-wide rules (leaving boards free to be as heavy or light as they want), or do they want to be something unique?
People say "this /a/ isn't as good as that /a/", or "this *chan is too slow/too fast" but I think that presupposes all /a/'s need to be spiritual successors to 4chan's /a/.
It's a bit like saying "Hitler invaded Poland" - while not incorrect, it isn't an entirely accurate statement by itself. Hitler ordered his army to invade Poland, he didn't solo that shit.
Likewise, a board (or a *chan as a whole) isn't just it's image, it's not a singular entity, it's an ephemeral thing. Users find the page, some leave in disgust, some die IRL (rip in rip /a/nons) and some are there forever.  Some sites are dominated by a single board with an overwhelming population that spill over into other boards hi /pol/, how's it going? Sometimes memes ascend past in-jokes and become "unwritten rules" to the uninitiated. It's like that story about the monkeys and the ladder - http://i.stack.imgur.com/MyQki.jpg as users join and leave, what may have been a joke becomes a rule, and what may have been a legitimate unwritten rule becomes a joke. After so long, a reasonable practice becomes ritual - perhaps the ritual is justified and still serves a good purpose, but it's still a ritual, followed simply because it has always been followed. If you were around when moot pulled the n/a/ruto stunt, it was a big deal because it flew in the face of what a lot of users saw as a long-standing, hard rule. Some welcomed the change - others claim that was the beginning of "the death" of /a/.
Maybe it started as a joke. Maybe banning a narutard a day really DOES keep the Gaia away. Who can say?
Running a *chan is like grilling a small fish - you ruin it with too much poking. Yet, if you let people run amok, your site will be run into the ground/covered in spam.

A shit community on a great board is a shit board.
A good community on a shit board is an okay board.
A shit community on a shit board won't stay up long enough to matter.
A good community on a good board doesn't exist for long
I forget where I was going with this, and re-reading doesn't help, but I think my point was that YOU (and everyone else) make the boards how they are.
Imageboards are dying, and we're all necrophiles

The Preceding Post has been confirmed 100% Truthiness Guaranteed Opinionfact by Prof. Dr. NeonTiger, pseudoscientist extrordinare

Scarecrow wrote

Looks like /l/ might become a real thing.

I have a little bit of hope for Hiroyuki, but I gues only time will tell how he will really do at running 4chan.

That would definitely be nice. But there are definitely legal issues with such a board.
That type of content is definitely questionable in the states, illegal in some (including mine ;_😉