One of the best, or worst sites on the internet, depending on your personal views, has changed hands with news that 4chan owner Christopher “Moot” Poole has sold the site to the founder of 2channel.

Founded in October 2003, 4chan originally started as an anonymous image-sharing board primarily focused on Japanese culture, and quickly grew during the second half of that last decade to become the internet’s driving culture force, although many may have even today never heard of it.

If you’ve ever heard of LOLCats, Rickrolling, Longcat, and a list of other memes that are too long to publish, you’ve already seen 4chan content because they originated on 4chan’s /b/ random chat group.

Anonymous also has its roots with 4chan, with the first use of the Guy Fawkes mask and Anonymous name having been organized by 4chan users on the board itself.

Acquiring the site is Hiroyuki Nishimura, the founder of 2channel, a Japanese language culture site that not only preceded 4chan but is said to have been the inspiration for 4chan’s creation.

“Hiroyuki is literally the only person in the world with as much if not more experience than myself in running an anonymous, large destination community that serves tens of millions of people,” Mr. Poole said in an interview. “He’s the great-grandfather of all of this.”

Poole, who had originally said in a post on 4chan in January that he was stepping down from running the site, added separately in a post explaining the sale:

“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.”

Changes?

What isn’t clear from any of the news is whether there would be any change in how 4chan is run.

Despite its reputation as a hothouse for content that upsets the politically correct, Poole had guided the site towards a more middle ground over the last few years, particularly as his fame grew and he seemingly wanted people to stop saying bad things about him; indeed many users believe that Poole sold out to social justice warriors once he became friends with them.

Nishimura, having a background in running a similar board, may be a boon for the site given he may be more tolerant of posts that Poole himself had cracked down on in recent years.

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Image credit: mohamedn/Flickr/CC by 2.0