Canvas: Moot's New Project Goes Public

Canvas Open to the Public: 4Chan Fans Declare It to Be Bullshit

Moot (Christopher Poole when he's at home) has launched Canvas after closed beta. Now you can generate your image macros (please stop calling them memes) without the looming threat of rampant porn and trolling. At least, in theory.

• Canvas

Photos

Canvas: Image Macros as Far as the Eye Can See

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uploaded by NowPublic Staff

Is this sort of like what Cheezburger Network does? Yeah, except that, this time, it's the guy who started 4chan monetizing the sort of content invented on 4chan, as opposed to someone else doing it.

Canvas Uses Facebook for Signup

One thing you'll notice, though, is that Canvas uses Facebook Connect for account creation and login. You can have your own Canvas username, but it's connected to your Facebook account. This is contrary to moot's very public stance against Facebook's privacy policy. If you were a 4chan user (particularly if you frequent /b/), you'd seriously think twice about letting Facebook into your message-board world.

Canvas, with $3.6 million in venture capital behind it, uses drag-and-drop functionality to make image macros easier to create. While at first glance it looks sort of like icanhascheezburger.com (which itself sprang from 4chan image macros), it's more of a message board, and, unlike moot's earlier Frankenstein's monster, it archives its content.

Canvas is meant to to be SFW, but a quick look at the Reddit announcement thread gives us a crystal-ball look into the site's future.