For the lulz!

April 15, 2009 8:37 PM

Voting for the Time 100,Time Magazine's list of the world's most influential people in government, science, technology and the arts, has taken a bizarre turn. Rather than the expected dance-off between Stephen Colbert and Korean pop star Rain, the top spot is currently occupied by moot, the owner and operator of 4chan. Hear Time's own take on it, and then, learn who hacked the vote.
posted by CrunchyFrog (43 comments total)

crap i just lost the game. fuckers. (awesome hack, though)
posted by sexyrobot at 8:43 PM on April 15

Don't look now, but Manny Pacquiao is in the lead. Oh how things change over short periods of time. OH, TIME!! I see what I did there!
posted by not_on_display at 8:46 PM on April 15

This is awesome... I think.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:46 PM on April 15

I'm starting to understand why I was their Person of the Year a few years ago.
posted by yhbc at 8:48 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]

yes, it's awsome. also, old media and its many cliche's are dead dead dead.
posted by sexyrobot at 8:49 PM on April 15

After talking to ‘Zombocom’ (not his real nick)

Ummm, what? You couldn't use his real fake name?

Zombocom told me that it all started out when the folks that hang out on the random board of 4chan (sometimes known as /b/)

Hey! 4chan is more than just /b! There's also a papercraft forum... um... from what I've heard...
posted by heathkit at 8:59 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]

Wow. I guess Zombocom really can do anything.
posted by Clandestine Outlawry at 9:24 PM on April 15 [9 favorites]

Well too bad, guys. I just read over on /b/ that moot is dead. Goodnight, sweet prince.
posted by mullingitover at 9:34 PM on April 15

Moot probably isn't the most influential person in the world, but I feel comfortable arguing that the denizens of 4chan have far more influence over the world than they should be trusted with.

I love 4chan. I consider it one of the last bastions of truly free internet shenanigans. I find myself using it as a palette cleanser between bouts of marketplace and CNN.
posted by poe at 9:35 PM on April 15 [2 favorites]

Oh! Zombo! I haven't been there in so long!
posted by mr_roboto at 9:41 PM on April 15

MARBLE CAKE ALSO THE GAME!

Hey, wha'do I win?
posted by ericb at 9:52 PM on April 15

And, man... That is pretty impressive.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:57 PM on April 15

Gotta love the autovoters and folks behind this. Ingenuity at work.
posted by ericb at 9:59 PM on April 15

Well this was really quite clever but what I'm wondering is, does this make Anonymous more or less of a threat in the eyes of the Virginia Fusion Center 2009 Terrorism Threat Assessment?
posted by scalefree at 10:09 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]

This is even cooler than when Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf won People Magazine's "most beautiful person" poll.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:10 PM on April 15

And people wonder why electronic voting is distrusted.
posted by boo_radley at 10:14 PM on April 15 [9 favorites]

I'm sorry, that's awesome. I think a little anarchy is good for the body politic. "For the lulz" is as good a reason as any.
posted by Scattercat at 10:19 PM on April 15 [2 favorites]

Hey! 4chan is more than just /b! There's also a papercraft forum... um... from what I've heard...

"(the random board of 4chan) (sometimes known as /b/)", not "the random board of (4chan (sometimes known as /b/))"
posted by JiBB at 10:20 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]

Now if only the randomly bored on 4chan voted on important stuff like local, regional, and federal elections.
posted by porpoise at 10:28 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]

1923: Because it's there.
2009: For the lulz.

Progress marches on.
posted by grouse at 10:38 PM on April 15 [7 favorites]

Man, 99% of the people I interact with in real life don't even understand that there are other ways to get to their email than through Internet Explorer. Then there's you people.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:48 PM on April 15 [5 favorites]

4chan is more than just /b there's /s for example and some other stuff I think.
I support this choice although Colbert is my homeboy.
posted by Tashtego at 12:15 AM on April 16

And people wonder why electronic voting is distrusted.

I'd like it if these clowns, or those other clowns, or some clowns somewhere, would use one of these stunts to at least make that point.

How can any organization think an "online poll" is a good idea anymore? First the rocket scientists at NASA and now Time? Were there cutbacks in the sober second thoughts department?

Also, clowns are scary.
posted by rokusan at 12:17 AM on April 16

As /. says:

This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.

posted by Electric Dragon at 1:35 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]

Oh those /b/tards! I wonder what meme they'll incessantly bleat to death next?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:40 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]

Perhaps something to do with sheep?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:56 AM on April 16

4chan is, overwhelmingly, a voice of youth. While the thirtysomethings content themselves with the Daily Show, the kids love them some /b/. b part of the process; b aware; b-tarded. Is not 4chan, creation of m00t, influential?

Government: has not 4chan tracked down criminals and brought their activities to light? Helped to further expose some of the idiocy of Palin? What is more participatory and democratic, combining our efforts on 4chan, or sitting back and letting streams of moribund and unresponsive media tell us what to think and what to buy?

Art: has not 4chan prompted tens of thousands to look to sh00p photos, thus bringing people into the realm of digital art, even if their humble beginnings are only putting "A TEX ON A IMAEG"? Ah, but from there we have cats, with lasers coming from their eyes, and putting faces of teen celebrities onto the bodies of adult models, carefully matching skintone. Is this not art?

Technology: has not 4chan taught so many about technology? That Yahoo email is not a great place for secure communications? That being behind seven proxies, bitches, can help cloak your activities? 4chan teaches us about firewalls, and packeting, and IRC. 4chan teaches us about caching and webservers. 4chan gives us permission to load up and learn Blender in order to better create strange pornography that can never be photographed.

Nah, just kidding. We just thought it'd be cool to zergrush m00tykins up there because Time is weaksauce.
posted by adipocere at 3:14 AM on April 16 [8 favorites]

Nah, just kidding.

You know, you may very well be, but the hyperbolic sense of importance and impact you describe isn't too far off the mark with a lot of these guys. At the same time, it's nice to see someone in a stalemate judo lock with the CoS for so long now.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:22 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]

That hack description was interesting, but I couldn't help thinking "if only this power could be harnessed for good instead of for lulz..."
posted by caution live frogs at 4:59 AM on April 16

I'd like it if these clowns, or those other clowns, or some clowns somewhere, would use one of these stunts to at least make that point.

In my opinion, they are making that point. Not explicitly though. It's stronger that way.

They're handing the world a banana. Do they really need to mash it too?
posted by krilli at 5:24 AM on April 16

Surely, caution live frogs, lulz are good...
posted by Brother Dysk at 6:35 AM on April 16

1923: Because it's there.
2009: For the lulz.

Progress marches on.

Ah, climbing Mount Everest and precision hacking of an online poll, truly parallel marks in the chart towards the brighter future of humanity. Here I was thinking having skied, sailed, and biked through North, Central, and South America, en route from the north pole to the south pole was what came after making it up Everest. Thanks for the clarification.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:21 AM on April 16

This isn't so much "Wow, 4chan sure pulled a neat trick" as "Wow, TIME's online polls are designed incredibly poorly."

I hope they do hack a real vote. That'd put the fear of god into politicians. Maybe they'd start changing their names to 'Mudkipz' or 'Pedobear' to bring in the fake online votes.
posted by graventy at 7:21 AM on April 16

Sadly, I would probably vote for Pedobear after seeing the name on a ballot. Obama is helping things along. With the state of US politics, I really don't trust most people running.

I hope they do hack a real vote. That'd put the fear of god into politicians. Maybe they'd start changing their names to 'Mudkipz' or 'Pedobear' to bring in the fake online votes.

Very skilled execution on that, I must say. 4chan seems to be becoming the Improve Everywhere of the net. Their latest project with Twitter (I'm not polluting Metafilter by linking to it.) is not moving along so well.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out after a while. The younger generation making their voice heard via this medium. I seriously hope we scare the hell out of the older generation (Ted Stevens, I'm looking at you.) when they figure out that people aren't "fed" news now; they talk about it endlessly online.

(If you are over 50 and reading this, please excuse yourself from this group. Don't worry. You're good.)

And yes: If all these people could get up and pay attention to local issues instead of posting pictures of Hentai frog-pr0n to te net, we would likely achieve more in the long run. I'm not defending it. I'm just saying that this will be interesting to watch.
posted by Avelwood at 9:08 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]

4chan: because you can't masturbate all day (but when you're ready, we're hear for that too).
posted by Mick at 9:50 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]

WHERE IS ATATURK
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 10:06 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]

anonymous, i both fear and respect you.
posted by knowles at 10:20 AM on April 16

MOAR!
posted by Avelwood at 11:42 AM on April 16

Don't look now, but Manny Pacquiao is in the lead.

While Manny has the most votes (19.6M currently), his rank is only 22, coming in just after "Marblecake also the game".
Most of Manny's votes must come from mooters lowering his rank. Also, notice how the average ratings count down by ones from 47 to 28.
posted by metaplectic at 1:00 PM on April 16

Wow, that is impressive. Nicely done.
posted by homunculus at 1:36 PM on April 16

He comes.
posted by turgid dahlia at 4:56 PM on April 16 [2 favorites]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Zalgo from Something Awful, along with many other memes accredited to 4chan?
posted by Betty_effn_White at 9:30 AM on April 18

Here's a bit of a followup to the Music Machinery piece above.
posted by Liver at 9:15 AM on April 28