4chan/Staff: Difference between revisions
(he was 'Redwood' in IRC logs and later changed to 'Henchouse') |
|||
(159 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
[[Category:Draft]] | |||
[[Category:4chan]] | |||
[[Category:Controversial]] | |||
'''Note: Outdated and inaccurate. Take all this with pincers and hazmat suits.''' | |||
[[4chan]]'s staff, formally known '''Team 4chan''' since Aug. 2004, has an internal structure more complex than the usually believed ''Jannies'' and ''Mods''. | |||
This page deals with all known formal and informal roles staff operated, and to whom the positions were given over time. Some roles were never formally (or publicly) named, this article will try approximate them into a coherent frame. | |||
''The objective of this article is to give credit where credit's due and make sure no one is forgotten.'' Handles may be named freely, but criteria for having a "section" is having done something of note that involves 4chan. Names and personal lives of staff members are of no interest unless directly related or '''voluntarily''' disclosed to the public (e.g. no doxing). | |||
Note: Don't try to contact or witch hunt anyone—they will promptly tell you to fuck off. Jannies' "doxes" have already been spammed by the butthurt thousands of times by now. | |||
== Staff Structure == | |||
On January 21, 2015, moot mentioned that there are a grand total of 104 4chan staff members. On August 13th, 2018, a fired janitor mentioned that there are a approximately 130 members on the 4chan staff team. About 110 are janitors, and 20 are mods and managers.<ref name="janny">[https://archive.ph/2018.08.18-101120/https://8ch.net/irc/res/6927.html] "I got fired from being a 4chan jani yesterday" 8chan Thread.</ref> In 2022, a Brazilian janitor (AKA J-Anon) showed that there were around 40+ different moderators on the mod team.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20240310043419/https://files.soyjak.wiki/Janon_4chan_Janitor_Leaks_(WWG1WGA)/]A compilation of leaks by a rogue 4chan Janitor, originally posted to rival imageboard Soyjak.party. Includes Discord profiles, ban evaders, almost the entire /j/ board, and more.</ref> | |||
On April 25, 2025, the [[4chan/History#qa_hack | /qa/ hacker]] leaked the full staff list. Corrected to de-facto roles, 4chan in 2025 has 222 staff members, among them: 4 Administrators ( 1 Owner, 1 Manager, 1 Systems Administrator, 1 Lead Developer), 56 Moderators, 162 Janitors. This number has likely been reduced, at most, by 1/5th. | |||
=== Roles === | |||
==== Owner ==== | |||
The person who legally owns the 4chan trademark and 4chan Community Support, LLC and has the final word in everything said and done. By tradition, the current owner posts with the <span style="color:red">'''## Administrator'''</span> capcode. On paper, moot has access to the <span style="color:green">'''## Founder'''</span> capcode, but it has never been used. | |||
'''Current''' | |||
* Since 2015 - '''Hiroyuki Nishimura'''</br> | |||
[[Hiroyuki Nishimura]] is the current owner of 4chan. Entrepreneur with a number of companies. He rose to fame as the creator of [[2channel]] and met moot around 2011. He lost 2ch in a coup by 8chan's owner [[Jim Watkins]] over a data leak and drama. He purchased 4chan in September, 2015. His initial months at 4chan were considered affable, but he destroyed his reputation by pushing for malicious ads and borderline-scam schemes like forcing UI changes that posters had to buy a pass to vote on reverting. Since 2018, he's been very hands-off, relegating administration to the Manager position. Doesn't like to talk about 4chan despite him owning it.<ref>[https://archive.ph/fECD3]"In the U.S., His Site Has Been Linked to Massacres. In Japan, He’s a Star."</ref><ref>[https://archive.ph/h1TqD]"Former UCA student drawing attention for ownership of notorious online message board 4chan"</ref> An actual celebrity in Japan, known for 2ch and his hot takes, you can usually find him live streaming on his YouTube channel or posting his opinions on his X Account.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/@hirox246] Hiroyuki's YouTube Channel.</ref><ref>[https://twitter.com/hirox246] Hiroyuki's twitter.</ref> Don't expect him to talk about 4chan in any way though (but he did come to check on things & tweeted when the site got hacked in April 2025) | |||
</br> | |||
::'''Former''' | |||
* 2015-2022 - '''Good Smile Company'''</br> | |||
Japanese toy company focused on figurines. On Sep. 2015 they bought a 33% stake of 4chan with Nishimura and Nishimura's company (representing Nishimura). When it was found out and it started making newslines over the Buffalo shooting, GSC choose to sell their stake in June 2022. If it was bought by Nishimura or someone else, it's unknown.<ref> | |||
* [https://archive.today/wZV8X] GSC announces on their news page that they never had more than an ownership stake on the company and weren't involved in it's management and, in fact, have sold their state in June 2022</ref> | |||
* 2003-2015 - '''moot (Christopher Poole)'''</br> | |||
[[moot]] is the former owner of 4chan. Famous for coining many phrases such as "I wish to be the little girl". Somewhat impulsive, which led him to add and remove board features like forced anonymous and IDs from boards on several consecutive times. Every once in a while, [[4chan/History#positron | he'd go nuts]], [[4chan/History#Naruto_Day | grab a board]] and put [[4chan/History/b#reboot | eye-melting CSS]] and spinning dick .gifs everywhere. He had a strong public presence between 2006 and 2008, attending conventions with personal friends and moderators alike, by the turn of 00s, 4chan had turned him into a bona-fide celebrity. He dated Maddeth during 2008 (bit of dumb gossip only #4chan regulars would know). He left the administrator position in January 2015 after the mishandling of the GamerGate controversy affected his personal life. Sold the site to Hiroyuki Nishimura in Sep. 2015 and has since cut contact with all things Internet, refusing any press interviews. Worked at Google. Fun fact: He's an IRC OP (can kline) at Rizon. | |||
:'''GIVE ME SOURCE OR GET DELETED''': According to a 8chan leak he has ghosted and cut contact with the whole moderation team. | |||
==== Legal Representation ==== | |||
Informally, moot's lawyers. Risk of lawsuit (and therefore legal consultation) was presumably first considered in the late 2000s as people used /b/ to [[4chan/History#sarah_palin | leak politicians emails]], [[4chan/History/b#hal_turner | shady harassment campaigns]] and [[4chan/History#fappening | private celebrity photos]]. | |||
Formally, with the creation of 4chan Community Support, LLC, 4chan presumably developed a relationship with a juridical study or two, albeit it's never been disclosed which. - IOU - bit more complex than just looking up archives | |||
On 2025, with advent of the United Kingdom's tax-grab slash mass-censorship law that set nearly impossible compliance standards on to serve websites to the UK, 4chan accepted the offer of Byrne & Storm law firm to represent them pro bono in a US Vs. UK Ofcom dispute. Mentioned somewhat on mainstream media. | |||
==== Site Administrators ==== | |||
Anyone with server access, who can make any changes to the site backend, frontend, access databases and manage staff accounts. Traditionally, 4chan admins were also the guys calling the shots and determined site policy, with moot being the head administrator and only one allowed to use the <span style="color:red">'''## Administrator'''</span> capcode. | |||
With moot's departure in Jan. 2015, the system administrator, lead developer and manager became an admin triumvirate in order manage the site on moot's stead. With Nishimura's acquisition of 4chan in Sep. 2015, the role has been reduced to a purely managerial role, with accounts distributed among key developers and managers, while site decisions were relegated to the manager. | |||
::'''Current (Suspected)''': | |||
* Since Sep. 2015 - '''Hiroyuki Nishimura''' | |||
* Since Sep. 2015 - '''RapeApe''' | |||
* Since Sep. 2015 - '''desuwa''' | |||
::'''Former''': | |||
* 2003-2014 - '''moot''' | |||
* 2003-2003 - '''hannibal'''</br> | |||
: Sysadmin/founder of [[Raspberry Heaven]]. He taught moot how to run and set up a Linux server and was co-admin for a short time during 4chan's second iteration in October and November 2003. He left together with IchibanMuffin for an undisclosed reason. | |||
* 2003-2005 - '''DJLucid'''</br> | |||
: Offered to help 4chan with optimizations while they waited for thatdog to finish Futallaby in November 2003. moot wanted him as co-admin and he agreed, but seemingly cold quit at some point between 2004 and 2005.<ref>[https://archive.ph/3iVup#24] Lucid fixing up 4chan.</ref> | |||
* 2004-2005 - '''Censored Vagina (C_V)''' (not4chan only)</br> | |||
: Was there to see moot start 4chan. Started out as board mod for /l/ and became the site's first manager as moot was having problems with PayPal. He was in charge of managing donations and advertising between November 2003 and June 2004. Convinced moot to restore /l/ - Lolicon when it got taken down, then became not4chan.org's first admin when the site was split to deal with payment processors. He was infamous in Something Awful for being a self-admitted pedophile, fact that got him banned during a witch hunt in 2005. He disappeared from 4chan (and likely the net) that year. | |||
* 2004-2006 - '''Saber''' (not4chan only)</br> | |||
: Was there to see moot start 4chan. Started out as a mod in 2003 or 2004. He jumped to not4chan to help C_V manage the site and at some point became the de-facto admin until not4chan was killed in Jul. 2006. Attended Otakon 2006. | |||
* 2004-2005 - '''W.T. Snacks'''</br> | |||
: [[W.T. Snacks]] is the founder of Studio Cookie Thievery together with 5, RapidKimba and others. Hosted the Midnight Snacks radio show.<ref> Studio Cookie Thievery: [http://cookiethievery.com/]<br> | |||
* Midnight Snacks [http://8chan.net] [http://snidnightmacks.tumblr.com/] [https://midnightsnacks.fm]</ref> Joined team4chan in the August 2004 revival as the frontend developer. He programmed the Futallaby v08 update, a lot of vital changes to the UI (reply with an image, quoting, information about posts, being able to see the amount of hidden posts in a thread, hiding posts from a thread). In October 2004 he jokingly made a /b/ - 4CHAN SUX board on his personal site [[8chan.net]].</br> | |||
: Snacks hung out with his own clique and promoted his radio show, made the /5/ board for his friend and fellow mod, 5, and became site-famous for his antics, fact that greatly bothered moot (who likely felt he was overinflating his importance). By mid 2005 the relationship was soured. moot talked him into making a custom project, Snacks agreed but did not reciprocate. The situation escalated into an argument that resulted in Snacks getting fired. Used to browse #4chan and #raspberryheaven. In 2024 he was featured in a small interview in the netflix documentary [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Antisocial_Network_(film) The Antisocial Network], which he later denounced and stated he was not told what it was gonna be about. (ref: IOU) | |||
* 2004-2005 - '''shii''' for world4ch only. | |||
* 2015-2015 - '''Mr. Vac Bob (MVB)''' | |||
* More (IOU) | |||
==== Managers ==== | |||
The manager position started informally around November 2003 as moot was experiencing problems handling the financial side of 4chan. Managers would handle advertising, sponsors, and anything related to banks. Managers likely were deprecated around 2007 or 2008, when moot became a legal adult. The Manager was considered a type of site administrator in the 4chan Bible V5. | |||
Around 2011, the manager role resurfaced as role within the /j/ board. Any mod could use the role to explain policy to Janitors. In 2013, the role was specialized to exclusively focus on human resources, being the person who vets, accepts, consults and promotes Janitors. With moot's retirement of 4chan in Jan 2015, the acting manager also regained it's original role, becoming in essence the informal CEO of 4chan, sporting a salary (that is likely a US bureaucratic requirement), and replacing the site admin as the administrative face the site together with the lead developer and the sysadmin. With Hiroyuki's acquisition, the manager became the de-facto authority on the site. They come with the pink palm tree, <span style="color:Pink">'''## Manager'''</span> | |||
::'''Current''': | |||
* Since 2013 - '''RapeApe''' | |||
: Manager and acting Admin. Started out as a janitor of /r9k/ either 2010 or 2011.<ref>RapeApe on #janiteam discussing /r9k/. [https://files.catbox.moe/orbdcr.png]</ref> Got promoted to mod between 2012 and 2013 and almost immediately became the janitor manager. In Jan. 2015, moot left and made him one of the three admins to manage the site on his stead. In Sep. 2015 Hiroyuki buys the site and he became the de-facto administrator. He's one of the people influenced by Invisibro's idea of returning mods to the public eye, [https://x.com/grapeape9k and has since managed a twitter with his mod handle.]</br> | |||
: One of RapeApe's first actions as a mod was causing [[4chan/History#Naruto_Day | Naruto Day]], when /a/ posters crying about Naruto on /q/ accused him of actively protecting threads from "self-moderator" spammers. Anons to tried to dox him, earning him the faildox of a indian man named ''Patrap Davis''.<ref> | |||
* [https://desuarchive.org/q/thread/723224/#723243]RapeApe explaining why the reddit account was not his in an old archive post.</ref> This managed to make moot angry, starting a dramafest that ended up with /a/ revenge-spamming CSAM. Moot then made [https://desuarchive.org/a/thread/91420362/#91420362 this sticky] addressing the witchhunt against him. His second claim to fame was banning [[4chan/History#gamergate_ban | GamerGate]] on a kneejerk reaction over the general thread unknowingly spamming reports<ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/igp9tb.png]RapeApe talking about removing the GG threads.</ref>, turning the movement against 4chan and starting a chain reaction that caused moot to leave 4chan and have years worth of #janiteam IRC logs leaked. He's been rumoured to hang out in #420chan with [[Kirtaner]] and sparto (420chan owners), old patrons of [[Anonymous]]. In 2020 and 2023, he was featured in news articles that interviewed ex-moderators who accused him of promoting radical conservative views on /pol/ by ''inaction'', and journalists managed to retrieve invoices of him and desuwa's salaries.<ref name="rapeapenews"> | |||
* [https://archive.ph/3Tr5l]"The Man Who Helped Turn 4chan Into the Internet's Racist Engine".</br> | |||
* [https://archive.ph/MLE2g]"Inside 4chan’s Top-Secret Moderation Machine"</ref>. It should be noted that RapeApe has consistently shat on /pol/ in leaked IRC logs.<ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/3whp9w.png]RapeApe expressing some distain for /pol/.</ref> It seems like he wants 4chan to change as little as possible, has a short temper, likes guns, is highly educated about vidya games, Warhammer 40K knowledge. Is also Canadian.<ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/s213q1.png]RapeApe heavily implying he's Canadian.</ref><ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/pt3nka.png]Canadian residential IP used to post the /j/ sticky with RapeApe's capcode.</ref> | |||
: Nicknames / Other Handles - RapeApe9k, GrapeApe, Narutomod. | |||
::'''Former''': | |||
* 2003-2004 - '''Censored Vagina (C_V)''' | |||
* 2004-???? - '''Man of Wax (Simon)'''</br> | |||
: It's unknown when he joined the staff, but he was officially the site's manager in the fourth revival (Aug. 2004). Mostly occupied with handling donation money and informing the site how hard the servers were getting raped. He also ran the first official 4chan panel in 2004<ref>[https://archive.ph/3iVup#64] News post.</ref>, and attended the 2006 4chan Otakon Panel.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR3YsEn_jiY&t=970s], 4chan: The Otakon 2006 Panel</ref> | |||
* Unknown if more. (IOU) | |||
==== Developers ==== | |||
People who handle and modify site code, update libraries, and generally fix whatever dumb shit the latest browser update has broken. Many people have tackled the role both formally and informally, albeit a sequence of "main" developers can be discerned. With 4chan's sale in Sep. 2015, the '''lead developer''' position was formalized with a salary, and is likely the only active developer. | |||
Before the implementation of a proper Admin Panel (somewhere in 2004 or 2005) and therefore, a more robust privilege system working the backend, all formal developers doubled as admins. In the 2010s they got their own capcode, <span style="color:Blue">'''## Developer'''</span>, albeit there's no one known to use it who didn't have de-facto admin privileges. | |||
::'''Current''' | |||
* Since 2012 - '''desuwa (Maxime Youdine)'''</br> | |||
: Acting main developer, "JavaScript Wizard", creator of the Yotsuba Catalog, and a helping hand in the HTML5 reworks. He also added most features of the extensions into the main page and coded the 4chan API, and created an inline 4chan catalog. He was one of the admin triumvirate running 4chan in moot's stead between his Jan 2015 departure and the site's Sep. 2015 sale. | |||
::'''Former''' | |||
* 2003-2003 - '''Hova'''</br> | |||
: Hova helped moot translate the original [[GazouBBS]] script that became 4chan in September 2003. | |||
* 2003-2003 - '''Inpheaux ([NPH])'''</br> | |||
: Founder of '''Studio ADTRW''' and (sort of) [[Raspberry Heaven]]. In October 2003 he offered to help moot with additional PHP coding, making the frontpage. He later helped moot with backend optimizations. He was named as a tentative developer in August 2004 revival, but that likely didn't happen. | |||
* 2003-2003 - '''thatdog'''</br> | |||
: Became a developer in 4chan's second iteration, late October. They set to make a thread archive and update [[Futaba Script]] into web 2.0 friendly [[Futallaby]], testing the first forms of the script in the test board /r/ - TRAINZ. He later made [[1chan]] to host the finished script. A falling out with moot (and between moot and other RH heavy hitters) caused him to abandon the archive project and discontinue maintaining the script between January 2004 and June 2004. In August 2004, the site returned online and he created the first Overchan, a link aggregator for imageboards. | |||
* 2003-???? - '''Shut (John)'''</br> | |||
: Advised moot on running the site and became the official (backend?) developer in the August 2004 revival. He maintained the devblog and fixed a bug that allowed huge files on the site if they were .btm. | |||
* 2004-2005 - '''W.T. Snacks''' | |||
* 2005-???? - '''Mr. Vac Bob''' | |||
* 2005-2006 - '''Foone'''</br> | |||
: Foone developed the code for /rs/ and the /r9k/ Robot. He was talked by moot into trying to make a spinoff site 4meet, a 4chan meetup feature, but he was fired from inactivity in 2006.<ref> | |||
* [https://desuarchive.org/trash/thread/66773310/#66810378] Foone's tumblr post about 4meet.</br> | |||
* [https://desuarchive.org/trash/thread/58302084/#58324977] Foone on /rs/</br> | |||
* [https://x.com/Foone/status/1168993303192375298] foone talks about working for 4chan</br> | |||
* [https://www.4chan.org/blotter] "We're pleased to announce /rs/! Many thanks to Foone for making this possible!"</ref> | |||
* 2006-2008 - '''Coda'''</br> | |||
: Developer and flash animator. Very active during 2006. Friend of moot; made the 2013 tenth anniversary panel flash. He made 4chan.org/flash/ for moot. | |||
* ????-2013 - '''KING JAFFE JOFFER'''</br> | |||
: Translated the official 4chan Firefox extension to Google Chrome, and refracted the entirety of 4chan's HTML5 code and admin toolkit. Resigned around 2013-2014. | |||
* More (IOU) | |||
==== Moderators ==== | |||
The main corps of team4chan. Decides bans, range blocks, appeals, sets protected status on boards and threads being spammed, comforts jannies when they have to ban request a GR1. And he '''does it for free.''' | |||
With the <span style="color:purple">'''## Moderator'''</span> purple palm tree comes the privilege of being able to embed html and escape wordfilters, and presenting themselves as figures of authority on the site. | |||
::'''Current''' | |||
*'''ALTERNATIVE'''</br> | |||
: Moderator since 2004. Suggested the creation of /tg/. Together with Zephro, the oldest acting mods. Nicknames / Other Handles: DAVE, buttly | |||
*'''Invisibro (Jay Louis Irwin)'''</br> | |||
: [s4s]'s patron mod during the early years. He came up with the tradition of stickying threads and was known to post in comic sans. (ref IOU) He's also famous for being a personal friend of moot and lobbying for letting mods become visible personalities, going against what was commonly believed to be site policy<ref>Or merely the perceived site policy, "modfaggotry" wasn't as common in 2010 as it was in 2005, but it never stopped happening.</ref>, and attempting to become a known "4chan figure". Wrote right leaning articles for observer.com directly referencing the site.<ref name="Jay Irwin Profile">[https://archive.ph/3ktxh] Jay Irwin's observer profile</ref><ref>[https://archive.ph/jSzUK]"Why 4chan Isn’t Buying What Bill Nye and Political Entertainers Are Selling"</ref><ref>[https://archive.ph/21KsV]"#CNNBlackmail: The Press Just Can’t Stop Feeding the Trolls"</ref><ref>[https://archive.ph/XOrps]"Jay Z and Beyoncé Inspired ‘White Power’ Symbol, Claims Alt-Right Figure"</ref><ref>[https://desuarchive.org/_/search/tripcode/isHyGddtZE/]Invisibro's time as a tripfag.</ref><ref>[https://archive.ph/YfZU7] Jay Irwin's Twitter account mentioning him being a mod</ref><ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/o01h76.jpg]Post showing he has told people in the past without consequences</ref><ref>[https://archive.ph/gYwQE]Swaglord putting 4chan in his public letterboxd account.</ref> Albeit his attempts at opening the staff to the site led to some moderators easing up on the Batman routine, it never became as common as he hoped.</br> | |||
:Being one of the few mods who frequently capcode / name posts and a known shitposter,<ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/hgbr23.png]Swaglord shitposting on a death sticky.</ref> he developed a considerable hatefandom that stalked all his moderation decisions. As a result of this, he has been doxed endlessly.</br> | |||
:'''GIVE ME SOURCES OF GET DELETED''': He's been accused of shitting up /g/ with flamewar threads that violate the only rule on the board. Has a tendency to ban people on /a/ for "inane" posts. Usually moderates /tv/ and /g/. Nicknames / Other Handles: SwagLord, gingermod. | |||
::'''Former''' | |||
* 2003-???? - '''Spork'''</br> | |||
: RH OG and Owner of the original 4chan IRC, hosted on Terra & Sharkey's irc.pyoko.org. Best known for wearing the yotsuba TF2 mask at Otakon. - '''proofs of volunteer disclosure or delete''' (aka Dan Levin) | |||
* 2005-2007 - '''Martin Random (Bernard Goldsmith)'''</br> | |||
: Raspberry Heaven OG. Joined 4chan staff around 2004, likely during the August revival and possibly as Board Mod of /b/. Relatively popular SA poster. Wrote the motto above /b/. Was a law student and thus served as the closest thing the site had to a lawyer. Was known to shitpost on /b/ around 2006 reposting Something Awful posts where he pretended to be a 4chan big shot.<ref> | |||
* Martin Random mentions and some modposts. [https://old.sage.moe/_/search/text/martin%20random%7C%22martinrandom%22/order/asc/]</br> | |||
* What seems to be Random stickying his own posts and advertizing his site on /b/. [https://old.sage.moe/b/thread/7739756/#7740422]</br> | |||
* Martin Random's personal website. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060818225044/http://oppresstheweak.com/]</br> | |||
</ref></br> | |||
: According to a LARP/mental breakdown he had in 2023, he left in 2008 due to Chanology to further his law career, but it's likely he left around 2007. During this breakdown, he claimed to be 4chan's secret co-founder together with shut, coda, and others, accused a "former server admin" of being a pedophile, stated the secret founders "gave the site to moot" as a scapegoat to avoid legal responsibility, posted old emails from moot and others, then accused Anonymous-San of having child pornography when he confronted him over the emails.<ref>[https://x.com/FalconryFinance/status/1875360852892913682 Bernie's screencap of an old email from moot]</ref><ref>[https://zencastr.com/z/-XjKQcQj Bernie talking about 4chan history]</ref> | |||
* 2005-2006 - '''Foone''' | |||
* 2005-2006 - '''Okk (Brian Raddatz)'''</br> | |||
: Started off as a drawfag in 2005, made some early 4chan's comics and flash animations that got made official by moot. Joined #4chan and became a mod. Quit somewhere around 2006 or 2007 and became a regular at /i/.<ref> | |||
* Okk's tripcode. [https://old.sage.moe/_/search/tripcode/%21G7.5cn6aGM/order/asc/] | |||
* Okk mention's [https://old.sage.moe/_/search/text/okk/order/asc/page/1/]</br> | |||
* Okk's website. [http://darksquid.org/]</br> | |||
</ref> | |||
==== Global Janitors ==== | |||
A role that had little information released and very few handles associated with it. The role is confirmed to exist since the April 2025 leaks. Presumably, the same as a janitor, but for all boards. | |||
==== Janitors ==== | |||
[[File:Janny.jpg]] | |||
Contrary to popular belief, janitors do have their own nifty '''<span style="color:#4169E1">## Janitor'''</span> capcode, but they may only use it in /j/, managed with a custom script called broomcloset.php. Remember that janitors come and go very fast. | |||
=== #4chan Support === | |||
''Also known as #4chan Customer Service'' | |||
<sup><small>''It WAS customer service suck it mods''</small></sup> | |||
''"Moderators are available to assist users with bans and technical issues on the website." - 4chan FAQ'' | |||
"Assisting users" was an informal role that grew out of moderators becoming regulars at the #4chan [[Internet Relay Chat | IRC]]. Between the late 00s and early 20s, a rotating cast of mods volunteered to help people with questions about bans, quick appeals on short bans, calls to action on major problems (ie spammers) and more. Only Moderators and up could fill the role, with janitors not being allowed to show themselves. At some point in the 2010s the role was formalized in the rules, FAQ, and ban pages (even encouraged). | |||
They are, famously, the largest source of hate towards 4chan staff, with several hundred snippets and screenshots of blatant verbal abuse accumulated over years. | |||
'''GIVE ME SOURCES OF GET DELETED''' The service was slowly dismantled as relations with the staff soured until it was completely discontinued in the first years of 2020. First, "public" reporting became bannable (around 2018-2020), then reporting to mods in private over 4chan threads was forbidden in 2020 (with Cygnus famously dissenting) and ultimately any questions about bans were defacto forbidden between 2021 and 2022. | |||
=== Idlers on #4chan === | |||
Alternative (+o) | |||
::According to #4chan position: | |||
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
+q: Admin/Rizon Operator | +o – Senior | +h – Moderator | +q: Admin/Rizon Operator | +o – (Presumed) Senior Moderator | +h – Moderator | ||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
= | It should be noted that +v (voice) was given to channel regulars so conversation was not interrupted when someone was spamming the chat. | ||
=== Informal Roles === | |||
==== System Administrators ==== | |||
''Also known as sysadmin & "the servers guy"'' | |||
People who watch over the physical servers of a website. Increasingly rare since the advent of cloud computing and remote administration. Technically, they have access to server root and therefore can do anything, but that hasn't been the case for 4chan except for a couple emergencies. | |||
The role on 4chan is informal. It arose out of necessity, and presumably out of a friend's favor, when 4chan stopped using rented server space and bought their own servers during the DONATE OR DIE 2005 emergency. First collocated in Houston, Texas, they were moved to California in 2008, where they remains to this day, albeit the machines have changed and the rack grown larger. | |||
* '''Mr. Vac Bob (MVB) (Alexander Strange)'''</br> | |||
: Joined team4chan in 2004. Became a developer, wrote some 4chan extensions, took over the maintenance of world4ch after Shii quit. Watched over the baremetal servers since 2005. He was also part of the [[Raspberry Heaven]] community, the group moot came from, and took over Studio ADTRW and ran it until 2012. Never separated his online life from his public life, and freely linked his handles and his personal blog in all his sites. | |||
* '''Kate''' | |||
==== Extension & Script Developers ==== | |||
An informal subset of developer. Many fans and team4chan members voluntarily offered scripts, browser extensions and even contributions to mod and admin toolkits without being formally considered developers. Early on, offering free code to 4chan was also an easy way to become a mod. Between the 2000s and the 2010s, they represented sizeable percentage of site codebase. | |||
*'''Shingo'''</br> | |||
: Helped translate the rules into Japanese Katakana in October 2003. | |||
*'''ichibanMuffin'''</br> | |||
: Co-founder of Raspberry Heaven. He offered sharing a server with moot in October 2003, but a falling out for unknown reasons cut that short in November 2003. | |||
*'''niralisse'''</br> | |||
: In November 2003, helped moot with setting up his own dedicated server and webmail after IchibanMuffin cut their partnership short. | |||
*'''Scuzzy'''</br> | |||
: Wrote the first anti-leech code in November 2003. | |||
* More (IOU) | |||
==== Senior Moderators ==== | |||
Supposedly an informal position, never confirmed explicitly. It has been implied to exist by off-hand mentions in a couple statements by former staff members. A senior moderator would have extra tools and privileges at disposal. These privileges have never been specified, but one suspect things like freezing boards may be one of them. | |||
No staff member has been confirmed to be one, albeit a couple of #4chan IRC idlers have been assumed to be Seniors from the rank difference with others moderators. | |||
* ALTERNATIVE | |||
* More (IOU) | |||
=== Former Roles === | |||
==== Board Moderator ==== | |||
The very first moderator role. Came right out of the box with the software stack used to run 4chan. moot tried to have a one mod for every board, albeit some managed to have two. By the end of 2003, at least a dozen if not two dozen volunteers were filling the role. Almost all of them lifted straight from [[Raspberry Heaven]] ranks, with a minority from non-RH [[Something Awful#ADTRW | ADTRW regulars]] and later on #4chan regulars. With the August 2004 revival, Board Mods were forbidden from banning, but it's unknown if this was ever enforced. | |||
Board Moderators were deprecated in 2005, with every board mod becoming global. By the end of the year their original niche was replaced with the ban-uncapable Janitor. Presumably, all Boards Mods still active became Mods. | |||
::'''Known Board Mods''' | |||
* 2003-???? - /d/ - Hentai/Alternative - '''Shingo'''</br> | |||
: Officially the first 4chan mod, named in October 6 2003 to moderate the newly made /d/. Contributed the Japanese greetings page. | |||
* 2003-2004 - /c/ - Anime/Cute - '''Marshall Banana''' | |||
: Second 4chan mod, named in October 6 2003 to moderate the newly made /c/. At some point, he was replaced by MrSpooky. He was banned from Something Awful around 2005. | |||
* 2003-???? - /y/ - Yaoi - '''Bad Luck'''</br> | |||
: Mod N. 3, given control of /y/ on October 6 2003 because moot did not want to touch the board. He's mentioned in the 4chan v5 bible as a potential board leader, it can be assumed he was still part of staff by 2004. | |||
* 2003-???? - /g/ - Guro - '''Portable951 (Port)''' | |||
* 2003-2005 - /l/ - Lolikon - '''Censored_Vagina''' | |||
* 2003-???? - /s/ - Sexy Beautiful Women - '''Boco_T''' | |||
* 2003-???? - /s/ - Sexy Beautiful Women - '''PotatoSan''' | |||
::''Draft list of Board Mods according to the 4chan v5 Bible, 2nd Revision 2004 Aug. 11.'' | |||
* 2004-2005 - /l/ - Lolikon - '''Saber''' | |||
* 2004-2005 - /h/ - Hentai - '''moot''' (lol) | |||
==== Board Leader ==== | |||
''A position mentioned in 4chan Bible V5, the design document for 4chan's August 2004 revival.'' | |||
Seemingly, a senior role pre-empting potential speeding up of 4chan and therefore growth in staff, board leaders where the people who managed board mods. They also decided on banning problem users (board mods could ban, but where discouraged from doing so) and made on-the-spot decisions on site policy. | |||
It's not actually known if board leaders were ever implemented, but it is likely that if they were, they lasted only a few months and all board leaders eventually became Moderators between Aug. 2004 and early 2005. | |||
::''Draft list of Board Leaders according to the 4chan v5 Bible, 2nd Revision 2004 Aug. 11.'' | |||
*''' | * /a/ - Anime - '''Seem''' | ||
* /b/ - Random - '''Spork''' | |||
* /c/ - Anime/Cute - '''MrSpooky''' | |||
* /cm/ - Cute/Male - '''Favor''' | |||
* /d/ - Hentai/Alternative - '''Shingo''' | |||
* /g/ - Guro - '''Portable951 (Port)''' | |||
* /h/ - Hentai - '''Zanok''' | |||
* /l/ - Lolikon - '''Censored_Vagina''' | |||
* /p/ - Photo - '''W.T. Snacks''' | |||
* /t/ - Torrents - '''Man Of Wax''' | |||
* /u/ - Yuri - '''Roobar''' | |||
* /w/ - Anime/Wallpapers - '''Jeff Fury''' | |||
* /y/ - Yaoi - '''Bad Luck''' | |||
==== Moderator Leader ==== | |||
''A position mentioned in 4chan Bible V5, the reference document for 4chan's August 2004 revival.'' | |||
Proposed as the actual heads of moderation who responded only to moot. The ML was in essence, a global BL and thought as a mediator for disagreements between mods and BLs. | |||
It's not actually known if board leaders were ever implemented. | |||
::''Draft list of Mod Leaders according to the 4chan v5 Bible, 2nd Revision 2004 Aug. 11.'' | |||
*''' | * img.4chan - '''Archo''' | ||
* zip.4chan - '''Shut''' | |||
== To Do == | |||
*'''I_AM_ABIB (aka BLOODMOUTH_CARNIST) - cj''' - Previously | *'''I_AM_ABIB (aka BLOODMOUTH_CARNIST) - cj''' - Previously Janitor, he got promoted to mod during '09.<ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/fff82y.gif]An old screenshot of the Janiteam IRC chatroom where you can see ABIB. You might be able to recognize some other names as well.</ref> Posts on /a/ from time to time, but spends most of his moderation duties on /v/. He has got in a few controversy's, one of the main ones was his deleting of lobcorp threads from /v/ because he considered them to be generals. When someone argued that smash threads that were similar weren't being deleted, he justified it because smash brothers was a "cultural phenomenon".<ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/utum9m.jpg] Screenshot of the infamous "cultural phenomenon" defense.</ref> Another tussle he has got into with /v/ was when anons completed a parody of Goodbye Volcano High called "snoot game" before the game is even released, just so they could showcase it for /v/3. The game quickly grows popular on /v/, and then the mods start deleting all threads about it. Someone confronts them about this on 4chan's IRC and receives unsatisfying answers from ABIB.<ref>[https://archive.ph/6UPq3]I_AM_ABIB and yournamehere defending the removal of the threads.</ref> The board gets angry and snoot game threads devolve into mockery of jannies, but mostly about him. Strong dislike for furries and lolicons. Also a IRC rat. | ||
*'''yournamehere''' -Moderator, known for being pretty unforgiving to people in the 4chan IRC. One of the first people to also go against GamerGate threads in 2014. Was mentioned in a news article where he joked about and seemed suspiciously indifferent with mass shooters coming from 4chan.<ref name="paid" /> Possibly the biggest IRC rat of them all, he's on there almost 24/7. Has a short temper. | *'''yournamehere''' -Moderator, known for being pretty unforgiving to people in the 4chan IRC. One of the first people to also go against GamerGate threads in 2014. Was mentioned in a news article where he joked about and seemed suspiciously indifferent with mass shooters coming from 4chan.<ref name="paid" /> Possibly the biggest IRC rat of them all, he's on there almost 24/7. Has a short temper. | ||
*'''fission''' -/g/ centric Moderator. IRC rat. | *'''fission''' -/g/ centric Moderator. Ignores the only rule on /g/ being no flamewars. Only comes to /g/ to ban people when people get sick of shitty flamewar threads and start flooding Jay's dox. IRC rat. | ||
*'''Troid''' - /a/ centric moderator. Was originally assigned in maintaining the 4chan archives but later had his archive privileges removed after going on a mass deletion spree whilst trying to cover up information about himself that was stored within the archives, despite such he retained his mod rights. | |||
*'''kami`''' - /a/-centric mod, colloquially known as Kinomod among the userbase due to posting Kino no Tabi. Formed a close relationship with /a/ due to taking care of pests like Accelspammer. Posts similarly to Jeremy. IRC rat. | |||
*'''Pixel Hotness (aka pixel)''' – Woman mod. Originally a tripfag from /b/. | *'''Pixel Hotness (aka pixel)''' – Woman mod. Originally a tripfag from /b/. | ||
*'''Aerolite''' – Mod. IRC Rat. | *'''Aerolite''' – Mod. IRC Rat. | ||
Line 45: | Line 323: | ||
*'''Zephro''' – Extremely old guard mod since 2005. | *'''Zephro''' – Extremely old guard mod since 2005. | ||
*'''BEAM''' – | *'''BEAM''' – Theorized to have gotten NeoGaf discussions banned form /v/ for a short while in 2017. | ||
*'''DOTDOTDOT'''-Moderator and former janitor of /h/. IRC rat. | *'''DOTDOTDOT'''- Moderator and former janitor of /h/. IRC rat. | ||
*'''grubermeister (aka gnubermeister, deadlierbender) - Michael Connolly''' -Moderator and former janitor. /co/, /tg/, /v/ and most likely /g/ centric. Owns a cloud solutions consultancy start up.<ref>[https://archive.ph/jejrb] cloudcoyote.com</ref> Twitter Shitposter, programmer, possibly a fan of the v-tuber "Pipkin Pippa" based on him liking a handful of tweets associated with her. | *'''grubermeister (aka gnubermeister, deadlierbender) - Michael Connolly''' -Moderator and former janitor. /co/, /tg/, /v/ and most likely /g/ centric. Owns a cloud solutions consultancy start up.<ref>[https://archive.ph/jejrb] cloudcoyote.com</ref> Twitter Shitposter, programmer, possibly a fan of the v-tuber "Pipkin Pippa" based on him liking a handful of tweets associated with her. | ||
Line 53: | Line 331: | ||
*'''admiraltunafish'''-Moderator. IRC rat. | *'''admiraltunafish'''-Moderator. IRC rat. | ||
*'''cygnus'''- /a/-centric Moderator. Has a postive reputation of being forgiving and kind to people in the 4chan IRC | *'''cygnus'''- /a/-centric Moderator. Has a postive reputation of being forgiving and kind to people in the 4chan IRC. | ||
=== Generic Mods (No quality worth mentioning or almost nothing is known about them): === | === Generic Mods (No quality worth mentioning or almost nothing is known about them): === | ||
Line 84: | Line 362: | ||
= Former = | = Former = | ||
*'''Anonymous-san - asan - Josh (Popularly known as modcat)''' - #rasberryheaven, goon – Mod since pretty much the beginnings on 4chan, who supposedly quit around April 25, 2012 because he was trying to contact a girl in his circle of friends (Which happens to include moot), or a girl from /soc/ (sources vary a lot), and asked for advice on /soc/.<ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/nv8zhq.jpg]the warning and message's asan sent to a girl from /soc/.</ref> He then used the warn function to give his contact info to female posters who were helping, but one flipped her shit out fear of being banned, and another ratted him out with moot who fired him. Some say he asked to have his powers revoked and moot complied. Others say he later asked him to have his mod status back, but moot is the hero 4chan deserves but not the one it needs and denied it. moot later confirmed he resigned during a Q&A on /pol/. He later regained his mod status circa 2017, only to lose it yet again when submitting a politically-charged warning regarding Right Wing Safety Squad threads.<ref>[https://desuarchive.org/qa/thread/894474/#894474]Archive of RapeApe explaining why he fired asan.</ref> | *'''Anonymous-san - asan - Josh (Popularly known as modcat)''' - #rasberryheaven, goon – Mod since pretty much the beginnings on 4chan, who supposedly quit around April 25, 2012 because he was trying to contact a girl in his circle of friends (Which happens to include moot), or a girl from /soc/ (sources vary a lot), and asked for advice on /soc/.<ref>[https://files.catbox.moe/nv8zhq.jpg]the warning and message's asan sent to a girl from /soc/.</ref> He then used the warn function to give his contact info to female posters who were helping, but one flipped her shit out fear of being banned, and another ratted him out with moot who fired him. Some say he asked to have his powers revoked and moot complied. Others say he later asked him to have his mod status back, but moot is the hero 4chan deserves but not the one it needs and denied it. moot later confirmed he resigned during a Q&A on /pol/. He later regained his mod status circa 2017, only to lose it yet again when submitting a politically-charged warning regarding Right Wing Safety Squad threads.<ref>[https://desuarchive.org/qa/thread/894474/#894474]Archive of RapeApe explaining why he fired asan.</ref> | ||
*'''Shii | *'''Shii - http://www.shii.org/ - http://aya.shii.org/ - and many more''' - Tried to take down 4chan because it was stealing world2ch's fame. Had a change of heart. Member of world2ch (posted as Menchi), later helped moot to code the site on its beginnings by further translating 0ch's PHP (Though not flawlessly), and maintained the textboards. Got banned from Something Awful during one of ADTRW's "may be a pedophile" purges. Cold quit after he tried crosslinking between 4-ch and 4chan and moot told him off, later becoming part of the textboard scene where stalking shii became a massive meme. A Web Archive admin (And deleted some evidence of his involvement in world2ch and 4chan saved in there) and a Wikipedia admin (where he stored a list of all his anime pages). Mod at /dqn/ and /saovq/. | ||
*'''5''' - Had his own secret board dedicated to pictures of him, created by WTSnacks as an in-joke. A few months after Snacks got demodded he stickied a Midnight Snacks thread, which he co-hosted at the time. The thread was unstickied by moot, and then re-stickied. Because of this people believed a mod war was raging and shouted the meme BRING BACK SNACKS. Jokingly, both users called the show "Radio free 4chan" for the night. This and a streak of inactivity cost 5 his mod status. moot later claimed it was a demoddable offense to sticky radio show threads. | |||
*'''5''' - Had his own secret board dedicated to pictures of him, created by WTSnacks as an in-joke | |||
*'''Dongfix (aka Enumeric) - Imgbear.com''' - Coder, he has written many scripts for the mods and janitors. IRC rat. Resigned on 2013. | *'''Dongfix (aka Enumeric) - Imgbear.com''' - Coder, he has written many scripts for the mods and janitors. IRC rat. Resigned on 2013. | ||
Line 108: | Line 374: | ||
*'''Soviet_Russia (aka SoRu)''' - 4chan Mod and famous tripfag. Made mod in the legendary board /z/ and attention-whored it to death alongside his brother Dash_Billions. He was eventually banned. | *'''Soviet_Russia (aka SoRu)''' - 4chan Mod and famous tripfag. Made mod in the legendary board /z/ and attention-whored it to death alongside his brother Dash_Billions. He was eventually banned. | ||
*'''Allyson''' – Underage b& mod from circa 2006. She was kind of a drama whore. | *'''Allyson''' – Underage b& mod from circa 2006. She was kind of a drama whore. | ||
Line 121: | Line 383: | ||
*'''yetsturdy (AKA thisisacleverpassword)''' – /a/ and /mlp/ Janitor. Got into a fight with Kusanagi and got fired on December 22, 2014 | *'''yetsturdy (AKA thisisacleverpassword)''' – /a/ and /mlp/ Janitor. Got into a fight with Kusanagi and got fired on December 22, 2014 | ||
*'''Redwood''' – Mod, famous /co/ tripfag for years as "Inspector Redwood", who ultimately got ousted during the 2014 aussie leaks and had to stop using the trip. He used to publicly ban people who called others "nigger". He later returned to tripping and allegedly left the moderation position. Was forced to change his mod handle after being outed (to "Henchouse"). Allegedly resigned after sometime after being outed. | *'''Redwood (AKA Henchouse)''' – Mod, famous /co/ tripfag for years as "Inspector Redwood", who ultimately got ousted during the 2014 aussie leaks and had to stop using the trip. He used to publicly ban people who called others "nigger". He later returned to tripping and allegedly left the moderation position. Was forced to change his mod handle after being outed (to "Henchouse"). Allegedly resigned after sometime after being outed. | ||
*'''JDigital - JohnnyDigital - http://www.jonnydigital.com/''' | *'''JDigital - JohnnyDigital - http://www.jonnydigital.com/''' | ||
Line 134: | Line 394: | ||
*'''Mr.Spooky''' - Ex-mod who spawned the catchphrases "I've never seen so many ingrates" and "You'll receive nothing from me." after a rant regarding donations. He frequently made stickies on /b/ begging for money because he got thrown in jail and needed donations to pay off his court fees. | *'''Mr.Spooky''' - Ex-mod who spawned the catchphrases "I've never seen so many ingrates" and "You'll receive nothing from me." after a rant regarding donations. He frequently made stickies on /b/ begging for money because he got thrown in jail and needed donations to pay off his court fees. | ||
*'''rabidkimba''' | *'''rabidkimba''' | ||
Line 155: | Line 413: | ||
*'''Otaku''' – Active around 2004. Sysadmin? In charge of donations? | *'''Otaku''' – Active around 2004. Sysadmin? In charge of donations? | ||
*'''Burnt Sulphur (aka ponyfaggot)''' - Moderated /mlp/ since Friendship is Magic's debut in 2010. Regularly baited pedophiles and acted as an anti-pedophilic vigilante in the /mlp/. Frequently argued with other janitors and thus earned the reputation as the "Dr. House of 4chan." Resigned in 2017 after her wife, (name omitted at the request of Burnt Sulphur) and her daughter were killed, citing alcohol addiction as the reason she retired. Generally showed strength of character even at the cost of herself, even if she was kind of a dick. Loved, and missed, by /mlp/, /k/, /3/, /a/ and /w/. | |||
*'''Burnt Sulphur (aka ponyfaggot)''' - Moderated /mlp/ since Friendship is Magic's debut in 2010. Regularly baited pedophiles and acted as an anti-pedophilic vigilante in the /mlp | |||
*'''Mangoat''' – Server Admin circa 2003. | *'''Mangoat''' – Server Admin circa 2003. | ||
*''' | *'''BigN (name unconfirmed)''' – Outed by /a/ for not apparent reason during the Aussie Hack 2014. Might or might have not been fired | ||
*''' | *'''Saegrimr''' – Outed by /jp/ during the Aussie Hack 2014. Might or might not have been fired. Is still an internet janny in videogames (TGstation) | ||
*''' | *'''Kazisho''' - Outed by /jp/ during the Aussie Hack 2014. German gay brony. Had a tumblr account with pictures of little boys on it. | ||
*'''Nemo''' – Janitor. Outed himself on /b/, fired by moot. | *'''Nemo''' – Janitor. Outed himself on /b/, fired by moot. | ||
*'''Shiren''' | '''Nikka''' | '''Zenith (Nuked /jp/)''' | '''AoC ( | *'''Shiren''' | '''Nikka''' | '''Zenith (Nuked /jp/)''' | '''AoC (Dejannied several times for deleting all threads on /jp/ and similar stunts, repeatedly rejannied for being the only janitor willing to delete spam 24/7)''' | '''Duade (co)''' – Janitors that either left or were fired. | ||
*'''andonuts''' – Janitor who leaked the #janiteam IRC logs. Associated with 8chan. | *'''andonuts''' – Janitor who leaked the #janiteam IRC logs. Associated with 8chan. | ||
Line 196: | Line 438: | ||
*'''"Bill"''' - And | *'''"Bill"''' - And | ||
*'''Peter Payne (aka moot's friend from Japan)''' - Owner of the J-list; has been in an advertising relationship with 4chan since its beginnings, both in the good and the bad. | *'''Peter Payne (aka moot's friend from Japan)''' - Owner of the J-list; has been in an advertising relationship with 4chan since its beginnings, both in the good and the bad. | ||
*'''Outernet''' – Old 4chan personality. Forced the DIAL Soap meme via bot spam. | *'''Outernet''' – Old 4chan personality. Forced the DIAL Soap meme via bot spam. | ||
*'''Mayhem''' – Coded the 4chan X extension. He runs swfchan.org, /f/'s archive. | *'''Mayhem''' – Coded the 4chan X extension. He runs swfchan.org, /f/'s archive. | ||
Line 212: | Line 450: | ||
*'''Tattun''' - A spokesperson for the anime studio Trigger who posts on /a/ in related threads. Has a Verified capcode. | *'''Tattun''' - A spokesperson for the anime studio Trigger who posts on /a/ in related threads. Has a Verified capcode. | ||
==References== |
Latest revision as of 04:09, 8 October 2025
Note: Outdated and inaccurate. Take all this with pincers and hazmat suits.
4chan's staff, formally known Team 4chan since Aug. 2004, has an internal structure more complex than the usually believed Jannies and Mods.
This page deals with all known formal and informal roles staff operated, and to whom the positions were given over time. Some roles were never formally (or publicly) named, this article will try approximate them into a coherent frame.
The objective of this article is to give credit where credit's due and make sure no one is forgotten. Handles may be named freely, but criteria for having a "section" is having done something of note that involves 4chan. Names and personal lives of staff members are of no interest unless directly related or voluntarily disclosed to the public (e.g. no doxing).
Note: Don't try to contact or witch hunt anyone—they will promptly tell you to fuck off. Jannies' "doxes" have already been spammed by the butthurt thousands of times by now.
Staff Structure[edit]
On January 21, 2015, moot mentioned that there are a grand total of 104 4chan staff members. On August 13th, 2018, a fired janitor mentioned that there are a approximately 130 members on the 4chan staff team. About 110 are janitors, and 20 are mods and managers.[1] In 2022, a Brazilian janitor (AKA J-Anon) showed that there were around 40+ different moderators on the mod team.[2]
On April 25, 2025, the /qa/ hacker leaked the full staff list. Corrected to de-facto roles, 4chan in 2025 has 222 staff members, among them: 4 Administrators ( 1 Owner, 1 Manager, 1 Systems Administrator, 1 Lead Developer), 56 Moderators, 162 Janitors. This number has likely been reduced, at most, by 1/5th.
Roles[edit]
Owner[edit]
The person who legally owns the 4chan trademark and 4chan Community Support, LLC and has the final word in everything said and done. By tradition, the current owner posts with the ## Administrator capcode. On paper, moot has access to the ## Founder capcode, but it has never been used.
Current
- Since 2015 - Hiroyuki Nishimura
Hiroyuki Nishimura is the current owner of 4chan. Entrepreneur with a number of companies. He rose to fame as the creator of 2channel and met moot around 2011. He lost 2ch in a coup by 8chan's owner Jim Watkins over a data leak and drama. He purchased 4chan in September, 2015. His initial months at 4chan were considered affable, but he destroyed his reputation by pushing for malicious ads and borderline-scam schemes like forcing UI changes that posters had to buy a pass to vote on reverting. Since 2018, he's been very hands-off, relegating administration to the Manager position. Doesn't like to talk about 4chan despite him owning it.[3][4] An actual celebrity in Japan, known for 2ch and his hot takes, you can usually find him live streaming on his YouTube channel or posting his opinions on his X Account.[5][6] Don't expect him to talk about 4chan in any way though (but he did come to check on things & tweeted when the site got hacked in April 2025)
- Former
- 2015-2022 - Good Smile Company
Japanese toy company focused on figurines. On Sep. 2015 they bought a 33% stake of 4chan with Nishimura and Nishimura's company (representing Nishimura). When it was found out and it started making newslines over the Buffalo shooting, GSC choose to sell their stake in June 2022. If it was bought by Nishimura or someone else, it's unknown.[7]
- 2003-2015 - moot (Christopher Poole)
moot is the former owner of 4chan. Famous for coining many phrases such as "I wish to be the little girl". Somewhat impulsive, which led him to add and remove board features like forced anonymous and IDs from boards on several consecutive times. Every once in a while, he'd go nuts, grab a board and put eye-melting CSS and spinning dick .gifs everywhere. He had a strong public presence between 2006 and 2008, attending conventions with personal friends and moderators alike, by the turn of 00s, 4chan had turned him into a bona-fide celebrity. He dated Maddeth during 2008 (bit of dumb gossip only #4chan regulars would know). He left the administrator position in January 2015 after the mishandling of the GamerGate controversy affected his personal life. Sold the site to Hiroyuki Nishimura in Sep. 2015 and has since cut contact with all things Internet, refusing any press interviews. Worked at Google. Fun fact: He's an IRC OP (can kline) at Rizon.
- GIVE ME SOURCE OR GET DELETED: According to a 8chan leak he has ghosted and cut contact with the whole moderation team.
Legal Representation[edit]
Informally, moot's lawyers. Risk of lawsuit (and therefore legal consultation) was presumably first considered in the late 2000s as people used /b/ to leak politicians emails, shady harassment campaigns and private celebrity photos.
Formally, with the creation of 4chan Community Support, LLC, 4chan presumably developed a relationship with a juridical study or two, albeit it's never been disclosed which. - IOU - bit more complex than just looking up archives
On 2025, with advent of the United Kingdom's tax-grab slash mass-censorship law that set nearly impossible compliance standards on to serve websites to the UK, 4chan accepted the offer of Byrne & Storm law firm to represent them pro bono in a US Vs. UK Ofcom dispute. Mentioned somewhat on mainstream media.
Site Administrators[edit]
Anyone with server access, who can make any changes to the site backend, frontend, access databases and manage staff accounts. Traditionally, 4chan admins were also the guys calling the shots and determined site policy, with moot being the head administrator and only one allowed to use the ## Administrator capcode.
With moot's departure in Jan. 2015, the system administrator, lead developer and manager became an admin triumvirate in order manage the site on moot's stead. With Nishimura's acquisition of 4chan in Sep. 2015, the role has been reduced to a purely managerial role, with accounts distributed among key developers and managers, while site decisions were relegated to the manager.
- Current (Suspected):
- Since Sep. 2015 - Hiroyuki Nishimura
- Since Sep. 2015 - RapeApe
- Since Sep. 2015 - desuwa
- Former:
- 2003-2014 - moot
- 2003-2003 - hannibal
- Sysadmin/founder of Raspberry Heaven. He taught moot how to run and set up a Linux server and was co-admin for a short time during 4chan's second iteration in October and November 2003. He left together with IchibanMuffin for an undisclosed reason.
- 2003-2005 - DJLucid
- Offered to help 4chan with optimizations while they waited for thatdog to finish Futallaby in November 2003. moot wanted him as co-admin and he agreed, but seemingly cold quit at some point between 2004 and 2005.[8]
- 2004-2005 - Censored Vagina (C_V) (not4chan only)
- Was there to see moot start 4chan. Started out as board mod for /l/ and became the site's first manager as moot was having problems with PayPal. He was in charge of managing donations and advertising between November 2003 and June 2004. Convinced moot to restore /l/ - Lolicon when it got taken down, then became not4chan.org's first admin when the site was split to deal with payment processors. He was infamous in Something Awful for being a self-admitted pedophile, fact that got him banned during a witch hunt in 2005. He disappeared from 4chan (and likely the net) that year.
- 2004-2006 - Saber (not4chan only)
- Was there to see moot start 4chan. Started out as a mod in 2003 or 2004. He jumped to not4chan to help C_V manage the site and at some point became the de-facto admin until not4chan was killed in Jul. 2006. Attended Otakon 2006.
- 2004-2005 - W.T. Snacks
- W.T. Snacks is the founder of Studio Cookie Thievery together with 5, RapidKimba and others. Hosted the Midnight Snacks radio show.[9] Joined team4chan in the August 2004 revival as the frontend developer. He programmed the Futallaby v08 update, a lot of vital changes to the UI (reply with an image, quoting, information about posts, being able to see the amount of hidden posts in a thread, hiding posts from a thread). In October 2004 he jokingly made a /b/ - 4CHAN SUX board on his personal site 8chan.net.
- Snacks hung out with his own clique and promoted his radio show, made the /5/ board for his friend and fellow mod, 5, and became site-famous for his antics, fact that greatly bothered moot (who likely felt he was overinflating his importance). By mid 2005 the relationship was soured. moot talked him into making a custom project, Snacks agreed but did not reciprocate. The situation escalated into an argument that resulted in Snacks getting fired. Used to browse #4chan and #raspberryheaven. In 2024 he was featured in a small interview in the netflix documentary The Antisocial Network, which he later denounced and stated he was not told what it was gonna be about. (ref: IOU)
- 2004-2005 - shii for world4ch only.
- 2015-2015 - Mr. Vac Bob (MVB)
- More (IOU)
Managers[edit]
The manager position started informally around November 2003 as moot was experiencing problems handling the financial side of 4chan. Managers would handle advertising, sponsors, and anything related to banks. Managers likely were deprecated around 2007 or 2008, when moot became a legal adult. The Manager was considered a type of site administrator in the 4chan Bible V5.
Around 2011, the manager role resurfaced as role within the /j/ board. Any mod could use the role to explain policy to Janitors. In 2013, the role was specialized to exclusively focus on human resources, being the person who vets, accepts, consults and promotes Janitors. With moot's retirement of 4chan in Jan 2015, the acting manager also regained it's original role, becoming in essence the informal CEO of 4chan, sporting a salary (that is likely a US bureaucratic requirement), and replacing the site admin as the administrative face the site together with the lead developer and the sysadmin. With Hiroyuki's acquisition, the manager became the de-facto authority on the site. They come with the pink palm tree, ## Manager
- Current:
- Since 2013 - RapeApe
- Manager and acting Admin. Started out as a janitor of /r9k/ either 2010 or 2011.[10] Got promoted to mod between 2012 and 2013 and almost immediately became the janitor manager. In Jan. 2015, moot left and made him one of the three admins to manage the site on his stead. In Sep. 2015 Hiroyuki buys the site and he became the de-facto administrator. He's one of the people influenced by Invisibro's idea of returning mods to the public eye, and has since managed a twitter with his mod handle.
- One of RapeApe's first actions as a mod was causing Naruto Day, when /a/ posters crying about Naruto on /q/ accused him of actively protecting threads from "self-moderator" spammers. Anons to tried to dox him, earning him the faildox of a indian man named Patrap Davis.[11] This managed to make moot angry, starting a dramafest that ended up with /a/ revenge-spamming CSAM. Moot then made this sticky addressing the witchhunt against him. His second claim to fame was banning GamerGate on a kneejerk reaction over the general thread unknowingly spamming reports[12], turning the movement against 4chan and starting a chain reaction that caused moot to leave 4chan and have years worth of #janiteam IRC logs leaked. He's been rumoured to hang out in #420chan with Kirtaner and sparto (420chan owners), old patrons of Anonymous. In 2020 and 2023, he was featured in news articles that interviewed ex-moderators who accused him of promoting radical conservative views on /pol/ by inaction, and journalists managed to retrieve invoices of him and desuwa's salaries.[13]. It should be noted that RapeApe has consistently shat on /pol/ in leaked IRC logs.[14] It seems like he wants 4chan to change as little as possible, has a short temper, likes guns, is highly educated about vidya games, Warhammer 40K knowledge. Is also Canadian.[15][16]
- Nicknames / Other Handles - RapeApe9k, GrapeApe, Narutomod.
- Former:
- 2003-2004 - Censored Vagina (C_V)
- 2004-???? - Man of Wax (Simon)
- It's unknown when he joined the staff, but he was officially the site's manager in the fourth revival (Aug. 2004). Mostly occupied with handling donation money and informing the site how hard the servers were getting raped. He also ran the first official 4chan panel in 2004[17], and attended the 2006 4chan Otakon Panel.[18]
- Unknown if more. (IOU)
Developers[edit]
People who handle and modify site code, update libraries, and generally fix whatever dumb shit the latest browser update has broken. Many people have tackled the role both formally and informally, albeit a sequence of "main" developers can be discerned. With 4chan's sale in Sep. 2015, the lead developer position was formalized with a salary, and is likely the only active developer.
Before the implementation of a proper Admin Panel (somewhere in 2004 or 2005) and therefore, a more robust privilege system working the backend, all formal developers doubled as admins. In the 2010s they got their own capcode, ## Developer, albeit there's no one known to use it who didn't have de-facto admin privileges.
- Current
- Since 2012 - desuwa (Maxime Youdine)
- Acting main developer, "JavaScript Wizard", creator of the Yotsuba Catalog, and a helping hand in the HTML5 reworks. He also added most features of the extensions into the main page and coded the 4chan API, and created an inline 4chan catalog. He was one of the admin triumvirate running 4chan in moot's stead between his Jan 2015 departure and the site's Sep. 2015 sale.
- Former
- 2003-2003 - Hova
- Hova helped moot translate the original GazouBBS script that became 4chan in September 2003.
- 2003-2003 - Inpheaux ([NPH])
- Founder of Studio ADTRW and (sort of) Raspberry Heaven. In October 2003 he offered to help moot with additional PHP coding, making the frontpage. He later helped moot with backend optimizations. He was named as a tentative developer in August 2004 revival, but that likely didn't happen.
- 2003-2003 - thatdog
- Became a developer in 4chan's second iteration, late October. They set to make a thread archive and update Futaba Script into web 2.0 friendly Futallaby, testing the first forms of the script in the test board /r/ - TRAINZ. He later made 1chan to host the finished script. A falling out with moot (and between moot and other RH heavy hitters) caused him to abandon the archive project and discontinue maintaining the script between January 2004 and June 2004. In August 2004, the site returned online and he created the first Overchan, a link aggregator for imageboards.
- 2003-???? - Shut (John)
- Advised moot on running the site and became the official (backend?) developer in the August 2004 revival. He maintained the devblog and fixed a bug that allowed huge files on the site if they were .btm.
- 2004-2005 - W.T. Snacks
- 2005-???? - Mr. Vac Bob
- 2005-2006 - Foone
- Foone developed the code for /rs/ and the /r9k/ Robot. He was talked by moot into trying to make a spinoff site 4meet, a 4chan meetup feature, but he was fired from inactivity in 2006.[19]
- 2006-2008 - Coda
- Developer and flash animator. Very active during 2006. Friend of moot; made the 2013 tenth anniversary panel flash. He made 4chan.org/flash/ for moot.
- ????-2013 - KING JAFFE JOFFER
- Translated the official 4chan Firefox extension to Google Chrome, and refracted the entirety of 4chan's HTML5 code and admin toolkit. Resigned around 2013-2014.
- More (IOU)
Moderators[edit]
The main corps of team4chan. Decides bans, range blocks, appeals, sets protected status on boards and threads being spammed, comforts jannies when they have to ban request a GR1. And he does it for free.
With the ## Moderator purple palm tree comes the privilege of being able to embed html and escape wordfilters, and presenting themselves as figures of authority on the site.
- Current
- ALTERNATIVE
- Moderator since 2004. Suggested the creation of /tg/. Together with Zephro, the oldest acting mods. Nicknames / Other Handles: DAVE, buttly
- Invisibro (Jay Louis Irwin)
- [s4s]'s patron mod during the early years. He came up with the tradition of stickying threads and was known to post in comic sans. (ref IOU) He's also famous for being a personal friend of moot and lobbying for letting mods become visible personalities, going against what was commonly believed to be site policy[20], and attempting to become a known "4chan figure". Wrote right leaning articles for observer.com directly referencing the site.[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Albeit his attempts at opening the staff to the site led to some moderators easing up on the Batman routine, it never became as common as he hoped.
- Being one of the few mods who frequently capcode / name posts and a known shitposter,[29] he developed a considerable hatefandom that stalked all his moderation decisions. As a result of this, he has been doxed endlessly.
- GIVE ME SOURCES OF GET DELETED: He's been accused of shitting up /g/ with flamewar threads that violate the only rule on the board. Has a tendency to ban people on /a/ for "inane" posts. Usually moderates /tv/ and /g/. Nicknames / Other Handles: SwagLord, gingermod.
- Former
- 2003-???? - Spork
- RH OG and Owner of the original 4chan IRC, hosted on Terra & Sharkey's irc.pyoko.org. Best known for wearing the yotsuba TF2 mask at Otakon. - proofs of volunteer disclosure or delete (aka Dan Levin)
- 2005-2007 - Martin Random (Bernard Goldsmith)
- Raspberry Heaven OG. Joined 4chan staff around 2004, likely during the August revival and possibly as Board Mod of /b/. Relatively popular SA poster. Wrote the motto above /b/. Was a law student and thus served as the closest thing the site had to a lawyer. Was known to shitpost on /b/ around 2006 reposting Something Awful posts where he pretended to be a 4chan big shot.[30]
- According to a LARP/mental breakdown he had in 2023, he left in 2008 due to Chanology to further his law career, but it's likely he left around 2007. During this breakdown, he claimed to be 4chan's secret co-founder together with shut, coda, and others, accused a "former server admin" of being a pedophile, stated the secret founders "gave the site to moot" as a scapegoat to avoid legal responsibility, posted old emails from moot and others, then accused Anonymous-San of having child pornography when he confronted him over the emails.[31][32]
- 2005-2006 - Foone
- 2005-2006 - Okk (Brian Raddatz)
- Started off as a drawfag in 2005, made some early 4chan's comics and flash animations that got made official by moot. Joined #4chan and became a mod. Quit somewhere around 2006 or 2007 and became a regular at /i/.[33]
Global Janitors[edit]
A role that had little information released and very few handles associated with it. The role is confirmed to exist since the April 2025 leaks. Presumably, the same as a janitor, but for all boards.
Janitors[edit]
Contrary to popular belief, janitors do have their own nifty ## Janitor capcode, but they may only use it in /j/, managed with a custom script called broomcloset.php. Remember that janitors come and go very fast.
#4chan Support[edit]
Also known as #4chan Customer Service It WAS customer service suck it mods
"Moderators are available to assist users with bans and technical issues on the website." - 4chan FAQ
"Assisting users" was an informal role that grew out of moderators becoming regulars at the #4chan IRC. Between the late 00s and early 20s, a rotating cast of mods volunteered to help people with questions about bans, quick appeals on short bans, calls to action on major problems (ie spammers) and more. Only Moderators and up could fill the role, with janitors not being allowed to show themselves. At some point in the 2010s the role was formalized in the rules, FAQ, and ban pages (even encouraged).
They are, famously, the largest source of hate towards 4chan staff, with several hundred snippets and screenshots of blatant verbal abuse accumulated over years.
GIVE ME SOURCES OF GET DELETED The service was slowly dismantled as relations with the staff soured until it was completely discontinued in the first years of 2020. First, "public" reporting became bannable (around 2018-2020), then reporting to mods in private over 4chan threads was forbidden in 2020 (with Cygnus famously dissenting) and ultimately any questions about bans were defacto forbidden between 2021 and 2022.
Idlers on #4chan[edit]
Alternative (+o)
- According to #4chan position:
+q: Admin/Rizon Operator | +o – (Presumed) Senior Moderator | +h – Moderator
It should be noted that +v (voice) was given to channel regulars so conversation was not interrupted when someone was spamming the chat.
Informal Roles[edit]
System Administrators[edit]
Also known as sysadmin & "the servers guy"
People who watch over the physical servers of a website. Increasingly rare since the advent of cloud computing and remote administration. Technically, they have access to server root and therefore can do anything, but that hasn't been the case for 4chan except for a couple emergencies.
The role on 4chan is informal. It arose out of necessity, and presumably out of a friend's favor, when 4chan stopped using rented server space and bought their own servers during the DONATE OR DIE 2005 emergency. First collocated in Houston, Texas, they were moved to California in 2008, where they remains to this day, albeit the machines have changed and the rack grown larger.
- Mr. Vac Bob (MVB) (Alexander Strange)
- Joined team4chan in 2004. Became a developer, wrote some 4chan extensions, took over the maintenance of world4ch after Shii quit. Watched over the baremetal servers since 2005. He was also part of the Raspberry Heaven community, the group moot came from, and took over Studio ADTRW and ran it until 2012. Never separated his online life from his public life, and freely linked his handles and his personal blog in all his sites.
- Kate
Extension & Script Developers[edit]
An informal subset of developer. Many fans and team4chan members voluntarily offered scripts, browser extensions and even contributions to mod and admin toolkits without being formally considered developers. Early on, offering free code to 4chan was also an easy way to become a mod. Between the 2000s and the 2010s, they represented sizeable percentage of site codebase.
- Shingo
- Helped translate the rules into Japanese Katakana in October 2003.
- ichibanMuffin
- Co-founder of Raspberry Heaven. He offered sharing a server with moot in October 2003, but a falling out for unknown reasons cut that short in November 2003.
- niralisse
- In November 2003, helped moot with setting up his own dedicated server and webmail after IchibanMuffin cut their partnership short.
- Scuzzy
- Wrote the first anti-leech code in November 2003.
- More (IOU)
Senior Moderators[edit]
Supposedly an informal position, never confirmed explicitly. It has been implied to exist by off-hand mentions in a couple statements by former staff members. A senior moderator would have extra tools and privileges at disposal. These privileges have never been specified, but one suspect things like freezing boards may be one of them.
No staff member has been confirmed to be one, albeit a couple of #4chan IRC idlers have been assumed to be Seniors from the rank difference with others moderators.
- ALTERNATIVE
- More (IOU)
Former Roles[edit]
Board Moderator[edit]
The very first moderator role. Came right out of the box with the software stack used to run 4chan. moot tried to have a one mod for every board, albeit some managed to have two. By the end of 2003, at least a dozen if not two dozen volunteers were filling the role. Almost all of them lifted straight from Raspberry Heaven ranks, with a minority from non-RH ADTRW regulars and later on #4chan regulars. With the August 2004 revival, Board Mods were forbidden from banning, but it's unknown if this was ever enforced.
Board Moderators were deprecated in 2005, with every board mod becoming global. By the end of the year their original niche was replaced with the ban-uncapable Janitor. Presumably, all Boards Mods still active became Mods.
- Known Board Mods
- 2003-???? - /d/ - Hentai/Alternative - Shingo
- Officially the first 4chan mod, named in October 6 2003 to moderate the newly made /d/. Contributed the Japanese greetings page.
- 2003-2004 - /c/ - Anime/Cute - Marshall Banana
- Second 4chan mod, named in October 6 2003 to moderate the newly made /c/. At some point, he was replaced by MrSpooky. He was banned from Something Awful around 2005.
- 2003-???? - /y/ - Yaoi - Bad Luck
- Mod N. 3, given control of /y/ on October 6 2003 because moot did not want to touch the board. He's mentioned in the 4chan v5 bible as a potential board leader, it can be assumed he was still part of staff by 2004.
- 2003-???? - /g/ - Guro - Portable951 (Port)
- 2003-2005 - /l/ - Lolikon - Censored_Vagina
- 2003-???? - /s/ - Sexy Beautiful Women - Boco_T
- 2003-???? - /s/ - Sexy Beautiful Women - PotatoSan
- Draft list of Board Mods according to the 4chan v5 Bible, 2nd Revision 2004 Aug. 11.
- 2004-2005 - /l/ - Lolikon - Saber
- 2004-2005 - /h/ - Hentai - moot (lol)
Board Leader[edit]
A position mentioned in 4chan Bible V5, the design document for 4chan's August 2004 revival.
Seemingly, a senior role pre-empting potential speeding up of 4chan and therefore growth in staff, board leaders where the people who managed board mods. They also decided on banning problem users (board mods could ban, but where discouraged from doing so) and made on-the-spot decisions on site policy.
It's not actually known if board leaders were ever implemented, but it is likely that if they were, they lasted only a few months and all board leaders eventually became Moderators between Aug. 2004 and early 2005.
- Draft list of Board Leaders according to the 4chan v5 Bible, 2nd Revision 2004 Aug. 11.
- /a/ - Anime - Seem
- /b/ - Random - Spork
- /c/ - Anime/Cute - MrSpooky
- /cm/ - Cute/Male - Favor
- /d/ - Hentai/Alternative - Shingo
- /g/ - Guro - Portable951 (Port)
- /h/ - Hentai - Zanok
- /l/ - Lolikon - Censored_Vagina
- /p/ - Photo - W.T. Snacks
- /t/ - Torrents - Man Of Wax
- /u/ - Yuri - Roobar
- /w/ - Anime/Wallpapers - Jeff Fury
- /y/ - Yaoi - Bad Luck
Moderator Leader[edit]
A position mentioned in 4chan Bible V5, the reference document for 4chan's August 2004 revival.
Proposed as the actual heads of moderation who responded only to moot. The ML was in essence, a global BL and thought as a mediator for disagreements between mods and BLs.
It's not actually known if board leaders were ever implemented.
- Draft list of Mod Leaders according to the 4chan v5 Bible, 2nd Revision 2004 Aug. 11.
- img.4chan - Archo
- zip.4chan - Shut
To Do[edit]
- I_AM_ABIB (aka BLOODMOUTH_CARNIST) - cj - Previously Janitor, he got promoted to mod during '09.[34] Posts on /a/ from time to time, but spends most of his moderation duties on /v/. He has got in a few controversy's, one of the main ones was his deleting of lobcorp threads from /v/ because he considered them to be generals. When someone argued that smash threads that were similar weren't being deleted, he justified it because smash brothers was a "cultural phenomenon".[35] Another tussle he has got into with /v/ was when anons completed a parody of Goodbye Volcano High called "snoot game" before the game is even released, just so they could showcase it for /v/3. The game quickly grows popular on /v/, and then the mods start deleting all threads about it. Someone confronts them about this on 4chan's IRC and receives unsatisfying answers from ABIB.[36] The board gets angry and snoot game threads devolve into mockery of jannies, but mostly about him. Strong dislike for furries and lolicons. Also a IRC rat.
- yournamehere -Moderator, known for being pretty unforgiving to people in the 4chan IRC. One of the first people to also go against GamerGate threads in 2014. Was mentioned in a news article where he joked about and seemed suspiciously indifferent with mass shooters coming from 4chan.[37] Possibly the biggest IRC rat of them all, he's on there almost 24/7. Has a short temper.
- fission -/g/ centric Moderator. Ignores the only rule on /g/ being no flamewars. Only comes to /g/ to ban people when people get sick of shitty flamewar threads and start flooding Jay's dox. IRC rat.
- Troid - /a/ centric moderator. Was originally assigned in maintaining the 4chan archives but later had his archive privileges removed after going on a mass deletion spree whilst trying to cover up information about himself that was stored within the archives, despite such he retained his mod rights.
- kami` - /a/-centric mod, colloquially known as Kinomod among the userbase due to posting Kino no Tabi. Formed a close relationship with /a/ due to taking care of pests like Accelspammer. Posts similarly to Jeremy. IRC rat.
- Pixel Hotness (aka pixel) – Woman mod. Originally a tripfag from /b/.
- Aerolite – Mod. IRC Rat.
- Zephro – Extremely old guard mod since 2005.
- BEAM – Theorized to have gotten NeoGaf discussions banned form /v/ for a short while in 2017.
- DOTDOTDOT- Moderator and former janitor of /h/. IRC rat.
- grubermeister (aka gnubermeister, deadlierbender) - Michael Connolly -Moderator and former janitor. /co/, /tg/, /v/ and most likely /g/ centric. Owns a cloud solutions consultancy start up.[38] Twitter Shitposter, programmer, possibly a fan of the v-tuber "Pipkin Pippa" based on him liking a handful of tweets associated with her.
- admiraltunafish-Moderator. IRC rat.
- cygnus- /a/-centric Moderator. Has a postive reputation of being forgiving and kind to people in the 4chan IRC.
Generic Mods (No quality worth mentioning or almost nothing is known about them):[edit]
| Halcyon | Walleye | astria | nana_ | jeeh | Ghost | Faust | AnimeDad (aka Spitch) | Purple Pie | Doremy | e7711 | errorname457 | kdel | Aeolian | ChibaKuang | Vertigo | Aero | Islands | kinoko | soups | falalal | Lanboss | DotMatrix | Betamax | chinese | Katsurugisan | rain | Hunter | 4Royals | Aeolian | Hydlide |
Janitors[edit]
A list of janitors names that have been leaked through screenshots or other means.
Important note: A lot of these names are really old, so most likely a lot of these guys are not involved in 4chan anymore.
Per board[edit]
- /co/ - RubDoctor
- /v/ - fun
- /a/ - Mikage Most likely has become a mod or has left by now.
- /h/ - Mr.Bucketman
- /int/ - FnFy – Was the one to be contacted by a 8ch.net admin in regards to the upcoming 4chan leaks. Most likely has become a mod or has left by now.
- /x/ - Kynokephalos | kephra Most likely has become a mod or has left by now.
Generic janitors (no known assigned board):[edit]
- Cephei – Janitor. Was upset when he was told he had to sign the agreement. It is unknown if he quit.
| Hobbes | casval | CarlitoGo! | rhine | metsu | Chill | klassicjelly | Praketh | Greenman | fellsmere | Gary Oak | bismuth_fishing_lore | SevenEight | lewdchan | m0thman | Jeepers88 | Aliens | BrainSledge | JamesIha | Praesens | Nouz | theomeo | UltraHoss | TheBurnWard | cdnexplorer | Inf | Axism | Bloom | relare | Cryswar | cetpargust | gfairy | akkerzaigts | Arbogast | JustPX | LzK | saku | Nikki (aka Nikkia / Nikka) | MBSL300 | Meadowlark | RocketDrillKick | Arsarkinum | You`reDadsA | MoistNugget | Drae | AZ4 | Caelum | anon-kun | scroton | morobrens | raikoo | badsled | Enamourd | SenatorBufordFunkmuscle | ThinMint | ashpain | badsled | andmoreagain | Sir_Spice | Acidflashback | Thesmothete | trout-senpai | novatoad |Kobayashi| Astroturf | Starfrog| HeavyGear | Axism |
Former[edit]
- Anonymous-san - asan - Josh (Popularly known as modcat) - #rasberryheaven, goon – Mod since pretty much the beginnings on 4chan, who supposedly quit around April 25, 2012 because he was trying to contact a girl in his circle of friends (Which happens to include moot), or a girl from /soc/ (sources vary a lot), and asked for advice on /soc/.[39] He then used the warn function to give his contact info to female posters who were helping, but one flipped her shit out fear of being banned, and another ratted him out with moot who fired him. Some say he asked to have his powers revoked and moot complied. Others say he later asked him to have his mod status back, but moot is the hero 4chan deserves but not the one it needs and denied it. moot later confirmed he resigned during a Q&A on /pol/. He later regained his mod status circa 2017, only to lose it yet again when submitting a politically-charged warning regarding Right Wing Safety Squad threads.[40]
- Shii - http://www.shii.org/ - http://aya.shii.org/ - and many more - Tried to take down 4chan because it was stealing world2ch's fame. Had a change of heart. Member of world2ch (posted as Menchi), later helped moot to code the site on its beginnings by further translating 0ch's PHP (Though not flawlessly), and maintained the textboards. Got banned from Something Awful during one of ADTRW's "may be a pedophile" purges. Cold quit after he tried crosslinking between 4-ch and 4chan and moot told him off, later becoming part of the textboard scene where stalking shii became a massive meme. A Web Archive admin (And deleted some evidence of his involvement in world2ch and 4chan saved in there) and a Wikipedia admin (where he stored a list of all his anime pages). Mod at /dqn/ and /saovq/.
- 5 - Had his own secret board dedicated to pictures of him, created by WTSnacks as an in-joke. A few months after Snacks got demodded he stickied a Midnight Snacks thread, which he co-hosted at the time. The thread was unstickied by moot, and then re-stickied. Because of this people believed a mod war was raging and shouted the meme BRING BACK SNACKS. Jokingly, both users called the show "Radio free 4chan" for the night. This and a streak of inactivity cost 5 his mod status. moot later claimed it was a demoddable offense to sticky radio show threads.
- Dongfix (aka Enumeric) - Imgbear.com - Coder, he has written many scripts for the mods and janitors. IRC rat. Resigned on 2013.
- Xennon – Flash coder. Admin for one day because of a GET. Supposedly leaked the logs where Snacks was fired by moot.
- Soviet_Russia (aka SoRu) - 4chan Mod and famous tripfag. Made mod in the legendary board /z/ and attention-whored it to death alongside his brother Dash_Billions. He was eventually banned.
- Allyson – Underage b& mod from circa 2006. She was kind of a drama whore.
- Lec
- Kusanagi (aka KusKus / brbgone2gensokyo / fsdfdsf) – A famous /a/ mod. He was known by everyone for extremely favoring and encouraging /a/ board culture. He was also known for having blunt political opinions on IRC. On December 22, 2014 he got into a fight with yetsturdy on #janiteam and both were fired by moot. The change of mods in /a/ was noticed immediately and let to small wave of shitposting.
- yetsturdy (AKA thisisacleverpassword) – /a/ and /mlp/ Janitor. Got into a fight with Kusanagi and got fired on December 22, 2014
- Redwood (AKA Henchouse) – Mod, famous /co/ tripfag for years as "Inspector Redwood", who ultimately got ousted during the 2014 aussie leaks and had to stop using the trip. He used to publicly ban people who called others "nigger". He later returned to tripping and allegedly left the moderation position. Was forced to change his mod handle after being outed (to "Henchouse"). Allegedly resigned after sometime after being outed.
- JDigital - JohnnyDigital - http://www.jonnydigital.com/
- FrankStallone (AKA dr.wiii) – Mod that retired during early 2010.
- Alan – Mod.
- DocEvil – A mod, originally a janitor from /tv/.
- Mr.Spooky - Ex-mod who spawned the catchphrases "I've never seen so many ingrates" and "You'll receive nothing from me." after a rant regarding donations. He frequently made stickies on /b/ begging for money because he got thrown in jail and needed donations to pay off his court fees.
- rabidkimba
- magz
- DamageInc – Coded the original 4chan Firefox extension around 2004
- Jibaku – Mod circa 4chan's revival (2005).
- Ezzi – Active around 2004.
- Majnen – Made an unauthorized news post about donations on July 1st, 2005 telling that moot left the project and 4chan would cease operations, followed the closure of a number of boards. He was probably sodomized by moot after that.
- Souldark – Active around 2004. Scottish.
- LordVorbis – Active around 2004.
- Otaku – Active around 2004. Sysadmin? In charge of donations?
- Burnt Sulphur (aka ponyfaggot) - Moderated /mlp/ since Friendship is Magic's debut in 2010. Regularly baited pedophiles and acted as an anti-pedophilic vigilante in the /mlp/. Frequently argued with other janitors and thus earned the reputation as the "Dr. House of 4chan." Resigned in 2017 after her wife, (name omitted at the request of Burnt Sulphur) and her daughter were killed, citing alcohol addiction as the reason she retired. Generally showed strength of character even at the cost of herself, even if she was kind of a dick. Loved, and missed, by /mlp/, /k/, /3/, /a/ and /w/.
- Mangoat – Server Admin circa 2003.
- BigN (name unconfirmed) – Outed by /a/ for not apparent reason during the Aussie Hack 2014. Might or might have not been fired
- Saegrimr – Outed by /jp/ during the Aussie Hack 2014. Might or might not have been fired. Is still an internet janny in videogames (TGstation)
- Kazisho - Outed by /jp/ during the Aussie Hack 2014. German gay brony. Had a tumblr account with pictures of little boys on it.
- Nemo – Janitor. Outed himself on /b/, fired by moot.
- Shiren | Nikka | Zenith (Nuked /jp/) | AoC (Dejannied several times for deleting all threads on /jp/ and similar stunts, repeatedly rejannied for being the only janitor willing to delete spam 24/7) | Duade (co) – Janitors that either left or were fired.
- andonuts – Janitor who leaked the #janiteam IRC logs. Associated with 8chan.
- Solomon - Former janitor of /g/. Got fired by RapeApe because one day he went on a deleting spree and deleted 3 pages worth of threads in a short period of time. He even got a mod postmade about him. The day after he made a thread on 8chan where he leaked minor stuff and mostly just talked shit about the staff team.[1]
Unknown, mentioned and associated people[edit]
- Plesk
- NICH - A animator from singapore who made some of the old 4chan animations
- "Bill" - And
- Peter Payne (aka moot's friend from Japan) - Owner of the J-list; has been in an advertising relationship with 4chan since its beginnings, both in the good and the bad.
- Outernet – Old 4chan personality. Forced the DIAL Soap meme via bot spam.
- Mayhem – Coded the 4chan X extension. He runs swfchan.org, /f/'s archive.
- Hox – Translator
- Anamanaguchi – Chiptune-Indie Rock band, mutual friends of Snacks and moot. Got their second album advertised by moot, and got him to dress as a furry and make a cameo in one of their music videos.[41] Also known for having one of the most disastrous Q&A's (and probably last) in 4chan history.[42] Has a verified capcode.
- Tattun - A spokesperson for the anime studio Trigger who posts on /a/ in related threads. Has a Verified capcode.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 [1] "I got fired from being a 4chan jani yesterday" 8chan Thread.
- ↑ [2]A compilation of leaks by a rogue 4chan Janitor, originally posted to rival imageboard Soyjak.party. Includes Discord profiles, ban evaders, almost the entire /j/ board, and more.
- ↑ [3]"In the U.S., His Site Has Been Linked to Massacres. In Japan, He’s a Star."
- ↑ [4]"Former UCA student drawing attention for ownership of notorious online message board 4chan"
- ↑ [5] Hiroyuki's YouTube Channel.
- ↑ [6] Hiroyuki's twitter.
- ↑
- [7] GSC announces on their news page that they never had more than an ownership stake on the company and weren't involved in it's management and, in fact, have sold their state in June 2022
- ↑ [8] Lucid fixing up 4chan.
- ↑ Studio Cookie Thievery: [9]
- ↑ RapeApe on #janiteam discussing /r9k/. [13]
- ↑
- [14]RapeApe explaining why the reddit account was not his in an old archive post.
- ↑ [15]RapeApe talking about removing the GG threads.
- ↑
- ↑ [18]RapeApe expressing some distain for /pol/.
- ↑ [19]RapeApe heavily implying he's Canadian.
- ↑ [20]Canadian residential IP used to post the /j/ sticky with RapeApe's capcode.
- ↑ [21] News post.
- ↑ [22], 4chan: The Otakon 2006 Panel
- ↑
- ↑ Or merely the perceived site policy, "modfaggotry" wasn't as common in 2010 as it was in 2005, but it never stopped happening.
- ↑ [27] Jay Irwin's observer profile
- ↑ [28]"Why 4chan Isn’t Buying What Bill Nye and Political Entertainers Are Selling"
- ↑ [29]"#CNNBlackmail: The Press Just Can’t Stop Feeding the Trolls"
- ↑ [30]"Jay Z and Beyoncé Inspired ‘White Power’ Symbol, Claims Alt-Right Figure"
- ↑ [31]Invisibro's time as a tripfag.
- ↑ [32] Jay Irwin's Twitter account mentioning him being a mod
- ↑ [33]Post showing he has told people in the past without consequences
- ↑ [34]Swaglord putting 4chan in his public letterboxd account.
- ↑ [35]Swaglord shitposting on a death sticky.
- ↑
- ↑ Bernie's screencap of an old email from moot
- ↑ Bernie talking about 4chan history
- ↑
- ↑ [42]An old screenshot of the Janiteam IRC chatroom where you can see ABIB. You might be able to recognize some other names as well.
- ↑ [43] Screenshot of the infamous "cultural phenomenon" defense.
- ↑ [44]I_AM_ABIB and yournamehere defending the removal of the threads.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>
tag; no text was provided for refs namedpaid
- ↑ [45] cloudcoyote.com
- ↑ [46]the warning and message's asan sent to a girl from /soc/.
- ↑ [47]Archive of RapeApe explaining why he fired asan.
- ↑ [48]「MEOW」Music video.
- ↑ [49]The Anamanaguchi /mu/ Q&A thread.