With Canvas, Can "Moot" Bottle 4chan and Sell It?

Christopher “Moot” Poole, the creator of 4chan, today opened his new image-sharing community, called Canvas, to 4,000 of the people who signed up to test it.

The service seems remarkably similar to 4chan, the rowdy image-sharing message board, but rather than anonymity, Canvas requires that users have accounts (would-be users currently sign up through Facebook Connect), and unlike 4chan, Canvas keeps an archive of posted graphics (and will reportedly later support other media).

Poole has described his goal with Canvas as trying “to reimagine what an image board should be today using the current technologies available.” Canvas and 4chan are run separately.

Unlike the many personal and professional image-sharing sites that already exist, Canvas seems oriented toward PhotoShop jobs, cartoons and memes (more like Cheezburger, which often riffs off 4chan-originated concepts, and just raised $30 million for an Internet comedy empire). Canvas is backed by Ron Conway, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Kenneth Lerer and Joshua Schachter.

Image via TechCrunch.