4chan, the internet’s most notorious imageboard, is currently facing some serious financial issues. The issue is so severe, 4chan’s owner Hiroyuki Nishimura has published a post that details what may happen to the imageboard in the coming months.
According to Nishimura’s post, 4chan’s financial woes means that the website is unable to afford infrastructure costs, network fees, server costs, CDN and various other miscellaneous costs. Furthermore, Nishimura has also revealed that the 4chan’s ads aren’t generating enough to keep the website afloat, and as such, he has temporary disabled middle ads and bottom ads from the imageboards.
In order to keep the website afloat, Nishimura has outlined three possible options. The first option is to halve 4chan’s traffic costs. This option would involve imposing size limits on user-uploaded images, the closure of some 4chan boards, and potentially moving 4chan to slower servers. The second option is to ramp up advertisments on the website, which would lead to the implementation of pop-up ads, pop-under ads, and even malicious ads. The third option is to push for more 4chan pass users by introducing more features to those who buy a 4chan pass.
I’m open to joining the Board of Directors of 4Chan. @4chan
— Martin Shkreli (@MartinShkreli) October 2, 2016
While cost-cutting measures are one way to save the troubled imageboard, it appears that outside help may also be an option that Nishimura is willing to entertain. Just yesterday, Martin Shkreli, an individual just as infamous as 4chan itself, has tweeted his interest in joining 4chan’s Board of Directors. However, if none of the measures are able to be implemented successfully, and if no one is willing to inject funds into 4chan, it may very well be the beginning of the end of 4chan.
