HOME |
RSS | 
The above image recently appeared on 4chan. The legion of anonymous users there interpreted it as suggesting that it was necessary to publicly advertise for people to attend an old man’s birthday party. The people of 4chan, and later reddit, decided to track down this man and throw him a huge birthday party. They discovered that his name is William Lashua and that he lives in Ashburnham, Massachusetts.
A man claiming to be his grandson started a reddit thread and clarified the situation. Mr. Lashua actually had a large and well-connected family. The poster was put up in a local shop for people who knew him in the immediate community. The grandson offered an address to which people could send cards, but asked that redditors and anonymous respect the family’s privacy at the party.
Most did, and no strippers appeared, but here you can view a video from Mr. Lashua’s 90th birthday party. He opened cards and presents sent to him from the good people of the internet, and thanked them.
TIME Magazine has been compiling an annual list of the world’s most influential people since 2004 – and this year, they’ve opened the floodgates to let readers vote for their pick online. Little did the know that this exercise in democracy would yeild an unexpected result: the frontrunner – by a wide margin – is moot, the founder of 4chan:
PRO: Just about every Internet in-joke of the past few years has started on 4chan — a bare-bones, id-liberating and reliably profane image board whose Droogish users have hatched everything from Rickrolling to LOLcats. The site can also launch real-world movements, as evidenced by Anonymous, a 4chan-organized protest group responsible for several anti-Scientology rallies.
CON: Thanks to 4chan’s oft-obscene content, the reclusive moot has had trouble luring advertisers.
Link – via mental_floss
