April 27, 2009, 8:19 AM — Time Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People, as voted by readers, is now ready, and the winner is... moot!
Who the heck is moot? That's the alias of 4chan founder Christopher Poole, according to a story on Mashable (4chan is an online forum that is rather notorious for memes, pranks, hacks and other mischief). With over 16 million votes, moot is a landslide winner. Obviously there's some monkey business going on, particularly when someone points out to you that the first letters of the names of the top 21 members of the list spell out the phrase "Marblecake also the game" (I have no idea what significance that phrase has). Blogger Paul Lamere has a fascinating post on how the 4chan members pulled this off.
What I found most curious was that apparently moot wasn't some kind of write-in candidate, but that Time Magazine had his name on the list of potential influencers; I wouldn't have given 'old media' credit for even being aware of 4chan. I guess you could make an argument that he belonged there; his users brought us lolcats, after all. And the poll itself illustrates how much influence a group such as this one can have on online events.
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