Gism Butter

Canv.as Beta

So the beta has opened for Canv.as.  It’s the startup… something…. company from 4Chan founder, Moot. I signed up a few months back for the early access, and the word came down on Monday. I’ve spent 2 days with the site, so far, and I have to say it is quite fun. The ideas and games that are already coming to the surface are a bit like 4chan at its visual best.

That’s not to say that there is any real discourse on the site, beyond the to-be-expected “4chan vs. Canv.as” threads. Mostly, it’s been “complete this picture,” and “why does this man’s back hurt?” type picture play threads. These are a hoot, but the relatively limited image editor seems to be holding people back, at least a little. I am sure the image editor will quickly improve. This is the very earliest kernel of a site, says the Canvas team.

If you don’t understand already, Canv.as is basically 4Chan, cleaned up and made Web 2.0-ish. Every thread begins with an image, and subsequent posts can add new images, modify existing ones in-browser, or just post some text. Perhaps the most ingenious part of Canv.as is the solution to the spam and anonymity problem. 4Chan had to add captchas to keep the spam from anon-talk out. Canv.as foregoes this problem by requiring a username and password, coupled with a Facebook login to gain access.

Once you’ve registered with a Facebook account, you can just login regularly, and Facebook isn’t linked to anywhere directly. And once you’re into the site, you can post anything anonymously. Thus, entire threads can come from anonymous, and people can still bump their own threads, chattering with themselves in inane conversations.

The other key element here is the in-browser image editor. This is coupled with a stamp collection of everything from Mario to Broccoli. You can draw MS Paint style, or stamp other pictures into photos, with varying opacity. You can also upload your own stamps, so keep Photoshop handy for cutting out things to paste.

Over all, I’d say Canv.as might just be a home run. It’s fun. Really fun, already. I just hope they send out more invites soon, and then offer some type of hierarchical view. The site needs more users, more content, and will eventually become overwhelming, if it reaches any mass of users.

For now, it’s totally private. And inside, we’re all newfags. Though, the images are censored: no NSFW images. But the text doesn’t seem to be filtered at all, and the front-page “color in your pony” thread already has a Hitler-themed pony. How quaintly 4chan.