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.

Into the beyond, myself and my boat. We searched for fresh land. And it was fresh land we found!

With confidence and pride, I landed on this tiny island’s shores. I had found this archipelago. I was the first person ever to set eyes upon it. And with that knowledge, I reached for my trusty flint and steel.

I had discovered it, so I could burn it.

And burn it, I had. For this was my quest. If the creepers and zombies were going to come at night, I would fight them on open ground by the light of the forrest. That, and burning trees never extinguish. This would be a permanent pyre in my honor.

And they did come. The zombies, the skeletons. The creepers. And I burned them all. To satisfy my needs, I ate heaping fist-fulls of raw pork. Prior to my journey, I had prepared these meats thanks to my pig flume. But that was behind me. That was at home. And I was very far from there now.

And then, the morning came. And it was time for me to collect the bounty of the evenings burning.

And I needed to find a more suitable battleground. I would have to leave this burning land. And leave behind its remaining inhabitants.

But I would not be leaving them without one final present.

So I hopped into my boat and sailed off to new lands. Which I soon found.

That’s because I’ll be speaking about videogame speed runs. I’ve wanted to do a talk on this topic for a long time, but every time I scheduled it somewhere, it was always as a half-assed “sure, I’ll do a talk” arrangement. All previous commitments had been canceled in favor of other, more well prepared speakers.

But it seems my bluff has been called and I will now have to give this talk. As such, I needed a place to put a bunch of videos. Guess where I’m putting them! Oh yeah, these are mostly tool-assisted.

Genesis, King’s Bounty in 00:09.93

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GBA: Harmony of Dissonance as Maxim in 00:23.28

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GameBoy: Minesweeper in 00:29.65

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GameBoy Color: Tetris DX in 00:35.18

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SNES: Family Feud in 6:46.28

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PC: Morrowind in 4:19, no tools.

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Genesis: Sonic & Knuckles in 26:51.2

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NES: Super Mario Brothers in 04:57.33

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NES: Mega Man 3, 4, 5, & 6 in 39:06.92

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