Christopher Poole (aka "Moot") founded the unruly message board 4chan as a place for anime enthusiasts to hang out. Now it's a crazy, sometimes-scary morass of nascent memes, porn, racism. But Poole is about to go legit.

Poole's company, Canvas Networks, Inc. just got $625,000 in start-up funding from an unknown source, according to an SEC filing posted here. It's unclear exactly what Canvas Networks will be making, though Poole gave a hint in an interview with the Times' Nick Bilton last month:

I'm working on a new project to reimagine what an image board should be today using the current technologies available... our code is a decade old, the foundation is really rickety and the layout is old. So imagine if you were to start 4chan today, what would it look like, how would it work with a modern browser. It's kind of like a reboot, but it will be something separate to 4chan.

4chan users famously hacked Time's 2008 "Person of the year" poll to put Poole atop the list. Maybe with this new venture he'll end up there for real.

[Photo of Moot via Mirka23's flickr]