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He had a mutually-beneficial symbiotic relationship with ED, using and creating some of the material contained in these articles for his videos. But as time went on, his e-fame went to his head, and Pigslop developed an extreme case of unwarranted self-importance, resulting in one of the lulziest cases of serial snow-balling self-ownage in YouTube history.

"It's like Craigslist -- hugely simple and highly useful," says David Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. 4chan's utility is its ability to gather millions of people in conversation in a single place and create a "meme-rich" environment, says Mr. Weinberger.

Mr. Poole originally just wanted a place to share his fascination with Japanese comics and television shows. He was a fan of the popular Japanese image Web site 2chan and wanted to create a version for American audiences. With his mother's approval, he used her credit card to purchase server space and started 4chan.org.

"They get rowdy -- it's like a bar without alcohol," says Willard Ling, a moderator and long-time user of the site. "It's like that psychological concept of deinvidualization -- when groups of people become less aware of their own responsibility." Mr. Poole and his team of moderators have handed out 70,000 bans over the last three years, but preventing long-term abuse can be difficult. 4chan's "Wild West" reputation has created a dilemma for Mr. Poole. While it's brought him Internet fame, albeit through his alter ego, and created enviable traffic, he has trouble selling ads to more cautious companies who don't want their ads appearing next to potentially graphic content. He's attempted to quarantine sexual material on a set of adult boards, but that doesn't stop pornography or other adult content from appearing elsewhere.

The real contribution of Baker's book, however, is that he sees in Willis's career a host of important issues that drive to the heart of antebellum celebrity culture: the commercialization of intimacy, the marketability of exposure, the public's desire for scandal, gossip, and confession.  Other commentators have described this version of celebrity as a twentieth-century phenomenon.  Baker corrects the record, demonstrating that by 1840, celebrity culture was thriving in the trans-Atlantic world.  -- DHB

"The Glorified Self: The Aggrandizement and the Constriction of Self."

these players developed a "reflected self" based on their perception of how others saw them