Mr. Gallagher (Photo: IMDB)

Michael Gallagher just wanted to tap into the zeitgeist.

The 23-year-old filmmaker--known for his popular YouTube series, Totally Sketch--is about to release his first full-length feature film, a low budge horror flick called Smiley. But what should amount to buzzy excitement leading up to the film's launch has been eclipsed by personal attacks on Mr. Gallagher made by notorious message board 4chan and hacktivist collective Anonymous.

The reason? Mr. Gallagher painted both 4chan and Anonymous as the villains of Smiley. Obviously, this didn't sit well with either group.

Going off the IMDB description, the film's plot sounds like something you and your friends jokingly thought up while stoned and surfing 4chan:

After discovering an urban legend on 4chan's /b/ board of a demented serial killer that has nothing but a carved 'smilely' on his face, Ashley, a mentally fragile teen, must decide whether she is going insane, or the next victim.

Variety elaborates, saying that the film follows a college freshman as she meets members of 4chan and "a series of grisly murders committed by Smiley, an urban-legend Internet ghoul from the imagination of Gallagher and Phillips, is linked to the shadowy real-life groups."

Shockingly, 4chan and Anonymous did not take kindly to the notion that their groups are fertile breeding grounds for serial killers. /b/ may be well known as a place for the detritus of the Internet to flourish and be celebrated, but likening it to a launching pad for vicious murderers is just a little bit disingenuous.

Of course, 4chan and Anonymous rebelled in typical fashion: by doxing and threatening Mr. Gallagher.

According to Variety:

Gallagher has endured a torrent of voicemails, emails, texts, message-board posts and comments laced with death threats, insults and admonitions to spam and harass the filmmaker, his colleagues, his girlfriend and his family. Now the FBI is considering whether to investigate the bizarre, life-imitates-art situation.

Mr. Gallagher, who as a semi-famous YouTuber is no stranger to Internet negativity, said he expected some backlash, but nothing to this extent. We have a feeling the poor guy probably hangs out on Reddit much more than he does on 4chan.

Moot (Photo: Austin 360)

4chan is either the beginning or the end of the Internet, depending on who you ask. The beginning camp points out that so much of the content on Reddit and Buzzfeed originated in 4chan's message boards. The end of days camp merely shakes their head and points to /b/.

The polarizing message board clocked its billionth post today, prompting Moot (née Christopher Poole), to post a news update to 4chan for the first time since 2008. The fearless leader of the original meme factory, who can occasionally be seen at parties around town clutching his backpack, offered some insight about the changes over the last four years. He also announced a new recurring feature that would allow 4chan users to engage in a more direct dialog with him.

Today I'm pleased to announce /q/ - 4chan Discussion. Our earliest users will remember the "/q/ - Questions" image board from back in 2004, and the "/sug/ - Suggestions" discussion board from 2005-2006. Both served as a place where users could discuss the site amongst themselves and with the team, and in that spirit, I plan to host regularly scheduled Q&A sessions (think PMQs) and use /q/ as a venue to interact with and collect feedback from the community.

4chan will also be reinstituting janitors--its equivalent of a moderator--to combat what is, according to Moot, a "lack of consistent moderation and communication from myself and the team." Does that mean fewer dick pics? ...Nah.

We'd also like to take this opportunity to point out that one Betabeat reporter attempted to access 4chan from a nearby golf club (while on assignment!) and it was blocked. Manhattan Woods Golf Club: no shirt, no trolls.

One of Canvas's most popular posts.

Canvas members received a celebratory email in their inbox this morning. The image-driven social website celebrated its first birthday this week, as well as its one millionth post. As a sign the startup is all growns up, Canvas also announced that you no longer have to use Facebook to sign up.  Email notifications "when someone replies or remixes one of your posts" are also now enabled, which should encourage users to visit the site.

When Christopher Poole, the fair-haired boy prince of meme land,  first founded Canvas, it sounded like purposeful departure from his first startup, 4chan. Instead of the malwebolence of the /b/ boards, users were asked to "Keep it safe for work | Don’t be mean | Stay on topic." That may have helped the startup pick up $3.63 million in funding, but it yielded mixed results, at first. (Nazi necrophilia, anyone?)

But that appears to have changed.

A quick look at the most popular posts on Canvas over the past month and past year (admittedly, neither have which represents a big block of time) seem almost PG. The overall flavor is your standard teenage humor and angst, with a bit of a nerdy twist. Oh yeah, and a healthy appreciation of the comedy stylings of one Bill Murray. Whether Canvas's more sanitized offerings will go as viral, however, still remains to be seen.