By David Topping

At left, the leaderboard last Wednesday; at right, the leaderboard today.

Can 4chan get a Toronto condo named after their founder, m00t? As of today, no.

The top-ranked entry in the contest to pick a name for the new tower at Yonge and The Esplanade, with almost five thousand first-place votes, was “reported and deactivated” this afternoon. So were other high-placing, jokier entries, like “Anythin U condo I condo better” and the Reddit-backed “Mr. Splashy Tower.” (Garry Valk Plaza, for the ex–Maple Leaf, is still in the competition, as is “Stephen Colbert Tower.”)
Not that this should come as much of a surprise.
Sam P. Crignano, a partner with the condo’s developers, cityzen, made it clear that they weren’t too excited about an entrant backed by 4chan, the notorious online message board most recently responsible for this and this. Crignano told us last week that “if someone’s intentions are misguided or their intentions are—I don’t want to use the word malicious—then at that point, what option is available to us? We have to step in and try and prevent that from happening.”
Still, before the name “m00t” was disabled this afternoon, the 4chan user who submitted it maintained to Torontoist that everything was on the level.
“At no point did I ever encourage cheating, nor did I ever encourage voting for malicious purposes,” explained the user, who asked for anonymity. “I rallied the first 1500 votes on my own, promoting it as ‘Let’s do something awesome ______. Here’s our chance to name a new condominium building after m00t, please vote once a day!’ No one was ever misinformed or lied to by me.”
“I do not believe there is any reason for that behaviour to be expected to begin with,” he continued. “We have a clear lead over the competition…if there are illegitimate votes being made, remove them, but do not remove the entry. If perhaps someone decides to cheat the vote in favour of my submission or anyone else’s, do not punish the one who submits it.”
The initial name was submitted, explains the 4chan-er, in part because the other entrants were so “bland and boring.” That, and “it’s funny. It’s not funny in the sense that to walk down the street and see this would be a complete joke, but it’s funny in the sense that the people who are interested in actually voicing an opinion on what the name should be are choosing this name for the very same reasons that I am. Believe it or not, there’s a deeper sense of community involved in this voting process.”
Hat tip to @alex_sebenski for spotting “m00t”‘s removal.