The article implies Aether is destined to become /b/ due to its anonymity. Although I'm not familiar with the Aether community, I think this view overlooks so some of the complexities of "anonymity", and also the influence of convention and expectations of a community. Aether calls itself anonymous; this is true in the sense that it obscures to some degree the slave name of its users (I don't know the technical details, but I guarantee you if Big Brother really wanted to know who you are, he could find you). However as far as anonymity affects behavior (e.g. on 4chan), I think it's much more important that communication is "one-shot" (by thread if not by post), there are no reputations, and you can't get to know anyone - and in this sense Aether is pseudonymous, since it encourages post-signing. The other factor is expectations: /b/ is anonymous, but so are /v/, /a/, etc; there are trash heaps, but there are also recycling bins and maybe even some compost piles to be found. The reputation of an online community is extremely self-perpetuating, and as long as people don't come to Aether expecting it to be the new /b/, it's not going to become the new /b/.