A: Yeah. Totally. Kinda. We keep your IP address. We wish we didn't have to, but there are some folks in this world that like child pr0nz and stuff. We really don't like that kind of thing, and if the cops come busting down our door, we gotta have something to tell them. But your IP address and the picture are literally the only things we track, and only the picture is made available to the public, so yes, you're more or less anonymous here."
"We keep your IP" and "More or less anonymous" are absolutely not compatible phrases. You either need to stop logging IP addresses or drop any pretenses of anonymity. You don't "gotta tell the cops something." There's no law requiring this. You don't even mention how long your data retention policy is.
As far as anonymity is concerned, the images are anonymous to other user and visitors. It is our responsibility to keep track of unlawful activity for both our protection and the user's. The Terms of user explains this in detail. Also, the front page clearly states that Images expire in 30 days if not used.
I don't think this is true. This was is Christopher Poole's testimony:
Q. Now, you said that 4chan does not keep the
contents of these posts. Does 4chan maintain business
records of web logs, also audit logs and sometimes banned
entries as well, if a particular user has been banned?
A. Yes.
Why do people create sites like these (from a financial perspective)? Do they have anything to gain? I assume they have to pay a lot in terms of space. Is there something I'm missing?
Some of them have made a good amount of money through advertising (e.g. Imageshack). It seems like the market is probably a little saturated by now, so unless you've got some killer feature or a base of users to market to (Imageshack started off on the Something Awful forums) it's probably not worth it.
Any reason from "just for shits and giggles" to "getting credibility in a community" (like HN).
I run a url shortener - it costs me time and money that I will never get back directly. Hopefully it gives me some credibility in the community but other than that it is just a fun side project.
"Q: Are the images I upload, anonymous?
A: Yeah. Totally. Kinda. We keep your IP address. We wish we didn't have to, but there are some folks in this world that like child pr0nz and stuff. We really don't like that kind of thing, and if the cops come busting down our door, we gotta have something to tell them. But your IP address and the picture are literally the only things we track, and only the picture is made available to the public, so yes, you're more or less anonymous here."
"We keep your IP" and "More or less anonymous" are absolutely not compatible phrases. You either need to stop logging IP addresses or drop any pretenses of anonymity. You don't "gotta tell the cops something." There's no law requiring this. You don't even mention how long your data retention policy is.