I think the fact that you can drive a multi million user website that was once valued at $1.2b (by a VC admittedly) on 2600 lines of pretty bad PHP code when most of the users are exactly the sort of people who'd try to hack it is actually a testament to how good PHP is.
Redeveloping the site in Go, Dart, Python or Node, or whatever language you like best, wouldn't increase 4Chan's value in any discernible way.
This itched me -- I've never gotten the impression that Christopher Poole was particularly stupid, and I couldn't imagine him reacting to a genuine offer of $1.2 billion for 4chan in any other fashion than by demanding cash on the nail and then taking it -- so I scratched it.
The only thing I could find was a year-old thread from 4chan itself [1], in which the supposed VC never identifies himself, and in which (someone who is probably) Poole had the following to say:
>>this thread
>>my sides
>>the stratosphere
>
>If this is actually your profession, you should probably find a new job.
The advice never to believe everything you read is good advice in general; with regard to anything you read on, from, or about 4chan, it's indispensable.
Redeveloping the site in Go, Dart, Python or Node, or whatever language you like best, wouldn't increase 4Chan's value in any discernible way.
At the end of the day, it works.