According to Frederick Brennan, creator of 8chan, the original Q was Paul Furber the moderator of the /cbts/ board on 8chan. This is likely because whenever Q's tripcode got hacked Paul Furber would "verify" the new Q tripcode, presumably by comparing IP addresses. Throughout this whole time Furber claims to be in direct communication with Q. According to Brennan, the Watkins, owners of 8chan, would come to realize the power Q's popularity had and wanted to bind Q to their website. One day after a Q post, Furber claims Q's trip has been hacked and that the Q post is fake. "Q" denies being fake, and asks for "codemonkey" (Ron Watkins) to confirm his identity (once again, presumably by comparing IPs) and Watkins does. Q claims Furber is compromised and has the Watkins create a new board for him. From this point on the Watkins have taken control of the Q trip which is why the style changes (e.g. much more all caps). More proof of Watkins controlling Q is that, after 8chan got taken down following the Christchurch shooting, it stayed down for months. The Watkins are able to get a new site online but it's not able to support a large amount of users yet and posting is throttled. Despite this, Q is able to post on it, something which, according to Brennan could only be explained by it being done through an admin account. Q posts to perform a little theatre piece with the Watkins where the Watkins tell him they're going to be rotating the salt on the tripcodes and that therefore his tripcode will change and they coordinate so that the Watkins can once again verify him once it does.

According to Frederick Brennan, creator of 8chan, the original Q was Paul Furber the moderator of the /cbts/ board on 8chan. This is likely because whenever Q's tripcode got hacked Paul Furber would "verify" the new Q tripcode, presumably by comparing IP addresses. Since it's unlikely that someone with Q security clearance (a department of energy clearance btw) would just be posting online from the same IP, it's unlikely Furber would have been able to verify anything. Throughout this whole time Furber claims to be in direct communication with Q. According to Brennan, the Watkins, owners of 8chan, would come to realize the power Q's popularity had and wanted to bind Q to their website. One day after a Q post, Furber claims Q's trip has been hacked and that the Q post is fake. "Q" denies being fake, and asks for "codemonkey" (Ron Watkins) to confirm his identity (once again, presumably by comparing IPs) and Watkins does. Q claims Furber is compromised and has the Watkins create a new board for him. From this point on the Watkins have taken control of the Q trip which is why the style changes (e.g. much more all caps). More proof of Watkins controlling Q is that, after 8chan got taken down following the Christchurch shooting, it stayed down for months. The Watkins are able to get a new site online but it's not able to support a large amount of users yet and posting is throttled. Despite this, Q is able to post on it, something which, according to Brennan could only be explained by it being done through an admin account. Q posts to perform a little theatre piece with the Watkins where the Watkins tell him they're going to be rotating the salt on the tripcodes and that therefore his tripcode will change and they coordinate so that the Watkins can once again verify him once it does.