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Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

forums.somethingawful.com

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Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#11

Post by noduerme »

sweetbitter wrote: post #3
curuinor wrote: post #2

Someone on twitter was talking about the Franz Ferdinand insane ripples of the man's decision to ban anime pornography on his site: 1. He bans it 2. One "moot" was then currently showing around his futaba channel clone "4chan" and not getting many bites 3. The pornography-obsessed people decide to abscond to 4chan en masse, determining the culture of /b/ and all that 4. This leads to the proliferation of fascism and…

>Who wouldn't disown 4chan if it was created from their actions? Coincidentally, the current owner of 4chan[0] happens to be the original owner of futaba channel (2ch), so the answer to that question is one Hiroyuki Nishimura. Also, I am sure that a significant portion of imageboard users feel satisfied by the chaos they have sown; they aren't disgusted by it, they really lust for it, and that is how they have always…

>> and that is how they have always been

Technically, before they were given computers and internet access by smart people, they only raped their daughters and terrorized their local trailer park.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#12

Post by extortionist »

He leaves behind a complicated legacy. It's important to note that credible allegations of domestic abuse lead him to sell SA in the past year, and this can't be set aside.

At the same time, SA's influence on the modern internet can't be understated. The 'image macro' of early SA (maybe created by Lowtax himself, from what Fragmaster says in his video in the link) is the direct ancestor of today's common meme image--impact font text over a silly image, easily accessible to anyone who wants to post it.

Many of today's well-known internet comedians and writers grew up with the site. And it's hard to estimate how big the impact (positive or negative) of things like ADTRW leading to 4chan have been, not to mention things like the rise of Let's Play videos, or the creation and eventual shutdown of BitTorrent Barnyard (and its ensuing spinoffs).

The site itself still remains one of the last vestiges of the old internet--one of the few sites that both survived and managed not sell out and go headlong into monetization--and as a result, is one of the last sites on the modern internet that (maybe ironically) is not entirely awful.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#13

Post by smt88 »

donatj wrote: post #8

Well dang, that sucks. Something Awful circa 2003 really shaped my sense of humor as a teen. Photoshop Phriday was something I and all my friends waited for each week. In my opinion this deserves the black bar.

By all accounts, the good things about Something Awful were in spite of Kyanka rather than because of him. He neglected the site for many years before selling it.

He was also a terrible person who serially abused his wives and girlfriends.

His site was very influential (in good and bad ways), but that doesn't mean he is someone we should canonize or mourn.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#14

Post by harles »

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the domestic abuse allegations. The Something Awful forums almost completely melted down because of that, and it’s certainly left me with a very negative final impression of the man who’s sense of humor I once idolized.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#15

Post by xenihn »

extortionist wrote: post #12

He leaves behind a complicated legacy. It's important to note that credible allegations of domestic abuse lead him to sell SA in the past year, and this can't be set aside. At the same time, SA's influence on the modern internet can't be understated. The 'image macro' of early SA (maybe created by Lowtax himself, from what Fragmaster says in his video in the link) is the direct ancestor of today's common meme image--…

I remember hearing that image macros originated on TribalWar (a forum for Starsiege: Tribes), but they were definitely popularized by SA

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#16

Post by donatj »

curuinor wrote: post #2

Someone on twitter was talking about the Franz Ferdinand insane ripples of the man's decision to ban anime pornography on his site: 1. He bans it 2. One "moot" was then currently showing around his futaba channel clone "4chan" and not getting many bites 3. The pornography-obsessed people decide to abscond to 4chan en masse, determining the culture of /b/ and all that 4. This leads to the proliferation of fascism and…

> Who wouldn't disown 4chan if it was created from their actions?

4chan is the last bastion of freedom on the internet, and the only thing that even slightly keeps the corporate social media at bay. 4chan is the source of all that is pure on the Internet

Edit: I’m surprised the number of HN users who hate freedom. I guess Europe is waking up.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#17

Post by busterarm »

extortionist wrote: post #12

He leaves behind a complicated legacy. It's important to note that credible allegations of domestic abuse lead him to sell SA in the past year, and this can't be set aside. At the same time, SA's influence on the modern internet can't be understated. The 'image macro' of early SA (maybe created by Lowtax himself, from what Fragmaster says in his video in the link) is the direct ancestor of today's common meme image--…

Do you have stairs in your house?

Pak. Chooie. Unf.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#18

Post by _etyf »

Apocryphon wrote: post #7
curuinor wrote: post #2

Someone on twitter was talking about the Franz Ferdinand insane ripples of the man's decision to ban anime pornography on his site: 1. He bans it 2. One "moot" was then currently showing around his futaba channel clone "4chan" and not getting many bites 3. The pornography-obsessed people decide to abscond to 4chan en masse, determining the culture of /b/ and all that 4. This leads to the proliferation of fascism and…

Interesting thing is, Qanon isn't even 4chan at its most activist, there was Anonymous and all of its ops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_events_associated_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(hacker_group) And Qanon isn't even /pol/ at its most politically active, given how they rode the memetic wave into the 2016 elections. While there might not be a direct material connection between 4chan and r…

QAnon isn't even really a 4chan meme, at least not for a while and not at the Jan. 6 peak of its fervor. The "official home" of QAnon has been 8chan/8kun for years, since shortly after the meme's first appearance [0]. Several jouranlists believe the 8chan owner and his son to be the main users of the QAnon account [1][2][3]. There's a contingent of regular QAnon posters on /pol/, but they're regularly mocked as mentally-ill "boomers" who need to "take their meds."

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

[2] https://www.businessinsider.nl/ron-watkins-the-man-widely-ru...

[3] https://mashable.com/article/q-identity-revealed-hbo-documen...

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#19

Post by throwaway576167 »

sweetbitter wrote: post #3
curuinor wrote: post #2

Someone on twitter was talking about the Franz Ferdinand insane ripples of the man's decision to ban anime pornography on his site: 1. He bans it 2. One "moot" was then currently showing around his futaba channel clone "4chan" and not getting many bites 3. The pornography-obsessed people decide to abscond to 4chan en masse, determining the culture of /b/ and all that 4. This leads to the proliferation of fascism and…

>Who wouldn't disown 4chan if it was created from their actions? Coincidentally, the current owner of 4chan[0] happens to be the original owner of futaba channel (2ch), so the answer to that question is one Hiroyuki Nishimura. Also, I am sure that a significant portion of imageboard users feel satisfied by the chaos they have sown; they aren't disgusted by it, they really lust for it, and that is how they have always…

Very interesting how according to 4chan critics the website sown chaos and ignorance when they do exactly that. hiroyuki was never associated in any way to Futaba Channel.

Re: Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died

#20

Post by Apocryphon »

_etyf wrote: post #18
Apocryphon wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting thing is, Qanon isn't even 4chan at its most activist, there was Anonymous and all of its ops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_events_associated_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(hacker_group) And Qanon isn't even /pol/ at its most politically active, given how they rode the memetic wave into the 2016 elections. While there might not be a direct material connection between 4chan and r…

QAnon isn't even really a 4chan meme, at least not for a while and not at the Jan. 6 peak of its fervor. The "official home" of QAnon has been 8chan/8kun for years, since shortly after the meme's first appearance [0]. Several jouranlists believe the 8chan owner and his son to be the main users of the QAnon account [1][2][3]. There's a contingent of regular QAnon posters on /pol/, but they're regularly mocked as menta…

True, but would there be an 8chan if there wasn't a /pol/?

I forgot to mention that on the other end of the spectrum, a good amount of (extremely online) American leftist culture ("the Dirtbag Left") is also linked to Something Awful, the Chapo Trap House three were either from SA or from the Weird Twitter subculture descended from SA's FYAD subforum.

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