Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

forums.somethingawful.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 370 posts

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

#21

Post by neartheplain »

Apocryphon wrote: post #20
_etyf wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Certainly there wouldn't be an 8chan/8kun without 4chan /pol/. Simlpy pointing out that it's another newer branch on the SA family tree, one with its own distinct culture and character. As an object of study, I find it interesting as the embodiment of "stuff that's too much for /pol/" in the same way that /pol/ was "stuff that's too much for the rest of 4chan," and 4chan was "stuff that's too much for SA."

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

#23

Post by busterarm »

xenihn wrote: post #15
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

Shazbot!

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

#24

Post by vkou »

Apocryphon wrote: post #20
_etyf wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The influence of CTH on contemporary American politics is similar in scope to that of a fly farting into a hurricane. A few people around the fringe breathe it, a portion of the left is sympathetic to it, but it has not managed to perform an insane coup on one of the two mainstream political parties, or have its ideas overtake an entire category of mass media (AM radio).

The democratic machine is proving rather resistant to those forms of attacks.

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

#25

Post by makeitrain »

I am so fascinated by all of this. The impact on internet history and culture. The challenges of creating and growing communities. The lifestyles and faults of leaders and the controversial realities we live in.

I know about SA, but was never an active participant. Likewise I know about 4chan and other communities.

From reading the first page of this thread, it seems very critical of the creator of the community. Even at a glance I can tell that is because of the personal flaws of that person, the mistakes they've made in their life, and how they hurt other people. I feel like it is such a shame for this to be your legacy to your community. I feel like we lost a pioneer, but it's now on us to learn from their mistakes and continue to build communities that we want to be in.

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

#27

Post by HamburgerEmoji »

smt88 wrote: post #13
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.

I doubt you have much direct information about him being a "terrible person" or the abuse he's alleged to have committed. Do you suppose it's possible that he was intelligent and creative and troubled and flawed? That's not such an uncommon combination of elements in a person.

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

#28

Post by snowl »

harles wrote: post #14

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.

See: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&th...
Post reply on HN