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

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

#261

Post by Tronno »

ryandrake wrote: post #256
ryaniscool wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never heard of this guy or SA until this post but I think it's depressing that we feel guilty celebrating this guy's accomplishments without being like "oh but it has to be mentioned he treated people in his life terribly and might have been an objectively awful person". Maybe there is a subconscious belief that only "good" people deserve success and praise? I just find this so naive because if you've lived long enou…

> Maybe there is a subconscious belief that only "good" people deserve success and praise? I just find this so naive because if you've lived long enough and gotten to know yourself and other people you realize how complicated and flawed each and every one of us are. We see this a lot in posts here and elsewhere: Some historical figure or someone with a lifetime of achievements and impact gets mentioned. Then, inevita…

There's a reason human nature is to criticize and focus on flaws - that's how progress is made.

Great achievements speak for themselves. In most cases, people readily adopt proven new practices or inventions, flock to groundbreaking ideas, and celebrate those who produce them.

Meanwhile, they will happily stay silent about uncomfortable truths. Who dares pipe up about the charismatic but incompetent colleague? The successful boss who skims a little off the top? The beloved politician who touches female staff? Etc. Mistakes and wrongdoing have a way of hiding in plain sight.

Yes, people are complicated. It's better when folks point out the complexity, instead of sticking to the sanitized version.

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

#262

Post by rexreed »

kalleboo wrote: post #154
lollowtax wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goons screwing around with Poser was probably peak gold or close to it. The large-scale projects like Goon City and Goon Tower stick with me as inspirational with respect to what spontaneous groups of idiots can accomplish pushing in the same direction.

> The large-scale projects You just reminded me of the Blue Ball Machine https://ytmnd-fads.fandom.com/wiki/Blue_Ball_Machine

Quite a piece of work! https://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/

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

#263

Post by zionic »

antihero wrote: post #130
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--…

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&th... "I have been sitting for hours debating whether or not to disclose this, and I feel like it's something I do need to get off of my chest. Frankly, I'm tried of being quiet. I've mostly had to stay quiet for years about things happening behind the scenes. I've held things inside so long and so hard my chest physically hurt the same way it is now. I consid…

>Yesterday I recieved a divorce ruling that would help me and my daughter stay in our home in Canada and allow me to provide a good life for her as well as pay back numerous debts that had accrued during the past two years when I was receiving $350 a month in child support.

Wow, another victim of the family court system. Sad to see CA's system is just as screwed as the US. Translation: A judge gave me everything I want and ruined him for life, and both I and this judge will never be held accountable for our actions.

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

#264

Post by zionic »

happytoexplain wrote: post #152
prvc wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>confirmed his treatment of me was Domestic Violence Wording suggests that adopting an expansive definition of the term (which has undergone substantial concept-creep) was necessary in order for it to have applied to her allegations.

The wording suggests the applicability of the term was arrived at via a court ruling, which it was.

*family court ruling

That is a very different thing, especially in the US.

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

#265

Post by debaserab2 »

Tronno wrote: post #261
ryandrake wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe there is a subconscious belief that only "good" people deserve success and praise? I just find this so naive because if you've lived long enough and gotten to know yourself and other people you realize how complicated and flawed each and every one of us are. We see this a lot in posts here and elsewhere: Some historical figure or someone with a lifetime of achievements and impact gets mentioned. Then, inevita…

There's a reason human nature is to criticize and focus on flaws - that's how progress is made. Great achievements speak for themselves. In most cases, people readily adopt proven new practices or inventions, flock to groundbreaking ideas, and celebrate those who produce them. Meanwhile, they will happily stay silent about uncomfortable truths. Who dares pipe up about the charismatic but incompetent colleague? The su…

I feel like we’re in a period of overcorrection where we’re not simply acknowledging flaws with accomplishments, we’re now letting the flaw become the lead narrative about a person when it may be one of the objectively smaller details about them in the scope of their accomplishments.

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

#266

Post by mr_overalls »

zionic wrote: post #263
antihero wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&th... "I have been sitting for hours debating whether or not to disclose this, and I feel like it's something I do need to get off of my chest. Frankly, I'm tried of being quiet. I've mostly had to stay quiet for years about things happening behind the scenes. I've held things inside so long and so hard my chest physically hurt the same way it is now. I consid…

>Yesterday I recieved a divorce ruling that would help me and my daughter stay in our home in Canada and allow me to provide a good life for her as well as pay back numerous debts that had accrued during the past two years when I was receiving $350 a month in child support. Wow, another victim of the family court system. Sad to see CA's system is just as screwed as the US. Translation: A judge gave me everything I wa…

I would not so quick to judge the circumstances surround their divorce. There are quite serious allegations of physical and financial abuse lasting for years.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-a-friend-in-hiding

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

#267

Post by RNCTX »

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--…

> 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.

How many people do you know who quit their job and/or sold their business because a stripper said they slapped her too hard? Personally: none. Don't believe the shit you hear from neurotic e-girls.

His skirmish with Uwe Boll was prophetic. Internet nerds who've led mostly sheltered lives don't mix with real life grifters and addicts. Mixture of the two different species can only end in domestic disturbance calls, DWIs, defaulted child support, and eventually one or the other of the parties' last gofundme.

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

#268

Post by tombert »

versteegen wrote: post #57
tombert wrote: post #38

This isn't a joke; I had actually scheduled a lunch with Lowtax for this Saturday. Despite a (let's call it) checkered past, I was extremely excited to meet him, since he's been a huge influence to my sense of humor and Something Awful was really important to me as a teenager. ------- I had found him on LinkedIn a few weeks ago, and simply sent a message explaining that I'm a fan, would love a chance to buy him lunch…

If you'd met him in person, maybe you, as a fan, could have had some positive effect on him, without necessarily needing to saying anything, much more likely I think than just sending him a message as a stranger which I can't imagine helping. In that way, it's reasonable to not want to scare him off. You were taking the trouble to take a plane to see him, and he did agree to it, so he expected it would be positive to…

Yeah, I definitely think you're right about this on every single rational level. That said, I think guilt is often an irrational feeling.

I barely knew the guy, and there's a large part of me that knows I did basically everything I could possibly do to help. I wasn't a family member, I wasn't his spouse, I wasn't a childhood friend, I was a dude who had an SA account as a teenager and subscribed to his YouTube channel and found his LinkedIn.

....That said, and I will acknowledge that this isn't the most rational thought that I have ever had, but I do wonder if him saying that to me was a cry for help, like he was reaching out to anyone to show some sort of interest in his well-being.

It's silly, and of course that logic will never end; I'm sure could convince myself that I'm responsible for 9/11 if I tried hard enough.

As I said in a sister thread, I do have an appointment with a shrink in a few days. I am reasonably sure they will either be able to help me or at least will be able to refer me to someone who can.

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

#269

Post by [deleted] »

toyg wrote: post #209
javajosh wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You can't seriously accuse GP of setting up a straw-man, then relay an idealized (for your point) situation which is, to my knowledge, not backed up by any statistical power. I can because mine was not a strawman, it was a variant of proof-by-contradiction: assume ~P, produce a contradiction, QED: P. I suspect you know this is a logically valid argument because you segue quickly to "statistical power". It makes sens…

I have 2nd-hand experience of the UK system and it kinda works the same - with the additional note that consequences for the mother withholding access to the kids despite court orders seem to be basically non-existant. Some of the MRA movements are odious and/or ridiculous at times, but the problem is real.

[deleted]

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

#270

Post by rmidthun »

All this eulogy for an abusive bully.

Among the many "innovations", there was a feature where he would link to a website that he thought was worthy of ridicule. Often mentioning directly that it had a guest book to sign in.

So a horde of bullies would descend on that website, fill the book and any forums with goatse porn and email the same. Some of the victims shut down their websites, their complaints posted to SA so people could laugh at them.

Brigading and "cancelling"... Yes, some of the humor was funny, but the site was a cesspool that festered into the chans. Let's Play is good, but the worst of the Internet was fostered here as well.

The best part was when he was tricked into a boxing match with Uwe Boll, which didn't work out well for him.

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