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Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

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Re: Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

#11

Post by newbie789 »

Lowtax was by all accounts a real piece of garbage by the end, but he undoubtedly created a place that changed the internet permanently.

I find it kind of funny the amount of ire he drew long before the abuse allegations surfaced though. For example, he was basically auto banned from Twitter by… somebody with the ability to make those decisions at their discretion. I’ve always wondered who that was. In my head, it’s always been a funny thought that Jack Dorsey is some embittered ex-goon that never got over losing $10. (I have no reason to believe this is the case, but it gives me a chuckle)

Re: Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

#12

Post by newbie789 »

tylersmith wrote: post #8
pstuart wrote: post #2

Advocates for unfettered "free speech" always seem to gloss over the fact that a lot of that shit is not healthy. I'm not trying to argue that such speech should be censored, but it's certainly nothing to be celebrated.

I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly, but Something Awfully famously censored certain types of porn-related posts leading to 4chan so unfettered free speech isn't something SA has ever really been known for.

Having rules on a private website is against the concept of free speech?

How much of your own money are you willing to spend on hosting and serving an unlimited amount of user-uploaded hentai tentacle porn on your privately-owned domain? If the answer is anything less than “infinite money”, you’re anti-free-speech.

Re: Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

#13

Post by noah_buddy »

newbie789 wrote: post #10
pram wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lowtax wasn't an advocate for unfettered free speech lol. He encouraged and enabled arbitrary and capricious punishment for pretty much anything the forum moderators didn't personally like.

Moderation on a private forum is a form of (free) expression.

If this is your best evidence that this guy was an advocate of unfettered free speech, that seems very nebulous and weak.

Re: Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

#14

Post by pram »

newbie789 wrote: post #10
pram wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lowtax wasn't an advocate for unfettered free speech lol. He encouraged and enabled arbitrary and capricious punishment for pretty much anything the forum moderators didn't personally like.

Moderation on a private forum is a form of (free) expression.

Wow so true and yet that still doesn't make Lowtax an advocate for unfettered free speech.

Re: Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

#15

Post by newbie789 »

pram wrote: post #14
newbie789 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moderation on a private forum is a form of (free) expression.

Wow so true and yet that still doesn't make Lowtax an advocate for unfettered free speech.

Lowtax isn’t an advocate for anything, he’s dead.

Re: Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

#16

Post by newbie789 »

noah_buddy wrote: post #13
newbie789 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moderation on a private forum is a form of (free) expression.

If this is your best evidence that this guy was an advocate of unfettered free speech, that seems very nebulous and weak.

Oh sorry, I didn’t realize that we’re talking about “unfettered free speech” which doesn’t appear in the article. Yes, it is true that he did not advocate for your flavor of “freedom” (forcing private entities to host and serve any and all content that you can possibly barf up in perpetuity)

Re: Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

#17

Post by Reuzel »

There is a front page?

> I just woke up after hearing a crash. There's a big-ass hole in the World Trade Center, and smoke's pouring out of it. My suitemates are freaking out! That kind of sucks . . .

9/11 as it happened http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911%20SATHREAD/wtc01.html

Took about 4 posts for the first joke, something about a band called "I am the World Trade Center" playing their next show while on fire. 10 minutes for the first conspiracy theory: X-files using predictive programming. 22 minutes to pin it on Bin Laden. God I love the internet.

May he forever have stairs in his house.

Re: Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

#18

Post by ffhhj »

> “I'm obviously not a visionary, but I predicted that the internet would be shitty back in 1999,” Kyanka told Motherboard in 2017. “Everybody was talking about how the internet was going to revolutionize everything and everything was going to be great, but nobody ever talked about how shitty the internet could also be.”

Yeah, obviously not a visionary, otherwise we would have said that about "metaverse".

Re: Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died

#19

Post by tylersmith »

newbie789 wrote: post #12
tylersmith wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly, but Something Awfully famously censored certain types of porn-related posts leading to 4chan so unfettered free speech isn't something SA has ever really been known for.

Having rules on a private website is against the concept of free speech? How much of your own money are you willing to spend on hosting and serving an unlimited amount of user-uploaded hentai tentacle porn on your privately-owned domain? If the answer is anything less than “infinite money”, you’re anti-free-speech.

Having rules against certain content means you are not a platform for "unfettered free speech". That's not some sort of moralistic slur it's just a fact that runs contrary to the post I was responding to.

It's not "against the concept of free speech" to run a platform with censorship/moderation, it just means your platform isn't a place to practice it.

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