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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

#31

Post by Reuzel »

Reuzel wrote: post #17

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…

:(

Corn_Boy - AM what are you saying robot, plese stop it I do not like you. turn yourself off robot!

Corn_Boy - are you there MR lowtax??

Corn_Boy - mr lowtax are you alright??

Corn_Boy - are you there lowtax?????

https://www.somethingawful.com/icq-pranks/icq-transcript-spa...

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

#32

Post by JohnBooty »

stolenmerch wrote: post #3

I took this news a little harder than I should have. It was like the kids from It found out Pennywise was dead except Pennywise wasn't real and was actually your cousin from another state. His death seems like a time to reflect on the internet of old and maybe even reconnect with old friends you pissed off in a flame war. So many mixed emotions and I'm still thinking about his death two days later.

Yeah. SA's legacy is... complicated, and mixed, to put it mildly.

But SA was so representative of that era of online culture. If you have strong memories of that era, then Lowtax's passing has got to hit you some kind of way.

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

#33

Post by devonkim »

What’s been interesting through the years on the forums that I’ve found to be strange is that as the Internet social media landscape became “free” services that have terrible, low effort, low quality content and users as a rule, SA’s model of having users pay to post is becoming more of a better model to help avoid the poor incentives of most companies to demand more of users’ attention. The posting quality for users that still post in the technical sections is incredibly high as a rule when most other communities tend to need a lot more attention to curate the content. So in an ironic sense, Something Awful is an irony to me in that it’s actually now some of the better community created content on the Internet.

I’d rather have sites more like SA than more Reddits, Twitter, FB, etc. that is and it’s a bit of a pity the business model never really panned out at scale.

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

#34

Post by tylersmith »

newbie789 wrote: post #22
tylersmith wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The phrase “unfettered free speech” only appears in the comments here and not in the article. I can also make up stuff he could have said but didn’t. As far as I know, he didn’t advocate for changing the name of Myanmar back to Burma, so that’s an indicator that he supported military-run governments? That being said, if you’re not willing to host me and my friends’ tentacle porn libraries, you’re not an advocate for…

> The phrase “unfettered free speech” only appears in the comments here and not in the article.

Yes, and I responded to that comment and not the article.

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

#35

Post by ethbr0 »

JohnBooty wrote: post #32
stolenmerch wrote: post #3

I took this news a little harder than I should have. It was like the kids from It found out Pennywise was dead except Pennywise wasn't real and was actually your cousin from another state. His death seems like a time to reflect on the internet of old and maybe even reconnect with old friends you pissed off in a flame war. So many mixed emotions and I'm still thinking about his death two days later.

Yeah. SA's legacy is... complicated, and mixed, to put it mildly. But SA was so representative of that era of online culture. If you have strong memories of that era, then Lowtax's passing has got to hit you some kind of way.

Best put. I'm not sure if younger people these days can imagine just how anonymous the internet was then.

It had its advantages and disadvantages.

Although I'd still rather live in the future of that world than our current identity-everywhere one.

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

#36

Post by grammarnazzzi »

In this topic, pstuart wrote:

> 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.

When I tried to reply, hackernews responded with: "[flagged] Sorry, you can't comment here."

I curious why the system panders to the censorship-assholes who flagged a perfectly reasonable discussion point.

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

#37

Post by djbusby »

stoned wrote: post #29
codezero wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To each their own but I’ll share a contrasting point of view, resolve to never settle your grudges, and never forgive your enemies.

That's right, amen. Too many people on this planet to deal with people you already know. Why bother going back when you can move forward. Burn all the bridges.

Fuck it all and fucking no regrets... - Metallica; Master of Puppets; Damage, Inc;

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

#38

Post by cortesoft »

newbie789 wrote: post #11

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…

"Auto banned" by somebody seems like a contradiction?

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

#39

Post by Dylan16807 »

newbie789 wrote: post #22
tylersmith wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The phrase “unfettered free speech” only appears in the comments here and not in the article. I can also make up stuff he could have said but didn’t. As far as I know, he didn’t advocate for changing the name of Myanmar back to Burma, so that’s an indicator that he supported military-run governments? That being said, if you’re not willing to host me and my friends’ tentacle porn libraries, you’re not an advocate for…

> I can also make up stuff he could have said but didn’t.

I think you're getting confused. pstuart was the one mentioning unfettered free speech, and tylersmith was the one saying it's not relevant to the article/SA.

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

#40

Post by selimthegrim »

Reuzel wrote: post #17

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…

Please tell me this wasn’t the thread they were setting footage of the jumpers to Yakkety Sax
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