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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

#41

Post by newbie789 »

tylersmith wrote: post #34
newbie789 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh okay.

Here, I’m going to say “Lowtax was a huge fan of K-Pop”. Since now that’s been posted, you can accept it as fact and argue that you went through his post history and give me your thoughts.

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

#42

Post by Dylan16807 »

newbie789 wrote: post #41
tylersmith wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Oh okay. Here, I’m going to say “Lowtax was a huge fan of K-Pop”. Since now that’s been posted, you can accept it as fact and argue that you went through his post history and give me your thoughts.

???

The analogous response would be "no he wasn't, what are you talking about".

You're going after the wrong person here.

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

#43

Post by newbie789 »

cortesoft wrote: post #38
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?

“Basically” was a modifier here, meant to indicate that he was not auto-banned in the traditional sense but rather quickly in a way that resembled being auto-banned.

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

#44

Post by Svperstar »

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.

SomethingAwful forums were NEVER about any kind of free speech. They had stifling censorship that drove a lot of the regulars off the forums for good.

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

#45

Post by newbie789 »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #42
newbie789 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh okay. Here, I’m going to say “Lowtax was a huge fan of K-Pop”. Since now that’s been posted, you can accept it as fact and argue that you went through his post history and give me your thoughts.

??? The analogous response would be "no he wasn't, what are you talking about". You're going after the wrong person here.

What exactly are you trying to have a discussion with me about?

Edit: it’s wrong of me for uh, responding?

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

#46

Post by Apocryphon »

devonkim wrote: post #33

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…

Wonder what other pay to post sites from Web 1.0 remain and how they are now. MetaFilter is still up and around.

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

#48

Post by fao_ »

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…

The second post also has a joke:

> Apparently a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center.. And I thought my morning had sucked so far!

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

#49

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

Apocryphon wrote: post #46
devonkim wrote: post #33

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…

Wonder what other pay to post sites from Web 1.0 remain and how they are now. MetaFilter is still up and around.

> Wonder what other pay to post sites from Web 1.0 remain and how they are now.

Given that SomethingAwful's non-forum content is predominantly user-generated and user-submitted (although not algorithmically) I don't consider it Web 1.0, it's more "proto-Web 2.0". See this article from 2005 which tries to define Web 2.0: https://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.ht...

----

As for your question: ClassMates.com is still around (lel...), but most sites around that time actively tried to avoid requiring payment to join or do anything because payment-barriers (even "only to verify your age!"-type walls) presented a massive narrowing of your conversion-funnel (like you could go from 90% visitors completing a free signup to less than 1% as soon as you put a period-correct (and aesthetically ugly) Authorize.NET credit-card screen (ah the days before Stripe.com...).

I think the horrid results of adding a paywall for low-value activities from 20+ years ago is permanently ingrained into web publishing people today and why they're so averse to it, even when there's clear demand for a premium-tier (especially ad-free) experience from YouTube Premium, Twitter Blue, Hulu, et cetera.

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

#50

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

ethbr0 wrote: post #35
JohnBooty wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> can imagine just how anonymous the internet was then.

It wasn't that anonymous on SA though. Once you paid your :tenbux: then the site admins (incl. Lowtax) had your PII, assuming you used your own credit-card, ofc.

I don't recall Lowtax et al. ever doxxed any of their own forum patrons, at least not any in good-standing, but I assume fear from the possibility of being doxxed for being an asshat on the forums kept enough people in-line - not the fact it was $10 in 2001 (hmm, that's $27 in today's money, according to https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ - but that doesn't seem right to me)

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