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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 eac

by donatj 5y ago

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.

smt88 5y ago
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.
- HamburgerEmoji 5y ago
  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.
- serf 5y ago
  >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. "You know what they say, speak ill of the dead!" - Norm MacDonald. A person need not be wholesome or kind to warrant mourning their death. Even if you despise the person, their death has caused real human suffering and pain among those around and associated to them. fwiw I think it's incredibly tacky to go into a what is in essence a memorial thread to post a list of grievances against a dead person that has no means of explanation or defense. I don't know about Lowtax's personal life -- this isn't a comment on that; it's a comment about those that feel the compulsion to post vitriol on memorials. If you feel the need to shine light on the despicable , make a thread and let's discuss it there -- that way we at least stand the chance of sparing the bereaved.
  - TomVDB 5y ago
    This is not a memorial thread. And the fact that he shot himself a day after being judged a domestic abuser adds a lot of relevant context that readers on this forum deserve to know.
    - HamburgerEmoji 5y ago
      Do you suppose anyone ever committed suicide after wrongly being adjudged an abuser?
      - smt88 5y ago
        So you think it's possible this guy married three different women who all said he abused them, and at least one of them also tricked a judge into agreeing? Which scenario do you think is more likely: A) A man whose entire career and public persona was dedicated to being an asshole happened to be an actual asshole B) At least three women loved this guy enough to marry him and then decided to make up stories about how he abused them, convincingly enough that a court of law agreed Keep in mind that in both scenarios, we know that he did spend all of his most recent wife's money and had a substance abuse problem.
        HamburgerEmoji 5y ago
        I just don't care to wade in gossip about a guy I don't have any direct information about who died. Don't you find it ghoulish? You ever done anything wrong? Would it be appropriate for strangers to take something they heard about you and use it to write you off as an asshole and summarize your life before your body had cooled off? I thought everyone understood that it was very bad to do this.
    - lollowtax 5y ago
      In case anyone is surprised to read this, it isn’t speculation. It’s deep in the thread but it’s indisputably there from someone who would know. The circumstances surrounding this incident in the last 24 hours sound absolutely fucking abhorrent. I’m honestly shocked reading the firsthand accounts in that thread. Just wow.
- tombert 5y ago
  > 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. I think the one clever thing that Lowtax did was require the membership fee to post. I think this worked as a really good filter away from people who are just going to post spam and random crap all over the place. Honestly, the thing I most remember Lowtax specifically for is his Gaming Garbage YouTube channel, particularly the first two years of his collaboration with Schmorky. Those were extremely funny videos that lacked all pretense, and sadly once it was determined that Schmorky was horrible and Lowtax seemed to have increasing trouble finding collaborators, the channel got pretty unwatchable. Still, the old videos from 2013-2014 are classic, and they're worth checking out.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

by donatj 5y ago

smt88 5y ago

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.

HamburgerEmoji 5y ago
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.
serf 5y ago
>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. "You know what they say, speak ill of the dead!" - Norm MacDonald. A person need not be wholesome or kind to warrant mourning their death. Even if you despise the person, their death has caused real human suffering and pain among those around and associated to them. fwiw I think it's incredibly tacky to go into a what is in essence a memorial thread to post a list of grievances against a dead person that has no means of explanation or defense. I don't know about Lowtax's personal life -- this isn't a comment on that; it's a comment about those that feel the compulsion to post vitriol on memorials. If you feel the need to shine light on the despicable , make a thread and let's discuss it there -- that way we at least stand the chance of sparing the bereaved.
- TomVDB 5y ago
  This is not a memorial thread. And the fact that he shot himself a day after being judged a domestic abuser adds a lot of relevant context that readers on this forum deserve to know.
  - HamburgerEmoji 5y ago
    Do you suppose anyone ever committed suicide after wrongly being adjudged an abuser?
    - smt88 5y ago
      So you think it's possible this guy married three different women who all said he abused them, and at least one of them also tricked a judge into agreeing? Which scenario do you think is more likely: A) A man whose entire career and public persona was dedicated to being an asshole happened to be an actual asshole B) At least three women loved this guy enough to marry him and then decided to make up stories about how he abused them, convincingly enough that a court of law agreed Keep in mind that in both scenarios, we know that he did spend all of his most recent wife's money and had a substance abuse problem.
      - HamburgerEmoji 5y ago
        I just don't care to wade in gossip about a guy I don't have any direct information about who died. Don't you find it ghoulish? You ever done anything wrong? Would it be appropriate for strangers to take something they heard about you and use it to write you off as an asshole and summarize your life before your body had cooled off? I thought everyone understood that it was very bad to do this.
  - lollowtax 5y ago
    In case anyone is surprised to read this, it isn’t speculation. It’s deep in the thread but it’s indisputably there from someone who would know. The circumstances surrounding this incident in the last 24 hours sound absolutely fucking abhorrent. I’m honestly shocked reading the firsthand accounts in that thread. Just wow.
tombert 5y ago
> 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. I think the one clever thing that Lowtax did was require the membership fee to post. I think this worked as a really good filter away from people who are just going to post spam and random crap all over the place. Honestly, the thing I most remember Lowtax specifically for is his Gaming Garbage YouTube channel, particularly the first two years of his collaboration with Schmorky. Those were extremely funny videos that lacked all pretense, and sadly once it was determined that Schmorky was horrible and Lowtax seemed to have increasing trouble finding collaborators, the channel got pretty unwatchable. Still, the old videos from 2013-2014 are classic, and they're worth checking out.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]