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I am so fascinated by all of this. The impact on internet history and culture. The challenges of creating and growing communities. The lifestyles and faults of

I am so fascinated by all of this. The impact on internet history and culture. The challenges of creating and growing communities. The lifestyles and faults of leaders and the controversial realities we live in. I know about SA, but was never an active participant. Likewise I know about 4chan and other communities. From reading the first page of this thread, it seems very critical of the creator of the community. Even at a glance I can tell that is because of the personal flaws of that person, the mistakes they've made in their life, and how they hurt other people. I feel like it is such a shame for this to be your legacy to your community. I feel like we lost a pioneer, but it's now on us to learn from their mistakes and continue to build communities that we want to be in.

parksy 5y ago
I think what these stories reveal is just how much people underestimate how common domestic abuse is and it doesn't appear to discriminate based on status, fame, career choice, etc. As far as building healthier communities and what we can learn, I think it's definitely healthy to maintain and continue to improve the focus on helping victims and prevent potential victims from becoming a target of abuse. Everyone should be able to be part of a safe community without fear of harm. I think there's another dimension that is significantly less popular, which is about enabling people who may have abusive tendencies to get the help they need. Society generally wants to dismiss and discard these people but that just pushes the problem into the shadows, as it's social suicide basically to come forward and say "I need help, I can't control my behaviour / keep hurting people / etc." Especially if you have any degree of publicity around your life and career. Cancel culture was like a spark that started a fire that shone a light into these dark spaces, and some people are trash that need to be called out and exposed, especially people who get their rocks off on abuse, but there's shades of grey in between "victim" and "abuser" that don't fit the conventional good guy vs bad guy stereotypes, and it's in that realm I think there's a lot of progress yet to be made in identifying, preventing, and responding to abusive behaviours as a society. I don't really have solutions but it's a multifaceted issue that needs solutions from all angles.
kalleboo 5y ago
His relationship to the community was also complicated. I stopped visiting SA 10 years ago, but even back then he'd do something unpopular like ban someone for something petty, then when people called him out on it he'd rage-quit the forums saying they were a cesspit, and focus on the front page articles for a while. Famously his rules regarding moderation of anime content caused the creation of 4chan(!). I don't know what's happened in the intervening 10 years but reading some of the comments in the linked thread it seems like everything he did every time he returned was unpopular with the community, like deleting one of the most popular subforums, and justifying it with a blatant lie. So it's not too odd for the community he created to turn on him this violently if you add in how he treated the community in addition the problems in his personal life.
- aseipp 5y ago
  Basically every ex-SA user I know of describes it as simply as "He's treated like a piece of dirt, because that's what he is." In their words SA largely became successful in spite of Lowtax, not because of him, and this is very easy to miss to anyone who wasn't there from what I can tell.
  - busterarm 5y ago
    > In their words SA largely became successful in spite of Lowtax, not because of him, and this is very easy to miss to anyone who wasn't there from what I can tell. And I think this is still wrong. Having been there from the beginning, SA certainly became successful because of his posts and sense of humor. He is directly responsible for some of the earliest viral content and memes. _Staying_ successful, on the other hand, is CERTAINLY in spite of him.

parksy 5y ago

I think what these stories reveal is just how much people underestimate how common domestic abuse is and it doesn't appear to discriminate based on status, fame, career choice, etc. As far as building healthier communities and what we can learn, I think it's definitely healthy to maintain and continue to improve the focus on helping victims and prevent potential victims from becoming a target of abuse. Everyone should be able to be part of a safe community without fear of harm. I think there's another dimension that is significantly less popular, which is about enabling people who may have abusive tendencies to get the help they need. Society generally wants to dismiss and discard these people but that just pushes the problem into the shadows, as it's social suicide basically to come forward and say "I need help, I can't control my behaviour / keep hurting people / etc." Especially if you have any degree of publicity around your life and career. Cancel culture was like a spark that started a fire that shone a light into these dark spaces, and some people are trash that need to be called out and exposed, especially people who get their rocks off on abuse, but there's shades of grey in between "victim" and "abuser" that don't fit the conventional good guy vs bad guy stereotypes, and it's in that realm I think there's a lot of progress yet to be made in identifying, preventing, and responding to abusive behaviours as a society. I don't really have solutions but it's a multifaceted issue that needs solutions from all angles.

kalleboo 5y ago

His relationship to the community was also complicated. I stopped visiting SA 10 years ago, but even back then he'd do something unpopular like ban someone for something petty, then when people called him out on it he'd rage-quit the forums saying they were a cesspit, and focus on the front page articles for a while. Famously his rules regarding moderation of anime content caused the creation of 4chan(!). I don't know what's happened in the intervening 10 years but reading some of the comments in the linked thread it seems like everything he did every time he returned was unpopular with the community, like deleting one of the most popular subforums, and justifying it with a blatant lie. So it's not too odd for the community he created to turn on him this violently if you add in how he treated the community in addition the problems in his personal life.

aseipp 5y ago
Basically every ex-SA user I know of describes it as simply as "He's treated like a piece of dirt, because that's what he is." In their words SA largely became successful in spite of Lowtax, not because of him, and this is very easy to miss to anyone who wasn't there from what I can tell.
- busterarm 5y ago
  > In their words SA largely became successful in spite of Lowtax, not because of him, and this is very easy to miss to anyone who wasn't there from what I can tell. And I think this is still wrong. Having been there from the beginning, SA certainly became successful because of his posts and sense of humor. He is directly responsible for some of the earliest viral content and memes. _Staying_ successful, on the other hand, is CERTAINLY in spite of him.