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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Maybe it's optimistic of me but to me, the obvious reason to turn it down is because it's this beautiful thing you've created and you don't want to see it compromised by some corporate owner. I wish beyond measure that he had put the money the site earned back into it instead of letting it languish, but I'm glad he didn't sell out personally. respek
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Nov 12, 2021 17:24
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thank you, Lowtax, for introducing me to the humble Mangosteen. I didn't even know that was a thing. it's never too late to learn.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:25
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A less successful CJayC
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Nov 12, 2021 17:25
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Goonsage Emeritus
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Nov 12, 2021 17:25
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Hand Knit posted:get some rich, done-well goon to sponsor an official forums historian/archivist, a full time job recording forums history I think you'll find that their is a very much current up to date and well maintained SAclopedia link at the top of the page.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:25
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Allegedly John Malkovich is a goon. Maybe we could get him to throw in some bread lol
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Nov 12, 2021 17:25
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hey man nice shot X JAKK posted:I was hoping to face Richard personally on the battlefield, one gentleman warrior to another, in respectful combat. Then I would snap his spine. Ah. The road not taken. Man your avatar is prescient.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:26
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Part of me is thinking, "Is everybody high? Take the loving money!" But I legit wonder how much money the site was generating at the time.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:26
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Torquemada posted:Sorry I’m late, what’d I miss The fact that Lowtax didn't.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:26
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Can someone just confirm how much he sold the site for already
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Nov 12, 2021 17:26
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change my name posted:Lol if you actually believed him. Reddit in 2006 had just spun out from Ycombinator and already had 70,000 daily unique users, which wasn't anything to sneeze at 15 years ago. SA had already been around for much longer and would have likely been less ripe for acquisition at the same price because of it's previous failures to monetize. That was definitely my reaction--hard to see what value SA would have had that would justify a value anywhere close to the price paid for Reddit., but I guess I don't have any knowledge of SA's finances
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Nov 12, 2021 17:27
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Vakal posted:All this Lowtax nostalgia made me think of Planet Quake and it turns out the site is still up. how the gently caress does gamespy still exist???
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Nov 12, 2021 17:27
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Hand Knit posted:The forums have always been in decline. we have always been at war with eurasia
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Nov 12, 2021 17:27
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yahoo was literally throwing money away in 2005 + 2006 in my mind theres no doubt it was yahoo
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Nov 12, 2021 17:27
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Blue Raider posted:Allegedly John Malkovich is a goon. Maybe we could get him to throw in some bread lol It's me, I'm John Malkovich. And also Donald Faison, and probably Stephen Colbert, too. AMA
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Nov 12, 2021 17:27
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Bluedeanie posted:It's me, I'm John Malkovich. And also Donald Faison, and probably Stephen Colbert, too. AMA where's the beef???
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Nov 12, 2021 17:28
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GolfHole posted:where's the beef??? Wendys I think
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Nov 12, 2021 17:28
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Robot Hobo posted:It gives me a headache to think that banning the creepy Hentai child porn enthusiasts from SA was easily the most objectively correct and good thing that Lowtax ever did, and somehow that was the thing that snowballed into something terrible enough to break the world. Most of the people involved in 4chan's creation weren't banned at the time it was made. The pedocaust did not trigger the creation of 4chan and in any case even if 4chan had never existed the way social media promoted radicalization because it increased their revenues would have resulted in the same thing happening, just in a somewhat different way.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:28
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Robot Hobo posted:It gives me a headache to think that banning the creepy Hentai child porn enthusiasts from SA was easily the most objectively correct and good thing that Lowtax ever did, and somehow that was the thing that snowballed into something terrible enough to break the world. I think about this a lot too and in a weird way it's the thing that gave SA staying power and kept the site from becoming an unusable pile of poo poo, but at the same time I think the riff raff had to go somewhere. So by banning them it effectively just stopped SA from being the place where that kind of monstrosity could fester. Kiwi Farms, 4chan, all that, that negative energy was going to go somewhere and the bans and paywall just ensured it wasn't here. Like, that domino meme about Lowtax banning hentai leading to the Capitol riots is in effect true, but also he can't really be personally blamed for what happened outside of his responsibility on 4chan and 8chan. Like if you kick a guy starting fights out of your bar and they then go beat someone up down the street.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:29
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:This reminds me of something i can share now. Lowtax told me he got a buyout offer from a media company for $13 million in 2006. He was still having fun with the site and turned it down. He expressed lament at this to me during our own negotiations. I think this is worth repeating, quoting, stickying, etc. For everyone saying what a piece of poo poo he was, take a good look around the internet in the year 2021 and let me know how many sites / forums / communities there are that aren't owned by some media conglomerate, Chinese state funded commu-corp, or other such nameless faceless entity that would never in 1000000000 years allow a site like this to exist without sanitizing, purging, and censoring it of all the content that makes it worthwhile. Maybe he chose not to sell out because he was incompetent or scared of success. Or maybe he didn't sell out because he knew it would destroy what made it worthwhile. But how many of you would have turned down a check in the same situation? I sure as gently caress wouldn't have. But he did. I read this whole thread and I keep thinking about that Jack Kerouac quote from On the Road: quote:...the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!” Look back at the history of the site and how fascinated Lowtax was by all those crazy fuckers all over the internet and how he brought them to everyone's attention -- to laugh at them for sure, but also because just like Kerouac, they were the only ones he saw. And it looks like that extended to his personal life as well. Why else would he hang out with shmorky or run around with all the crazy rear end women that he did, or go from city to city spending drunken nights with a bunch of autistic strangers who only knew him through his website? They were the only people for him. Surrounding yourself with crazy fuckers for your entire life is really exciting and really fun but it takes a massive toll on you. None of that excuses any of the alleged groady poo poo that he did, but where else would any of you be able to post "im gay" for 5000 posts in a row if Lowtax had been a slimy sociopath sellout like Dorsey or Zuckerberg instead of a hosed up weirdo who liked surrounding himself with other hosed up weirdos? (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Nov 12, 2021 17:29
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The Kins posted:I wanna say there was an attempt to get on the media conglomerate teat back in the early 2000s, with eFront? It didn't go so well. lol they bought the dumb final fantasy website i wrote a handful of articles for before realizing gaming journalism is an oxymoron
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Nov 12, 2021 17:30
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My brother was the one who introduced me to this place in 2004, and he ended up killing himself too. This place helps me remember him and the fun days we had together on the internet. SA taught my younger teenage self to not trust anyone on the internet. Or in real life, a majority of the time. That jaded sentiment probably saved me a lot of trouble in life. So thanks for that Lowtax, and for recently verifying it with your own downfall.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:33
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Did I imagine the voicemail where Lowtax goes off on one of his daughters and says what a bitch she is or something along those lines? Did that really happen? If so just lol at coming in and saying no he really cared about his kids, ignore the fact that he was super lovely to them, including using them as props for his internet videos
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Nov 12, 2021 17:35
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Fermented Tinal posted:I don't feel like it's in decline right now. The forums have been a place of respite for me since just before covid. I posted here and there, but came back around Christmas 2019 to find a lot of good people who wanted good discussion, in a time when I needed an escape since I was losing people left and right. These last two years are the most I've ever posted, I've largely lurked, and while it doesn't have the storied nostalgia of old threads and old drama, I really, really appreciate the people that make up this forum today.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:35
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DamnitGannet posted:Did I imagine the voicemail where Lowtax goes off on one of his daughters and says what a bitch she is or something along those lines? Did that really happen? If so just lol at coming in and saying no he really cared about his kids, ignore the fact that he was super lovely to them, including using them as props for his internet videos I remember something like that
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Nov 12, 2021 17:36
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Ordering a mangosteen pizza to cry into later. its what he'd want.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:36
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uber_stoat posted:how the gently caress does gamespy still exist???
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Nov 12, 2021 17:37
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:He was more confused than mad tbh. I don't think he even really knew it would have irretrievably deleted everything. That one "I'm back and ready to P-P-P-POST" post he made in the mod forum will be stuck in my brain forever, if only because I think it was the only time I saw him post there lol
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Nov 12, 2021 17:37
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Remember when lowtax put a woman on blast for the crime of having miscarriages? I was an idiot pre teen when I laughed at that poo poo, lowtax was a grown rear end man, what was his excuse??
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Nov 12, 2021 17:37
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on one hand it's somewhat baffling he squandered away such an easy living. never would be super rich, but always comfortable. on the other hand walking away from the forums for months at a time and eventually for good might have been better for his mental health. his spending habits are definitely indicative of someone with addictions and other mental health problems. his behavior in general shows he had a lot of impulsivity issues which the drugs didn't help. bottom line he was a deeply flawed individual and as a result hurt others and eventually self destructed. there is a story to be told here but not sure what the moral of it is yet.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:37
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spouse posted:The forums have been a place of respite for me since just before covid. I posted here and there, but came back around Christmas 2019 to find a lot of good people who wanted good discussion, in a time when I needed an escape since I was losing people left and right. 
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Nov 12, 2021 17:38
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Maybe it's optimistic of me but to me, the obvious reason to turn it down is because it's this beautiful thing you've created and you don't want to see it compromised by some corporate owner. I wish beyond measure that he had put the money the site earned back into it instead of letting it languish, but I'm glad he didn't sell out personally. I saw one tweet that nailed it which was he created a vibrant, creative and important online community despite his best efforts not to.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:38
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change my name posted:Lol if you actually believed him. Reddit in 2006 had just spun out from Ycombinator and already had 70,000 daily unique users, which wasn't anything to sneeze at 15 years ago. SA had already been around for much longer and would have likely been less ripe for acquisition at the same price because of it's previous failures to monetize. loving resetera just sold for $4.5 million, a month or two ago. SA in 2006 was waaaaay more valuable and influential than resetera could ever hope to be. I know better than to trust lowtax'a word uncritically, but this was perfectly believable. It'd honestly be harder to believe that no one had offered.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:39
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DamnitGannet posted:Did I imagine the voicemail where Lowtax goes off on one of his daughters and says what a bitch she is or something along those lines? Did that really happen? If so just lol at coming in and saying no he really cared about his kids, ignore the fact that he was super lovely to them, including using them as props for his internet videos Truly the Alec Baldwin of goons.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:39
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Hand Knit posted:someone who had their needs met and wasn't really wanting for money? I dunno I guess I don't find 'not taking the money and running' that mysterious
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Nov 12, 2021 17:39
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drunken officeparty posted:Can someone just confirm how much he sold the site for already Also how did Jeffrey have 6 figures to pay for a bad website is he actually Jeffrey Bezos
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Nov 12, 2021 17:39
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uber_stoat posted:how the gently caress does gamespy still exist??? A lot of late 90s Quake born internet is still chugging along. Hell BluesNews still exsists!
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Nov 12, 2021 17:40
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Factor_VIII posted:Most of the people involved in 4chan's creation weren't banned at the time it was made. The pedocaust did not trigger the creation of 4chan and in any case even if 4chan had never existed the way social media promoted radicalization because it increased their revenues would have resulted in the same thing happening, just in a somewhat different way. Didn't it lead them to go to 4chan though, giving the site a significantly larger and more active userbase that started the momentum? I mean, I agree that if it wasn't SA -> 4chan -> 8chan it probably would've been something else to fill those roles, but this is the way it happened and the form it took. If 4chan had never become a thing maybe Qanon would have started up on some other website, or maybe some totally different conspiracy theory would have formed instead. But this is what we got. Anyway, as for not selling for $13M in 2006, that's probably the only reason SA still exists. Maybe he thought he could make more money off it in the long run, maybe it was some punk rock attitude, maybe he figured a bigger offer would come along a few years down the line when he was ready to sell. But like, clearly Lowtax was not a good businessman and had no mind for it so he likely would have just blown all that money anyway. And then some corporation would have taken SA, tried to transform it into a mainstream brand, and in all likelihood realized it wasn't built for that and shut it all down around 2010 or 2011.
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Nov 12, 2021 17:40
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Blue Raider posted:Allegedly John Malkovich is a goon. Maybe we could get him to throw in some bread lol i actually don't think he has that much dough, he seems affluent but he's not living a movie star life as far as i could tell
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Nov 12, 2021 17:40
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Hodgepodge posted:gaming journalism is an oxymoron
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Nov 12, 2021 17:40
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