Tupac Sighting posted:

I was trying to go to sleep a few minutes ago and for some reason the enormity of these events finally hit me and I couldn't stop crying. I have no real life friends who give a poo poo about forums posting, so this is basically the only place I have to express these feelings, but I really feel the need to express them.

I would like this thread to be about our personal feelings about the death of Richard Kyanka, and how it has personally affected us. Just TV-IVing about the details as they come in, or wondering about SomethingAwful's future, and all of that bullshit has no place here. I need to write about my feelings about Lowtax. Obviously these posts will be mocked elsewhere on the forums, but gently caress em. If you feel the need to say anything, say it.

-----

Lowtax is an abuser. He abused his wife. We will probably never know exactly what he was thinking. Obviously I did not know Lowtax. I never saw him in person and never spoke to him. But he represented something very special to me. In such a cut-throat, dirty, dark, often disgusting, business he was one of the good ones. When people talked poo poo about posting and the bastards involved in it, you could always point out Lowtax as the exception to the rule. He was the one you could point to as a true professional who honored the sport he loved, who was passionate about it, who proved that you could dedicate your life to professional posting without being insane or scum or a monster. He was the ace in the hole. He was the one who wasn't in it for the pussy or because he was a failed poster in another website or definitely not because he wanted to get rich quick or because he wanted to be a movie star or because he saw posting as a means to an end. He was in it for the forums. He was dedicated to being the best website administrator he could be, and it showed in his front page posts.

I wanted to be a cool poster since I was a little kid, and one of the very worst moments of my life was a cold night in San Antonio when I was on the phone to my girlfriend a thousand miles away and finally admitted to myself and to her that buying this account and an avatar had been a mistake. Coming to grips that I was simply not athletically or charismatically talented enough to post in FYAD was one of the worst moments of my life. The business glorifies the boyhood dreams that come true. My boyhood dream wasn't going to come true, and it was an upsetting, soul-crushing revelation that upsets and discourages me to this day.

Since then I lived vicariously through Lowtax in a lot of ways. He wasn't a man who was destined to be a mainstream superstar. He couldn't box. He wasn't charismatic in the usual way. He was quiet. His neck didn't work. The only thing he had going for him was his posting ethic. He wasn't a third generation professional poster. He wasn't physically gifted. But through sheer effort he was able to become one of the most influential website administrators in history. By 40 years-old.

Lowtax was only forty, and he was already a legend on the verge of myth. That's how talented he was, and how respected.

I cannot reconcile in my mind that the man who unnecessarily gave back so much to the forums could die so young. I can't understand how a man could spend weeks and months trying to give back to younger guys like DocEvil, putting forth the care and effort to help them find their voice in the forums. Lowtax owed me nothing. But I still feel the loss. I selfishly lived through many of his accomplishments and now feel lost. I can only speak for myself, but I feel that for a lot of us the SomethingAwful forums are a rock of stability in a storm of stress and uncertainty.

And that will continue. But Lowtax is dead. And he died as a fail abuser. And whether it be insanity, drugs, or just the actions of a clear-eyed monster, what is done is done. And one of the pillars for the guys backstage and one of the pillars for fans is gone. And everything that pillar held up is tainted and dripping with mangosteen juice.

Lowax was an abuser. And I don't know how to accept that.

DrPaper posted:

the GTA remasters come out in a few hours

Ursine Catastrophe posted:

goons_txt is going to have a goldmine from this thread

Fake James posted:

Gearman posted:

Say what you will about Lowtax...

PhysicsFrenzy posted:

god i hope so

PhysicsFrenzy posted:

It's an illustration for a phone game by an artist named Azusa

prahanormal posted:

If you're one of his daughters reading this in the future I'm sorry your dad sucked but its very funny he got driven off his own website then died.

Korean Boomhauer posted:

was gonna ask this lol

Blue Raider posted:

what killed him anyway

Korean Boomhauer posted:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=27761

got it early 2020 i think? i'm overdue for a new art but idk who to commission rn lmao

Korean Boomhauer posted:

saaame

Korean Boomhauer posted:

goat haha. idk why he put a cat nose on it

Korean Boomhauer posted:

i'll check em out. if i get somethin i'll DM u it if u want!

Shame Boy posted:

Furries openly discussing commissioning art of their fursonas in lowtax's funeral thread is both unexpected and also perfect, keep going

Korean Boomhauer posted:

lol agreed

Kazy posted:

so how many underground SA furries are there, i've met quite a few already

Korean Boomhauer posted:

why dont i get any lmao

wilderthanmild posted:

Does anyone know how he died yet?

Roth posted:

I am going to assume a 50:50 ratio of "I'm also a furry. goodbye" and "I'm also a nazi. goodbye" PMs

Korean Boomhauer posted:

my bad

qnqnx posted:

get a room

Mx. posted:

man i can never get the con hotel... do you know how much it sucks to walk three blocks in fullsuit in pittsburgh summer? sheesh

atomicthumbs posted:

i know a guy who's building a sort of robot quadsuit with an indirect vision system running off an Nvidia jetson. iirc he's planning to eventually include active cooling with one of those miniaturized DC refrigeration compressor-motors you can get these days. fursuit technology has come so far

Shame Boy posted:

military furry mech suits, cool cool, i'm glad this is what I'll get killed by in the forever war

Shame Boy posted:

Buddy if furries are known for anything it's having inexplicably, suspiciously large amounts of money to spend on poo poo like this, c'mon.

Fansy posted:

Can you please have some respect and post about your fur-suits elsewhere

Korean Boomhauer posted:

i dont have an excuse

remigious posted:

I am so grateful that SA continued to thrive under the new management. I dunno what I’d do without you, goon friends

atomicthumbs posted:

for fun, he's building every single part of it himself. it's a zord from power rangers so he can 3D print the exterior suit housing

Wistful of Dollars posted:

no one cares about your loving fur suits.

sinekumquat posted:

merge them, Laissez's Furry

roboshit posted:

I can’t believe Rich is dead from the covid vaccine