itt a tribute to our late founder, farewell, deer richard

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > itt a tribute to our late founder, farewell, deer richard

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

This really sucks. Whatever you think of lowtax, he created something great in a world where not many people can say that, myself included. My heart goes out to his kids and other family members.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2021 03:00

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 10:07

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

zetamind2000 posted:

Between that and patreon it was at least $100,000 from donations before the $450,000 from the sale

I wanna see the receipts, like goddamn how much ketamine and benzos are we talking about here

Don't know where that number came from but it's not real.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2021 20:56

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

r u ready to WALK posted:

5000 logged in users means each of us is worth a whopping 90 bucks
it feels good to be valued by someone

There's a lot more active users than that, and I did not spend that much. Sorry to disappoint.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2021 20:59

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Tom Collins posted:

lots of old names coming out of the woodwork

Whoa someone owes us a retrospective. :colbert:

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 04:53

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

I don't know what Tom Collins will say in his twenty year retrospective, but his thirty year retrospective will be written with sticks and stones.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 04:54

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Please stick around, people who are returning. Twitter brain rot is life threatening but treatable.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 04:55

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

BaldDwarfOnPCP posted:

Tom, like the drink

I'm on my phone lmao, rip.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 04:56

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Dexanth posted:

but im addicted to the sweet sweet likes them tweetz give me now how can i go back to posting on forums

You can be emptyquoted and hell, it's got that beautiful color.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 04:57

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

cheetah7071 posted:

nobody has been punished for emptyquoting in years

It's kind of a shame. There was a transitional period where it was still kind of illicit but happened anyway, and it felt extra good knowing someone risked being punished to say your post was funny.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 05:10

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

youknowthatoneguy posted:

How long until someone makes a documentary on the site that Amazon buys?

They'll hire a consultant but it will be some bitter idiot who got banned for doxxing in 2013 and never made a joke in their life. George Clooney will play lowtax and Adrian Brody will play Fragmaster and they'll never mention shmorky. Ozma is cgi'd in and they'll call her Gobsma because they can't get the rights.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 05:38

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Ganbare Gincun posted:

Is that Koala's March? Do they have power over birbs?

No lol. What happened these last few pages???

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 06:56

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

I'm sorry I stayed awake long enough to see some bad posts but not long enough to click ban. Yeesh.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 12:38

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Solus posted:

Lmao this owns

Lol I wish this was true but unfortunately, I am a man of my word and he was paid. He waited so long to sign the escrow agreement (that I had sent him months and months earlier) that there was little reason to pay their fees and no benefit for formal escrow on my end. The money had already been set aside and he got paid when he was supposed to.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 13:09

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

lollontee posted:

wait so he was complaining about not remembering to sign his side of the paper for so long that his agent forgot/gave up on the whole deal?

Not quite - he did sign it eventually but it was like, a month before the escrow period was supposed to end, a few months late on his part. I could have turned it in and had money in escrow for three weeks but I figured I'd save the fees and just make sure I had the money to pay him set aside and ready to go. I certainly didn't expect him to call them in that time window after neglecting the contract for months and I get why he panicked, though leaping to the conclusion that I had "screwed" him like this was a back alley drug deal and not a six-figure contract seemed a bit silly.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 13:37

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Barudak posted:

Its better this way than waking up as the mod on duty in GBS when it exploded

It was.... quite the week.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 14:06

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

D1E posted:

Jeffrey of YOSPOS is kind of boring compared to Lowtax.

Good.

I will promote the site in a community-first sort of way, but I'm certainly not going to do so in service to my own ego or clout. I'd rather just quietly make the site good and try and make jokes now and then, I don't need to be an internet star. This is easily the best website on the whole stupid internet and I can only hope to share that with more people as time marches on.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 14:59

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Saoshyant posted:

I have to agree. The man has certainly not held any boxing matches with washed-up film producers nor has any evident, strong feelings towards fruit-based beverages.

The official fruit juice of the something awful forums is now 100% juice cranberry.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 15:01

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Subhu Man posted:

Sadness. Not been an active forum member for probably a decade or more. Not sure what happened since then, but I'm sad for the memory of the man.

Apology accepted - welcome home.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 15:02

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Vitamin Me posted:

Was helldump so bad that they harassed people? I always thought they kept the gossip and laughing about posts in their lil' subforum

It was unfortunately worse than you remember. Real "let's see what his boss at Tesco thinks of his okcupid" energy. I imagine most of those implied threats went un-followed up on, but still, ugh.

Lowtax actually told me that helldump ruined the site in his eyes and that an admin opened it without asking him and he didn't find out for months. He seemed sincerely pissed about it even a decade later.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 16:01

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

IOwnCalculus posted:

The part about him not knowing something existing on the forums for months is what makes this 100% believable for me.

Right lmao, it's totally fitting. He didn't pretend to have a long debate about it or anything, just discovered it months after it opened.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 16:10

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

There was another one added later that had links to a shitload of obscure sites. He added it through cloudflare. I removed it (and the commented out but still in the code digg button) as soon as I had access to do so.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 16:34

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Hand Knit posted:

I mean he would've done well for that but I don't think SA would be better for having been under the direction of Condé Nast for the past 15 years.

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 did my own digging and this was the exact year that conde nast bought reddit and within the reported price range as well. I'm glad I don't live in that timeline.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 16:42

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Spoggerific posted:

lmao

Is it true that all the mods/admins were walking on eggshells every time he came back, trying to avoid accidentally sending him into a tantrum? I remember something to the effect of Jeffrey found a button in the code that would permanently delete a forum and he silently disabled it not too long before the whole FYAD drama happened, and Lowtax got mad when he tried to press it and nothing happened.

He was more confused than mad tbh. I don't think he even really knew it would have irretrievably deleted everything.

I posted a dear richard in the mod forum once. Not even sure he read it because it was on the back of a bunch of mods quitting and he did not stick around to face their condemnation.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 16:46

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

davecrazy posted:

Holy Christ.

Their is self destructive then their is turning down a literal fortune. He could of taken that money and started up a site that was just Lets Plays and accidentally founded Twitch.

The whole drat thing is such a tragic waste.

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.

Also it wasn't 13 million or nothing, it was a very successful and profitable business that was set to make him a lot of money year after year, if not that much. 13 million in 2006 might have meant being broke by 2010. I don't think he was that self-aware, but I believe him when he said he was still having fun back then.

It's easy to say when you're not actually in the position to do it, but I wouldn't sell to some corporate buyer for 13 million, even now. I'm fortunate that I'm in a position to say no to such an offer and I want better for this place. If some wealthy dude wants to sponsor this place with the equivalent of a university building named after them, go ahead and break out the checkbook, but the site is not for sale.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 17:21

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

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.

(Apologies if he actually backed this up with proof, it just seems super suspect coming from Lowtax when he was trying to get money from you)

We had already long since agreed on a price when he told me. He certainly did not back it up with proof but..... failure to monetize? Where does that come from? He didn't turn it into a billion dollar media empire, but unlike every garbage web 2.0 site, SA had the classic model that is "sell things in store for money". That's not even counting what it made with advertising. 13 million was by no means a ludicrous offer based on revenue at the time. I have purchase logs going back a long time and could back up the forums store side of it if it really mattered, but the site was plenty monetized back then.

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.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 17:39

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

MEIN RAVEN posted:

Vice was one of the first articles up yesterday. Seemed pretty straightforward

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7dmqb/richard-lowtax-kyanka-founder-of-something-awful-is-dead-at-45

I'm glad Matthew gaunt is still an embarrassment to journalism even by vice media standards. Do you think he'll retract all the articles where he took lowtax's word at face value instead of attempting to do journalism, now that he knows about his abuse? No way in hell.

Once again pretty much everything in that article is wrong.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 20:14

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Moola posted:

I setup a GoFundMe for Screamy to pay for his ballooning funeral costs (turns out he had a pretty substantial will setup with some extravagant demands)

if you actually donate this money will go to the RSPCA lol

I edited out the link here - don't do this poo poo. I realize it's a "joke" but I don't want "teehee don't donate to this....unless?" style fundraisers here. If someone wants to donate to the RSPCA, they can go to their website.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2021 19:22

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

DoomTrainPhD posted:

Fun fact about the SA servers that Jeffrey found out when he purchased the forums: backups hadn�t worked for years. This entire site was one bad SQL query away from disappearing for good.

Hey it would have taken at least two - the archives are in a separate database.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2021 20:43

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

It's not like any of our intrepid former sysadmins every typed "delete * from post where" with some poorly thought out conditions

# ¿ Nov 13, 2021 20:44

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 10:07

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Seth Pecksniff posted:

Without compromising security is there any code you wanna share that's particularly horrendous? I know astral had the Horrors of SA's CMS thread that I loved reading which hasn't been updated in forever ASTRAL

Lol I made this PMF thread, though it's more about things that are funny to me than particularly bad code:
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3916312

# ¿ Nov 13, 2021 20:53

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > itt a tribute to our late founder, farewell, deer richard