How did this website survive?

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HatinisBad

kiwifarms.net
Joined
Apr 3, 2026
It seems like a lot of forums have died off and there are nearly no forums where you can just...say whatever the fuck you want. I remember the edgey humor of the early 2000s and all the very loosely enforced rules of websites. I remember getting tons of temporary bans, usually from Newgrounds, and there were sites where most people hated me and my antics but I wouldn't get banned because they strongly encouraged free speech. The best forums on Newgrounds closed and the other websites I used to post on are nowhere to be found. It seems there's been some kind of purge of good early 2000s discussion board websites. Nowadays there is Reddit and Discord where you will have your IP banned if a mod faces a small inconvenience that day. How is this website still around? And no, I will not go to 4chan!
 
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HatinisBad said:
But it's perfectly legal to call someone a fag, for example, but it will still get you IP banned from almost anywhere else you can post it
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Its a forum run by Null. A man I have endless respect for. Most websites are now like SomethingAwful where the website is half dead and the local discord attached to it is degenerate and filled with trannies.

Pretty simple when you follow any link from your favorite youtuber.
 
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HatinisBad said:
But it's perfectly legal to call someone a fag, for example, but it will still get you IP banned from almost anywhere else you can post it
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100% to do with ads and sponsors reddit and similar live off of. Offend your sponsors and between canning some random internet prick or losing your massive business is a no-brainer.
 
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NoStepOnSnake said:
Its a forum run by Null. A man I have endless respect for. Most websites are now like SomethingAwful where the website is half dead and the local discord attached to it is degenerate and filled with trannies.

Pretty simple when you follow any link from your favorite youtuber.
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SomethingAwful has a discord?

Also, the most awful thing is you have to pay to shitpost.
 
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HatinisBad said:
I doubt the sponsors really care THAT much. And where were these sponsors in the early 2000s?
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What didn't survive from the golden era got sucked into fucking reddit and 4c by lazy fuckers who wanted everything in one place, and then that place got overrun by wokies who started banning people left and right. And sponsors/advertisers absolutely care or jewtube would be a live mirror of here.
 
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TheTitKoker said:
What didn't survive from the golden era got sucked into fucking reddit and 4c by lazy fuckers who wanted everything in one place, and then that place got overrun by wokies who started banning people left and right. And sponsors/advertisers absolutely care or jewtube would be a live mirror of here.
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This. Reddit and wikipedia ate all the informative sites, then social media ate all the socializing/conversational activity.

Another aspect is the ad market. Older sites used to survive first on banner ads, then ad networks. But then Google consumed all the ad networks, until Google AdSense and Facebook were the only game in town. Practically speaking, if you weren't allowed to make money with AdSense, funding your site while keeping it free for users became nearly impossible. That culled all the "edgy" sites from being viable, and the survivors started the long slow march into censorship and jannification.

(There was a window after AdSense won, but before Patreon became viable. A lot of sites simply died before the crowdfunding/patron got popular enough that they could've been saved.)

KF itself was booted off every ad network early on. It only survived because Null is the most stubborn admin on the Internet, to the point that he moved to Eastern Europe and lived off gift cards and crypto to keep the site running. If Null ever becomes 5% less stubborn, this site probably dies.
 
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Harvey Danger said:
This. Reddit and wikipedia ate all the informative sites, then social media ate all the socializing/conversational activity.

Another aspect is the ad market. Older sites used to survive first on banner ads, then ad networks. But then Google consumed all the ad networks, until Google AdSense and Facebook were the only game in town. Practically speaking, if you weren't allowed to make money with AdSense, funding your site while keeping it free for users became nearly impossible. That culled all the "edgy" sites from being viable, and the survivors started the long slow march into censorship and jannification.

(There was a window after AdSense won, but before Patreon became viable. A lot of sites simply died before the crowdfunding/patron got popular enough that they could've been saved.)

KF itself was booted off every ad network early on. It only survived because Null is the most stubborn admin on the Internet, to the point that he moved to Eastern Europe and lived off gift cards and crypto to keep the site running. If Null ever becomes 5% less stubborn, this site probably dies.
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Hence why I said - because the advertisers care about where they place their ads. Plus NOW with media as a whole being easily accessible, no big brand wants to end up being associated with anything their consoomers might go on woke crusades about.
 
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Harvey Danger said:
This. Reddit and wikipedia ate all the informative sites, then social media ate all the socializing/conversational activity.

Another aspect is the ad market. Older sites used to survive first on banner ads, then ad networks. But then Google consumed all the ad networks, until Google AdSense and Facebook were the only game in town. Practically speaking, if you weren't allowed to make money with AdSense, funding your site while keeping it free for users became nearly impossible. That culled all the "edgy" sites from being viable, and the survivors started the long slow march into censorship and jannification.

(There was a window after AdSense won, but before Patreon became viable. A lot of sites simply died before the crowdfunding/patron got popular enough that they could've been saved.)

KF itself was booted off every ad network early on. It only survived because Null is the most stubborn admin on the Internet, to the point that he moved to Eastern Europe and lived off gift cards and crypto to keep the site running. If Null ever becomes 5% less stubborn, this site probably dies.
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Yeah but what about free platforms? Like there are free sites you can make forums on. I even have such a forum. And what about places like YouTube? You just don't see the same level of trolling on there anymore.
 
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TheTitKoker said:
Hence why I said - because the advertisers care about where they place their ads.
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They do now. But also, there used to be alternative ad networks that didn't care. Old school warez sites and hacker forums used to have banner ads right above the pirated software links. After a while they could only get sketchy pharmaceuticals and porn ad networks, then eventually not even that.

TheTitKoker said:
Plus NOW with media as a whole being easily accessible, no big brand wants to end up being associated with anything their consoomers might go on woke crusades about.
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The Pewdiepie YouTube Adpocalypse destroyed the Internet more than anyone realizes.

HatinisBad said:
Yeah but what about free platforms? Like there are free sites you can make forums on. I even have such a forum.
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Anyone can make a site, the problem is acquiring users. Pre-2019, you could reliably get traffic from search engines (Google) and Facebook articles, however that all died in 2020 from specific platform changes. Now you're fighting three forces:

  1. Suppression from search engines (Google)
  2. Alternative sites already doing what you offer (reddit, Discord)
  3. Getting users to change their highly concentrated, highly addictive Internet habits (social media, dopamine hits from attention)
It's not technically impossible to overcome all that, but it's pretty close. If KF was started today, it would never be able to take off; de-ranked from Google, similar to a snark subreddit, zero ability to go viral.
 
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