Something Awful and Friends - The roller-coaster train-wreck embarrassing downfall of a Web 1.0 giant and its tick offspring like from Cloverfield

[The Fatriarchy]

Actually, I think the reason the post deletion was a problem on SA is because dipshit directly deleted the entries instead of using the actual post deletion function.

 

[Shotgun Badger]

Actually, I think the reason the post deletion was a problem on SA is because dipshit directly deleted the entries instead of using the actual post deletion function.

Even with that in mind, at least here on KF we have the option to just delete posts we make, and I presume mods can do the same. I've never seen that happen on SA beyond the ZDR incident and you can't remove your own posts, all that can happen is that you or an admin can edit them to remove wrongthink.

 

[_Samson_]

yet what would become of SA without the option to share your AIM and ICQ handles ? didn’t AIM die in like 2005 ? ICQ did not really make it to the millenium I think though I remember it was integrated into AIM at some point in the early 00s

 

[Shotgun Badger]

yet what would become of SA without the option to share your AIM and ICQ handles ? didn’t AIM die in like 2005 ? ICQ did not really make it to the millenium I think though I remember it was integrated into AIM at some point in the early 00s

Lmao, I forgot about that, fucking AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and your homepage, really going to reel in the zoomers with those options on their profiles Jeffrey!

My god, it can't be that much work to update it with things like Twitter, Discord and Instagram surely?

 

[AnOminous]

all of the keffals dropkf sa woke etc people have adopted an official policy of just pretending that they won and kf is not really existing any more rather than acknowledge how dumb all of them look in retrospect for gloating over our demise. it’s a like a more flaccid « we were always at war with oceania », if you can be flaccid after your « big surgery ». yet plenty of active SA mods have copped to reading this thread, undoubtedly only for online safety reconnaissance purposes

I think it's a hoot. We get to murder trannies every single day forever because they will just refuse to admit we even exist.

 

[northstar747]

It's cute Jeff spent 450k to make like what 40k in profit? A year honestly not bad but lowtaxs Patreon brought in better money.

I think Jeff is right to shut down all goon grifting funds etc.

He might want to grow the site and sell it like resetera did.

To be frank Jeff should just drop the 10 dollar fee. Or do a mass email and re instate all banned accounts and just have shark month. If he wanted to get more people back or on.

 

[AnOminous]

To be frank Jeff should just drop the 10 dollar fee. Or do a mass email and re instate all banned accounts and just have shark month. If he wanted to get more people back or on.

He'd have to admit moderation (including his) was utter shit, and that many if not most of those people were banned for saying shit that was true and is now recognized as true, like that SA's moderation team is full of literal sex offenders, that Lowtax was a wife-beating deadbeat dat (which absolutely nobody denies now and they pretend they knew it all along), that Lowtax was robbing the place blind, that the site is full of grifters taking advantage of mentally ill losers, etc.

 

[northstar747]

He'd have to admit moderation (including his) was utter shit, and that many if not most of those people were banned for saying shit that was true and is now recognized as true, like that SA's moderation team is full of literal sex offenders, that Lowtax was a wife-beating deadbeat dat (which absolutely nobody denies now and they pretend they knew it all along), that Lowtax was robbing the place blind, that the site is full of grifters taking advantage of mentally ill losers, etc.

But he was just in the back ground zdr fucked off and left FAU in charge and FAU panicked and perma d and did the whole ban plus 30 shit.

The gbs ukraine war thread vs the cspam thread really kinda showed that Jeff cares about money because someone bought an AV that might be problematic and the mods didn't want to clear it because it would offend the buyer.

The ending of tox clauses also showed he knew the d n d crowd were self distructing.

 

[The Grognard]

But he was just in the back ground zdr fucked off and left FAU in charge and FAU panicked and perma d and did the whole ban plus 30 shit.

The gbs ukraine war thread vs the cspam thread really kinda showed that Jeff cares about money because someone bought an AV that might be problematic and the mods didn't want to clear it because it would offend the buyer.

The ending of tox clauses also showed he knew the d n d crowd were self distructing.

They're only doing this shit because all the people remaining are such bitch-made little shits that they can't hold up their end of the bargain because apparently, it might result in not having 10 bux to come back. They of course incorporate some virtue signalling nonsense because that's all that the site's got going on, a bunch of aging 40 to 60 year old computer jannies pretending to be the most virtuous human beings to ever exist in Gentrification Street, Hipster City.

 

[Something Awful]

The gbs ukraine war thread vs the cspam thread really kinda showed that Jeff cares about money because someone bought an AV that might be problematic and the mods didn't want to clear it because it would offend the buyer.

It's not about money, he just doesn't want to drive away users and make the forums even more dead. C-Spam is their second largest forum (maybe tied with Games) after GBS. If Jeffrey cared that much about $10 avatar purchases, there are plenty of things he could be doing to monetize the site more.

 

[proteus4994]

If anyone wants a serious post about why SA will never come back, the reason why is because there’s no need for it anymore. If you want to broadcast your thoughts to the world, you have Facebook and Twitter. If you want to chat in a closed small-knit community of likeminded individuals, there’s subreddits. What do you get from SA that isn’t done better somewhere else?

In conclusion, the poster that said SA is essentially a retirement home for people who can’t quit Web 1.0 is pretty much spot on. Nobody else wants to use an internet forum built (literally) 25 years ago, whether they’re on PHP8 or not. And as much as I think astral really is doing an OK job (updating from PHP5 to 7 is a pain in the ass I’ve literally done it), you can only polish this turd so much.

 

[repentance]

Ah, Jeff's one of the forum users who think the front page is in service of the forum, and not the website content that is supposed to be produced in the first place.

This reminds me of how the Chicago Reader viewed the Straight Dope Message Board as nothing more than a conduit for increasing its readership.

I know, right? Where else but SA can you get the raw experience of reading a marginally funny post followed by twenty people quoting it and adding "lmao". That's some good engagement.

SA might not have stickers for individual posts, but you can rate threads. That's where the "rate 1 and move on" mantra comes from.

 

[Shotgun Badger]

If anyone wants a serious post about why SA will never come back, the reason why is because there’s no need for it anymore. If you want to broadcast your thoughts to the world, you have Facebook and Twitter. If you want to chat in a closed small-knit community of likeminded individuals, there’s subreddits. What do you get from SA that isn’t done better somewhere else?

In conclusion, the poster that said SA is essentially a retirement home for people who can’t quit Web 1.0 is pretty much spot on. Nobody else wants to use an internet forum built (literally) 25 years ago, whether they’re on PHP8 or not. And as much as I think astral really is doing an OK job (updating from PHP5 to 7 is a pain in the ass I’ve literally done it), you can only polish this turd so much.

You're broadly correct but I think there is a certain value to still be had in old school forums, this place is clearly evidence of that, and even somewhere like Resetera shows it can still be viable in the modern age.

I guess the question is what could SA possibly offer that's unique and sets it apart? Its mostly kept on life support by inertia from people who've posted there for years, its lunch has been thoroughly eaten by both Twitter and Reddit, and even here to some degree, so where can it go? I almost feel like they might be able to do something if they played into the notion that they are a vault of some of the most important moments of internet history, but then that might mean recognizing its problematic past!

 

[Tanner Glass]

If anyone wants a serious post about why SA will never come back, the reason why is because there’s no need for it anymore. If you want to broadcast your thoughts to the world, you have Facebook and Twitter. If you want to chat in a closed small-knit community of likeminded individuals, there’s subreddits. What do you get from SA that isn’t done better somewhere else?

In conclusion, the poster that said SA is essentially a retirement home for people who can’t quit Web 1.0 is pretty much spot on. Nobody else wants to use an internet forum built (literally) 25 years ago, whether they’re on PHP8 or not. And as much as I think astral really is doing an OK job (updating from PHP5 to 7 is a pain in the ass I’ve literally done it), you can only polish this turd so much.

Not only will it never come back - but better places to post/whatever is how it died in the first place.

Other places started paying well for content (via direct payment, ads, rev share, etc) and Lowtax was still lowballing content creators until they fucked off to other sites until there was literally no one left.

 

[Cpt. Stud Beefpile]

In conclusion, the poster that said SA is essentially a retirement home for people who can’t quit Web 1.0 is pretty much spot on. Nobody else wants to use an internet forum built (literally) 25 years ago, whether they’re on PHP8 or not. And as much as I think astral really is doing an OK job (updating from PHP5 to 7 is a pain in the ass I’ve literally done it), you can only polish this turd so much.

I still happily post on old fashioned forums but none of them are the shitpile that SA is.

 

[The Grognard]

Not only will it never come back - but better places to post/whatever is how it died in the first place.

Other places started paying well for content (via direct payment, ads, rev share, etc) and Lowtax was still lowballing content creators until they fucked off to other sites until there was literally no one left.

The moment that started it's downturn circa 2007 was due to how strict the moderation back then was compared to pretty much every other web forum at the time, along with the new crop of mods being a cat-lady brigade that would end up giving the keys to the site to the troons half a decade later out of fear. A certain strictness was fine but it was then combined with clear favoritism of specific posters and excessive neuroticism about 4chan lingo that would net you a ban because the world "Lulz" was used once in a post the length of several thousand words. The reputation for the place being a bunch of elitist nerds was now firmly established and the list of persons who'd want to pay 10 dollars for an internet forum account became a lot shorter due to this excessive legalistic strictness.

 

[kim foxx]

there are tons of thriving forums like lipstick alley and narrow, single interest travel sites

the difference is that the janitors there are people who work behind the scenes to make things work and not ham-fisted tyrants enforcing message discipline

you don't get banned on the southwest airlines forums for complaining about the snack mix

 

[The Fatriarchy]

If anyone wants a serious post about why SA will never come back, the reason why is because there’s no need for it anymore. If you want to broadcast your thoughts to the world, you have Facebook and Twitter. If you want to chat in a closed small-knit community of likeminded individuals, there’s subreddits. What do you get from SA that isn’t done better somewhere else?

In conclusion, the poster that said SA is essentially a retirement home for people who can’t quit Web 1.0 is pretty much spot on. Nobody else wants to use an internet forum built (literally) 25 years ago, whether they’re on PHP8 or not. And as much as I think astral really is doing an OK job (updating from PHP5 to 7 is a pain in the ass I’ve literally done it), you can only polish this turd so much.

If it was doing what it was supposed to be doing in the first place, SA would basically be curated KF with articles and other shit poking fun at dumb people and things and current events. Instead, it's been reduced down to the forums, which not only require people to pay for (presently) no guarantee in post quality, but don't cover anything particularly strongly and aren't major communities to discuss any of the forum topics.

 

[AnOminous]

Instead, it's been reduced down to the forums, which not only require people to pay for (presently) no guarantee in post quality, but don't cover anything particularly strongly and aren't major communities to discuss any of the forum topics.

You're paying $10 literally for nothing, not even the guarantee you won't be banned on your first post by some registered sex offender for saying something funny.

 

[Baggywrinkle_v2]

SA is a lost cause. The community is full of irredeemable shut-ins and psychos. Even if that weren't the case, a new user looking at GBS (or anywhere, I guess) would just see a bunch of years-old megathreads titled with nonsensical in-jokes that would take hours to get caught up on. Then that person would quickly see that the conversation is not worth the time or monetary investment, unless they also happened to be a complete trainwreck.