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

[Marissa Moira]

I'm just hoping for SA to last until November at this point.

 

[Spunt]

Seeing SomethingAwful implode inch by inch is surreal.

When I was a kid, SomethingAwful was the internet's non-porn grown up section. It was on the list of places I knew I shouldn't really be allowed to look at, but regularily checked anyway because no one who knew any better than me knew enough to stop me. It was this dumb but infamous site that, as stupid as it was in the grand scheme of things, was a major cultural landmark to the early internet. It was the Disney of the early dotcoms. And Lowtax was literally SomethingAwful's king. He was a name that could make a person nervous because of the scale of power he held in his domain. He could have Zuck'ed zuckerberg before Zucking someone was a thing. He could currently own vast chunks of the entire planet. He could have realistically been a billionaire.

And he's arguing with a daughter he doesn't have custody of and barely sees about how dumb the bible is.

I haven't thought about SA in probably 15 years or more. I hadn't thought about the site at all honestly until noticing this thread on, of all places, some weird ass mocking forum caled kiwifarm. And it makes me appreciate this place more. Sometimes, when you watch something crash and burn, the emotion is indescribable. Failed hope, ruined potential, ignoble intentions, "there but for the grace of God go I..." Those are complicated emotions.

Thank god this site exists to flatten all that nonsense out to "LOL".

Finding out that THE Lowtax (the dude who owned ROMpit when I was young enough to care) has turned into some bankrupt washed-up deadbeat-dad sex-predator pill-junkie trany-fetishist has-been who let his site, his name and his legacy be completely devored by a bunch of valueless nameless shiftless ladydudes who decided they were girls now and that gave them power?

And he just said okay and gave it to them?

That's an abstract kind of feel.

Watching SA crash and burn like this is a complicated feeling. On the one hand it's funny to watch the stupidity involved, and fascinating to watch Lowtax and the Troons from a sort of anthropological angle, just seeing how these people behave and bite the hand that feeds them over and over again.

On the other hand, SA was my internet home for nearly a decade. I do miss the days when I could post about, or get advice about, cars, sports, pets, games or a dozen other things with a bunch of diverse and knowledgeable people without people screeching about how having the wrong car or cat breed made you a Nazi. I was never a very edgy poster, I got my shitposting fix elsewhere, but you can't be a normal poster there any more. The mods and admins forgot that D&D, TGRS and C-SPAM were containment forums for insane people and instead let them take over the entire site. It's just not a good place to post any more for anyone remotely normal, even in the deeper subforums that used to be immune to the insanity.

Watching what happened to SA is like watching the town where you grew up turn into a crime-infested shithole. You never were going to go back, there are objectively better places to live, but goddamit that's MY place you're vandalising.

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

The mods and admins forgot that D&D, TGRS and C-SPAM were containment forums for insane people and instead let them take over the entire site.

In my experience, this is how containment boards almost always go. Off the top of my head, the only instance of it working out was the My Little Pony containment board on 4chan, and that only worked because pony content is so easy to identify that anyone posting it outside its containment zone could be banned quickly and without much deliberation. Politics are a lot easier to slip in and breed a lot more resentment.

 

[Absolutely Embarrassing]

Watching SA crash and burn like this is a complicated feeling. On the one hand it's funny to watch the stupidity involved, and fascinating to watch Lowtax and the Troons from a sort of anthropological angle, just seeing how these people behave and bite the hand that feeds them over and over again.

On the other hand, SA was my internet home for nearly a decade. I do miss the days when I could post about, or get advice about, cars, sports, pets, games or a dozen other things with a bunch of diverse and knowledgeable people without people screeching about how having the wrong car or cat breed made you a Nazi. I was never a very edgy poster, I got my shitposting fix elsewhere, but you can't be a normal poster there any more. The mods and admins forgot that D&D, TGRS and C-SPAM were containment forums for insane people and instead let them take over the entire site. It's just not a good place to post any more for anyone remotely normal, even in the deeper subforums that used to be immune to the insanity.

Watching what happened to SA is like watching the town where you grew up turn into a crime-infested shithole. You never were going to go back, there are objectively better places to live, but goddamit that's MY place you're vandalising.

This is a good summary of the feels what made me come here in the first place. It's been weird seeing SA descend into literal fucking madness, and that it came in this way at the hands of these posters is genuinely fucking astonishing. I used to read pedantic shit like "Why Your Band Sucks" and shitpost about nothing, and on the same forum I could get pretty good advice about my dog and get recommended weird books to read. More sincerity-posting but it's true: SA informed a large part of my sense of humor when I was kid. It felt Important, or at least kinda cool and subversive.

This last month or whatever have just demonstrated that no, it isn't Important, and probably never was. I haven't been as active over the last year as I used to be, but browsing SA now it feels completely alien. Before I guess you could basically ignore the bullshit by hangin with your postin pals and talking about whatever hobby you're into, and now it's this inescapable pool of waste runoff. It turns out Lowtax was always a fucking idiot, that being extremely online will turn you into an insufferable narcissistic embarrassment, and that the stuff you liked as a kid was stuff you liked because you didn't know any better. From a detached, anthropological (good word) perspective it's sort of amazing just observing how insane shit has gotten, but that distance has also hit me in a weird place where I'm re-evaluating why I liked any of it in the first place. Wait, were ICQ pranks ever actually funny??? isn't the shit you want to be assessing at 7AM but holy hell.

Now if I want to talk about my new dog or Devil May Cry 5 I starting typing up some tryhard shit and then just erase it all because I'm not sure that I can keep up with which posters are black or trans or gay or disabled. Like my man you are all just avatars to me, the lizard part of my brain just pictures you as whatever creepy anime shit you decided encapsulates you as a human. That post in QCS about an "open letter" to the mods and admins made me genuinely wonder if I had a psychotic break and I had just lost my fucking mind.

In 2019 the defining moderator of somethingawfuldotcom was a scamming victim Olympian who thinks a sassy GIF of a black lady snapping her fingers or some shit constitutes a good probe reason, usually for engaging in something like MYSOGYNOIR. I am cringing so fucking hard that with any luck past me will keel over and die of shame

 

[selachophile]

What's currently happening is definitely an end of some sorts. People have been crowing the death of SA any day now for a decade, and though it's hardly been on an upward trend, this time is a bit different.

I had a much worse and longer post here, but to put it in perspective, saying anything negative about the moderation before the implementation of QCS would get you banned. You'd straight up eat a ban for voting lowtax's threads a 1 at one point. Eventually, when QCS was implemented, you could go air your grievances to absolutely no outcome. If a section of the forums started to cause issues, like C-SPAM's retarded dead younger sibling for example, they'd be ejected unceremoniously. Never has the response been "We hear you and understand you. Please stop hitting us, if that's okay with you." It just keeps fucking going, and I'm curious to see when or if this wild ride ends.

Anyway, I'm gay and here's a funny insane post from QCS

 

[Weppers]

In my experience, this is how containment boards almost always go. Off the top of my head, the only instance of it working out was the My Little Pony containment board on 4chan, and that only worked because pony content is so easy to identify that anyone posting it outside its containment zone could be banned quickly and without much deliberation. Politics are a lot easier to slip in and breed a lot more resentment.

Meanwhile, the My Little Pony site specifically founded by goon bronies kicked off the site was eaten alive by all this gender shit by late 2013 and some of those same posters are back on Something Awful now to troon out for a larger audience. It's like they got to metastasize in private and then come back to help kill the original host.

 

[Absolutely Embarrassing]

Meanwhile, the My Little Pony site specifically founded by goon bronies kicked off the site was eaten alive by all this gender shit by late 2013 and some of those same posters are back on Something Awful now to troon out for a larger audience. It's like they got to metastasize in private and then come back to help kill the original host.

I'm not sure I've ever gotten the fucking point of containment boards for this exact reason. Containment - from, like, the rest of the site? Just fucking ban them and let them eat each other after you throw them back in the lake. Unless it's supposed to be containment from the rest of the internet, in which case why the hell does a private paywalled forum have some obligation to shield society from these painfully annoying emotion vampires

One of the core points of authority that keeps coming up whenever BIGOTRY and TRANSPHOBIA gets discussed in QCS or whatever is that there aren't enough resources and safe spaces for troons and how dare you try to take that away from us, but that isn't why SA exist(ed) in the first place. It's (was) a fucking comedy forum. If your entire identity is how trans you are, go make a community for that explicit purpose and fuck off. If you want to make jokes and shitpost with your postin pals, do so? But nope gotta be pathological narcissists concocting any reason to acquire some facsimile of power on a dead gay forum. If 2019/2020 SA is a "larger audience" for your performative wokeness you need to re-assess your life decisions I'd think

 

[Vapewizard]

Meanwhile, the My Little Pony site specifically founded by goon bronies kicked off the site was eaten alive by all this gender shit by late 2013 and some of those same posters are back on Something Awful now to troon out for a larger audience. It's like they got to metastasize in private and then come back to help kill the original host.

Did any juicy drama happen in particular or was it just more and more guys trooning out?

 

[wagglyplacebo]

Shut the fuck up and take it to pm's. Nobody cares.

 

[No Ma'ams Land]

This current conversation brings back a thought I had earlier: how do sites gain immunity to being over-run by malcontents and echo chambers? Someone posited the like / dislike button can cause feedback loops. That's true. There's basically one on this site as well, but I don't see it (currently) going the way of Resetera or SA. Places like 4chan seem immune to group-think via its chaotic nature and frequent shitposts. Perhaps its an administration problem, sympathetic elements allowing echo chambers to fester? A general lack of confrontation could also be a factor, running out the elements that would harm a growing subculture so it can spread. IIRC, SA started going downhill shortly after the conservative posters were banned or ostracized.

Hm. Perhaps a diversity of shit thoughts is a strength.

 

[Bear Powers]

I wonder how quickly you'd be banned in TFR for posting a bunch of historical pics of WW2 German guns in the pics thread. Even if the focus was on the guns themselves. The thought police would have a field day poring through the photos thread. Anything WW2 German or Rhodesia related and the like would be immediate grounds for a ban. Assuming of course that whoever posted them hasn't already been banned over the years.

Seeing how the most spurious of connections will turn you into a full blown goose stepping Nazi in the eyes of the weirdos taking over SA, it's strange that they haven't turned their eyes to Cyrano4747. Allowing him to be an admin in the first place was a surprise. The dude truly loves guns, especially German WW2 guns, and all the history behind that period of time. If you read virtually any of his many, many pages of posts in the milsurp thread in TFR you'll find loads of posts, often long screeds, about stuff that should definitely qualify as wrongthink for an admin in the new SA. Long essays on German and Nazi history, how to own and where best to acquire guns and ammo, how to care for your guns, info about reloading ammo, and so on and so forth.

Hell I just randomly chose a few pages in the milsurp thread and after two pages right away got this:





Lookit all of those Nazi guns he owns!!!! Eight of them!!! Talking about how easy it is to get fully automatic guns! And how does he know so much about those Nazi guns and all the detailed history behind them unless...OH MY GOD HE'S AN ACTUAL NAAZZZIIIII!!!!!!

I can only laugh at the idea though. Among a million other things, one that stands out to me is the fact that the dude sold an SKS he owned because it skeeved him out. This SKS may or may not have gone through the Bosnian war and it had markings on stock that may or may not have been problematic. Not that anyone could conclusively say in any way what the markings meant, of course, just that they were there meant he fully endorsed Serbian war criminals by owning it.

I suppose since he's an "ally" it's completely fine. If he or anyone else had ever expressed opinions that they didn't agree with he'd be out in a heartbeat, and who knows, he may have somewhere, because in writing this post I saw that he's closed a bunch of threads, including the milsurp thread, photo thread, AR-15 thread, and video game thread. Once threads fall into archives it's difficult to quickly look stuff up. These were threads that lasted over a decade had tens of thousands of posts. TFR has had a liberal bent since its inception but each of those threads probably has loads of wrongthink and I seriously doubt that him closing the threads is just a coincidence.

 

[Absolutely Embarrassing]

This current conversation brings back a thought I had earlier: how do sites gain immunity to being over-run by malcontents and echo chambers?

Honestly it's by having staff that don't give a fuck about other people being mad on the internet, and being in a financial position to not give a fuck. If you read QCS it's full to bursting with mods and admins prostrating themselves at the feet of the retard mob in the vain hope that by giving them concessions they'll stop being mad (and retarded). They give way too much of a fuck about people being mad at them online. Instead of posting furtive messages in his dying Discord server or Facebook DMs LowT should've just fucking banned everyone who was being an insufferable, unfunny idiot, and let them sort themselves out offsite

SA and Resetera are trying to be public-facing modern internet sites™ by appealing to everyone they can, especially SA now that it's circling the drain. If your financial livelihood depends on screeching retards then you're gonna accomodate those retards or close up shop, and I don't think Rich has any other marketable skills beyond "hooking up with insane women who probably have more money than he does"

 

[Agarathium1066]

Perhaps its an administration problem, sympathetic elements allowing echo chambers to fester? A general lack of confrontation could also be a factor, running out the elements that would harm a growing subculture so it can spread. IIRC, SA started going downhill shortly after the conservative posters were banned or ostracized.

Hm. Perhaps a diversity of shit thoughts is a strength.

The 'Diversity is STRENGTH!' line makes my skin itch just seeing it because it is always abused for agendas or stupid ideas, however there is a tiny mote of sense in it. Diversity of opinions means you will not hear just one same note over and over and over. Once all but the 'TRUE' opinion is marginalized you're more or less left with no worthwhile discussion or commentary.

Let people disagree, let them argue, let them sometimes get into a pissing match if they so desire it. People need to understand that screaming at a person doing the bad thinks doesn't remove the opinion. Nor should you want all opinions to be perfectly in line for a myriad of reasons, one being that it makes a place of discussion incredibly boring and less useful.

If they get you mad enough call them exceptional and move on.

 

[Leonard Helplessness]

Anyway, I'm gay and here's a funny insane post from QCS
View attachment 1095020

Back in late 2014, Lowtax closed the Something Awful office and did a 2-day goonmeet to celebrate, inviting all goons to come over to the office during its final days. I paid a visit.

The office was located in a stripmall, and marked by one of those stacked stripmall signs; Something Awful had a big sign with a picture of a hand grenade. I don't know why, since to my knowledge, the office was otherwise never open to visitors. The sign was the topic of multiple conversations during the goonmeet though, and Lowtax mentioned that throughout the years that the office was open, people would occasionally come to the office looking to buy hand grenades. They were all turned away.

During the event, some guy -- I think someone in the adjoining unit of the stripmall, working law or something -- came by the office to show off a massive handgun in its case, one of those .50 caliber ones if I recall. I don't know why.

The event was pretty shitty all in all. Lowtax did have a cute dog named Buppy, though, which was much more pleasant and fun to be around than he was.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Thanks to all these troons bitching about they're going to kill themselves and then never follow through(look at all the people who are still alive after November 6th 2016 after they double swore they would die), I'm starting to associate creed with the 41%.

 

[Manah]

This current conversation brings back a thought I had earlier: how do sites gain immunity to being over-run by malcontents and echo chambers? Someone posited the like / dislike button can cause feedback loops. That's true. There's basically one on this site as well, but I don't see it (currently) going the way of Resetera or SA. Places like 4chan seem immune to group-think via its chaotic nature and frequent shitposts. Perhaps its an administration problem, sympathetic elements allowing echo chambers to fester? A general lack of confrontation could also be a factor, running out the elements that would harm a growing subculture so it can spread. IIRC, SA started going downhill shortly after the conservative posters were banned or ostracized.

Hm. Perhaps a diversity of shit thoughts is a strength.

4chan has massively ingrained groupthink, if you don't notice it it's probably because you agree with it.

 

[Ningen]

Thanks to all these troons bitching about they're going to kill themselves and then never follow through(look at all the people who are still alive after November 6th 2016 after they double swore they would die), I'm starting to associate creed with the 41%.

Tranny goons should associate themselves with Bo Burnham.

 

[0 0]

Bro just hack it all off, it's gonna be magical.
View attachment 1094678
View attachment 1094683

"SRS doesn't adversely affect sexual function!"

"SRS wipes out your genitals as an erogenous zone!"

Pick one.

There's a lot more in the TGRS but the TGRS peeps are getting serious push-back from other posters, trans and otherwise.

This, right here:

How out of touch do you have to be to not realize that trans users have been doing this regularly and demonstrably so, and somehow think it's other users who are doing it instead?

 

[Manah]

"SRS doesn't adversely affect sexual function!"

"SRS wipes out your genitals as an erogenous zone!"

Pick one.



This, right here:

View attachment 1095482

How out of touch do you have to be to not realize that trans users have been doing this regularly and demonstrably so, and somehow think it's other users who are doing it instead?

they're literally everything they said FYAD was. An exclusionary club that gets treated with kid gloves by the staff, gets to dictate forum policy, and anyone who doesn't adhere to the style guide gets probated and kicked out.

They also hate women.

 

[JoyfulDarter]

This current conversation brings back a thought I had earlier: how do sites gain immunity to being over-run by malcontents and echo chambers?

There's this saying that any community that isn't explicitly right wing will inevitably become a far left shithole. It's a little hyperbolic but not entirely wrong, I think it's more about authoritarianism than explicit left/right.

4chan has massively ingrained groupthink, if you don't notice it it's probably because you agree with it.

Yes but generally you don't get it from the staff end except from the time mootykins bent the knee to Anita in hopes for some sweet progressive cred. So it's not as noticable as the groupthink on SA/ResetEra where if a troon decides they don't like what you say they'll get you banned.