I'm getting too old for this shit.

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I only joined here to follow you a bit after your twitter suspension took effect. I'm not a member of this forum, it's not been my kind of thing and never particularly was. I just wanted to let you know that despite being a decade your senior I've come to appreciate your insights on a lot of issues. I also think your readjustment of priorities is wise.

I have done nothing of consequence on a global scale in comparison to the world's metrics of success I'm a complete failure; However I've been happily married for 18 years this fall, I have more than the average amount of children and have been a stay at home father due to mental illnesses that prevent me from working. My children are well balanced, well educated etc.

Most importantly despite my issues I'm happy. My wife is happy. My children are happy. I and my wife despite our struggles including financial hardships consider ourselves to be successful and we don't care how other's view us. We are also religious and I'd be lying if I said that hasn't played a very large roll in our willingness and ability to work out our problems as they arose.

Anyway by almost everyone's metric you are a success I'm a failure. By my metrics (fulfillment in life, actual happiness) I seem to be one of the most successful people on the planet. I guess what I'm getting at is that I think you are making the right choice. Raising a family while having a lot of hardships has brought me more happiness and fulfillment than any of the work I did before my issues came out in full force to prevent that.

I do recommend being the breadwinner, the neuroticism that comes from being unable to be the provider is significant, but also make sure you are there to also raise your children, nothing is more rewarding. Anyway I hope you are able to find success by my metrics as I truly believe they are the only important ones.

Don't give up on free speech. Ironically there are a lot of relatively silent people like myself who agree with you. I wouldn't say we are a majority by any stretch but you aren't alone in the fight.
 
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Bender said:
You had the perfect opportunity to post a list of users and how they were screwed over, but instead you said that.

I stand by my previous post, since you haven't been able to show that I'm wrong.
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Maybe you should get Null's unejaculating penis out of your mouth and look up shit with that handy electronic device right in front of your face
 
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Sock said:
I'm new to KF, but have experience with forums, some more important than others and as a HNIC. I understand you're burned out. It happens and can't be avoided. The best approach is a break and delegation. I can tell you from experience that you will regret dismantling KF. This site has become bigger than you for a reason. More and more people are finding refuge here from the inbred cesspools of social media.

Given the amount of members, charging a small subscription monthly fee would help alleviate some of the monetary issues. $1.99 would never be missed from anyone's pocket. Fuck, even $4.99.

Those willing to help take some of the weight, you have to allow. I realize this is something you built and delgating, even to your closest friends, can be scary because it may disrupt your vision of KF or "if you want something done righ, do it yourself" mindset, but it's so necessary for your sanity. You don't have to agree with me or like what I wrote. I'm simply saying from personal experience. You seem to have a lot of good people here who would be willing to carry the load.

Oh and has your employability taken a hit? I'm sure it has. This has happened for a reason. You built an empire here. Might as well start taking a step back and looking at the angles of how it can allow you to fulfill your goals. Everything has a positive to its negative. That's not rainbows and kittens bullshit, it's absolutely true. A break will allow that "new eyes" angle. Just my 2 cents.
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Anything Null has tried to raise revenue has always had a weak link. Certain assholes who despise him have viciously fucked with his every source of funding in an attempt to destroy this place and ruin him by proxy. Null been forced to rely stuff like Bitcoin because it's one of the very few things he can get as donations that hard to for his enemies to interfere with, and that's not gonna be viable for the masses of users.

Trying to turn this site into a revenue generator has been tried and he's screwed at nearly every turn because his enemies are determined to ruin that for him.
 
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None of us are going to be standing around your coffin in forty years’ time. It is fine to want to find someone who will.

You stood by your principles and burnt your life down to do it. It’s okay to expect someone else to pick the baton up now.

Change your name legally, do consulting/gig work for a bit, cut all ties with existing internet folk. Your enemies will be happy to feel they “won”. You know how to disappear.

Build something for yourself for once. A family. A normie life. A future that doesn’t involve schlepping around Eastern Europe relying on donations that are increasingly difficult to get.
 
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So shut down the subforums that aren't worth the hassle. Bring the site back to its original focus of discussing Chris pooping on himself, and maybe a few other high-profile weirdos who are interesting enough to earn their own subforum, and then most of the hangers-on and crusaders will leave and take their dumb politics with them and the place won't feel like such a burden to run anymore.
 
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I'm sympathetic with this position and it would probably be best for you to nuke this site and start a normal life. Remember that family comes in many shapes and sizes, what's important is you get out of there and live. Form bonds with people. Live your life away from this bullshit. This was originally created as an escape but it's become a prison. You have obviously lost your passion for this site and looking at how things are.... I really can't blame you. Though I think it's important to fight this "right think," "wrong think," mentality it's not your responsibility and the site was formed to laugh at eccentric/insane people, not for politics. I had never really thought about the political side of anything on here until recently. I mostly saw it as edge lord attention whoring and regurgitation of stale pol memes. But to see it take shape outside of this world.... has been a real black pill for me.

The age of the lolcow ended somewhere between a group of children getting a autistic man to shove a clay medallion up his ass and paranoid lunatics starting a charity to build a well in Africa to prove their moral superiority over a middle aged man who complains about playing video games all day. We can never go back to the way it was.
 
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Never thought I'd see someone like you crowing about wanting to start a family. Didn't really have you pegged for the sentimental type. That's irrelevant though. If you think a family is going to make you feel more stable and accomplished in the long run then you're just being naive. Starting a family isn't easy and it's not something just anyone can do successfully. It's certainly not something you want to rush into or manufacture for your own benefit. Love takes time and genuine mutual feelings. Actual love that is, not what the general populace would have you believe love is today.

That aside you really should be proud of yourself. You've accomplished a lot in such a short period of time. Most people can't say they've successfully run even one website much less two of three. Especially not websites of this nature that require so much time, effort, and determination to keep running. Don't you realize how many people would kill to have your level of success as compared to their own mediocrity? I doubt you really want to start a family and settle down. It's more likely that your depressed state of mind at the moment has led you to the conclusion that it would because society has told you that it's what is supposed to be normal. You can't be blamed for believing that. However, I can tell you from experience that settling down is incredibly stressful and unfulfilling. What's worse is that unlike a website a marraige isn't something you can so easily wipe your hands of.

I'm not saying your wrong. All I'm saying is that you should sit down and really consider if what you think you want right now is what you really want right now or if those feelings are stemming from something else and these purported desires for so called stability are just a means by which to avoid the real issue. Just food for thought. Best of luck, Josh.
 
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Thanks for getting all this out there, Null. There's been a lot of stuff about the forum that's been bothering me, and your last point touches on it. I won't ignore your other points though.



Family shit: The biological imperative caught up to you, which is normal at your age. Thankfully, you're not in the worst possible position to return to programming, and that shit's ideal for working from home. Putting down roots with a nice girl somewhere in the countryside could be an option, and a few years down the road, you'll discover to your delight that babies are the greatest lolcows of all especially when you made them yourself. I wish you the best in that endeavor, fam. Oh, and if you fucking hate the public school system, homeschooling co-ops are a thing and from what I hear, they kick ass.

Free speech: Fighting for free speech fucking sucks, because the front line of the battle is defending speech that fucking sucks. Hate speech is an actual thing, though you'd never know it anymore because now that hate speech has been essentially banned from the internet, all internet users characterize all speech that they do not personally agree with as hate speech.

The fight also sucks because, as you said, few people give any shits about actual free speech. I personally believe that this is a symptom of societal decay. The packaged mass entertainment industry has failed us. The press has failed us. The educational system -- both primary and higher ed -- has failed us. Social mass media has failed us. Society has failed itself, and I believe we're watching the consequences unfold.

I've come to believe that democracy only works, and freedom is only worthwhile, when the majority of the people are properly educated and morally grounded. Perhaps the majority still is, but on the internet in particular, that majority is silent. Withdrawing from the internet is a good and healthy thing to do right now.

The Kiwi Farms: I've not been on this forum long relative to a lot of people; I joined in late 2018 and admittedly, I joined out of spite for an internet community I formerly identified with (namely, Something Awful). I grew attached to this place because there were vanishingly few places on the internet where I could voice my concerns with the direction the world was turning, and because while this community did not value the privacy of lolcows, there were strict, well-defined, well-understood limits on what would be done to lolcows. The community believed strongly in documenting people, talking about people, and mocking people, but the community did not fuck with people. This is a world apart from the monster that most of the internet has evolved into -- while the Kiwi Farms's treatment of strange, reprehensible people is best described as a public shaming, Twitter's response to any identified persona non grata more resembles a public stoning. If I had a thread here, my life would be merely mocked because this site has limits that it does not cross; social media mobs on every network seek to spill their target's blood.

In recent weeks, though, I've been enjoying the Kiwi Farms less and less. I value the site as one of the few remaining places where I can say that trannies are simply a rebranding of the furry otherkin schizos that used to plague the internet, but saying that is merely satisfying, not enjoyable. Talking about politics was fun, too, back when it was just about mocking people who had consumed so much partisan dogma that they had lost their minds and sought to indiscriminately murder people who looked or dressed differently. Now that the violent, autistic rage is no longer unusual and no longer confined to the internet, it is no longer funny.

That points to another issue: The internet in general has become very un-fun in recent months. Having fun online is difficult when everywhere you look, everybody is screaming for blood and shouting empty, emotionally-charged slogans at each other, seeking to rile each other up and grow their personal mobs. The best thing I've been able to do for my emotional state lately is control my inputs. Something Awful and ResetERA's insane userbases don't make me laugh anymore; they just make me angry. The same goes for every other place where I once sought amusement. This shit is neither as fun nor as funny as it used to be, and the time might be coming to start my escape tunnel.



As for the questions Null asked at the end of his post: I don't fuckin' know how to do any of that and keep this site alive. Josh, if this site stops being good for you, remember that you owe us nothing. Well, with the exception of shirts. I want my shirt.
 
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While I'm not old guard by any means (browsed but never signed up for years), I still felt rather disillusioned with the site by much of the board's response with the whole Section 230 thing, I can only imagine how fucking disappointing it would be watching it from Null's perspective.
I hate to say, I think that more then anything has shown the a rotation of the userbase, with many newer users being not of the old mindsets.
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