Rich “Lowtax” Kyanka has passed away.

[Man of Doom]

Welp.

 

 

And it also turned out that not only did he turn out to be a massive POS in general who not only went off a cliff as the years passed, he was also a serial domestic abuser.

 

No seriously, I only really knew about him from Doom House and that’s literally about it.

 

Plus, Something Awful pretty much changed the Internet into what we now see today, for better and for worse.

“Better” in that I can imagine that there were not only tons of good memories to the point of lasting friendships and even marriages being forged there and many other adjacent places before the rise of sites like Reddit, it was basically social media before social media was even a thing to the point of even pre-dating MySpace; also, you can never forget how SA was pretty much the birthplace of memes as we know them (similar to places like YTMND). 

“Worse” in that, well, Lowtax actively worked to make the site revolve around him, even if it meant new and potentially lucrative ideas being shot down and users being banned for “not being edgy enough” (seriously, he wanted SA to be more like K*w*farms as far as 2019 and felt it was getting too “intellectual” in the mid-tens); also, certain developments led to the rise of “anti-SJW” culture (as well as all the dominos that fell from that) and the birth of places like 4chan but that’s a whole another can of worms.

 

Needless to say, how he ran the site basically resulted in responses like this, even from the regulars as soon as news of his passing spread:

 

In essence, I honestly can’t help but feel that this all very much feels like the kind of cautionary tale of how not to live one’s life.

 

And I can’t help but feel sad for his family.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Man of Doom

[deleted-account]

Literally was just reading about this from that Fragmaster video a sec ago

Actually freaking the fuck out right now, I just got done watching my yearly "Doom House" video watch I do with friends every year.

If he actually died, a major piece of internet history has gone with him.  For whatever he was as a person, my earliest internet memories are attributed to him in some form or another.

[Biodegradable]

Lowtax and SomethingAwful has been something I've developed an interest in these past few months, learning both the history of the site and Lowtax's own decline, tumultuous personal life and eventual self-destruction has been a somewhat sobering thing to look into. His revealed history of domestic abuse sadly doesn't reflect well, but I won't go into that. I actually watched some of his last ditch-effort streams on YouTube where he desperately begged people to donate SuperChat money to go towards his legal funds for his ongoing lawsuit against his wife as he tried to maintain an audience by shoveling large quantities of processed meat into his face and even put a vibrating anal plug in himself that would vibrate when someone donated. Lowtax seemed very depressed and desperate given he was in his forties, was borrowing money from his parents, begging his Twitch chat for donations and had no other prospects because he quote, "Ran a comedy forum for 20 years and has no skills."

 

7 hours ago, Robo_Cola said:

If he actually died, a major piece of internet history has gone with him.

 

Given the fact that Fragmaster has suddenly shown up after not posting online, be it on SA or literally anywhere else, in many years I'm willing to believe it. It was also confirmed by his estranged wife in the SA thread. Her lawyer called to tell her that Lowtax had shot himself.

---

This is a pretty harrowing and depressing ending for such an influential figure from Ye Olde Internet days and I'm sure some former SomethingAwful posters here will have rather mixed feelings about this news in general given all that's come to light about Lowtax in recent years. All I can really say is my condolences to his family.

Edited November 11, 2021 by Biodegradable

[deleted-account]

4 minutes ago, Biodegradable said:

 

I'm not sure man, all I can say is I need to see an official obituary at this point to confirm anything.  I really hope this is just a bad joke but the Fragmaster video seems pretty legit.  God, wish I didn't decide to relax and drink a bit tonight, totally backfired on me.

[june gloom]

I don't believe in not speaking ill of the dead. The man was a serial abuser, tried to have his wife (that he abused) deported, and ran a website that fostered the toxic morass that is today's internet culture and inspired a generation of hateful nerds , a website that has soft-shoed its Nazi infestation for years and runs ads for Kiwif*rms, but some folk try to unconvincingly disavow themselves from "the bad parts" of a hateful forum just because they wasted their teens and twenties (and untold amounts of money) on it.

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

In other news Uwe Boll wakes up in panic as a ghostly bright neon text that reads "+10 Assist" hovers in front of him for a few seconds.

I really have no idea of how to feel about this, I have never been on SA, neither he gives anybody a reason to be sad about it (didn't knew about the domestic abuse/deportation thing until now, so clearly he's not worthy of a RIP), and until an obituary shows up I don't rule out the possibility of a prank or just trying to outwit his trolls and start a new life.

So.... okay???

Edited November 11, 2021 by Sergeant_Mark_IV

[Caffeine Freak]

Never really spent much time on Something Awful. Was on there maybe... a few times in the early-mid 2000's? At that point in time, I mostly got my popcorn entertainment from other early sites---Ebaumsworld, Newgrounds, Rinkworks, and then later on, Youtube and Liveleak, among others. So I mostly gave SA a pass through the years, and was only aware of Lowtax in a very peripheral sense. 

 

Still, it's interesting to read about the downward spiral someone's life can take in their later years, especially when said spiral is documented online. Assuming what other people have said here is relatively accurate, I'm sure it'll make for an interesting vid or two when the Youtube commentary community inevitably releases some postmortem deep dives on his online journey. 

[Murdoch]

Well this is a thing. Apparently he shot himself.

 

I used to browse Something Awful regularly in the early days, following Lowtax from - I think - PlanetQuake to it. The guy could write some good stuff back in the day, but it became pretty obvious that he was running out of material, and other creators were doing far better work as were the forum members. It's pretty clear why he drifted into the background in terms of actual content creation. There was one Comedy Goldmine, something about embarassing sex stories I think, that made me laugh so hard I damn near hurt myself. There was one guy doing bad movie reviews in the early 2000s who was genuinely funny. I never went on the forums, and probably stopped visiting the site altogether in the mid 2000s sometime. I realised I was going there more out of habit than getting any serious enjoyment out of it. The Twitter comment about him not being responsible for or actively hindering the good things that came from the site; I would largely concur with the first part, didn't know enough to concur with the second part.

 

Domestic abusers are less than pond scum. I would say I feel sorry for his kids but supposedly he disowned them anyway (not sure if that's true or not) so... ? We are all responsible for our actions (except in rare cases of genuine mental impairment) and so I find myself struggling to find any shred of sympathy for the man himself. His own choices lead him to this end.

[lazygecko]

His ex-wife confirmed via her lawyer that lowtax had shot himself.

 

 

 

The only tangentially SA-related thing I've been keeping up with is occasionally watching some of slowbeef's streams of retro games. I know the whole Let's Play format started on Something Awful in the 2000s but I can't recall if it was slowbeef specifically who came up with. Anyway, that's just one of a multitude of phenomenon that shaped internet culture which can be traced back to that forum, which next to no one online today has any idea about. The ur-meme All Your Base came from there as well.

[whatup876]

SA is an interesting site because it had an impact on internet culture but it seems to be mostly ignored even if people know what let's plays or Slenderman are.

4chan is seen as "the internet hate machine but they gave us some memorable memes, i guess" and even that comes from SA but that times, it seems like 4chan robbed SA's throne and got second hand credit. (some say Moot was banned there but i heard he used SA to recruit mods for his site)

Both also contributed to internet asshole behavior but in different ways where SA seems to have the anime hating "2 nukes weren't enough" jokes part and 4chan would call you a slur whilst posting a Touhou reaction image. (i think how anti-anime SA was is what mainly seperated the 2, even if 4chan's furry ban may have come from SA, tho i vaguely remember Moot himself hating furries)

 

The fact that one site charged its userbase and the other had anonymity is the bigger difference.

It made SA come more off as "ah, yes" pretentious/smartass/elite attitude while 4chan had that "insane hobo" vibe, like they wanted to look bad. (might fit that "NORMIES LEAVE" secret club mentallity)

But at the same time, as time passes and internet changes, SA is often associated more with "Troll's Remorse" if that has something to do with its userbase putting money on it, while 4chan's anonymity might as well enforce its userbase seperate themselves from posts that might as well be written by shapeless blobs.

 

"Troll's Remorse" seems like a buzzword used by people that never grew out of a certain phase, but i think it fits with actual examples of false character development, when someone is doing it for performative reasons and is still an asshole.

They change anything, be it political alignments or what website they use the most, but actual character and some of this is specially relevant with the annoying political/culture war shit that makes so many people look insane.

Like, there has to be a balance/alternative from EgoRaptor being so lame he distanced himself from his Newgrounds culture and someone like Metokur trying too hard to be 4chan/ED/KW personified.

Specially when some like Sseth or Oney can be notorious for still having a following and being entertaining despite some occasional edgy jokes, but they're not even as edgy as they were before.

 

Even with what SA, 4chan and the others gave, there's still a lot that can be said about the mainstream websites, which can be worrying because they're literal giants from massive corporations.

People are surprised Twitter is promoting NFT's when this very same website once allowed a terrorist organization to use their platform (in which you can even connect to some horrible events in 2015/16 because of their ease of spreading propaganda) until ISIS' account was hacked with porn.

Youtube is notorious for being more anti-content creator, terrible management and now they're removing public dislikes.

With Reddit, you can make an arguement of how up/downvotes influence a certain behavior of "the right opinion" while its original founder was an activist (something to do with spreading some info from paywalled journals? need correction here) that died and i recall some "about" section of the site erasing his name and naming 2 other guys as the main founders.

Tumblr didn't do shit with porn/CP bots until they decided to "solve it" by using filters that banned porn entirely, harming even non-nsfw content and forcing creators to use other platforms, only for Twitter to have a worse format for actual content creators, still having shit algorithms and the annoying traits that defined Tumblr users suddenly being spread to Twitter, including minors who overshare personal details and triggers on Carrd profiles.

Even Deviantart is getting more restricted towards creators, besides the god awful layout. (lots of websites also get worse layouts too)

And i still don't get Discord being used as an alternative to forums when it's a private chat based site.

 

Even if the old internet had bad things, it seems not many actually learned from the bad stuff nor the good stuff like "not your personal army" or "be careful with what you post on the internet".

Because tech is more common among people but they're tech illiterate and use products meant to be accessable.

And even with the bad that came/comes from these sites, some good also had to come out of it right? even 4chan isn't just /pol/, /b/ or /v/, some people use it for drawthreads or what porn they jack off too. (/co/ is specifically seen as the most "Tumblr-like" part of the site even)

[Revenant100]

Seeing as Lowtax was the first person to bring widespread public attention to the hitherto unknown and obscure little thing known as the "Doom comic": http://web.archive.org/web/19991104083753/http://planetquake.com/articles/doomcomic.shtm

 

We've lost who has perhaps been the most influential force in shaping the direction of Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, and the entirety of Doom's revival and resurgence in the 21st century. What would Doom as we know it today be without the Doom comic? And who would know the Doom comic now the way we do without Lowtax?

[whatup876]

Maybe the phrase "rip and tear" and other memorable lines, but when i think of the "you are the Slayer, the most powerfull being on the universe" i always link it to 2 specific sources.

Death Battle's Doomguy vs Master Chief video and this series of copypastas on 4chan: (watch out for some crude language)
 

Spoiler

This comic being done by Faraz Parsa.

In a way it's funny because this whole overpraise/idolization got sort of official but 4chan hates it because "it's Reddit".

 

 

[Koko Ricky]

I used to frequent SA back in the early 2000s. My main memory is of Cliff Yablonksi's "I Hate You" pages, which are thankfully still up and make for some great lols if you're feeling especially tasteless.

[Dark Pulse]

Guess he's not winning the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.

[Woolie Wool]

I remember when I toxxed myself for Hillary Clinton, then the D&D mods did a special thing where you could donate $10 (the cost of restoring a banned SA account) to RAINN to get out of being banned, and everyone who did so, including me, was banned anyway when Lowtax overrode the mods' decision. Fuck that guy. Now that he's gone I might even consider coming back.

 

 

[PsychEyeball]

Another ex-goon here, my personal dealings with Lowtax involved him shadow banning me from SA over a Twitter argument. Should give you an idea of the pettiness of the guy.

 

Something Awful was lightning in a bottle and it was clear that the guy had no idea on how to control it. Many great communities came together on that website, but most of these happenings was despite Lowtax's best efforts and not because. He always seemed stuck in that early 2000s mentality and never moved on from there, always trying to catch back the spirit of those times even when it was clear these times would never return.

 

And then came the words he was a domestic abuser and it was clear you couldn't root for him anymore.

 

The guy always had a potential to do funny things but he sadly felt stronger about wanting to hurt others for personal enjoyment. The fact that he had a forum about doing callout posts on members of its own forum (Helldump) was clearly an indication of where Lowtax's priorities lied. Thank goodness the forum failed because he couldn't be bothered to get the search function of his own forums to work at the time.

[ChopBlock223]

People say he's guilty of creating this or that subculture they don't like, personally I don't put much stock in that, because Kyanka didn't conjure those people out of thin air.

 

Though I'll give him props for taking Uwe Boll up on his "fight me IRL", facing off against a dude who's far larger than him, and unlike Kyanka, actually knew how to box, I hesitate to call him brave, because this is a dude who beat his women.

I'll say I feel sorry for his kids, but from what I know about him and certain company he's kept, I suspect that he wasn't that good to them either.

 

Anyway, Uwe Boll quit making movies and now runs a restaurant, apparently it's quite good, if you're ever in those parts check it out.

[Murdoch]

Apparently the new owner discovered the forum had been operating without backup for years.

[Walter confetti]

I know marginally Lowtax and sure that this person was really a character, in good and bad, from what i read. RIP

[mrthejoshmon]

I wasn't exactly a "fan" per say, more of a viewer (?).

 

My knowledge of Lowtax and who he was/what he did started and ended with his Gaming Garbage series and his appearances in Retsupurae (remember Retsupurae? Damn that just kinda died huh). I used to enjoy Gaming Garbage quite a bit, then he kinda went quiet for a long time and all of a sudden he came back without the co-host with the annoying voice (Shmorky or something, dunno what happened there, probably don't want to know). The quality of the vids were the same old schlock but they were that entertaining kind of trash like they were meant to be.

 

The livestreams were insufferable however and I could never make it through them, as cold as it is to say it felt like I was about to become a snuff film spectator at any moment, if you watch the livestream archives you can see how bad he truly got and I never knew if he deserved it or not for I had no context, I had no idea why at the time and I had no interest in finding out, turns out that the truth was quite bad so I guess it really was blissful ignorance.

 

What an odd event this has been, wasn't expecting it or expecting any of what I found out. Huh.

[Marcaek]

18 hours ago, Man of Doom said:

Plus, Something Awful pretty much changed the Internet into what we now see today, for better and for worse.

 

SA merely gave what was already behind the computer screens a place to fester and grow

[DannyMan]

Damn, I remember watching his videos on Youtube.

[Woolie Wool]

23 minutes ago, Marcaek said:

 

SA merely gave what was already behind the computer screens a place to fester and grow

 

If it hadn't been SA, it probably would have been some other site just like it.

[ChopBlock223]

1 hour ago, mrthejoshmon said:

I used to enjoy Gaming Garbage quite a bit, then he kinda went quiet for a long time and all of a sudden he came back without the co-host with the annoying voice (Shmorky or something, dunno what happened there, probably don't want to know).

The short of it is that Shmorky is a person you wouldn't in a million years let be anywhere near your kids (for quite a wide variety of different and mostly disturbing reasons), even if you were still in the room to check on them at all times.

 

Naturally, Lowtax hired him as a babysitter on the regular (probably out of sheer negligence/apathy), which, upon reflection may have contributed to the outcome of the custody battles.

 

57 minutes ago, Marcaek said:

SA merely gave what was already behind the computer screens a place to fester and grow

Exactly. If it wasn't SA it would be any number of other places.

[whatup876]

I've also seen people make edgy jokes about his death but considering the nature of SA, it sort of its in a fucked up way.

In other news, DPS and Nikocado outlived him, Shadman was arrested (for "Assault with a Deadly Weapon", like an Al Capone situation where it's not the reasons you'd expect) and Goatse joined the NFT meme.

Oh and someone did a Luigi's Mansion stream related to these news... something something "gee i wonder how Maddox is going".

 

I wonder if Lowtax ever interacted with Keemstar because the latter is somewhat popular to Zoomers, so their exposure to Youtuber drama is like their version of lolcow culture.

[LadyMistDragon]

Couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Rest in piss, you fucking piece of shit. The one thing that gives me respite is the fact that you ended up killing yourself, rather than taking pride in the both good and bad you did for Internet culture (I actually never realized he was just as much a bully IRL, sounds kind of like the YouTuber AtheismisUnstoppable in high school, the guy that had a fucking kangaroo as his avvie, like c'mon, you're not that dorky despite your voice).

 

In all honesty, SA did have lots of good come out of it ( @PsychEyeball, some of his YT content was hilarious, omg), but at what cost? I'm not so hypocritically PC as to immediately start moaning about the damage it's done, but on the other hand, I can only shake my head with sadness with how the 4chan shit that spun off from it was responsible for electing a meme candidate as PUSA (and that's about as political as I ever hope to get here, unless some idiot starts saying "Free Impie" or somesuch).

 

On another note, he's actually around 5 years younger than I guessed, but holy shit, he looks 15 years older than he actually was! That's what comes of hating and not fully committing to it, I guess.

[ChopBlock223]

In Kirk's defense, an anus stretched wide open is more aesthetically pleasing and tasteful than a shitscribble of a monkey or lion, assembled from random premade parts by an AI.

[Naked Snake]

RIP I guess, SA was a fun site for a long time but I dropped off in the mid-2000s and never really looked back. Never was a forum member, seems like it was a happening joint back in the day.

[Mr. Freeze]

I feel nothing. 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Mr. Freeze

[caco_killer]

Hi, haven't posted here in a long time. But I did find out about SA from here so I thought I should post something about it.