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Towards the Reformation of a Once Great Site || kuro5hin.org

The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20090522060440/http://www.kuro5hin.org:80/story/2008/5/5/223049/8502

[[P]](https://web.archive.org/web/20090522060440/http://www.kuro5hin.org/print/2008/5/5/223049/8502)**[Towards the Reformation of a Once Great Site](https://web.archive.org/web/20090522060440/http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/5/5/223049/8502)**

By fudboy in Meta

Thu May 08, 2008 at 07:57:17 AM EST

Tags: control, authority, skateboards, crapflooding ( all tags)

Kuro5hin.org sure has changed a lot over the years. When it was first fired up it promptly drained what little brain power existed at slashdot including the more intelligent slashdot trolls, which was fine by taco as they've been able to revel in half - baked ideology and presumptions ever since, with nary a challenge to spoil the party. K5 went on to produce a stimulating culture and an excellent body of work, and things were looking pretty good.

But then something odd happened. Some genuine mentally ill people appeared and started to wreck up the place. Perhaps they resented the superior intelligence of k5 discourse, or maybe they got riled up when their stupid opinions were brushed aside and deservedly ignored. Their response however was quite ferocious- aggressive and persistent vulgarity flooded the site. Any attempt by smart people to have a good conversation would be targeted and clobbered under their offensive offensive.

People are often confused as to why these vulgar and disgusting morons stayed and kept at it. What was the payoff? It is really straight forward. The idiots could win. It seemed to them that they could hurt the people that made them feel so stupid with their well formed sentences and perfectly courteous brilliance. The more they piled on the brain dead nonsense, the more rewarding seemed the exodus. Now we have a little more than Kuro5hin beaten down, nothing better than a useless wreck of stupid jokes and 'shock', with the occasional reasonable person stopping in from time to time to see if the site is still as utterly worthless as feared, and it always is. You scattered few intelligent people are my target audience here. It is to you that I write this.

Recently the site management has imposed a $5 cover to try and limit all the really miserable and pointless abuse. This might work out in the long run, however it only needs looking to metafilter to see how that degrades into an insular circle jerk of self congratulatory conceit. This effect is effected by two mechanisms: annoyance over the $5 entry fee met with a threshold for deleting comments or banning that is really very low. So you end up with a another useless, annoying site with a decent archive of material from a few years back. Clearly this is not a viable solution for K5, especially considering that it is starting the process with a cruel and stupid userbase.

There is another way. Since the real problem is letting stupid people participate in the first place, filtering them out should be the main focus of not only pruning the existing userbase but also the primary concern for admitting new members. The principle is clear, what remains is a plan to implement such a system while accomodating Trusty Rusty's unusually persistent Ideals and his indubitable incurable indolence. I have such a solution to present to you few readers still interested in restoring this once great site.

The details are simple and so I'll be brief. What is needed is a sort of 'second queue' where interested people can submit what amounts to an application for admittance. The submission will have a unique form that contains the desired username, some basic intelligence testing, an essay section and the means for the supplicant to join the discussion and asseverate their solicitation. The thing will be put to vote and the hopeful will either be in or out. Simple really.

The end result is that the existing users get to excercise some control over who gains entry, the new user has invested some time in proving their mettle and everyone has more reason to sustain the local culture. It seems clear to me that the $5 dupe tax could be dropped. Which leaves us with a bright tomorrow as the really miserable elements are finally and permanently driven away and word propagates across the world that the once glorious Kuro5hin is finally under control.

I too remember Adequacy fondly. Lord, just the other day I ran across some TechTV clip where they read "Is Your Son a Computer Hacker". It was, I can say without fear of contradiction, epic win.

Also, "indubitable incurable indolence." Well said.

\\\__

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a guy fawkes mask lulzing forever." -- LilDebbie

I remove my pants, and rub k5's bare stomach with the mango now. It is very juicy, and k5 begins licking it's fingers.

Okay, your turn again..

baaaaaaaaaarrrrrf.

VEGETARIAN: An Indian word meaning "lousy hunter"

DID YOU ALSO TAKE THE RETARDED GIRL TO THE JUNIOR PROM BECAUSE THATS ESSENTIALLY THE OTI EQUIVALENT OF A KUROSHIT MOVIN ON UP TO THE FAILSTATE OF DREW CURTIS???

not in favor of more metawankery, but your piece is better than psychologist's. A few observations:

  • cts is right--navel-gazing "how to save k5 articles" won't help the site (tried it myself, I know) grow back its lost limbs and former vitality. High-quality articles about science, tech, culture, and good fiction (there are gifted writers here) might though.
  • rusty isn't going to drop the $5 fee--he really sees it as a necessary evil to stop excessive abuse.
  • as I've whined before, the $5 fee wouldn't be so bad if it were combined with some amount K5 "promotion" on the webs--i.e., if it were countered by renewed participation and fresh blood. As it is, it's been totally negative, I think.
  • your idea is original, but is not without problems: 1) the recent cliqueish nature of K5 (= #kuro5hin modbomb faction) inhibits fair voting on shit like this and I can see supplicants getting blocked simply because one group of assholes decided to have some "fun". 2) the time/inconvenience needed to gain acceptance/entry to the site via your proposal would likely be a bigger barrier to membership than $5 via paypal, 3) K5 needs both writers and readers, your method only encourages new writers to join. People who will make intelligent comments are crucial, but it's not like those people all want to be subjected to our often vicious queue in the first place. (God knows I didnt when I first came here). 4) I would argue that Mistress Queue (which unfortunately has lapsed into complete irrelevance lately) is the best cure for null0 stupidity. Once she slaps you around you'll either promptly go away or remain fixated on her for the rest of your life...Problem is, why don't people submit stuff to queue? User base is too timid? Too apathetic?

Basically, I like the general principle-- we should be allowed to decide who gets in, or gets out--but I'm not sure how that can work, and neither are you. I.e., this is a somewhat flimsy solution tacked on at the end of your otherwise good article. Flesh out the conclusion/suggestion a bit more and I will vote this FP.

Section as-is.

"Depending on your perspective you are an optimist or a pessimist[,] and a hopeless one too." --trhurler

do so many people that "used" (I put it in quotes because they obviously have stayed and fanatically lurked--weird) this site have this goddamn messiah complex.

You're not our fucking savior and K5 doesn't need saving.  Get over yourself.

How is it that you mouth-breathing wankers that write this ridiculous story-format over and over and over again just don't get the fact that K5 is fine and probably as good as it ever was?

Get the point: if you want "quality" writing from "intelligent" users, go to Husi. You'll see all kinds of kinds of examples of just that type of fail you deserve for desiring such retarded content.

You know why K5 is not dying, never has been dying, has always been dying? Because it's full of people who actually DO think original thoughts from time to time. Go to Husi, see what I mean. I have honestly never read a single interesting, inspiring, useful story there. Ever. Not even one.

Go to any other site, now. If it's not boring political ranting (read: boring), it's dorky tech-crap like Slashdot. God, Slashdot is not even readable. The fan forums for Baldur's Gate are even better than that travesty of a site.

So, to this, the most recent Oh-Muh-Gawd-People-K5-Could-Be-So-Much-Betteh diatribe, I say this: go away. Go away. Never return. You are ruining it for the rest of us. You are using up valuable computer juice. Leave. Go away. Hide yourself back under whatever Niceness Is Nice rock you've crawled out from under and leave.

\\\_______________

I'm In LOVE!

YFI - whoever heard of someone distilling beer, FFS? - Nimey

Stage four has arrived! ( 3.00 / 6) ( #59)

by sllort on Tue May 06, 2008 at 04:01:24 PM EST

The Search for the Guilty is over with, now we can commence with the Slaughter of the Innocent.

Oh, Goody!

+1FP!!!

--

Warning: On Lawn is a documented liar.

This has been done to death, and then its slowly rotting corpse was done a few times for good measure. When the state of rot advanced and the maggots turned up, those who preferred not to participate in the doing to death suddenly expressed their desires to execute certain copulatory maneuvers on it. Some of them fondly remember the grease stain and the genital infection.

So can we drop this finally? K5 is not dying, just as a cyclist is not actually falling over despite the whole idea of two-wheel balance relying on perpetually "falling" to one side. There's no parts falling off K5 (to our knowledge). Well, besides perhaps some loose nuts and bolts in rusty's upper brain compartment and that's a matter of opinion and a factor that's been in a continual state of flux since K5's birth!

This site isn't carved on slabs of fucking marble you know. The K5 of yesterday isn't here any more (except in the Unsearchable Archives, where a Potent form of Doom is said to Lurk), just like the turn of the century dotcom bubble isn't here anymore. But you know what? We didn't have bee guy or mybostinks or Poopy or MMM or the trolling-and-overland-shipping underground back then either. Drop the nostalgia and move on already, you double nigger.

Also most of your linkage is non-sequitorial. Therefore I voted 0, abstain; I don't care about this shit enough to vote it down either.

--

JA I AM MADE OF DUR GHETTUR UND YOU ARE WORTH 0.005K MONIES

Because this second queue idea of yours would be sure to provide plenty of opportunity for vileness and vulgarity.

"I have a raging and unquenchable thirst [for turgid gay penis], and have had it for most of my life." - Michael fucking Crawford

high quality posts

...completely ironic, since my definition of quality is far different form the author's, and yet quality discussions is what the author is after

doubly ironic because the author, below his story, is engaging in the same "low quality" posts he rails against in his story above

irony detection meter asplode

I'm making a Low Budget HDV Filipino Horror Movie in NYC

anon at least 10 K5'ers in response. See what happens, bitches.

\\\_______________

I'm In LOVE!

This really sucks. Go back to slashdot fucker.

--

"Be the wire. Shhhh. Wires don't talk..."

good idea - make the dupes work out a decent ( none / 0) ( #79)

by mrbastard on Wed May 07, 2008 at 05:22:13 PM EST

character at least...

"ohmygod I have a boyfriend" - Wen Jian

It shall Contain Muche Shit For Ye All. Of Thise I Can Only Speak Truly.

\\\_______________

I'm In LOVE!

OMFG.

This is the fate that awaits us listening to this diary, even if it was written in jest. People, come to the alter of my truth. Believe in the healing power of irony and down-to-earth living. Reject the silly retardedness of bourgeois values and moronic self-obsession.

People, I beg thee!

\\\_______________

I'm In LOVE!

Just to clarify my position, I've been a regular lurker and sometimes commentator here for almost a decade now.

This is not, has not, and never will be a 'great site'.  Participation in this website has always been a masturbatory measure that is now equal to bulletin spam on myspace and twittering.

There have been some interesting stories, and of course there has been no shortage of deep, thoughtful discussion on here.  But really, if this site disappeared tomorrow, very few people would care.  Most of you would move on to somewhere else.  Some of you really creepy people would probably cry yourselves to sleep, but the overall response would be more along the lines of flushing a dead goldfish down the toilet than having the family dog put down.

This story, and all the others about how K5 is dying and the trolls are taking over only serve as a shining example of how unimportant this website is in the wider picture.  If Rusty can't even be bothered to care for his own creation enough to actually fix things, and the collective response is nothing more than whining and yearning for the 'good ol days', thats a pretty good sign that the party is over and it's time to move on.

You and your brethren are like those people who talk at length about how special and cool the 60s were, thinking that being there made you special when really talking at length about it just makes you a tool.

Get over it.

  • baby steps by fudboy, 05/18/2008 04:20:58 PM EST ( none / 0)

um, no... but i'm sure it's already been said... ( none / 0) ( #116)

by flummox on Wed May 21, 2008 at 04:09:14 PM EST

... or you realize this is a pretty stupid idea. more than half of YOUR intended target just won't take the test. you want people to "prove themselves" or should it be prove themselves to a community that didn't have to. i didn't pay for my sub years ago and i have no intentions of ever paying for my sub here, or any place where the content is, in part, provided by me.

get over the trolls. they come and go and really have no longterm consequences.

p.s. your use of wording is very annoying and i can see you are trying to pat your own back by using them. so... should YOU have to take a test to keep your account?

p.s.s. i really wish i could impose some tests for people who use public transportation... fuck it!... let's do it for personal transit, too. but guess what? i can't do that. so what do i do? suck it up and get some headphones and sunglasses.

you need some K5 headphones and sunglasses. that is the solution here. not some obstacle course designed to weed out those not desired.

did you ever consider the flip to your coin? a bunch of smug people all bitching and moaning because they "passed a test" to get here and "paid their dues"... great. so now i have to listen to that in every tirade!

awesome...

and in honor of the late 80's and early 90's... not.

"do you like it?? my butthole??"

- Cap'n Flummox