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You still reading? If so, why? || kuro5hin.org

The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20090726144926/http://www.kuro5hin.org:80/story/2009/1/20/232242/017

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

I've been here almost three years. ( 2.35 / 14) ( #4)

by Brogdel on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 12:02:34 AM EST

so I'm not really in the group you want, but fuck you anyway. I come here because, for some reason, people at K5 like to hear the ramblings of an alcoholic drug-addicted piece of poor white trash.

... allows my essays on mental illness to reach more readers than would be the case if I only hosted them on my own website.

--

The only winner is Michael Crawford. After the fall of society, the only currency will be Free Music CDs. -- ensignyu

Low cost, occasional value ( 2.62 / 8) ( #7)

by localman on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 12:13:21 AM EST

I've been here since 2001.

I come by every couple months to see the handful of newly posted stories.  On those visits there's something interesting often enough that I remember to come back a few months later to look again.  I agree with the common opinion that things are degrading, though.

There are some entertaining personalities here, even though I generally find the discussion to be tiresomely loaded with a puffed up geek-machismo that turns me off.  And it seems to turn off most newcomers as well.

The in-jokes that have become increasingly dominant in the submission queue are boring to all but a very few.  The $5 new signup fee (is that incomprehensible policy still in effect?) seems to have killed the new blood that would feed an evolving community.

I think k5 had a unique voice.  I was curious where it was going but it's stalled and almost petered out.  I still like the echos enough to come back until they finally board things up.  I suppose this is what happens when a culture tries too hard to preserve itself in stasis.

the high probability ( 2.95 / 20) ( #8)

by osm on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 12:22:39 AM EST

of a complete and spectacular michael crawford meltdown keeps me coming back.

-------

hot chicks

but they kept pulling me back in.

I left for like six months or something, and then other K5 members started to troll me at Slashdot, Facebook, and other web sites until I finally came back to K5 and they stopped trolling me at those places.

I keep trying to get out and quit, but they stalk me all over the Internets. Then when I return here, they zero rate my comments and then giggle about it in some IRC chatroom like gay cheerleaders for some retarded sport like curling.

--------

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it! Mind over Matter Fringe Science for the win!

don't even fucking know ( 2.33 / 6) ( #10)

by Blarney on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 12:43:18 AM EST

Perhaps there will be a half decent story one of these days. Or perhaps not. Maybe Rusty will drop the $5 thing, some story will make a big hit, and K5 will be hopping again. Or not. Don't really care at this point.

Maybe I just want to know if Ogg Frog will ever be released. That seems to be the current plot point.

A couple years ago, I said: ( 2.57 / 7) ( #15)

by Keepiru on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 03:58:16 AM EST

Those of us left here are the ones who refuse to admit that the party's long since over, the sun's rising, and it's time to go home.

The way I see K5 these days is as a monument to something that was a truly great phenomenon. Stories like this bring a few of us back every now and then to hold a reunion, have a cheap laugh, and then go back to the other places we've moved on to.

From here

Defiance?  Hope that Bee Man or GNU Screen man or Died While Backpacking man will return?  The latest pleb's guide to homebrew?

Pictures of Rusty's yacht?  Inoshiro's latest project?

Honestly, I abandoned the site for a year or two but never dropped it from my bookmarks.  Now I sometimes fade in and out, sometimes voting to nudge things along.  Today's K5 is something of a sick reality TV show, a sort of "dumbest troll of the week" club.

An interesting, somewhat related read is at

http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html

Although it has been hard lately. Nobody signs up anymore and most of the people that are still here are very rude :(

Your pal,

I ♥ Kur0shin

to have another tab open to K5. It's not like continuing to come here has a great cost, unless you're the type of asshole that goes through multiple account in the K$ era.

only come here to mod down shitty stories ( 2.66 / 6) ( #21)

by N0574 on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 07:57:21 AM EST

like this one.

"The world would be a far far better place if all of the pedantic anti-semantic assholes, such as yourself, realised they were afflicted with acute peotillomania, and sought out proper psychiatric help." - postDigital

sometimes people say funny stuff ( 2.88 / 9) ( #23)

by mrbastard on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 09:08:46 AM EST

and that's that

"ohmygod I have a boyfriend" - Wen Jian

The quest to find the pure troll ( 1.66 / 3) ( #25)

by Wen Jian on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 09:31:30 AM EST

I used to think that K5 was interesting articles, but with banal idiotic commentary. But then I realised how powerful trolling is in the pursuit of truth - the scales fell from my eyes, so to speak. These days I'm beginning to wonder whether 'good trolls' are being outnumbered by 'bad trolls' - ie those that really are peurile and stupid - but then, how would I ever know?

It was an experiment in lulz. - Rusty

i don't have any friends in real life ( 2.92 / 14) ( #27)

by j1mmy on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 11:45:37 AM EST

:-(

the market needs state guidance in order to remain stable

understand that, or be a retard who understands nothing of economics

- circletimessquare

Looking around the queue, ( 2.50 / 8) ( #30)

by tdillo on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 01:12:36 PM EST

I see a remarkable number of idiots (by which I mean people who couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel) still asking stupid questions about k5. Like OMG!, k5 is like sooooo last decade, like it's all dying and shit. It's not even retro. I mean really, it's almost unbearable how uncool and untrendy k5 is. There hasn't been so much as a layout change in what? Like for-Evah! In Internet years that's like DIVIDE BY ZERO.

So, I gotta say, what the hell? Why are *you* still reading, even if only occasionally?

Seriously, I'm not even interested.

Now, get off my lawn!

The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood.Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.

I got nowhere else to go? ( 2.50 / 6) ( #34)

by Wain on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 01:36:17 PM EST

/b/ doesn't come with the free side of "intelligence fries" that k5 does.

Kinda miss the K5 cliques and cabals tho.

I'm so post-modern that I understand that I can post legitimate content and do enjoy doing so, but I'm not above writing "fuck apple computer" or reposting stories from David Duke for their shock value.

I would slay dragons or finish oggfrog for one of your gumjobs - Michael Crawford

and if I had to guess, I'd think K5 will live as long as Rusty does... or at least makes provision for its continuation.

The appeal of the site varies with content. I lurk occasionally until I see something of interest... then log on.

But why do I even lurk...

I think I supplement my social needs here. The more diversity in relationships I experience in meatspace, the less frequently I check in here. That's a function of both time and rapport. When I'm busy, I have enough enlightening conversation. When I am more solitary and less busy, I'm drawn to mingle with the personalities here.

There's another draw... the conversations stay here... permanence. I can refer back to a previous conversation easily and link out also. So there is an easy flexibility in expression.

Still another draw is amplitude. When I write on K5, I know that my ideas are spreading further than on any other medium than I am aware. I can get feedback from a wide range of viewpoints.

Feedback. That's probably key. Anything I post here will probably get some sort of feedback. And even thought that feedback is often rude, it is usually smart. K5 is truly where the smart get mean.

Its a good thing.

--

Search the Scriptures

Start with some cheap grace... Got Life?

closest thing to adequacy around $ ( 2.33 / 6) ( #40)

by loteck on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 03:14:43 PM EST

--

"You're in tune to the musical sound of loteck hi-fi, the musical sound that moves right round. Keep on moving ya'll." - Mylakovich

"WHAT AN ETERNAL MOBIUS STRIP OF FELLATIATIC BANALITY THIS IS." - Harry B Otch

  • It certainly is $ by Phssthpok, 01/22/2009 03:57:17 PM EST ( none / 0)
  • Adequacy.org by Zombie Gautama Buddha, 01/22/2009 11:04:33 PM EST ( 3.00 / 2)

I've been here too long to leave ( none / 1) ( #44)

by me0w on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 03:42:05 PM EST

Rusty promised to open up an old K5-folks home on his yacht. I'm waiting for my cabin.

Just because you are a crack whore doesn't mean we can't be friends.

if you're full of shit here then someone is gonna call you on it.

Most sites you get a cabal of people that you cannot question or you will get banned. Then there is a bunch of sycophants that suck their dicks for whatever reason. In the end most online communities are really immature and stupid if you look at them closely.

K5 is just the opposite. On the surface its stupid and immature, but if you look closely there are a lot of smart people here who will make you think. There are no limits on what you can say here. You can call rusty a lazy cunt and you won't get banned. So you are free to say what you really think.

Most people have left because most people want to be part of a cabal. They want some special status above the other users. K5 does not provide that. Even if you have posted a lot of front page articles here, no one is gonna stroke your ego. If you write something thats bullshit someone is gonna say you're full of shit, no matter what your previous contributions are, eg. localroger

But it would be nice to have more users. it gets boring trying to explain the difference between deficit and debt to lildebbie or arguing international politics with GoT when he doesn't know the difference between the UN and NATO.

I stay hoping that someday... ( 3.00 / 12) ( #50)

by czth on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 06:22:40 PM EST

... the K5 ASCII Reenactment Players will return.

I have a few technical articles that may be of interest that I could post: server-side IMAP filtering; internal DNS updates from DCHP host names; MythTV tweaking; maybe even some commentary about Word, although most of the interesting bits are probably under NDA; possibly some thoughts from my current part-time Master's course (programming languages, using OCaml), or some less technical rants about government reform (everyone has an opinion on how to fix government, and we know opinions are like armpits), or I could write about some of the books I've read lately (some finance/trading, some political, some fiction), or even something basic about firearms and shooting.

Maybe I'll try posting something; maybe I fear the trolls too much. There's also the time factor.

I don't know.$ ( 3.00 / 3) ( #54)

by V on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 07:50:53 PM EST

---

What my fans are saying:

"That, and the fact that V is a total, utter scumbag." VZAMaZ.

"well look up little troll" cts.

"I think you're a worthless little cuntmonkey but you made me lol, so I sigged you." re

"goodness gracious you're an idiot" mariahkillschickens

I'm going to keep voting on stories ( 1.25 / 4) ( #57)

by DaveBeast on Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 08:30:23 PM EST

until I get the message that says I cast the decisive vote.

We are united, we are fools, and we are America!

/b/ was okay for awhile. it had started to go downhill long before the whole hate scientology meme, but that was the absolute bottom for the *chans. still haven't bothered to go back, but the chans were good right around the height of /i/.

link aggregators? digg is intolerable and always was, for the most part. reddit still has good links sometimes, but the community has degraded to the point where it seems to be composed mostly of knee-jerk agreement. the atheism sub-reddit makes me sick, and i say that as someone who classifies himself as a weak atheist. they remind me of the knee-jerk atheism i had right around middle school. i outgrew that rather rapidly; reddit just seems to sink lower everytime i check.

metafilter has maintained a rather consistent quality since inception. like someone said earlier, there's no real community there - just a list of cool links.

k5 seems to self-select for the kind of users whom i would choose if i were starting from scratch. it's not perfect, but you have to admit that the barrier for admission here is rather high. not in the "some cabal's hand-picked selection" but rather in the way those who can't defend themselves (or learn to) tend to gtfo rather quick. it's brutal to watch, but i like the outcome.

i still check slashdot from time-to-time. just an overview of the stories, the comments are about on par with reddit. imho slashdot peaked right around 2000-2001 and then slid into mediocrity.

anyway, that's my take on this place. take it how you will.

And I think it's gonna be a long long time

'Till touch down brings me 'round again to find

I'm not the man they think I am at home

and also just out of habit/entertainment.

Feel like I know a lot about the people who post here such as MC, lil deb, MMM and bee guy - don't find that much on other sites.

I think I've been here for just over 5 years.. that's crazy, like 1/4 of my life!

I come here for the ghey-5 porn. ( 2.00 / 4) ( #67)

by superdiva on Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 07:52:33 AM EST

and because the diary ghetto regulars entertain me.

\\\___________________________________________

Psych-E

the trolls, obviously... ( 2.28 / 7) ( #68)

by mirko on Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 07:54:31 AM EST

I've been here for ages, just found a comment of mine written in 2003, so I guess I can write 6 years ven though I anonymously used to read that site beforehand.

I like the non pc-ness of people here: Diggers are Gen-Yers morons, Slashdotters are not what they used to be and of of these categories would barely resist more than a few days here.

Just take it that way: where else is the goatse an icon? who else knows about the tubgirl? where else can one learn to brew booze on a budget? where else will one dare posting a comment titled "omg its teh joooooz!".

You all are sons of bitches but I love you that way. :)

--

Join the Quick'n Dirty Jockeys...

so i can read it at work without it being too obvious.

to post a K5 is dying retread into the queue.

Another Kuron in a lifelong battle against

Acute Passéperger's Syndrome.

The Mundanity Of Mope.

-------

I like me, my wife likes me, my customers like me, because I'm the real article: what you see is what you get

The trolls amuse me ( 2.00 / 4) ( #79)

by Nimey on Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 10:07:09 AM EST

you still occasionally get intelligent stories (mainly from beeguy these days), and it's socially acceptable to tell someone to suck-start a shotgun.

All the pussies have fucked off to husi.

If only Rusty would do some goddamn work to improve the site, like fixing decade-old bugs.

--

Never mind, it was just the dog cumming -- jandev

sausalito is most certainly smoking imperial russian dick like a heroin addict smokes the pipe -- sausalito

My name is Nimey and I am mentally challenged. -- hugin

"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." -- Isaac Asimov

It's like living in the slums without the threat of getting shot. I still read a lot here but I don't post as much, because I've had to face the fact that my writing is changing. I used to write things that made sense to non beekeepers but these days that's not the case.

It doesn't hurt that I actually get paid to write stuff now and the people who pay are kind of picky about me publishing it anywhere else.

Still I owe an article on espresso machine repair, and an article there will be. I call it "Ogg/Espresso Repair" and it will be the end all to espresso repair manuals. Ok, no, it won't.

Voice of the Hive - Beekeeping and Bees for those who don't

new product announcements ( 2.33 / 3) ( #89)

by nateo on Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 02:03:28 PM EST

I'm here to hear about the release of OggFrog and Banga .  Once that happens I'm Audi5000.

--

there's no such thing as being too hard on anybody with grey hair and a chewbacca fixation if you ask me.

No idea. And here I could rant it up for a good half an hour of your useless reading time while pretending to work. I never gave up on k5. Because last time I wrote here it was more than five girlfriends ago; because in the mean time I changed 2 countries, 1 continent, n models of pc, programming languages, I've given up my privacy and softened my paranoia, but k5 stays. So keep wondering as much as you want, nothing to see here.

It's like living in the same old village in Italy, and still going to the central Bar in the little town square. It might stink, the people there know more about yourself than you could possibly imagine of knowing yourself, the waiters now it's no longer your sex dream like when you were 15, and the videogames did not change in the last 10 years, but you still go there. Cuz you might have traveled the world, but sometimes it's comfy and warming to trod on your old footsteps, once in a while.

No, this is not an explanation, I'm making this up. I do not know why I still read k5.

There are two kind of sysadmins: Paranoids and Losers (adapted from D. Bach)

I'm not so much "here" as "k5's front page is still in my RSS reader". I've had an account since at least 2000; is there an obvious way to figure out how when your account was created?

-esm

LilDebbie has posted 32467 comments, 19 stories, and 940 diaries.

My name is LilDebbie and I have a garden.

- hugin -

I am amazed that I keep coming back (registered in 02 to make some troll about the Iraq war) mostly just to lurk.

I guess the whole "The best stories of the day, chosen by you." idea actually works, and creates an interesting "web community".

I've been reading for a LONG time and have had an account at least prior to the $5 charge. I don't post. My main draw is the interesting people and their life stories, although I also enjoy certain articles that get posted.

I pretty much got obsessed with trane and have read (or at least skimmed) everything he has written; truly fascinating.

Honestly, I'm still lurking here because it's in my news feed and I don't want to remove it just in case. I've been around since 2003.

eg Crawford, and just in case something interesting happens really, don't like the idea of missing out.

I feel like some drunken crazed lunatic trying to outguess a cat ~ [Louis
Winthorpe III](https://web.archive.org/web/20090726144926/http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2007/4/5/15587/32138)

I've been here since ( 1.66 / 3) ( #118)

by Nimey on Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 07:14:39 PM EST

not long after k5 was cracked way way long ago.  I remember the story being on Slashdot and that rusty got a bunch of donations to keep the site going, and wanted to see what the big deal was.

It was a while after that that I registered.

--

Never mind, it was just the dog cumming -- jandev

sausalito is most certainly smoking imperial russian dick like a heroin addict smokes the pipe -- sausalito

My name is Nimey and I am mentally challenged. -- hugin

I'm not here any more... ( 1.50 / 4) ( #119)

by BobCat on Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 07:43:38 PM EST

Lurking this site helps me remember how insular everyone becomes when faced with the futility of convincing others of their beliefs.

The stories mostly suck (and the diaries are useless), but every once in a while there's a Gem.  It's worth checking once a month or so for that.

Also, the bee guy rocks.  I've had 2 hives for a year now..

I'm still here to prove that usernames could have /s in them.

That and all the trim I getz

---

Updated 02/20/2004

New Site

I was here to learn English ( 2.00 / 3) ( #131)

by BlowCat on Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 09:00:45 PM EST

Before I came here, I was an active Slashdot member, but I was disappointed with quality of the comments. K5 offered a great alternative.

I discovered that K5 was encouraging me to write good comments. It wasn't enough to write something smart or funny. I actually had to express my thoughts better than others for my comments to be on top if sorted by ratings. Not being a native English speaker, I realized that K5 was a powerful tool to encourage me to improve my written language skills. It was helpful indeed. My comments were getting better and would occasionally take the top spot. Contrast that to Slashdot with its prized first posts.

But I was disappointed by the lack of current news of the IT world still present on Slashdot. I was also concerned that I was spending too much productive time reading and writing comments, instead of doing something useful, like writing free software. So I left K5 and Slashdot one day. I'm a lwn.net regular since then.

I still visit this site from time to time if I'm in nostalgic mood. I understand that many members here are like me - left leaning young IT professionals who sought refuge from the stupidity of Slashdot and other sites. That's why I visit K5 to see how people like me react to world events. Unfortunately, K5 is increasingly interested in its own affairs rather than in the world around us.

As for Slashdot, I have never looked back.

inertia, i guess

i'm familiar with many of the users though, and as other people said, it is one of the few community sites that didn't degrade into inane 4chan clones.

plus every once in a while a really interesting story comes along. ESC[78;89;13p ESC[110;121;13p

to hear something cool. Once in a while this place is cool. Hope to see more of it.

At least it gets more traffic than my sucky site:

MessageBase.net

I still have a SlashBox on the side of my Slashdot page showing the Kuro5hin feed. So every once in a while a new story pops up.

I'm amazed rusty hasn't just given up by now. He probably makes mad cash off of Google Ads or something, and all of the trolls are supporting his coke habit.

  • Same here. by wbd, 01/23/2009 03:19:13 AM EST ( 1.50 / 2)

I've been around off and on since 2003, and even though I have only occasionally posted, it's really about the people.  Ones that stand out in my head: I saw someone shout out to trane below, there's that spidy guy, MC has so few secrets that you feel like he's almost family even if you don't really want to, and then the old names like LilDebbie, over-the-top trolls like MMM, and a dozen others whose names only escape me because I didn't see them in the diary list tonight.

I imagine most people don't really know me 'cuz I'm a lightweight poster, but I stay because K5 is one of the few places online where you can get an intelligent comment on anything, even if it is irreverent as fuck or plain insulting.  Nobody gives you an easy time of it, but in that sense if you make the cut and end up with a few highly-ranked comments you can be moderately sure that your brain (or at least your wit) is still functioning at a higher level than 99% of the population.  (Or you can go the paranoia route and imagine that K5 hates you and wants to set you up so it can knock you down again...you sadistic bastards!)

So as much as I hate some of the personas here, I get a good snicker once in a while, find some people actually inspiring, and yeah, this is one of the few places I will probably come back to until it actually does die.  May that day stay far away; there isn't really any other place like it.

I forgot to delete the bookmark ( 1.66 / 3) ( #143)

by Katt on Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 01:46:40 AM EST

But seriously. I rarely comment and don't log in all that often, but there's still some interesting things posted here that I like to read.

I just have to keep watching.

I enjoy some of the stories.  I keep hoping Signal 11 remembers his password one day.

And I love to see CTS post his newest idea on how K5 can be turned around.  I remember adiffer's series on Geometric Algebra, or 'i's posts on Relativity.  Every 6 months or so, something pops up that intrigues me.

I had great hopes for it. Most of the content is just public wanking.  One day it will make you go blind.

Plus, it's still in my RSS feeds.

Vive Le Canada - For Canadians who give a shit about their country.

There is no K5 cabal.

I have the stories in my RSS reader. ( 2.66 / 3) ( #147)

by creature on Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 03:25:02 AM EST

I don't check the diary section any more, but when I did it was because they either made me giggle or the comments made me giggle.

I like giggling.

  • +1 by Scott Robinson, 01/23/2009 12:43:00 PM EST ( none / 1)

I didn't realize you only had to be here from 2003 to be an "old-timer". My first diary entry is from 2001. Personally I think the diaries system probably fucked up k5 a bit, since a lot of good stuff gets buried there instead of posted.

Rusty! Where is the feature to vote up diary entries to the front page?

Anyhow.. I would still come here just to check if localroger posts some new fiction, but then once in a while there's something else that is worth while so hey, that's a nice bonus.

Otherwise I would have forgotten about you a long time ago...

Because every once in awhile a story makes it to the front page, and every so often they are truly awesome.

redefining life

This site still exists?

Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent servant but a terrible master.

PT Barnum

  • This! by mfinn999, 01/23/2009 02:48:00 PM EST ( none / 0)

I still read because I want to delete my diary ( 2.33 / 6) ( #159)

by parakopo on Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 01:10:57 PM EST

Because once it was good ( 1.25 / 4) ( #160)

by mcherm on Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 01:29:08 PM EST

Because one K5 was good, and I keep wishing it would go back to being like that. But it won't.

-- Michael Chermside

I still check back every few days hoping for a good new story. You end up having a good bit of time when waiting for classes to  start.

harder, k5!

$ . . . . . $ . . . . . $ . . . . . $ . ₩ . . . . . � . . . . . � . . . . . � . . . . . � . . . . * . . . . . * . . . . . * . . . . . * . . . . . * $ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . $ He's got a small rocket if you know what I mean. Short fuse and pops early. --GhostOfTiber $ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . ♀ . . . . . $ . . . . * . . . . . * . . . . . * . . . . . * . . . . . * . ₩ . . . . . � . . . . . � . . . . . � . . . . . � $ . . . . . $ . . . . . $ . . . . . $ $B R Σ III$

There was a time ( 1.66 / 3) ( #164)

by Liar on Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 02:06:31 PM EST

when this was my response.

Nowadays my offline life has grown so I have little time. K5 does have the potential to post a surprising or challenging piece. That it doesn't do so as often doesn't mean it should be abandoned altogether though it does mean I contribute less.

I admit I'm a Liar. That's why you can trust me.

The alternative is reddit.

K5 is at least an interesting cesspool.

I feel fucking old -- eightish years of k5 for me (at least since I posted my first comment; I may.

--

I am reading the making of the atomic bong - modern science

The alternative is reddit.

K5 is at least an interesting cesspool.

I feel fucking old -- eightish years of k5 for me (at least since I posted my first comment; I may.

--

I am reading the making of the atomic bong - modern science

I usually end up here when I run out of other sites to read at work.

Sometimes when I'm desperate I'll check Fark too.

It's beautiful to watch the decay ( 2.66 / 3) ( #171)

by m50d on Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 04:24:34 PM EST

This place is like an abandoned railway line. And I guess I have some nostalgia.

What killed it was, I think, 4chan. For a time, you had the most intelligent comment on the web. Now those days are gone and I have no idea where to get them back. So I come here to relieve the old times.

7 years for me ( 1.66 / 3) ( #175)

by ff on Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 05:19:16 PM EST

I have been around for 7 years or so.  I only visit a few times a year though.

Why?  I dunno, sometimes there is good stuff but the story volume is too low for me to bother checking all the time.  If I check every day for a week and nothing sparks my interest then I will probably stop checking, eventually forgetting the site exists for a while.

Then I mosey back in when someone links here from another site.

Went back through my diaries and comments. I guess I used it as a blog, but anonymously. My brother was on here, he pointed me to k5 intitially but he moved on. I stayed. It was fun for most of the reasons that other's have already stated.

I met fleece while in Australia. We had beers. I was in transition and have been weaned from the webosphere more and more by the subtle inanities of life. I don't have the intarweb at home anymore and I'd rather get my work done than waste hours of time reading diaries.

Except for today of course.

"Terrorism is only a viable "political activist" method for marginalized nutjobs, bottom line. The backlash that it causes makes it intractable for any reasonable ideology. Which is why you don't generally see wild athiest suicide bombers in america's streets." - lonelyhobo

Clueless, even.. My user name says I've been here since before I wised up and realized just how easily they could be identifiable.. These days now it seems like they're chosen specifically to be that distinguishable..

My user ID number says somewhere in between ff's 7 years and Abominable Abitur's 6.. Works for what I'm remembering, that my finding K5 had something to do with what basically was a (now defunct) blogging spot as a Lifetips "favorite website" guru circa 2002..

Rarely comment although I've had many a reaction written then thought the better of posting, especially when things got a little "tense"..

On one or two of the particularly "tenser" times around here, consciously only hung in there because I'd already been here so long (in Internet years)..

I don't know.. Reminds me kind of this little, TINY neighborhood bar that used to be in Homestead, all by its lonesome on a less traveled side avenue.. On 230'something, if Memory serves..

In the late afternoon.. Just before the evening regulars, "the kids", show up..

The company you're in is small..

Very small..

Familiar..

Comfortable just because you've been hanging out together for so long..

Funny how some things don't change.. Just like that bar back in '94, '95 post Hurricane Andrew, nobody here really knows me.. I come in, sit down, hang out for a few, just enough off to the side to translate into I'm really okay here alone..

Never treated badly..

And so I stay..

And read.. :)

Cyber hugs to everyone.. Please be safe out there.. :)

Peace and best wishes from North Georgia..

It's not an either/or proposition. ( 2.00 / 3) ( #179)

by BJH on Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 09:25:05 PM EST

I regularly read/comment on/troll/laugh at/get bored of/come back to the following:

/.

k5

2ch

4chan

reddit

In fact, those sites comprise about 90% of my browsing time (if you also add Wackipedia in there).

--

Roses are red, violets are blue.

I'm schizophrenic, and so am I. -- Oscar Levant ‮

Raising the dough to keep k5 up.

(Obviously I've been through several accounts)

And I can tell you exactly why I come back over and over again: MICHAEL CRAWFORD

It's really the main draw to K5. It's really hard to find a perpetual train wreck like that guy. I know it's mean of me but it's the truth.

I have ads to run from when I won a poetry contest ( 3.00 / 5) ( #183)

by clambake on Sat Jan 24, 2009 at 01:05:12 AM EST

I won second place in Rusty's haiku contest many years ago, the prize was 3000 free ad impressions.  I still have not used them yet.

One day I'll be the low-UID guy who can tell the kids to STFU because I've got a pair of shoes that're older than them. And then to gerroff mah lawn.

F in.

Yep, it's on my RSS reader at My Yahoo ( 1.66 / 3) ( #186)

by chroma on Sat Jan 24, 2009 at 10:26:57 AM EST

...so I can post comments like this.

--

A: Because it destroys the flow of conversation.

Q: Why is top posting dumb? --clover_kicker

Most of the posters here strike me as new though. Then again, I'm from the time before Egil.

Did people from the future send George Carlin back in time to save rusty and K5? - leviramsey

mostly from ~2003, I think. I miss medham and who was that one prick, LickTheBlade? KissTheSword? Something like that.

Mostly I lurk. I don't even remember how to find mu UID, but my first comment was apparently 7/21/2000.

k5 seems not to have lost it. ( 2.50 / 2) ( #198)

by blufox on Sat Jan 24, 2009 at 03:58:04 PM EST

lurking for 5 or so years.

unlike others k5 still seems to remain the same.

.

  • I agree, by k31, 01/25/2009 02:44:40 AM EST ( none / 0)

~10 yr, reason: unique signal ( 3.00 / 2) ( #200)

by shpoffo on Sat Jan 24, 2009 at 05:17:28 PM EST

Kuro5hin remains one of the most unusual communities online.  Very unique kind of language and meme patterns.  I keep watching the RSS for interesting floating bits.

I don't participate, but I'm still here.

Fading echoes of longstanding habit... ( 2.00 / 2) ( #205)

by skyknight on Sat Jan 24, 2009 at 08:03:15 PM EST

Also, I keep hoping that trhurler's death was an elaborate hoax.

It's not much fun at the top. I envy the common people, their hearty meals and Bruce Springsteen and voting. -- SIGNOR SPAGHETTI

Just in time, I am. ( 2.50 / 2) ( #210)

by k31 on Sat Jan 24, 2009 at 09:58:23 PM EST

I haven't read anything in a few months. Or days. I'm not sure. Time has been weird for me, lately.

I joined back in Sept. 2001, I think, so that measns more than 7 years.

Wait, is that even possible?

Anyhow, I think K5 has a lot of smart people. Most of whom think that they are smarter than everyone else, and are quite abrasively vocal in saying it, but whatever... at least there dialogue is mostly in English rather than IMspeak or retard.

So, although I generally get "you're an idiot, stfu" whenever I even make a diary entry, I still prefer that to "ur maj fail luserr." or whatever... K5 oozes with an industry of expression which is simply absent from most everywhere.

There used to be a ton of varied, detailed articles... even if nothing new is written, I haven't read all of the old ones... and I haven't even started on the food recipies.

Plus I wrote a paper once citing K5 as the future of social organisation... or something of that matter, so I guess I generally like it here.

I've just been time-travelling too much to visit, recently.... Or something.

I don't stop by too often anymore since the site's not that active.  But I subscribe to the RSS feed... still see some fun stuff coming across.

Who wants to read my boring blog. It was all political, anyway.

Now that W has left the building finally, I've less to rant about. I presume I will begin to wail on Obama but somehow I feel restrained. It still would seem a little racist even if it's about policy and performance.  Maybe one day, we will truly have a post-racial environment where a black leader can be assaulted without the inevitable murmurs of racism from his supporters.

At k5, there is an audience and a forum where stories on gerontophilia, pedophilia, etc. can be read. I think the readers here are more open and less restrained - they'll read your stuff and then tell you to stuff it when it's drech.

You're an arrogant, condescending, ignorant dipshit. - trhurler

is like a big blob of words, it's often interesting, and I can have conversations with it

- I'm trying to be more explicative -

Still some good articles ( 2.00 / 3) ( #223)

by sypher on Mon Jan 26, 2009 at 04:35:25 AM EST

I pick up the Kuro5hin digest newsletter, sometimes there is not a lot in it, but other times there is an interesting article to read.

I came back the other day via link on Reddit about surviving a Zombie attack, random things bring me back.

I dreamt of it once, now I fear it dreams of me

...but a floating junkyard, where you are apt to come upon useful or amusing information or context.

when i first arrived on k5, i was trying to learn about pc computing in general and linux in specific, and there are still articles occasionally that catch my eye for that reason. but i decided not to take the it route to making my personal fortune so now it's my personal version of art linkletter's "kids say the darnedest things".

everybody knows the less bright outnumber the bright, but nobody wants to believe they are are the outliers. and iq scores only predict a certain kind of brightness.

also that i am unlikely to meet any of you, so you don't really know if i'm a springer spaniel.

Sure, it used to be better. But nowhere else is as good as whats left. I get satisfaction trawling through the diaries and queue and especially comments here that I wouldn't be able to get anywhere else. Sure there's some bullshit, but it's easier on the eyes than most other places.

Also, I like the layout, design etc. It's comforting, and worksafe.

\\\________

If they hadn't been such quality beasts (despite being so young) it would have been a nightmare - good self-starting, capable hands are your finest friend. -- Anonymous CEO

Hopefully the length of this comment thread puts an end to the boring and pointless observation, "K5's dying".

Obviously it isn't. Sure it isn't what it was at its peak, but nothing is/we sure aren't/who out there is.

What remains is worth something, or the 50 folk who've posted over 200 comments truly have nowhere better to be.

I came here some 4 years ago and even though I didn't do a large deal of posting I kept browsing a great deal.

It might interest you that my trigger to come here in the first place was the "imminent death" of my favourite german platform (www.nensch.de) which resembled K5 in more than one perspective. This thing is by now really dead, meaning that there are less than 10 comments per week and most of the "family members" are gone. Attempts to revitalize it have met with the opinion that in these times blogs simply have made the entire idea obsolete. Even though I guess there is some truth in that argument it isn't the whole story.

As you might see here in K5 which is - regardless of all the epitaphs - still alive.

And kicking.

- please forgive my bad english, I'm not a native speaker

I used to spend an inordinate amount of time here.  But then the quality of both serious articles and the trolling declined.

Because I spent so much time here in the past I still come by out of curiosity every so often.  I do it for the same reason you swing by former residences and email ex-girlfriends.  I generally don't find anything worth reading and I don't leave many comments.

I'm like Jesus, only better.

Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free grassroots news hour

  • I remember you by anaesthetica, 01/26/2009 09:33:26 PM EST ( none / 0)

I used to come here a fair bit, now not so much.

I posted a few stories a few years ago.  I notice that they don't show under "my stories".  That's too bad, I would have enjoyed going back to see if there were some new comments or anything.

There used to be a lot of interesting comments and discussion here.  I guess I come back here every once in a while to see if somehow those interesting people have come back - because I can't find anywhere else on the net they might have gone to.

Perhaps they're not letting me know on purpose.  I did kind of troll a bit.

.

"Let's not stir that bag of worms." - my lovely wife

I lurk here because I enjoy the comments, outrageous trolls impress and amuse me as they strive toward artistic perfection, and because I keep meaning to write an article here.

Also, people think I'm a sock puppet.

--

Prisoners! Seize each other!

Signed with a Presidential Seal

Why? Because I am subscribed to the K5 front page RSS feed, and this is the *MASSIVE* selection of stories that are posted since BEFORE Christmas (that is over a month ago now)

# How to game the U.S. higher-education system # K5 Roll Call: You still reading? If so, why? # The Magic Head # Predictions for 2009 # Fuck Christmas, we aren't having it this year.

Yeah, 4 stories made it. In over a month, four measly postings.

The problem with K5 is a severe lack of content posted. I stopped reading K5 when editors became so self involved that they stopped allowing postings by regular people. The mod scheme on this site needs VAST adjustment. A story that has like, 5 positive votes of other members who are actively posting things, regardless of how many negatives it got, should be auto-posted - period.

---There is no Spoon---

They keep trying to kill me, but I hide and wait. Then I reappear. A bit like a mental illness or an STD.

Don't kill men, my friends, don't kill men.

I don't remember when I signed up, but my oldest comment is dated 12 Nov 2000. Wow, that seems like a long time.

I swing by every month or so, mainly because I have a bookmark at work and sometimes I get bored with the other sites I frequent while not doing my job. I'll typically skim/read 1-2 stories and skim the top-level comments to see if there's anything interesting going on, or alternatively a CTS orgy. I haven't looked at the diary section in quite a while.

-- $SIGNATURE

Just a curious combination of boredom and inertia.  Wish there was a better reason.

That's my take on it. Take it for what you think it's worth.

My first post was 7 years ago and my last post was 4 years ago. How time has flown. Is there hope for K5? Only if the original contributors can get over the heartburn and only if the trolls move on somewhere else.

FIXME: Insert quote about procrastination

This is my 3rd comment in 6 years. Why do I keep reading? Because k5 is just different. Believe it or not the intelligence level is higher here than almost anywhere else.

i like the clean layout / design [nt] ( 2.75 / 4) ( #251)

by K4w0ru on Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 05:38:20 PM EST

I don't know.  I miss the good old days.  I keep checking to see if there is a good front page article, like the uberman sleep schedule or that awesome novella by localroger about an all-powerful benevolent supercomputer, or the article about getting dental work in Mexico (after I read that, I went and did it).  Man, that stuff was great.

People post good content for egoboo - but in a place overrun with trolls there is no egoboo to be got.  I know Rusty says that Trolls bring out truth or whatever it is that he said . . . but if I want truth I will go to church.  I come here for entertainment, and I haven't been getting it here in years.  I have been getting it from metafilter and boingboing.

And preemptively to everyone who snarks this comment: screw you.

sorry no sig now

I've been here since at least 2005 according to my userinfo. But I can't see an "account created" flag - so I can't be more specific.

These days I just look over the site every week or two. I want it to improve, but the trolling makes the submission of a new story low on my list of priorities...

Highlight of my time here? The tales from the hive. Love the bees!

Steve

---

Debian System Administration

Standby service since 2000 ( 1.66 / 3) ( #256)

by redelm on Sun Feb 01, 2009 at 08:28:56 PM EST

I've been reading and posting since 2000 at least. Maybe before, I just can't remember.

K5 has always lived in the shadow of ToS. That's fine and necessary in case ToS goes wonky. Not likely to disappear altogether, it might not cover some item of interest where the owners might disagree with the posters.

Backup is good. Don't worry about the idle, but there has been some loss as special advocates do not get sufficiently voted down.

Yes, I am referring to the punctuation site. And while K5 has meandered under the influence of residual posters, it started and remains in my mind a sort of back-stop. Better story selection, variable moderation and occasionally fewer idiots. Occasionally more.

This is of course my opinion and YMMV. I was not asked to post or criticise your opinion.

  • yes by TRASG0, 02/03/2009 08:22:17 AM EST ( none / 0)

Empires disintegrate and coalesce.

K5 is not what it was, probably for the worse; I am not what I was, probably for the better. But there is no other wide ranging, interestingly skeptical magazine site on the web which runs as a participatory community. You can post with extreme infrequency and still get an audience without having to be part of any circular blog recognition hazing ritual. "Slow-blogging" before blogging; "The New Seriousness" before it was new.

Now the k5 community nowadays is often a participatory community of smartarse adolescents in a train carriage, egging each other on to shout PRICK a little louder. The diary sub list makes it pretty easy to ignore them if you're not in the mood.

So I go on pretending it's 2002, and that posters gone sour will send a better article to the queue next time. It's convenient. There's no clear equivalent. A ruined Nineveh is still Nineveh.

It's just the vibe.

Yes, MSG. And equally toxic. The bandwidth of email/posts/texts is so low that tone is hard to convey. So smileys become as important as punctuation. Yet still imperfect.

I think I joined right before 9/1/1 (Sorry for the non-USians for the US mile-stone). I don't remember exactly, I just know I have a fairly low UID and I seem to remember posting before the towers came down.

Anyone remember Bubba? The Proliant 8000 I donated? That was around that time (poor Bubba dies, he was an engineering mule I mooched off of a friend of mine when we were still Compaq) - Bubba ran K5 until he died an untimely death.

mas cerveza, por favor mirrors, manifestos, etc.

There's occasionally some good content. There are occasionally things that make me laugh... and hey, how can you not root for something that just won't die?

\\\_

I'm a pompous windbag, I take myself far too seriously, and I single-handedly messed up K5 by causing the fiction section to be created. --localroger

  • Mr. Garrison by anaesthetica, 02/06/2009 06:13:07 PM EST ( none / 1)

I haven't cleaned out my Bookmarks ( 1.66 / 3) ( #281)

by dr zeus on Sun Feb 08, 2009 at 12:29:07 PM EST

Thanks for the reminder.

Actually, I stopped coming a few years ago when I changed jobs and no longer had a computer in my office.  Once that place cratered, I just never got in the habit of checking K5 once or twice a day like I did before.

Now, I hit the K5 bookmark now and then just because I see it and wonder what's there.  Still looking for a good localroger story (maybe a sequel to what happened to the people stranded on the Earth with no metals), or a beekeeper diary, or something else similar that you can't find elsewhere.

I miss the daily riddle diary and the choose your own adventures.

I rarely visit this site, but my account is still quite active ;)

Stopped coming here for a bit, but there's something edgy about kuro5hin that keeps me coming back. I guess I come back hoping that it'll revive, but it never does. Sad.

I show up to see if local roger has ( 2.00 / 2) ( #284)

by yuriwho on Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 02:55:15 AM EST

posted anything new. Also I want to see what's happening in the K5  counterculture.

K5 is mostly populated by lurking Douche Bags who contribute nothing and sit around waiting for LR to post more sci-fi kiddie porn. That says a lot.

\\\_______________

I'm In LOVE!

I have an RSS feed thingy on my Slashdot account for K5, and occassionally glance at the headlines from the relative safety of that green-tinted space capsule. I only post this here to say I exist, that I monitor things from afar, and that I will return more frequently if and when there's more brainy content that used to be here pre-2004.

---

The Big F Word.

I used to come here a lot, then trolls got the best of it, then i droped it. I come here every now and then when i'm curious to know if the site still exist or if i want to ask a question.

\\\___________________________

If you disagree post, don't moderate.

Not a Premium User.

I'm here today because I clicked the wrong link in my bookmarks.

I check in maybe every 4 or 5 months these days, been here since 2000 or so. Theres still occasionally something that will catch my interest.

Old Bookmarks and I still have an account ( 1.66 / 3) ( #295)

by digitalh2o on Sat Feb 21, 2009 at 01:49:54 AM EST

I hadn't been to the site in YEARS and then I rediscovered the site in my bookmarks a few months ago. I was even more surprised to find my log in still worked. I now come back about once a month because people aren't talking about either (1) the economy, or (2) how to get more followers on Twitter.

I just stopped in the other day because I had some fond memories... I haven't commented since '03...

Lobstery is not real

signed the cow

when stating that life is merely an illusion

and that what you love is all that's real

Pretty much, if there's nothing going on in any of the other blogs I read, and I  have something I'm avoiding doing at work, sure enough, I end up down at the bottom of my list, looking over k5...

Occasionally, there's something really interesting here, even still.

I guess it's that good old intermittent reinforcement idea coming to the fore.

The internet is a small place ( 2.66 / 3) ( #300)

by Nursie on Thu Mar 05, 2009 at 08:51:13 AM EST

Once you've got bored of fark, slashdot, the news, read penny arcade, dilbert and xkcd... well it's K5 or actually doing some work.

It's a tough call.

Meta Sigs suck.

Here I am still picking out the great article to read that you cannot find anywhere else!!

I check K5 every couple of weeks, quality has gone down remarkably since I first came here but every now and then but there's still the occasional good story.

We give a bad name to the internet in general. - Rusty

Somewhere between growing up and getting a job that keeps me very un-bored at work, I really have no desire at all to spend more time on the computer at home. I'd actually forgotten all about this place for the better part of oh, five years, until about ten minutes ago!

Me, I just signed in and looked around for the first time in years. I still had new site news to read, from Sept 10, 2007 – Kuro5hin is a pay site for new users, now? Weird.

As in, a bit of nostalgia and a bit of morbid fascination. And I still quite like the concept behind K5. It just won't die, but it won't quite succeed either, apparently.

--

A page a day keeps ignorance of our cultural past away, or you can do your bit for collaborative media even if you haven't anything new or insightful to say.

I poke my head in every year or three, see if the site's still active, see who's currently yammering the most loudly in comments, then forget about it entirely.

Overall, the quality of the site has gone down sharply since I was actively voting on stories, but I'm sure that's just my opinion. Everything lately seems geared for pompous expositions, and brevity seems to have left the area some time ago.

Either way, still an interesting place to come look around a bit from time to time.

\\\___

today on how it's made: kitchen knives, mannequins, socks and hypodermic needles.

I look in once in a while ( none / 1) ( #308)

by phr on Mon May 18, 2009 at 04:52:43 AM EST

There is still interesting stuff sometimes.  I happened to browse right now because I was thinking of writing a diary about a technical idea I've been thinking about.  I don't know if I'll actually get around to that though.