One less thing on the list
Okay, so I’m sappy and corny and just a complete fucking fanboy. I’ll openly admit to all of the above.
I got to meet Rich ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka.
I’m going to be horribly sappy here. Consider yourself warned.
I’ve been a fan of Something Awful ever since the great Jeff K invasion of ‘00. More people flocked to SA and its newly-upgraded vBulletin forums than I can count. I read for months before finally registering an account - I’m a 10-00, a forum veteran, I’ve seen most of it. I mist the original Armies (barely) but I witnessed the aftermath. I saw the forums nearly collapse under their own weight. I witnessed the rise and fall of one advertising network after another. I saw Rich come literally seconds away from folding the whole damn thing, only to refuse out of pure fucking stubborn attitude and decide to keep it running.
Now, SA’s a budding little marketing paradise. Some think the forum has lost its lustre (or lack thereof), and for that reason it’ll never be as good as ‘the old SA’. Well, they’re absolutely right.
I’ve seen things come and go in my own personal life, and the one constant is that things never ever stay the same, no matter how much you want them to. Eventually, we all grow up, and Something Awful has done the same thing.
I’m not going to sit here and argue semantics. I haven’t the time or the energy to do so - I should be sleeping right now anyway.
Something Awful has come into its own. Where it goes from here is anybody’s guess - R.Lo is R.Lo, I guess, if anything he’s just more zen than he seemed back in 2000. Rich has an odd calm about him, one thing I certainly didn’t plan on. Integral is fucking amazing, what can I say. She just is. Despite my dislike of Zack Parsons, he’s a damn funny writer. Fistgrrl has the most thankless job ever and does it with aplomb. Livestock is one of the funniest people ever, period.
On the offhand chance that anyone from SA would ever stray my way (although why would be anybody’s guess) I just have to say: I’m proud to have played a microscopic role in SA’s growth, and I’ll always be its biggest fan.