Kuro5hin.org: technology and culture, from the trenches
create account | help/FAQ | contact | links | search | IRC | site news
[ Everything | Diaries | Technology | Science | Culture | Politics | Media | News | Internet | Op-Ed | Fiction | Meta | MLP ]
We need your support: buy an ad | premium membership

[P]
What Really Killed K5

By GrandWazoo in Meta
Fri May 21, 2010 at 02:32:31 PM EST
Tags: meta (all tags)

After a 10 year run (far too long in Internet time) K5 isn't exactly a thriving, vibrant site. Despite what many think, K5 was not a victim of it's own trolls that's only a symptom. No, what really did it in are sites like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg and weblogs, otherwise known as the newest buzzword--social media.

Seriously, social media are much more appealing to most people especially those below the age of 25. News sites like K5 once was, slashdot, and a few others became replaced by Twitter, Facebook and any number of others. Traditional news sites are for the most part old school as far as the Internet is concerned. Even these old school sites are trying to hang on by displaying Twitter and Facebook links on their web page. Heaped on top of this is the fact that smartphones make the social media sites more accessible than the "old school" sites. No one has ever asked me if I have a K5 account but nearly everyone asks me if I have a Twitter or Facebook account. That's where they are headed and have been for at least three years...exactly when K5 begin to slowly plummet in page views. When you think about it it makes sense.

Reading a K5 story or diary is horrible on a smartphone. Not only that (with exceptions in The Diary Section) if a story is longer than 128 characters not a lot of people are going to read it. I can't remember if K5 EVER posted a 128 character story. That's not the purpose of K5. Even so, most users don't want to be bothered unless the item is something compelling and they actually want to read more. But generally, they don't.

Even a busy Twitter or Facebook account gets unmanageable and chaotic. If you have lots of friends Twittering crap, then stuff can scroll off and you never knew it existed. So then you have to search Twitter or simply not worry about it. Most of those that don't get Twitter or Facebook or any other social media site still hang around the old sites proclaiming that they don't get what all the fuss is about or even what the appeal is.

If contributors leave a site that too is a slow death spiral. Contributors will always contribute but now it's to their own personal blogs that are driven by their own Twitter or Facebook accounts. Success means that at best someone will find something of interest on your Twitter or Facebook feeds and maybe they will go your web site or weblog and read something. At worst, like most weblogs, they become abandoned. That's exactly what most contributors worth reading more than once have done. But in order to keep a readership you have to waste a horrible amount of time twittering and adding fresh content to your weblog. Most people don't have the energy, time or money to keep the pace up and even if they could it's simply not worth the effort. Only if you strive to make a living with your weblog, Twitter or Facebook account is it even worth attempting.

If you look at the K5 page there is not a lot of interesting content worth spending the time to read UNLESS you frequent the site quite a bit and are a member. Of course comments are particularly incestuous since only members can participate. What "Gating" K5 really means is; old members are grandfathered in, you can come and play as long as you don't break the "be nice" rule and if you DO break the "be nice" rule it'll cost you $5 to come back and play. It doesn't matter if you get new members to join or not because the alternative is constant site moderation. There's no cost/benefit to that because the cost of constantly monitoring the site is considerably more than $5.

So if you are a site that is not particularly specialized or narrowly focused you're probably dying on the vine. I wouldn't be surprised one day to find it in archive mode. But I'm sticking around K5 to see how the social experiment will end.

Sponsors

Voxel dot net
o Managed Hosting
o VoxCAST Content Delivery
o Raw Infrastructure

Login

Related Links
o Slashdot
o Also by GrandWazoo

Display: Sort:
What Really Killed K5 | 106 comments (96 topical, 10 editorial, 0 hidden)
interesting but you don't answer the question (2.87 / 8) (#2)
by king of fools on Tue May 18, 2010 at 11:30:17 PM EST

what happened to all the old members? You sort of just dismiss the troll effect out of hand.

----------------

fade out again
Lurk more (2.71 / 7) (#4)
by Nimey on Wed May 19, 2010 at 12:21:32 AM EST


--
Never mind, it was just the dog cumming -- jandev
You Sir, are an Ignorant Motherfucker. -- Crawford
I am arguably too manic to do that. -- Crawford
I already fuck my mother -- trane
Nimey is right -- Blastard
i am in complete agreement with Nimey -- i am a pretty big deal
FORGIVE ME IF I DON'T SALUTE GRAND WIZARD (2.83 / 12) (#5)
by Ruston Rustov on Wed May 19, 2010 at 01:16:07 AM EST


I had had incurable open sores all over my feet for sixteen years. The doctors were powerless to do anything about it. I told my psychiatrist that they were psychosomatic Stigmata - the Stigmata are the wounds Jesus suffered when he was nailed to the cross. Three days later all my sores were gone. -- Michael Crawford
Maybe tomorrow. -- Michael Crawford
As soon as she has her first period, fuck your daughter. -- localroger
K5 just has a very limited demographic (2.90 / 10) (#12)
by Zombie Schrodingers Cat on Wed May 19, 2010 at 08:54:43 AM EST

you have to be reasonably intelligent, but not sensitive and full of yourself.

Many of the husis were intelligent but way to sensitive. OMG someone zero'd one of my comments and called me a faggit. Thats it I'm leaving.

And we aren't getting new people because of the 5 dolla paywall.

So we lost the husis and we're losing people from attrition (trhurler). No one new is coming in because of the paywall. I don't think facebook and twitter have much to do with it.

K5 has a tide (none / 1) (#13)
by GhostOfTiber on Wed May 19, 2010 at 10:10:12 AM EST

The old members know K5 has a tide. I would say the $5 barrier to entry has kept out the new users but this isn't true.

[Nimey's] wife's ass is my cocksheath. - undermyne

It was the last that remained of a past (2.50 / 4) (#14)
by DK4 Bloo on Wed May 19, 2010 at 10:49:13 AM EST

whose annihilation had not taken place because it was still in a process of annihilation, consuming itself from within, ending at every moment but never ending its ending.

NIGGA YOU DUMB (1.62 / 8) (#19)
by zombie lonelyhobo on Wed May 19, 2010 at 04:23:16 PM EST

I REALLY CARE ABOUT YOUR STUPID FUCKING OPINION
NIGGA YOU DUMB
There's some truth in your argument (2.50 / 4) (#22)
by imon2nd on Wed May 19, 2010 at 07:10:11 PM EST

Wazoo;

Yes, Facebook and Twitter have a lot of users and the rise of blogs factors in, too. The $5 pay wall is a problem as well. I paid the money out of sympathy for the "old" K5 and found the place was a shell of its former self. Not to mention the fuck-you barrier to posting articles.  I'm surprised this site still functions at all.

Good luck getting this article voted in.

Cheers,

Dave

-1 I STOPPED READING AFTER 128 CHARACTERS (2.93 / 15) (#26)
by jxg on Wed May 19, 2010 at 09:14:44 PM EST



what do u mean u forgot the chicken nuggets (2.86 / 15) (#30)
by Jobst of Moravia on Thu May 20, 2010 at 01:25:39 AM EST


---
              __
   .,-;-;-,. /'_\ ---Did this Negro say "Street Moor"?
 _/_/_/_|_\_\) /
'-<_><_><_><_>=\
 `/_/====/_/-'\_\
  ""     ""    ""

social media killed k5? (2.50 / 2) (#31)
by mirko on Thu May 20, 2010 at 02:40:17 AM EST

well, my generation died with it, we're now net zombies and quite happy to haunt that place.
--
Finally I managed to make the decision that I would work on it. - MDC
we had to huddle together - trane
you are massively gay (2.66 / 6) (#34)
by I Did It All For The Horse Cock on Thu May 20, 2010 at 04:58:52 AM EST




\\\
  \ \        ^.^._______  This comment brought to you by the penis-nosed fox!
    \\______/_________|_)
    / /    \ \
    \_\_    \ \
I TOO AM A VICTIM OF MARK CUBAN (2.50 / 4) (#36)
by Enlarged to Show Texture on Thu May 20, 2010 at 08:47:35 AM EST




"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." -- Isaac Asimov
WITH THIS VOTE (2.71 / 7) (#37)
by GhostOfTiber on Thu May 20, 2010 at 09:12:27 AM EST

I KILL K5.

[Nimey's] wife's ass is my cocksheath. - undermyne

it's true (2.75 / 8) (#41)
by LilDebbie on Thu May 20, 2010 at 12:03:30 PM EST

rusty actually posts to facebook. when was the last time you saw him post here?

My name is LilDebbie and I have a garden.
- hugin -
Makes sense to me (2.75 / 4) (#44)
by Timo Laine on Thu May 20, 2010 at 04:30:23 PM EST

Seeing that personally I've done more or less what you describe after I left K5, I have to agree.

Still, I don't know if this was inevitable or not. I don't think social media and blogs are in any meaningful sense "better" than K5. At least K5 could have continued to coexist with blogs and Facebook, but all the other problems here made it impossible in practice.

I am not talking about the trolls but the fact that there has not been for years any way for the users to have any say in how the site is run. (And I am not talking about making radical changes but mostly about giving the users at least an impression that this is in some sense "our" site.) And now Facebook seems to be dying because of exactly the same thing. I wonder what will come next.

hey ! I'm still here! (2.00 / 4) (#49)
by /dev/trash on Fri May 21, 2010 at 05:44:19 PM EST

I am!

---
Updated 02/20/2004
New Site
What killed Kuro5hin for me (2.00 / 3) (#53)
by diego on Sun May 23, 2010 at 10:59:43 AM EST

In a state of disgusting earnestness I had once shown my Kuro5hin account (not this one, a different one) to a woman. Things were never quite the same between myself and her, may God forgive her timid little mind. Upon some reflection I decided I didn't want to be associated with your group any longer. I was also put off by the constant references to the mental illnesses of certain kuroshiites.

Unfortunately I continue to receive the weekly digests.

Bullshit (2.66 / 3) (#54)
by Filip on Sun May 23, 2010 at 02:45:58 PM EST

Had this site actually had any content during the last 5 years, we would have posted links to the stuff on Facebook, digg, Twitter. Hell, we would even have reenacted the stuff and posted the films on Youtube!

The trolls never were the problem, that much is true. The general tiredness and navel gazing was.

The idea behind K5 is cool as long as new stuff, and new writers keep flowing in - but once that tide stopped the site was dead.

If I want technology and culture from the trenches, there are any number of blogs and websites that actually provide. That's where I go. And I bet that's where Rusty goes too...
-- I'm just a figment of your imagination.

I heard it went like this (1.11 / 9) (#57)
by Aries Blastar on Sun May 23, 2010 at 10:33:53 PM EST

DISORDER IN KURO5HIN

Three Schizoaffective Stooges, 2010

Bailiff: [very fast] Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Witness: I do.

Prosecutor: What is your name?

Witness: Wampsawillion.

Prosecutor: What is your occupation?

Witness: I'm a dancer.

Prosecutor: On the night of February the 13th, were you working at the Black Bottom Cafe when this murder was committed?

Witness: Yes. But I didn't do it!

Prosecutor: Then who killed Kuro5hin?

Witness: I don't know.

Prosecutor: Did you kill Kuro5hin?

Defense: I object, Your Honor, and ask that the last question be stricken from the records! It is merely an attempt to influence this intelligent, broadminded, and most intellectual jury.

Judge Rusty Foster: Objection sustained.

Prosecutor: That is all.

[A parrot says something, apparently mimicking someone]

Defense: Quiet, Polly. If it please the court, Your Honor, at this time I would like to introduce my three main witnesses, Howard, Fine, and Howard. [audience commotion] They were here a minute ago! Will you pardon me, Your Honor? I'll be right back!

* * * * * * * *

[Curly Howard is called a s a witness]

Defense: Would you please step forward? No, no, no, prepare yourself for the witness box!

Judge Rusty Foster: [pounds gavel] Take off your hat. Now raise your right hand. Now place your left hand here. [in order to do so, the hat goes back on his head] Take off your hat. Raise your right hand. Now put your left hand here. [Hat back on head] Please take off your hat. Raise your right hand! Now put your left hand here! Will you please take off your hat! Raise your right hand! Now put your left hand here! Take off your hat! Raise your right hand! Would you get rid of that hat!

Witness: Raise your right hand!

Judge Rusty Foster: Raise your right hand.

Bailiff: [very fast] Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Witness: Huh?

Bailiff: [very fast] Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Witness: Are you trying to give me the double talk?

Bailiff: [sigh] Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Defense: Why don't you answer him?

Witness: He's talkin' pig latin, I don't know what he's saying.

Defense: He's asking you if you swear--

Witness: No, but I know all the words.

Judge Rusty Foster: He's asking you if you'll swear to tell the truth.

Witness: Truth is stranger than fiction, judgie wudgie.

Judge Rusty Foster: Kindly address this court as Your Honor. And take the oath. [fast] Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Witness: Certainly. What have I got to lose?

Judge Rusty Foster: Take the stand.

Witness: Where do I put it?

Judge Rusty Foster: No, no, take the stand.

Witness: (picks up chair) I got it. Now what do I do with it?

Defense: Sit down!

[Curly does so, falls off the stand]

Moe: C'mon on. You're in a court, not in Clancy's poolroom. Sit down.

Witness: I'm a victim of circumstance!

Defense: Be quiet.

Judge Rusty Foster: Proceed with the case.

Prosecutor: Were you in the Black Bottom Cafe on the night of February the 13th?

Witness: Certainly.

Defense: Did you at that time see the defendant, Miss Wampsawillion, in any way, shape or form commit or try to commit bodily harm to the deceased Kuro5hin?

Prosecutor: I object, Your Honor! Counsel is trying to lead the witness!

Judge Rusty Foster: Objection sustained.

Defense: Mr. Howard, did you see Miss Wampsawillion in physical fight with Kuro5hin?

Prosecutor: If it pleases the court, may I suggest that counsel be instructed to allow the witness to testify to what he saw.

Voice from audience [first male voice from previous scene]: I say, jester, what comes after 75?

Another voice: 76. [chuckles]

Judge Rusty Foster: Request granted. Proceed with the testimony.

Defense: Mr. Howard, kindly tell the court what you know about the murder of Kuro5hin.

Witness: Well, it was like this, Mr. Court.

Defense: Address the Judge Rusty Foster as "Your Honor"!

Witness: Well, it was like this, My Honor.

Defense: "Your Honor", not "my honor"!

Witness: Why? Don't you like him?

Judge Rusty Foster: Allow the witness to proceed. The court understands him.

Witness: Thanks, Courtie, you're a pal. Well, me and my pals, we're musicians. We were tearin' up some hot swing music in the orchest'a. Gail over there was swingin' the fans. Her sweetie, Kuro5hin, was inhalin' a bottle of hooch at the table, and a hoofer by the name of Lostincali was gettin' ready to shake his tootsies.

Defense: Kindly speak English and drop the vernacular.

Witness: 'Nacular? That's a doiby!

Defense: Drop the vernacular! You know, not that. Talk so the jury can understand.

Witness: Is everybody dumb? Say, judgie, if you let me, my partner, and Wampsawillion kind of act it out for ya, we'll show ya just what happened.

Judge Rusty Foster: If counsel doesn't object, that's an excellent idea.

Prosecutor: No objections.

Defense: No objections.

Witness: No objections. Okay, Wampsawillion.

[Fiddle, horn, & harmonica music and sound of hoofing, then yelling & stomping around, simulated shooting, then someone says "I killed him!"]

Witness: Ohhh, a [tape unclear].

His friend: Stand back, it's liable to fight ya! Tarantula, shot five holes in the divot.

Other voice: [slaps him] Get outta here. Go on.

Witness's friend: Wasted five good slugs.

Burly voice: I'll sue you for this!

Witness's friend: Oh, superstitious, eh? Oh, [tape unclear].

Judge Rusty Foster: Gentlemen, you must control your killing instincts. Proceed with the testimony, please.

Defense: Proceed.

Witness: That was sure hot, Mo. Hey, Larry, listen.

[more music, and laughter]

Witness: You got it.

Judge Rusty Foster: Please omit the rest of the entertainment and continue.

Witness's friend: Now Wampsawillion's dance was over. I stuck my head in the office door, and I saw Kuro5hin and Lostincali arguin' over by the parrot cage.

Prosecutor: What were they arguing about?

Witness's friend: I don't know, but Lostincali was sizzling like a hot hamburger. He grabs Kuro5hin by the neck like that, see [grabs his friend, who makes funny noises as he acts out the scene] and drags him over to the letterpress, see, then he smacks him on the head like [sound effect], then he pokes his coconut into the letterpress, see, like that. Then he says, I'll squeeze the cider out of your Adam's apple. Then he gives him the works, like this. Then he keeps turnin', and twistin'. That, ladies and gentlemen, is [witness unwinds, makes all kinds of noises]--

Witness: What's the matter? You want to kill me?

Prosecutor: Why, it's preposterous. When the police broke into the office, they found this woman, the defendant, Wampsawillion, bending over the body of the murdered man with a revolver clutching in her hand.

Defense: Which only goes to prove that my client is innocent.

Prosecutor: Innocent?!

Defense: Exactly, and I'll prove it! Ladies and gentlemen, the action of this pistol is so hard, it would take the strength of a mule to pull the trigger. [to witness] Try it.

Witness: I'm no mule!

Witness's friend: Nah, your ears are too short.

Witness: Hm, hm, so I'm a mule.

Defense: Pull the trigger! Never fear, it's not loaded.

Defense: How could Wampsawillion's frail little finger pull the rusty trigger of that instrument of destruction?

Witness: See, there was nothin' in it. [gun fires]

Older woman's voice: Broadway 9972, after 5 o'clock.

Witness's friend: What'd you do with my boutonniere?

Defense: Give me that gun!

Witness: What happened? What happened?

Defense: Don't point that gun at me! [gun fires]

Witness's friend: Every man for himself, fellahs.

[Commotion]

Judge Rusty Foster: Order in this court.

[parrot says something]

Judge Rusty Foster: What does this parrot mean by "find the letter"?

Witness's friend: There's a whole pile of letters there. Looky here. [shuffles a pile of letters] Look! There's a note tied to the parrot's foot. C'mon, Polly, Polly, Polly, Polly! C'mon, Polly, Polly, Polly. C'mon, Polly, Polly, Polly, c'mon.

Witness: Ouch! Look out, here it comes.

[parrot noises]

Moe: Oh, my Stradivarius, my beautiful Stradivarius.

Larry: Grab your ear. C'mon.

Judge Rusty Foster: Order in the court.

Moe: How do we get him now?

Curly: Let's get some salt and put it on his tail.

Moe: That's no way to get a parrot. You gotta wet his feathers so he can't fly.

Curly: Oh, don't do nothin' till you hear from me.

Moe:C'mon, give me a hand. Wait a minute, hold it, what do you think...

[Things degenerate from here, involving a firehose]

The words of this post and related diaries are purely fictional and a parody and joke. The words should not be taken seriously by anyone. By reading this EULA you agree not to sue the writer in any criminal or civil court in the world.

Hi! I'm back from the dead (2.87 / 8) (#59)
by nebbish on Mon May 24, 2010 at 03:09:30 PM EST

I thought I'd chip in here and say that I sorely miss an intelligent community where I can post and receive criticism for my writing. There isn't really anywhere left on the internet to do that, and in its heyday K5 was the best for it. I don't discount the effect of social media, but also think K5 provided something apart from that. My theory? K5 just got tired. What was the last site reddesign, even just a cosmetic one? When was the last time something different was tried, apart from membership rules? You can't just stay stationary like that.

---------
Kicking someone in the head is like punching them in the foot - Bruce Lee

A lot of things killed it, but (3.00 / 5) (#63)
by localman on Tue May 25, 2010 at 05:11:29 PM EST

I think a big part of the facebook/twitter success is the selective community aspect.  That is, you build your own collection of people  so everyone commenting on your thoughts actually has something invested in communicating with you.

What was always striking to me about communities like k5 and slashdot is how you find yourself debating these faceless people, many of whom give no shit about anything you say and are just there to needle you, burn up time, or feed their own egos.  There's this holdover from the real world where one tends to feel that people saying things to you actually matter to you, and it's hard to let that go.  But online a significant number of people (far more than average at k5) don't bring their common decency online, so it creates a natural impedance mismatch.

After years debating the merits and methods of moderation, the solution seems to be to limit your friends/followers/whatever so that they actually do matter to you.  A million walled communities -- but walled by the center of each community.  And the communities overlap like a million venn diagrams.  Then moderation isn't really an issue.

Aside from that, the $5 fee is stupid and there is a diminishing attention span as there is more and more information to process.  I still come back because I got my account for free, and I've occasionally found good stuff here.  But yeah, it's dead by most metrics.

What really killed K5 (1.50 / 2) (#71)
by Spendocrat on Sun Jun 06, 2010 at 05:59:24 AM EST

The stories are boring, the trolls are boring. Remember when the trolls were clever? Not if you hang out here regularly these days, you don't.

k5 is teh deadz? (none / 1) (#82)
by kpaul on Wed Jun 09, 2010 at 07:54:53 PM EST

no pulse...
2014 Halloween Costumes
Actually, 'trolls' were the main problem. (3.00 / 10) (#86)
by Graeme Rasputin on Thu Jun 17, 2010 at 02:09:30 PM EST

But really, it was the foolish belief of the site's founder in some sort of internet perpetual motion machine. The idea of the site was very simple: If you give a bunch of random people on the internet a very rudimentary publishing platform with a commenting system, they will provide content for a website forever (or more than, say, three years).

A moment's reflection shows this is a completely stupid idea. The founder seemed to recognize in the beginning that he would need to turn the crank by writing articles to get it going, but somehow he thought that after a while, it would take no further effort to keep it going. Hence, almost no effort was made to control problem users, even as the people he thought would magically sustain the site fled in droves and at no point did he recognize that in order to operate successfully, the userbase would need, at minimum, real facilities for handling users whose primary contributions were spamming and harassing other users.

You can't get something for nothing. If you want to run a successful website, it takes constant effort either in the form of content production, as you see from successful bloggers, or administration and technical adaptation to address the problems inherent in letting random people post on your site, to wit that some of them will make a hobby of fucking up your site. Rusty thought he could get away doing neither. Unsurprisingly, this did not work out.

What Really Killed K5 (2.66 / 6) (#89)
by circletimessquare on Sun Jul 11, 2010 at 10:06:57 PM EST

i did

give me my props, you fucking twatstains


The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

Is it really dead? (1.50 / 2) (#90)
by eSolutions on Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 01:24:49 AM EST

Surely the fetus fears its own birth. And when it is born, what is the substance of its life? The memories of a lonely uterus.

So it is with KuroShin. Its current awful diminished retardity hides its union with the infinite. Fed up with it, we allow ourselves to browse other web sites. Thus it has transcended, becoming the entire Internet, every other site, through its very diminishment.

He who has nostrils, let him smell!

Yours in Christ,
eSolutions

A few cents from a long ago (2.50 / 2) (#92)
by BloodmoonACK on Mon Aug 02, 2010 at 09:05:36 PM EST

While trying to avoid doing work I thought, why not go back to K5?  It's been a while!  I'm actually shocked that I can still log into my account.  I mean, my last comment was in 2003, I think.

Anyway, here's my two cents: it got displaced, the quality fell, and the number of trolls increased.  It's really just a repetition of what happens with every social media site.

Anyway, here's the chronology of websites as I see it:

Slashdot -> Everything2 -> K5 -> Digg/reddit -> Metafilter -> ???

I'm sure I'm missing some sites here, but there ya go.  Each one starts as a bastion of interesting, intelligent commentary.  As time goes on, more generic stories get posted, leading to more generic users.  Or vice versa.  In any event, as content gets more watered-down, people leave for better stomping grounds.  Anyone remember when reddit was actually filled with intelligent articles, long, detailed discussions on the latest article from Foreign Affairs?  Yeah, it hasn't been like that in a long time.

Really, the current spiritual heir to K5 seems to be Metafilter, and even that has slowly gotten less interesting.  I'm ready to pack my bags there for the next interesting watering hole.  I just don't know where it is yet.

But I'm glad people are still on K5!  I still wear my "Media Whore" K5 shirt from time to time.  Keep on rockin', guys.

"It's like declaring a 'war on crime' and then claiming every (accused) thief is an 'enemy combatant'." - Hizonner

Hardly (2.00 / 2) (#93)
by livus on Sat Aug 07, 2010 at 01:40:27 AM EST

my facebook friends are way too light on the goatse.

I'm pretty sure the twitter demographic is mainly grandparents and young girls who want to read "celebrity" "tweets". It may be a secondary cause for the death of livejournal, though.

Finally - "No one has ever asked me if I have a K5 account". Good god man, would you really like it if that happened at the watercooler?

And where have I been? At first I was busy, and then I accidentally locked myself out of this account.

---
HIREZ substitute.
be concrete asshole, or shut up. - CTS
I guess I skipped school or something to drink on the internet? - lonelyhobo
I'd like to hope that any impression you got about us from internet forums was incorrect. - debillitatus
I consider myself trolled more or less just by visiting the site. HollyHopDrive

the past isn't very 20:20 is it (none / 1) (#94)
by Prophet themusicgod1 on Mon Aug 09, 2010 at 01:32:03 AM EST

I call historical revisionism -- K5 was dead before most of the current wave of social networking websites even started.
"I suspect the best way to deal with procrastination is to put off the procrastination itself until later. I've been meaning to try this, but haven't gotten around to it yet."swr
Totally Agree!!! (none / 0) (#95)
by dakini on Thu Sep 09, 2010 at 06:40:39 AM EST



" May your vision be clear, your heart strong, and may you always follow your dreams."
The site just got really weird and I lost interest (none / 1) (#96)
by evro on Sat Sep 25, 2010 at 11:29:16 PM EST

The site just got really weird and I lost interest in it.  It started being a sort of collection of weird essays from what I remember, and I tried to like it, but I just lost interest.  I forgot it existed for several years until just now.
---
"Asking me who to follow -- don't ask me, I don't know!"
This Reddit comment reminded me of K5 (none / 1) (#97)
by walk on Sun Sep 26, 2010 at 11:29:37 PM EST

http://www.reddit.com/r/relationship_advice/comments/dj10c/i_feel_like_giving_up /c10k523

I miss its spirit elsewhere on the web.
-
"Walker, there is no road, the road is made by walking"
- Spanish poet Machado exiled by General Franco

You know, a while ago (none / 0) (#101)
by SoupIsGoodFood on Sat Mar 19, 2011 at 08:45:57 AM EST

I was exploring the rock pools of Port Nicholson. I came across a motionless fish lying besides someone's fishing gear. I looked at it for a few seconds and concluded it was dead. Then it twitched.

Just nerves, I guess.

TWITCH

What Really Killed K5 | 106 comments (96 topical, 10 editorial, 0 hidden)
Display: Sort:

kuro5hin.org

[XML]
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. The Rest © 2000 - Present Kuro5hin.org Inc.
See our legalese page for copyright policies. Please also read our Privacy Policy.
Kuro5hin.org is powered by Free Software, including Apache, Perl, and Linux, The Scoop Engine that runs this site is freely available, under the terms of the GPL.
Need some help? Email help@kuro5hin.org.
My heart's the long stairs.

Powered by Scoop create account | help/FAQ | mission | links | search | IRC | YOU choose the stories!