Well, K5 is dying

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Poll

Votes: 20

Well, K5 is dying

Author:

Fon2d2

Topic:

Diaries

Posted:

Jun 17, 2002

Comments:

As admitted by rusty himself, Kuro5hin's non-existant business plan is folding in on itself. It was something we all expected sooner or later.

[Editor's note by elenchos] Fucking boring.

More diaries by Fon2d2

This is sick

I'd provide a link to the latest K5 article detailing the budget and everything but <ahem> "the mod perl sever is down" again. I'd even written a follow up comment (one out of hundreds) but it got lost when the server went down. Amazingly I don't even care. [If you don't care, why did you write all this? And why here?.] K5 was fast reaching the point, much like Slashdot, were I wouldn't have been able to stand reading it anymore. After months of ungratifying hard work, it looks like rusty's greatest contribution to the web won't be K5 after all, but the Scoop engine that powers web logs like K5 and Adequacy. As rusty stated in his article: "irony can be... so ironic sometimes".

[editor's note, by RobotSlave] No, really fucking boring.

	This raises a good question... (none / 0) (#1)
	by mrt76 on Mon Jun 17th, 2002 at 03:22:18 PM PST

	How does Adequacy make money? Does it make money? "...I'm in no mood for a freak show this afternoon..."

	Isn't it obvious? (5.00 / 1) (#2)
	by iat on Mon Jun 17th, 2002 at 05:08:53 PM PST

	How does Adequacy make money? Does it make money? Adequacy has no need to make money. Adequacy's editors all have well-paid jobs and are willing to subsidise the site from their own pockets. Besides, since Adequacy provides an important service to the community, we can deduct these charitable donations from our taxes. Adequacy.org - love it or leave it.

	Adequacy is different (none / 0) (#4)
	by Fon2d2 on Tue Jun 18th, 2002 at 07:28:07 AM PST

	Honestly that question never came to my mind because I'd never imagined the Adequacy editors as starting a website they couldn't support.

	Precisely. (none / 0) (#5)
	by dmg on Tue Jun 18th, 2002 at 12:14:20 PM PST

	You may be interested to know that a range of upscale Adequacy.org and "Linux Zealot" Clothing and accessories (including Mugs and Bumper Stickers) will be coming to market real soon now... time to give a Newtonian demonstration - of a bullet, its mass and its acceleration. -- MC Hawking

	I was imagining (none / 0) (#6)
	by Fon2d2 on Tue Jun 18th, 2002 at 12:45:31 PM PST

	a bumper sticker with black on grey background that read "Are you adequate?". Of course you'd have to add "Are you adequate?" to your list of trademarked taglines.

	Competition (5.00 / 5) (#3)
	by T Reginald Gibbons on Mon Jun 17th, 2002 at 06:13:05 PM PST

	I feel for Rusty, I really do. I mean that. He has what appears to be a dream job running a website for a bunch of niggardly freeloaders whose response to his requests for remuneration is to tell him he's morally obliged to go out and get a bad job like they have. Or they supply really bad business advice centered around the concept of them never having to pay for anything. And that's just sad. This introduces a competitive aspect into reading kuro5hin, as kuro5hin readers vie for the title of dumbest idea to save Rusty's job. Strong contenders include: The outright irony of avowed libertarians telling Rusty to go begging for a government grant, while would-be-cynics who've spent the last year heaping scorn upon the "dot-bomb" industry concoct business plans that would make Idealab guffaw. "Hey, kuro5hin isn't leveraging its intellectual assets! We should take all the genius on the site and distill it into a weekly magazine!" (This was unsettlingly popular) Rusty should stop doing the job he really wants to do, which is the purpose of all this, and go out and get a job he doesn't want to do. Meanwhile he can delegate the running of kuro5hin to the people who were so unhelpful to him that he had to get a job in the first place. They can surely be counted upon to be responsible for administrating the site. Sell scoop! Open source always makes money. I bet lots of companies would pay to find out what the teenagers on kuro5hin think they should do. I bet lots of companies are trying to find semi-qualified teenaged computer nerds to hire, but just don't know where to look. Hey, business plan! Did somebody say IPO? Sadly, yes somebody did. "If you were already rich, you wouldn't have money problems! " The Kuro5hin calendar. Sweet Jesus, I'm not kidding. In all seriousness, I hope Rusty finds some business plan that adheres to his rigid code of ethics. The fact that he's opposed to charging money for the services he provides, while refusing to sell advertising is going to make that a hard task, but good luck to him. I, for one, have vowed to either pay him money or stop looking at his site. I suggest that any person who does not follow suit is a selfish parasite who doesn't deserve collaborative media.

	They aren't kidding either, Mr. Gibbons. (none / 0) (#8)
	by Poster on Tue Jun 18th, 2002 at 07:50:49 PM PST

	Look here . Jesus Christ!

	Looks like December will having me laughing again (none / 0) (#9)
	by T Reginald Gibbons on Tue Jun 18th, 2002 at 08:22:50 PM PST

	This year as last. Spectacular. I can assure you, nobody anticipates the k5 calendar more eagerly than I.

	Did you catch this quote? (none / 0) (#13)
	by Fon2d2 on Wed Jun 19th, 2002 at 08:26:36 AM PST

	There are some folks here whose bodies can compete with their minds, if you know what I mean, and I think that you do. I just love the way geeks think they are the smartest thing on the planet. Oh wait, no actually I'm tired of it.

	'niggardly' (1.00 / 1) (#12)
	by Anonymous Reader on Wed Jun 19th, 2002 at 07:59:04 AM PST

	please do not racism. thx.

	Um... (none / 0) (#19)
	by Anonymous Reader on Wed Jun 19th, 2002 at 02:58:05 PM PST

	Niggardly means cheap, you moron.

	See Rusty go! (none / 0) (#7)
	by because it isnt on Tue Jun 18th, 2002 at 06:13:19 PM PST

	I mean, look at him. I am seriously impressed by his newfound ability to swindle people out of their cash. He's all "I run the website. I want your money. You love me. Send it in NOW!" and they're breaking out in a rash to wire every last dime to him! Lenin couldn't have done it better himself. No joking, this guy could go down a storm on the televangelism circuit. Think of the pledge drives he could spearhead! I can't wait to see him on the 700 Club! adequacy.org -- because it isn't

	I hate pledge drives [n/t] (none / 0) (#14)
	by Fon2d2 on Wed Jun 19th, 2002 at 08:32:51 AM PST

	What if they start coming here? (none / 0) (#10)
	by gzt on Tue Jun 18th, 2002 at 08:41:15 PM PST

	If K5 dies, many will come here, thinking this elitist haven was naturally built for their '1337 techno skillz'. I mean hey, it's on the internet and it uses Scoop, so it must be a technology forum. Let's talk about colonels and Lens Torvelts... I hope the Adequate have a proper plan for coping with the infidels. I'm sorry, but I don't see the irony. So what if his greatest contribution was Scoop instead of K5? Is it ironic that K5ers would recognize that as irony and never detect it in anything else (as their trademark), while I appreciate many forms of irony (and disdain them for being dense) and don't detect it here? Cheers, GZ

	How about... (none / 0) (#15)
	by Anonymous Reader on Wed Jun 19th, 2002 at 10:08:28 AM PST

	If the folks here at Adequacy hate K5 and anything related to open source, why don't they just ditch Scoop and go with something else? I'm sure there are closed source, commerical weblogs out there they can use that goes with their beliefs. I just think it's funny that the staff here talks about how bad open source is from a weblog that, well, is open source! Just an observation.

	What's this? (none / 0) (#17)
	by Anonymous Reader on Wed Jun 19th, 2002 at 02:35:51 PM PST

	If the soft-wares that run the Adequacy are open-sourced, then where is the source? Do you see a link anywhere that says "download Adequacy's valuable soft-ware secrets here?" No, of course you don't. This is because Adequacy, like any smart business, operates upon closed, proprietary, top-secret soft-ware, and you are not allowed to look at the source-codes, you dirty little hacker-as-in-incompetent-or-criminal.

	Scroll to the bottom (none / 0) (#20)
	by Fon2d2 on Thu Jun 20th, 2002 at 07:03:54 AM PST

	and there you will see the link that says "powered by Scoop".

	My Favorite Part (none / 0) (#16)
	by Icebox on Wed Jun 19th, 2002 at 10:59:53 AM PST

	I don't read Kur05hin. It rates far higher on the annoyance scale than Slashdot because it is just a bunch of socially maladjusted geeks rambling on about subjects they are even less familiar with than programming. Regardless, I followed the link. My favorite part of this entire thing is that this Rusty guy bases his decision to panhandle for funding on the fact that 'kuro5hin as a hobby would suck'. It would 'suck' for him to have to give up his job running a nearly insolvent web site in order to pay the bills. Well, I feel bad for the guy. Really. When I was 17 I was in a similar position. I had some bills, or at least wanted to have some bills in the form of a car payment on a brand new Mustang GT. The majority of my time was spent eating E-Z Cheez straight from the can and drinking Colt 45. While I enjoyed this tremendously, it did not provide the sort of financial support necessary to put me behind the wheel of a Mustang like I had hoped it would. All of my friends agreed that I was providing them with valuable companionship while we drank beer together so I didn't want to sell out on them. Same situation, and I feel just terrible for Rusty. I'd hate for him to have to do something that 'sucked'. Really. I'm going to donate right now. Whatever the budget will bear this month, Rusty gets it. No, I won't be donating to the Red Cross this month. No, homeless; one-legged; blind; disabled; cancer ridden; veteran selling brooms, I can't afford to patronize you today, a perfectly healthy; 20 something; suburban; married; college educated; libertarian; white; heterosexual geek needs my help to reach his arbitrarily set mark of $70,000 in 'operating expenses' so that he doesn't have to do something that 'sucks'. Rest assured I'll be back to help you buy the medication you need to keep those voices tucked away where they belong so you don't come unglued and hang yourself from an exposed beam in your roach laden studio apartment. Just as soon as I make sure this guy can cover his mortgage payments for the next year or so. Screw you Rusty.

	Post this as a story (none / 0) (#18)
	by dmg on Wed Jun 19th, 2002 at 02:50:40 PM PST

	Your opinions are certainly controversial enough to make the front page. Perhaps you could elaborate on the whole weblog/slacker ethos and why is is so harmful to America and Capitalism. time to give a Newtonian demonstration - of a bullet, its mass and its acceleration. -- MC Hawking

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