He committed suicide at age 45 due to child support payments from his ex wife.
For those who don't know who he is, he's probably the single most influential person you have never heard of. He's the creator of the website "Something Awful" that was enormously popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Something Awful is the origin of all modern internet culture, the origin of "let's play" aka Twitch like video game streaming, the origin of 4chan, the origin of social justice warriors, the origin of internet style picture memes, etc. etc. You can trace the modern radical left/social justice warriors and the modern far right/dissident right/alt right back to SA.
Richard Kyanka's life is the epitome of a "what could have been" scenario. He had multiple chances to become a billionaire and have Mark Zuckerberg levels of power but he squandered every chance he had and blew them all because he was content to remain lazy and live off of his earnings from the site forever without any understanding that you have to change with the times. As a person, he was an absolute trainwreck and was an adulterer, drug addict, and more in addition to be generally lazy. He was good to his kids though. He also fought and got destroyed by Uwe Boll in a boxing match.
Here is a primary on what SA ultimately influenced and did:
Here is a book that goes into more detail about it:
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/30/745484563/it-came-from-something-awful-links-4chan-and-todays-political-discourse
For those of you who experienced the Wild West of the internet, you know what I'm talking about. For anyone who missed that era, all I can say is that it was truly a different world.
For those who don't know who he is, he's probably the single most influential person you have never heard of. He's the creator of the website "Something Awful" that was enormously popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Something Awful is the origin of all modern internet culture, the origin of "let's play" aka Twitch like video game streaming, the origin of 4chan, the origin of social justice warriors, the origin of internet style picture memes, etc. etc. You can trace the modern radical left/social justice warriors and the modern far right/dissident right/alt right back to SA.
Richard Kyanka's life is the epitome of a "what could have been" scenario. He had multiple chances to become a billionaire and have Mark Zuckerberg levels of power but he squandered every chance he had and blew them all because he was content to remain lazy and live off of his earnings from the site forever without any understanding that you have to change with the times. As a person, he was an absolute trainwreck and was an adulterer, drug addict, and more in addition to be generally lazy. He was good to his kids though. He also fought and got destroyed by Uwe Boll in a boxing match.
Here is a primary on what SA ultimately influenced and did:
Here is a book that goes into more detail about it:
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/30/745484563/it-came-from-something-awful-links-4chan-and-todays-political-discourse
For those of you who experienced the Wild West of the internet, you know what I'm talking about. For anyone who missed that era, all I can say is that it was truly a different world.