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The Internet Idle

RIP Kuro5hin (kuro5hin.org) 264

Posted by EditorDavid from the technology-and-culture,-from-the-trenches dept.
themusicgod1 writes: Can we please get a moment of silence? Long-time sister site to Slashdot, Kuro5hin has finally gone offline.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

RIP Kuro5hin More

RIP Kuro5hin

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  • never heard of it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01, 2016 @02:52PM (#52024023)

    probably why its dead

  • Is it REALLY dead? (Score:4, Funny)

    by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M ( 4212163 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @02:56PM (#52024055)

    Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead!
    [A large man appears with a (seemingly) dead Kuro5hin over his shoulder]
    Large Man: Here's one.
    Dead Collector: Nine pence.
    "Dead" Kuro5hin: I'm not dead.
    Dead Collector: What?
    Large Man: Nothing. [hands the collector his money] There's your nine pence.
    "Dead" Kuro5hin: I'm not dead!
    Dead Collector: 'Ere, he says he's not dead.
    Large Man: Yes he is.
    "Dead" Kuro5hin: I'm not.
    Dead Collector: He isn't.
    Large Man: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
    "Dead" Kuro5hin: I'm getting better.
    Large Man: No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment.
    Dead Collector: Well, I can't take him like that. It's against regulations.
    "Dead" Kuro5hin: I don't want to go on the cart.
    Large Man:' Oh, don't be such a baby.
    Dead Collector: I can't take him.
    "Dead" Kuro5hin: I feel fine.
    Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, do me a favor.
    Dead Collector: I can't.
    Large Man: Well, can you hang around for a couple of minutes? He won't be long.
    Dead Collector: I promised I'd be at the Robinsons'. They've lost nine today.
    Large Man: Well, when's your next round?
    Dead Collector: Thursday.
    "Dead" Kuro5hin: I think I'll go for a walk.
    Large Man: You're not fooling anyone, you know. Isn't there anything you could do?
    "Dead" Kuro5hin: I feel happy! I feel happy!
    [The collecter paces for an idea, then whacks Kuro5hin with his club, solving the problem]
    Large Man: Ah, thank you very much.
    Dead Collector: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
    Large Man: Right.

  • Slashdot is not far behind... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:00PM (#52024081) Homepage

    A few of us from the first days are still around but I now only check maybe once a week. Story quality is in the toilet, and the discussions are no longer entertaining or enlightening but instead just hatefests that feel like twitter and youtube comments.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Improv ( 2467 )

      You're looking at the past with rose-tinted glasses. Slashdot hasn't changed much (although its interface is nicer), it's just there are more specialist forums that some subcommunities have left for - hackernews (with an interface far worse than Slashdot ever had at its worst), TomsHardware, and so many other places.

      • I dunno. I still browse every so often, but the quality of the discussions seems lacking - there's precious little that I feel is worth the effort of contributing to.

        According to FF, this is the first time I've actually logged in since August of 2013.

        RIP Kuro5hin. I remember it, anyway.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @04:38PM (#52024535)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Bullshit. I remember there being a time when you could have a 300 post discussion here when a new file system came out when everybody would be comparing and arguing the various pros and cons of the new file system when compared to what was already out, now?

          To be fair, there hasn't been a new file system worth talking about in quite some time.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Monoman ( 8745 )

        I still check /. multiple times most days. Reddit is my only other daily site that comes a distant second to the culture here.

    • A few of us from the first days are still around but I now only check maybe once a week. Story quality is in the toilet, and the discussions are no longer entertaining or enlightening but instead just hatefests that feel like twitter and youtube comments.

      Yeah, the definitions of "news" and "nerds" and "matters" has really been perverted. There are still some gems in the comments, but it's only worth reading them when they're not fresh anymore when they've been moderated up (or conversely) the shit has been modded down. Reading them live? Forget it.

      • Re:Slashdot is not far behind... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Lawrence_Bird ( 67278 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @04:03PM (#52024383) Homepage

        I don't recall seeing this many 4 and 5 digit users in one thread in.. like.. 15 years? more?

        Bottom line: Slashdot is not fresh. I still hit it once or twice a day but rarely is there anything not already seen hours (or days) prior elsewhere. I mean I could live with Timothy if at least the stuff posted on the front page was new and interesting. And on that interesting front.. total loss of focus there too. Too much non-nerd non-news that matters (to nerds). Anything that is going to be front page or high up on CNN, NY Times, etc almost certainly does not belong on /.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ded Bob ( 67043 )

      Slashdot has become a war zone. I do not mind heated disagreement, but there are many people that want you to conform to one side or the other even if you are on a third or fourth side. :)

      I glance at Slashdot at times and sometimes go to OSNews to stay geeky with limited messages to read. My Slashdot ID is only as high as it is because I took forever before making it.

      • Yeah, I feel like 15 years ago the quality of discussion was much higher and everyone was far more open-minded about things. I still lurk around, but find myself even bothering to read the comments section hardly ever.

        And my ID is only as high as it is because I abandoned my low-five-digit one to start a new account and have a friendly competition with a friend of mine to see who could get to 50 Karma again the fastest.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Nethead ( 1563 )

      Come on, Lumpy. I see you posting almost everyday. But I do agree about the quality, I hope the new overlords will try to do a bit better. /. still has one of the better mod systems for a large site.

    • I don't agree (Score:5, Informative)

      by Kethinov ( 636034 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:44PM (#52024317) Homepage Journal

      Slashdot was on the decline, but I'm actually optimistic about the new owner's chances of succeeding at turning the ship around because of their commitment to listening to the community [twitter.com] for the first time in far too long.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jdavidb ( 449077 )

      I spend a lot of time at SoylentNews these days. Maybe you'd like it.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sstrick ( 137546 )

      I'm from the early days (although I waiting a long time before I created an account) and also read it about once a week.

      What's sad is I have not actually found a replacement, I haven't left because there is something better. I wonder if Slashdot's problem is simply that its time has passed. While the sense of community is now lacking, the stories are pretty much the same as always. The comments quality has dropped, simply due to the lack of volume resulting with less on the Right-Hand side of the bell-curve

  • How anticlimatic (Score:4, Insightful)

    by vadim_t ( 324782 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:02PM (#52024097) Homepage

    If that's really intentional on Rusty's part, I would have liked to have some sort of announcement, and some sort of goodbye. Perhaps a post-mortem analysis. And ideally, have it remain online frozen, as an archive, because in the past there have been many very good articles on it, before it went to shit.

    Of course, the site has already been effectively dead for what, more than a decade now, I think? It's a real pity, because it used to be a really cool place where interesting, and sometimes important (Wikipedia, OpenNIC, etc) discussions took place.

    The place was unique enough that it took me years to find a suitable replacement for it.

  • Les Nessman (Score:3)

    by NoNonAlphaCharsHere ( 2201864 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:09PM (#52024121)
    Anybody else getting a Les Nessman "WKRP is not on the air" vibe from Slashdot posting a link to a site that's no longer there?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      and dont forget.

      "the station with more music and Les Nessman."

  • Thanks! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:09PM (#52024127)

    for posting a link to a site that has gone off line.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by b1t r0t ( 216468 )

      It was just slashdotted before its time.

      It was never the same after turmeric was gone. But K5 has really already been dead for over a year since Rusty shut off the submission queue. (You could still log in and see the empty submission queue if you knew the right URL, but you still couldn't post anything.) And see that CTS still posts here on /. from time to time.

      But really, K5 was one of the original victims of the "everybody gets to moderate every message" meme that killed Digg and is also why Reddit is

  • This was the site where someone debunked the "Windows just copied its TCP/IP stack from the BSDs" and now that source is gone thanks to a robots.txt wiping out the archive: https://web.archive.org/web/*/... [archive.org] .

  • The Internet is made of change (Score:4, Insightful)

    by backtick ( 2376 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:15PM (#52024155) Homepage Journal

    It is the way of things. *checks his uid* yeah, /. Has changed, kuro5hin changed, it's part of the gig.

  • I remember that site (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MAXOMENOS ( 9802 ) <mike@mikesmYEATS ... n.com minus poet> on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:19PM (#52024187) Homepage

    I remember it was hot in 2001. I remember visiting again in 2004 and it was desolate. I'm surprised it lasted this long.

    You know what site I really miss? Segfault.org [wikipedia.org]. That was seriously funny stuff, and ahead of its time. Too bad the hard drive on which it ran crashed and left an unrecoverable mess.

  • The Wreck of the Edmund Kuro5hin (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:30PM (#52024237)

    The legend lives on from trolltalk on down
    Of the big net they call Intar Webby
    The net, it is said, never gives up her dead
    When the posts of October turn gloomy.

    With a load of whiny diaries - 26,000 tons more
    Than the Edmund Kuro5hin weighed empty
    That good site and true was a bone to be chewed
    When the trolls of October came early

    The ship was the pride of the USian side
    Coming back from some server in Wisconson
    As the big Scoop sites go it was bigger than most
    With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

    Concluding some terms with a couple of sponsors
    When they left fully loaded for Peaks Island
    And later that night when the site's bell rang
    Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

    The packets in the wires made a tattletale sound
    And a wave broke over the railing
    And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
    T'was the witch of October come stealing.

    The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
    When the gales of October came slashdotting
    When afternoon came it was rebuilding
    In the face of a hurricane db problem

    When supper time came the old kook came on deck
    Saying fellows it's too rough to bug ya
    At 7PM a main web box caved in
    He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

    The Captain wired in he had crapfloods coming in
    And the good site and crew was in peril
    And later that night when his lights went out of sight
    Came the wreck of the Edmund Kuro5hin.

    Does anyone know where the love of God goes
    When the posts turn the minutes to hours
    The searchers all say they'd have made SoS Bay
    If they'd fifteen more routers behind her.

    They might have split up or they might have crashed
    They may have broke deep and took disk corruption
    And all that remains is the faces and the names
    Of the wives and the sons and the posters.

    Ars Technica rolls, Slashdot sings
    In the ruins of her geek compound mansion
    Old Michigan steams like a young geek's dreams,
    Usenet and blogs are for sportsmen.

    And farther below Everything2
    Takes in what Something Awful can send her
    And the big iron boxen go as the admins all know
    With the gales of October remembered.

    In a musty old hall in UKia they prayed
    In the Intarweb Admins' Cathedral
    The ^G bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
    For each man on the Edmund Kuro5hin.

    The legend lives on from trolltalk on down
    Of the big net they call Intar Webby
    The net, it is said, never gives up her dead
    When the posts of October come early.

  • I had completely forgotten about its existence. :/ Now I feel kind of bad for not visiting it recently.
  • Refuge for brilliance at times
    Thanks for the good times

  • I remember registering on it way back, but I never really read it like I did slashdot.

    In fact, for the last decade it's really only existed in my mind as an entry in my password manager. Guess I can delete that now.

  • I remember K5 for being the original host of localroger and his "Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect", as well as a host of other original stories.

    Tis a sad day indeed.

  • My first real Unix jobs, and writing perl late into the night, killing time on Slashdot, and Kuro5hin. It's a shame it faltered, I'd check in every so often to see if it had resurrected itself. Much like perl, it never did.

  • What ever happened to that low-budget Filipino horror movie in NYC? After so much hype, I want to finally see it, or at least read the film snobs reviews on IMDB.

    This site was never a big deal...it had promise, but very quickly devolved into an insiders site. Whenever that happens, you stop growing and begin decaying. It was the same 30 people talking to each other, and they didn't like outsiders. Since the genius that ran it blocked archive.org, now that it's offline the whole thing is gone forever.

  • More likely, the domain will probably be sold and redirected to Gizmodo or CNet. Slashdot has been in a slow, downward spiral for years now.

  • RIP Kuro5hin *and* my world-famous chili recipe (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Mr Foobar ( 11230 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @07:19PM (#52025291) Homepage

    Well damn, that's a real shame. When that site was up 'n running, it was such a great site. Yea, a lot of trolling on the front end, but behind that, there were some great technical posters that kept me coming back. Sadly, that death of that site means my world-famous chili recipe may also be gone. There was a call for chili recipes, I posted mine. Meat steamed in beer, no beans, and let the chili stew (ie ferment) overnight. Gawd-dam! was it good.

    It was especially good, as I made it all completely up. Loosely based on my mom's recipe, but mostly a total fake-er-roo. Yet people made it, a lot of them. And they all loved it. Yep, I trolled K5 with a bogus chili recipe.

    Then Rusty kept doing shit that made it no so much fun to visit as often. Then kept doing more of that shit that made it even less fun to visit. So I quit visiting. Other favorite sites have also disappeared: fuckedcompany.com and stilenetwork.com among them. At least http://everything2.com/ [everything2.com] is still going, kind of.

  • A handful of k5 survivors are now at don't sue me bro [dontsuemebro.com] and/or kr5dit [kr5dit.com].

  • I did not come here to praise Kuro5hin but to bury it.

    Rusty Foster was an absentee landlord who neglected it while he worked for Newsweek writing Today in Tabs until he got fired. Everyone remembers the CMF that never existed but Rusty raised a lot of money with it to promise to fix Scoop and improve Kuro5hin, but the money went to fix his house and buy a yacht instead.

    Rusty helped Howard Dean's campaign use Scoop to connect with voters, but the Dean Scream ruined that. That was before social networks too off and people use Wordpress now instead of Scoop.

    Just about everyone who made Kuro5hin great had left, Rusty put up a $5 paywall for new accounts, when that failed to stop trolls, Rusty deleted the login form and new user page. After that didn't work Rusty moved his DNS to Ghandi in France and the site was down for a few days until this new landing page was used.

    Rusty's Twitter page: http://www.twitter.com/rustyk5 [twitter.com] but he made it private so only his followers can see it.

  • I only remember reading one story there, The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Richard Williams. I'm sure there were others down the years, but this is the one that stands out. If you have hazy memories of reading that story many years ago, it was probably on kuro5hin.

    It was pretty good. I just checked, and it is available elsewhere now.

  • In a lot of ways it was very annoying (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <imipakNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Monday May 02, 2016 @01:30AM (#52026313) Homepage Journal

    Anyone could post anything, it was Rational Anarchism in the mould of Heinlein's philosophies, and I found most of the content ended up being drivel as a consequence. Still, diaries were a lot more successful than the Slashdot journals ever were, so it had something going for it.

    The source, Scoop, was maintained for a long time and that probably contributed to its demise. However, there were some interesting ideas in the code and I hope someone uploads a copy somewhere. I far prefer the cleaner interface to the one Slashdot uses, heavy interfaces aren't portable and the decreasing support for web standards by the major browsers isn't helping. A major reversion to lighter footprint pages will be necessary at some point.

    Going back to the philosophy of Rational Anarchism, K5's failure to survive shows that said philosophy has limits. It has been out-competed. Slashdot is closer to the Benign Dictator philosophy that has served Open Source so well. Slashdot suffered heavily from an excessive of business involvement and loss of focus, but has partially recovered. As long as Slashdot works hard to rebuild the number of active users (even passive users), the trolls will fade to black and Slashdot will survive into the future.

    Slashdot, at one point, had a couple of thousand active users and over a hundred thousand passive readers - figures that national newspapers would struggle to compete with. It's a total comparable to the best The Guardian ever managed. That proves the impact these sorts of sites can have. The heaviest threads here have had more warranted +5 content than a BBC Horizon documentary, Question Time and "I'm Sorry, I haven't a clue" combined.

    But precisely because these sorts of site have such a large potential market, they should not go extinct. Rusty gave up, for whatever reason, and the lack of maintenance is likely a major factor. Slashdot isn't exactly thriving, but it is surviving.

    The two attempts by Bruce Perens to run a Technocrat website shows that maintenance alone is also not a factor. A site has to have good quality content, adequate security, adequate bandwidth and a feel of involvement. There were some... problems with some of the stories posted, almost certainly not intended, but the underlying Zope had problems and the Technocrat software wasn't brilliant at checking input for errors.

    But, yes, this is a sad day.

    Talking of sites that are dead, I would dearly love to revive Freshmeat/Freecode. I have no objection to writing my own software, I know that the maintainers were concerned about the underlying software entering circulation and I want to reassure the current owners that if they were willing to let me take over, I would be willing to write my own versions of anything considered proprietary.

    I think the site was shut down in error, but I would not ask others to invest time and effort simply because I think something. I expect to be expected to show that I'm right, on my own dime, on my own time. And, should I do so, if whoever currently owns it wants it back then I'd respect that wish. That's the whole point of this "community" thing, in my opinion. Nobody else has to believe that, how can you possibly lose by me believing it?

    The same would be true for Kuro5hin. If Rusty wants to let me have a go at getting Scoop up to scratch and running Kuro5hin, on the understanding that if they want it back if I succeed then I'd not be predatory about it. I'd rather have the community functioning and to hell with who runs it.

  • I have some of k5 archived (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I wrote a k5 screen scraper, and have 95% of k5 diaries, unfortunately I don't have any stories.
    Date range for my archive is: 2001-1-4 to 2015-7-22
    For a total of 161,942 diaries [semantic-db.org].

    Here is a summary of what I have in my archive [kr5ddit.com].

    Here are some tables showing which kurons had the highest number of posts over the lifetime of k5 [kr5ddit.com].

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