History
Something Awful was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, who remains in control of the site but is supported by other contributing writers and administrators.
Kyanka started Something Awful several months before leaving his previous job, after using his "Cranky Steve" persona to write a comedic website update deriding the attitude and work performance of a fellow Planet Quake administrator. The original idea for the website arose when Kyanka was a student at Turtle Mountain Community College. He moved the "Cranky Steve" personality he had created to the Something Awful site in 1999. In the years immediately following Something Awful's launch, several sponsors, including GameFan and eFront, failed to compensate Kyanka as promised for advertising on the site.
In 2001, the site began charging an activation fee (currently US$9.95) for forum access. Non-members are not able to post messages or threads. The site and forums draw continuous income from fees for new accounts, forum upgrades such as custom avatars and access to the forum archives and search features, and merchandise sales.
Read more about this topic: Jeff K
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