Richard Kyanka
 |
|
| Type of business | Limited Liability Company (LLC) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Pleasant Hill, Missouri, United States |
| Founder(s) | Richard Charles Kyanka |
| Key people | Richard Kyanka Zack Parsons David Thorpe |
| Industry | Web-based |
| Website | somethingawful.com |
| Alexa rank |
 6,554 (May 2016[update]) |
Something Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a variety of content, including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka in 1999 as a largely personal website, but as it grew, so did its contributors and content. Since then, the website has helped to perpetuate various Internet phenomena, and it has been cited as an influence on Internet culture.
Since the website's creation, it has been involved in a number of notable events. These include a conflict with the Spam Prevention Early Warning System, a Hurricane Katrina relief fund being caught in PayPal's red tape, an exhibition boxing match between Kyanka and movie director Uwe Boll, and the creation of the Slenderman.
Something Awful was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, who controls the site and 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. 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. Only members can post messages or threads, and the forums are only intermittently viewable by unregistered users to encourage new registrations. 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.
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