Kuro5hin

Kuro5hin

Web address	kuro5hin.org
Owner	Rusty Foster
Launched	December 1999
Alexa rank	99,182[1]
IP address	69.9.170.99[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Current status	Active

Kuro5hin (K5) (/kɵˈroʊʒən/ corrosion)^[8] is a collaborative discussion website. Articles are created and submitted by Kuro5hin's users and submitted to a queue for evaluation. Site members can vote for or against publishing an article and, once the article has reached a certain number of votes, it is then published to the site or deleted from the queue.^[9] The site has been described as "a free-for-all of news and opinion written by readers".^[10]

Kuro5hin is powered by the Scoop collaborative system. Its motto is "Technology and Culture, from the Trenches". It was founded by Rusty Foster in December 1999, being inspired by Slashdot.^[8] Kuro5hin's membership used to number in the tens of thousands,^[9] but its popularity has declined significantly from its peak in the early 2000s.^[11]

Overview

All content is generated and selected by the users themselves with the exception of site news, that are written by the site administrators. Registered users can submit stories to the submissions queue. In the queue, users vote +1 FP (front page), +1, 0, or -1. If the story reaches a predetermined threshold score, it is posted to the front page or to the relevant section depending on the proportion of FP votes. If it fails to make the threshold, other factors (such as number of comments, type of comments, and their ratings) can still cause the story to be posted to section or front page. Otherwise, it is dropped.^[12][13][14]

One feature of the story queue is edit mode, in which a story is protected from voting for a period of time and the author can make changes. Comments can still be made on the story to suggest changes before voting begins. They are distinguished as being editorial or topical comments. The edit queue is now rarely used.^{[citation needed]}

A further section is known as the diaries. They have no editing or moderation vetting and are essentially weblogs.^[15] They are the source of most of Kuro5hin's content by volume, though unlike the edited article sections, they are not widely syndicated. Other users may also comment on these diaries, similar to stories, however without the "Editorial" or "Topical" stipulation.

History

Rusty Foster named Kuro5hin — which is, as noted, pronounced corrosion — as a pun on his first name.^[8]

In January 2002, OSDN ended the advertising affiliate agreement with Kuro5hin.^[16]

Outages

In July 2000, the site was temporarily closed due to comment spam and denial of service attacks.^[17]

The whois record for the kuro5hin.org domain was changed on October 18, 2013^[18] and again on October 24.^[19]

Financial difficulties

In June 2002 Foster suggested that he might be forced to sell or shut down Kuro5hin due to lack of funds, and he solicited donations to support the site. Since then, some users have been critical of a perceived lack of active management and functional improvements to the site. As of 2008, the CMF was not legally incorporated, and the site was running on bandwidth provided by its sponsor voxel dot net, with ad revenues going directly into Foster's pocket.^{[citation needed]}

Subscription

On March 25, 2004, Foster closed off new user accounts because a photoshopped pornographic image of his wife had been posted.^[20] On July 13, Foster reopened new user accounts and informed the community that he was abandoning the idea of user sponsorship.^[21] This user sponsorship initiative never came to pass.

External Links

• Kuro5hin

See also

• Advogato
• Adequacy.org
• Digg
• Metafilter
• Reddit
• Slashdot
• Techdirt

References