The site is remarkable for being almost entirely community driven. All content is generated by and selected by the users - with the exception of site news, which comes from Rusty Foster, the site's founder. Registered users can submit stories to the Submissions Queue. In the queue, users vote +1 FP (front page), +1, -1 or 0 (for an abstention). If the story reaches a predetermined threshold score, it is posted either to the front page or to the relevant section, depending on the proportion of +1FP votes. If it fails to make the threshold, it is dropped.
An interesting feature of the story queue is Edit Mode. Edit Mode means that a story is protected from voting for a period of time, during which the author can make changes. Comments can be made on the story during this time, and to aid the author, they are distinguished as being Editorial or Topical comments.
Rusty Foster named Kuro5hin (pronounced "corrosion") as a pun on his first name. The 5 was inspired by the name of the character Da5id in Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel, Snow Crash. Dylan Griffiths (Inoshiro) is the second in command as site administrator. Additionally, there are a number of other people with powers of story editing (although not comment editing) and site administration.
The community also holds a Wiki for Kuro5hin related material called Ko4ting (pronounced "coating" or "cavorting"). It houses information about the community, including a Greatest Stories Hall of Fame, Welcome/Introduction Guide, History of Kuro5hin, and a story directory.
Related Articles
External link