De-kolymization

De-Kolyma-ization was the reversal of the process of Kolyma-ization, an event which took place in Heyuri and several other websites throughout the KolymaNET era.

Kolyma-ization

Kolyma-ization was the heavy integration of Heyuri (and later, other websites) into the Kolyma Network and associated services, spearheaded by Kuz. Heyuri was no longer a standalone website, but instead one small branch of a larger KolymaNET system, with many unnecessary mentions of Kolyma ham-fistedly featured across the various elements of the site. This was strongly resented by many users, and caused many complaints and arguments. This contributed to a marked decline of Heyuri's already-dwindling activity and userbase, and a decline in kuz's popularity amongst Heyuri's remaining users.

Kolyma-ization first occurred in September 2020 with the creation of KolymaBBS and StrawberryHeaven, and was turned up to 11 with the launch of the Kokonotsuba imageboard software (replacing Heyuri's former software) in March 2021. Without Heyuri users' prior knowledge (they were under the impression Heyuri was simply moving to a new and improved software), Kokonotsuba was deeply hooked into Kuz's and KolymaNET's ecosystem in ways that were later stated by Kuz to be near-impossible to remove.

De-Kolyma-ization begins

In July 2020, after much user backlash and continued dwindling activity on Heyuri (as of April 2024, the first half of 2021 was Heyuri's all-time low in terms of user population and activity), Kuz eventually promised to undo many of the Kolyma-related changes. Some aspects were removed immediately, but many others wouldn't be undone until years later; this was in part due to how deeply Kokonotsuba had been integrated into Kolyma, but also in part due to Kuz's stubbornness.

When Kaguya's leadership began in late April 2022, additional Kolyma components that remained active on Heyuri were swiftly removed; Kuz called some of these removals "too far", "witch hunting" and "stupid, pointless revisionism" which "if left unchecked would snowball into worse things for the site". Kuz would turn out to be proven wrong; Heyuri went on to become more active and prosperous than it had ever been during the "Kolyma era", even surpassing the "golden age". Hooray! ヽ(´ー｀)ノ