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Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

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Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#121

Post by yourapostasy »

philpem wrote: post #11

Posted this on the other thread ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27653450 ), I'll copy it here... I don't really know what to say here. I didn't know them personally, but I saw their work and was truly stunned. Most people don't achieve in their entire lives what Near (aka Byuu) did in their comparatively short one. To say I was impressed is an understatement. I simply don't have the words. What happened, shoul…

> Most people don't achieve in their entire lives what Near (aka Byuu) did in their comparatively short one.

I'm astonished that someone with this caliber of attention to detail and proven track record to deliver was not already in at least an internship program. Would have definitely earned at least a closer scrutiny from me and I would have pulled strings to accommodate their special needs if that closer look held up.

KF depravity, if practiced upon a puppy with mapped-over harassment as say, constant yelling or similar behavior, if documented, would net the perps with harsher consequences than the nada they will get. An individual's character is measured by how they behave when no one is watching. A civilization's strength is measured by how it behaves when its weakest members are preyed upon.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#122

Post by ngcazz »

philpem wrote: post #115
ngcazz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looked them up. How is it that they aren’t getting prosecuted _right now_?

Good question. Assuming you're US based - Why not write a letter to your representatives, asking them why the police ignore and dismiss online harassment, and why a single US citizen continues to be allowed to operate what is solely a hate site? If legal pressure isn't enough, why not try political pressure?

I'm not US-based but I imagine this requires international cooperation in any case

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#123

Post by _etyf »

user-the-name wrote: post #119
_etyf wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The members seem to have a strange, self-claimed moral authority. The posts are a mix of records of what they have done to harass people, updates on past targets, ideas for future hate, and justification about why this person deserves it. Sounds a lot like Twitter.

Sounds nothing at all like Twitter. These are people who cheer when they drive someone to suicide. Do not diminish their utter depravity by comparing them to something far less extreme.

No, this sounds exactly like Twitter.

On Twitter, self-appointed mobs of the morally righteous call for violence against children [0], farm lulz from the killings of police officers [1], dox strangers to get them fired over off-color jokes [2], and endlessly harass and threaten certain conservative journalists and activists [3]. Actual Twitter employees harassed right-wing reporter Andy Ngo [4] after a real-world mob attack sent him to the ER with a brain hemmorhage, an event which "ACAB Twitter" continues to celebrate and remind him about.

The trolls on Twitter blend in by being a few medium-sized fish in the ocean. The trolls on Kiwi Farms are more visible as big fish in their own small pond. They're ideologically flipped compared to Twitter trolls, but fundamentally alike in their methods, moral posturing, and disregard for basic human decency. They're all an enormous net-negative for humanity.

[0] https://medium.com/@RevolutionaryId/twitter-democratizing-mo...

[1] https://twitter.com/halfsleeps/status/1320955923205033984

[2] https://news.yahoo.com/journalist-apologizes-for--hasjustine...

[3] https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/its-insane-were-having-a-...

[4] https://archive.is/VGuZy

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#124

Post by orf »

_etyf wrote: post #123
user-the-name wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds nothing at all like Twitter. These are people who cheer when they drive someone to suicide. Do not diminish their utter depravity by comparing them to something far less extreme.

No, this sounds exactly like Twitter. On Twitter, self-appointed mobs of the morally righteous call for violence against children [0], farm lulz from the killings of police officers [1], dox strangers to get them fired over off-color jokes [2], and endlessly harass and threaten certain conservative journalists and activists [3]. Actual Twitter employees harassed right-wing reporter Andy Ngo [4] after a real-world mob…

No, it still doesn’t sound like Twitter.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#125

Post by hoechst »

aaron695 wrote: post #114

What happened here is Cancel Culture. It's on the other side. But it's the same. The left have driven people to suicide, the left attack people for past posts, the left attack employees and friends. And the left should know better, it's hard to know how to move forward while the left, which for so long had the higher ground, also do this. And by left I mean the people who don't condemn lynch mobs when they think it's…

fuck off

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#126

Post by Ygg2 »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #101
drag0nite wrote: post #67

Why has anybody not commented on the bizarre behavior outlined in this tweet? He stayed on the phone for over an hour, while this person was presumably hanging themselves, without trying to help in any way whatsoever? If this story is true, then they didn't intervene during a key time that person could've been saved. Quite frankly, I am not believing this until there's confirmation.

With some effort, I can sort of understand how one might have that reaction. But the tl;dr is that there's history here that makes it all tragically plausible. More specifically: 1) The persona "Near" was relatively new, following a partial "infosuicide" with respect to their previous pseudonym (which involved a degree of detachment from singular achievements in SNES emulation and preservation benefiting projects ran…

Ok, but how do you prove something Kiwi Farms did actually caused it?

From what I've read of linked forums, there was no activity regarding Near. Last activity was on page 13, dated April or May 2021, basically saying "Any news on Near?"

How do you pin this on KF and not individuals assocates with the site?

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#127

Post by badRNG »

aaron695 wrote: post #114

What happened here is Cancel Culture. It's on the other side. But it's the same. The left have driven people to suicide, the left attack people for past posts, the left attack employees and friends. And the left should know better, it's hard to know how to move forward while the left, which for so long had the higher ground, also do this. And by left I mean the people who don't condemn lynch mobs when they think it's…

Not even touching on the false equivalency, this has to be one of the most tone-deaf and upsetting comments I've seen on HN.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#128

Post by badRNG »

ATsch wrote: post #52
hrdwdmrbl wrote: post #42

The marketplace of ideas has failed. I wish it weren’t true. I loved the concept. Russia killed it. Trolls killed it. Fake news killed it. Click bait killed it. It’s sad and I mourn it. Free speech on the internet isn’t looking too hot. We must demand that platforms do more to police what people can send and post. I don’t envy their position. Perhaps one of the new user-controlled data models will help. Perhaps AI wi…

I wouldn't say it has failed, but succeeded. The framing of the "marketplace of ideas" has really always been about paving over power dynamics and justify continuing harm by appealing to something external. In your marketplace of ideas, the hundreds of abstract individuals that are hararassers are equally as valid as one abstract individual just trying to live their life. It's working as intended.

It might be more accurate to say that the marketplace of ideas isn't all it's cracked up to be. It has failed to be the utopian dream some hoped it would.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#129

Post by acuozzo »

drag0nite wrote: post #107
emodendroket wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you can do in that situation if you don't know where the person lives and they're in a foreign country whose language you don't speak. Who do you even contact?

The person who wrote the note said they had coffee with Near in Akihabara on June 9th. That would imply they both are in Japan, so none of that thinking would apply here.

> That would imply they both are in Japan

… in a world without international travel it would.

Re: Near, the emulator developer of bsnes, higan, and more, has died

#130

Post by shadowgovt »

philpem wrote: post #112
falcolas wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cloudflare has already proven willing to stop supporting sites based on their content. They’ve opened the doors, so it’s not unreasonable to expect that they could/would/should do it again.

People have been complaining for years about some of the content they shield (KF especially). The site is responsible for at least one previous suicide. Their response is always the same... to forward the complaints onto the abuser for them to laugh at. Cloudflare has only ever intervened in matters like this when the mainstream press has given them an absolute and utter kicking. The sad fact is, when you have your o…

Would anything stop the de-peered providers from peeing with each other, leading to a balkanized internet?
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