This is sad, really sad.
19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
91–100 of 197 posts
Re: 19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
An interesting, but rather unanticipated (I expect), side effect of your experiment is that even when you post something that's not too contentious, you're getting voted down to oblivion. That shows there are plenty of HN users who do not understand HN policy. PG himself has said don't to crazy levels (such as under -10) unless it's obviously spam or the like..
This happens to people all the time... it almost never works to reply to massively downmodded posts to try and salvage them. I wouldn't even recommend he apologize as that will probably be downmodded.
Agreed. Besides, this post will blow over quickly (as they all do).
One thing I've noticed a lot in the past is that I'll post something I truly believe or feel but that's slightly contentious. I'll get downvoted to, say, -4 or so in the first few hours, but then voted up into positive territory over a day or two.
Perhaps those who aren't always trawling the site for new items are more realistic in their voting, whereas those who spend more time on the site are hastier and more damning.
Re: 19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
#93I'm holding back tears. We must find a way to make the internet a nicer place. Such astonishing cruelty breeds here. Why?
In a word: anonymity.
Reddit recently had a discussion about this. Here is the top rated comment in the thread.
Sysiphuslove:
"I don't think it's so much the anonymity of the poster as the anonymity of the victim. There's obviously a 'real person' on the other end of the conversation, but there's no face, no voice...a victim online is stripped of his humanity just enough to salve the conscience, but not enough to make an unsatisfying target.
An online victim is a perfect blank slate for projection: he is represented only by the narrowest of opinions or acts, with no other definable characteristic besides an avatar and/or screen name. It is satisfying to shoot down these faceless assertions. It isn't really personal, just a private exercise of retaliation.
Look at it this way: when someone pisses you off on the highway, are you mad at the person? Or is it, in some abstract way, the car?"
Re: 19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
#94A similar thing happened on a site that I co-founded: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-01-rampage-messa... It was pretty horrific. We spent about a week being interviewed by the media and trying to limit the damage both to the site and to the perception of AS.
Just curious - did you contemplate not even responding to the media? Or were you pretty much forced to? What sort of long-term impact did it have on your site?
The problem was that the Will Freund incident, and the exposure it received, threatened to cast all people with Aspergers as deranged homicidal maniacs.
A few media outlets were sensitive towards the issues involved and wrote thoughtfully. Others, however, were sensationalist and did the opposite of what we hoped (e.g. Geraldo's show on FOX).
Re: 19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
#95Protip: This is not Justin.TV's fault. This is no ones fault but the adult's (he was over 18). It really is that simple - though you wouldn't know it from the media. America: where self-entitlement lives on and accountability goes to die.
Like most things in life, it's not so cut and dry.
I don't have the answers, but some would argue that by providing the forum and doing nothing - or not enough - to curtail the activities of the people on that forum, there is an element of fault with justin.tv.
Re: 19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
#96Re: 19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
#97Pills? If you're going to live broadcast your own death, make it more interesting than watching paint dry. Sheesh.
Honestly, I think your account should be revoked after that comment, unless you see it fit to properly apologize.
Also, when you have your (and your partner's) business linked in your profile, you should think twice about what you say. Your concern about your reputation may be little, but I'm sure your livelihood is a little more important.
I'm left questioning not only your maturity, but that of user fallentimes, also from ticketstumbler, and even PG and YCombinator itself. I certainly do not want to be associated with people that feel another individual's suicide is a joke. Your business will not see any revenue from me, ever.
Re: 19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
#98Pills? If you're going to live broadcast your own death, make it more interesting than watching paint dry. Sheesh.
Seriously people? I didn't expect this to be taken well by most here (in fact it was an experiment to see if there was a limit to down-voting), but some of you seem to be on a war path now. It doesn't really matter what the Justin.tv CEO said. He pasted some boiler plate because there's nothing more to be said; the deed had been done. What do you want? An apology for not finding the video? For not policing the Intern…
Lesson here: When you make a mistake, buck up and say admit as much, especially when you're fronting a business.
Re: 19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously people? I didn't expect this to be taken well by most here (in fact it was an experiment to see if there was a limit to down-voting), but some of you seem to be on a war path now. It doesn't really matter what the Justin.tv CEO said. He pasted some boiler plate because there's nothing more to be said; the deed had been done. What do you want? An apology for not finding the video? For not policing the Intern…
They say there's no such thing as bad press, but I'm not so sure anymore. I came to this forum to escape the Reddit mentality. I'm glad to see that griefers are still being aggressively downmodded here. It gives me hope that the HN community can maintain its quality status.
It's harder to be anonymous here. As long as that remains, there's hope.
Re: 19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv
#100My heart and my prayers go out to this guy's family and to all families who have similarly suffered.