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_why is no more

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201–210 of 421 posts

Re: _why is no more

#201
"this girl at the pool is draggin such a stack of foam noodles it’s like she’s a little beaver going to dam up the diving board"

from _why's twitter, 8/12/09.

I hope the guy surfaces somewhere soon. One of the most outwardly joyful computer folks I've ever seen.

Re: _why is no more

#202
post #2

I just noticed that _why apparently deleted his twitter account. I then found that that wasn't all he deleted: http://twitter.com/_why http://github.com/why http://whytheluckystiff.net/ http://poignantguide.net/ http://hackety.org/ http://shoooes.net/ All disappeared... For those who don't know who I'm talking about: http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff

His last message to us all:

   @_why: an ascending homage to fish bones. culminating in a delicate canopy of mouse furs.
RIP, online presence of _why

Re: _why is no more

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely there are people that know _why. He has family and friends and such. He just is unique in his style and doesn't want to be famous for his art, he wants the art itself to be famous.

That ideal doesn't seem very consistent with his removing all of his work from the internet

Right, which is why a lot of people are inclined to believe that _why's not responsible for this or that there's something else going on.

Re: _why is no more

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure someone in the know told me his real name a couple years back (he wrote the foreword to my book) and it certainly wasn't Jonathan Gillette. Of course, he might have changed him name again.. :)

Ditto. Unless _why goes by multiple names in real life (which I suppose is possible), that's not him.

It is possible that Jonathan Gillette and _why worked in the same company, and _why used Jonathan's computer, or so.

Re: _why is no more

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By using a pseudonym, he implied he'd rather not be known by his given name. Telling the world his real then goes against his wishes. It is, at the very least, rude. That someone outed him is inevitable. But that doesn't excuse the act.

Rude, I'd agree. No more, though - we're certainly not talking about exposing where Salman Rushdie's sleeping tonight. How rude, even, is an open question. This doesn't exactly rise to the level of pestering J. D. Salinger at his house. Trying to be anonymous is one thing. Trying to remain anonymous while writing books and blogs and making public appearances, all under one common identity, is downright quixotic and j…

I actually agree with all of that, but it still requires one person to say "I want to out him!" And that person is being rude.

Re: _why is no more

#206
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone outed him here: http://whoiswhytheluckystiff.wordpress.com/

Something doesn't seem right about that detective work - there's a Jonathan Gillette online who is a web developer in Harrisburg, PA who doesn't seem to be _why. Obviously it's likely that there's more than one Jonathan Gillette on the internet, but it seems odd to me that this other guy is also a web developer, with a decent online presence, in (somewhat) the same geographic area where _why is suspected to live, tha…

The person that Zed is linking to is an art professor who was at Union University in Jackson, TN, now apparently a visiting professor at Lipscomb University in Nashville. You can see that Jonathan Gillette's photo in some faculty photos from a year or so ago (http://www.uu.edu/centers/faculty/faculty/new/0607newfaculty...). It's not _why.

Re: _why is no more

#207
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy shit... _why is why I'm a Ruby developer to this day, especially the Poignant Guide. So very sad.

Why is it sad? Because he deleted his accounts? Or are you assuming something bad has happened to him and his accounts where deleted by somebody else? Why strikes me as the kind of person who would delete his online presence on a whim, just because it would be fun.

It is sad because the thought of no more _why is a sad thought. I'd love to see more of his books in the future, they were mind blowingly cool.

Re: _why is no more

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By using a pseudonym, he implied he'd rather not be known by his given name. Telling the world his real then goes against his wishes. It is, at the very least, rude. That someone outed him is inevitable. But that doesn't excuse the act.

Rude, I'd agree. No more, though - we're certainly not talking about exposing where Salman Rushdie's sleeping tonight. How rude, even, is an open question. This doesn't exactly rise to the level of pestering J. D. Salinger at his house. Trying to be anonymous is one thing. Trying to remain anonymous while writing books and blogs and making public appearances, all under one common identity, is downright quixotic and j…

[deleted]

Re: _why is no more

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By using a pseudonym, he implied he'd rather not be known by his given name. Telling the world his real then goes against his wishes. It is, at the very least, rude. That someone outed him is inevitable. But that doesn't excuse the act.

Rude, I'd agree. No more, though - we're certainly not talking about exposing where Salman Rushdie's sleeping tonight. How rude, even, is an open question. This doesn't exactly rise to the level of pestering J. D. Salinger at his house. Trying to be anonymous is one thing. Trying to remain anonymous while writing books and blogs and making public appearances, all under one common identity, is downright quixotic and j…

Except that this enigma was something just about everyone treasured about him. He's a Ruby community treasure, our slightly twisted crown jewels. And the reason nobody tried harder before, or if they did they kept quiet, was out of respect for that cherishing.

He has always seemed a bit delicate, and that's why the rest of us always treated him gently. And he repaid us ten-fold with his quirky gifts.

This is like the rape of a beloved children's character. Not just learning that the Easter Bunny isn't real, but learning it when a drunken cop knocks out the kindly old man in the bunny costume, rips its furry head off, and pisses in it.

It's Just Not Done.

Just because the door is open, doesn't mean you have to walk through it. Adults consider the wider impact of their actions, rather than doing something just because "it's a challenge."

Re: _why is no more

#210

Man - what a bum out. The talk he gave at art + code was awesome and seriously inspired me to focus more on educational material for teaching kids to program. I hope he at least gives a more valid reason for removing everything. I can understand letting something become dormant - but others can take what you have done and be inspired and or build upon it. That is not a slight to you it's just the way a system grows.…

Please tell me this talk is online.

It is indeed: http://www.vimeo.com/5047563
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