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_why is no more

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Re: _why is no more

#221

Post by Keyframe »

imbaczek wrote: post #170
pol wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a mean-spirited thing to do to someone who just wanted to stay anonymous. It makes me sad and angry. If this is the reason _why decided to pick up and leave, I understand it. We have his code, it will live on. Perhaps he will return in another guise.

mean-spirited? he gave the internet a challenge and somebody took it up, that's all. oh, and it doesn't have to be his real name, too.

I don't know why are you downvoting him - HACKERS of all people should understand the nature of challenges - be them called for or not.

Re: _why is no more

#223

Post by pygy »

tremendo wrote: post #89
fizx wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google cache is still live: http://74.125.155.132/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&#38... Edit: Also, twitter search results: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%40_why Notably: racheltostring: RT: @_why: programming is rather thankless. u see your works become replaced by superior ones in a year. unable to run at all in a few more. about 21 hours ago from TwitterFox

programming is rather thankless... Maybe he read http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=771057 in Re: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=771013 ?

He's got humor, you know. That pun chain doesn't seem offensive to me.

Thanks for putting up the link.

Re: _why is no more

#225

Post by UncleOxidant »

dazmax wrote: post #150
Jeremysr wrote: 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

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

but that was over a month ago, why would he wait that long?

Re: _why is no more

#226

Post by eli »

Semiapies wrote: post #214
scott_s wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree. I'm just not sure how rude. When there's a picture of you in your Wikipedia article from a public event you chose to speak at, you've made yourself just a "Hey, I know that guy!" away from being outed. At that point, I don't think you can claim it's a major affront when someone puts public information together to identify you. I think the "who is why the lucky stiff" blog is odd and a bit dickish, but I'm no…

For what it's worth, Why actively campaigned at one point to have his wikipedia page deleted.

Say what you will, but I'm pretty sure he was genuine in his effort not to be identified or celebrated.

Re: _why is no more

#227

Post by lylejohnson »

doki_pen wrote: post #212
mmaaxx wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://jonathangillette.net/ is defiantly not him. The site runs on PHP.

http://www.advogato.org/person/whytheluckystiff/ There are a few PHP apps there. Apparently he did PHP work before. There is also a Java project called javuh that he maintained. Archive.org for these projects reveals that the outing previously mentioned was in fact correct.

Please see the information posted by "burke", a couple of posts up from here. There was a Jonathan Gillette who graduated from Parkland High School in Allentown, PA, then went on to Kutztown University (also in PA). All of this around the time that _why was apparently posting from a company in Salt Lake City.

Re: _why is no more

#228

Post by dkl »

unalone wrote: post #190
tptacek wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, the fact that he managed to make this about him?

Followed by: "Oh boo hoo, people know who you are. Fucking take Karate lessons and STFU." Sometimes people ask why it is that a lot of us dislike Zed Shaw, despite his being bright and talented and sharp. Stuff like this is why: For all that's good about him, he remains a douche who likes making assumptions about people, sticking to said assumptions, and then acting like the mandate of heaven shines down on him. I go…

Yes. People like this are like double-edged swords. They cut both ways (for and against you). It's only a matter of time before the blade is coming in your direction. Zed reminds me of Erik Naggum.

Re: _why is no more

#229

Post by mosburger »

sho wrote: post #17
Jeremysr wrote: 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

That was pretty immature, to delete the repos as well. Sure, nuke your Twitter, who cares. But people might have been depending on the repos; it's a breach of trust IMO. Not impressed.

You know, I've been mulling over this "was it an immature/douchebaggy thing to do?" question, and my gut was with the "leave this guy alone, he doesn't owe you anything, it's open source" camp initially.

Then I thought - what if, e.g., Zed Shaw had done this? I have a feeling we'd all be calling for his head and claiming it was the biggest douchebag move he could make. So does _why get a free pass? Because he's so likable and has a special pedestal in the Ruby world?

I honestly don't know the answer to that, but it made me reconsider my gut knee-jerk reaction.

Re: _why is no more

#230

Post by eli »

rneufeld wrote: post #50
Jeremysr wrote: 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

Domains are still up and registered to him... Strange indeed. Registrar..: gkg.net (http://register.gkg.net/) Domain Name: WHYTHELUCKYSTIFF.NET Created on..............: 03-JAN-2002 Expires on..............: 03-JAN-2014 Record last updated on..: 24-DEC-2008 Status..................: ACTIVE Registrar..: gkg.net (http://register.gkg.net/) Domain Name: HACKETYHACK.NET Created on..............: 25-FEB-2007 Expires on....…

Indeed. The web server appears to still be turned on too.

   $ curl -i hacketyhack.net
   curl: (52) Empty reply from server
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