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Technorati's Tracy Williams is alive and safe in a local hospital

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Re: Technorati's Tracy Williams is alive and safe in a local hospital

#11
post #6

I haven't been able to read this status update (it keeps timing out for some reason), so I'm just going off the title here. * The downside of these hugely public, and permanent, appeals for information on someone is that everyone will want to know every detail of what happened, will discuss it, and dissect it publicly. Imagine a situation where someone in our technology community quietly embarks on a suicide plan, as…

You are right. I do find myself wondering, even though it's none of my business, and suspecting the "worst" about a woman I don't know.

Hopefully, she just went on a bender, had a absolute blast, but it got a little out of control- perhaps resulting in dehydration or something else without too much social stigma.

Re: Technorati's Tracy Williams is alive and safe in a local hospital

#12
Thank God. I'm not used to stories like this having this kind of ending, so this is a welcome sigh of relief.

Seeing how her friends and coworkers cared enough to start a massive online campaign to help find her reminded me of the importance of making connections and having people in my life who are looking out for me.

Re: Technorati's Tracy Williams is alive and safe in a local hospital

#14
post #6

I haven't been able to read this status update (it keeps timing out for some reason), so I'm just going off the title here. * The downside of these hugely public, and permanent, appeals for information on someone is that everyone will want to know every detail of what happened, will discuss it, and dissect it publicly. Imagine a situation where someone in our technology community quietly embarks on a suicide plan, as…

Or if she fell victim to a crime - sadly more likely for a woman gone lost in a bar.

Re: Technorati's Tracy Williams is alive and safe in a local hospital

#17
post #8
post #3

Thats great to hear. A little surprised it took 3 days to find her in a hospital. Hope she is okay.

She may have only just checked in recently.

I wondered myself why it would take so long to find someone in a hospital -- that she checked herself in recently makes a lot of sense.

Re: Technorati's Tracy Williams is alive and safe in a local hospital

#18
post #9
post #2

So what happened?

While lots of us are nosy enough to want to know, the answer is that it isn't any of our business. If she wants to say, she will... presumably after she gets out of the hospital.

OMG EVERYBODY HALP!!! MY FRIEND IS MISSING.

[everybody attempts to help]

OMG EVERYBODY THAN KYOU SO MUCH MY FRIEND IS SAFE!!!

[everybody: YAY! Gald to hear it - what happened!]

NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS YOU NOSY JERKS!

----

Yeah screw that. People will feel less inclined to assist - because they feel that they are an excluded outsider. If you are not told the outcome/reason for the situation in the first place - you are then further removed from the person/situation in question. Thus, you will have less emotional tie with the situation. Without any emotional tie - you will not help situations like this in the future.

The call for help is highly emotional "Our friend, and trusted colleague, who is a great and nice person is missing" -- you feel compassion here, as you would hate togo missing yourself - and you know how great you are as a person. So, you'll assist in this case through empathy.

Take that empathy away, and it gets worse for everyone.

Re: Technorati's Tracy Williams is alive and safe in a local hospital

#19
Its a nice story - when people don't show up for work I think the usual attitude of the employer is to do nothing but blame the employee and penalise them to the maximum extent possible. This is less true in the privileged roles most web people have - but lets say you are 90% of the population who work in manufacturing, service industries etc...

Just saying.

Re: Technorati's Tracy Williams is alive and safe in a local hospital

#20
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While lots of us are nosy enough to want to know, the answer is that it isn't any of our business. If she wants to say, she will... presumably after she gets out of the hospital.

OMG EVERYBODY HALP!!! MY FRIEND IS MISSING. [everybody attempts to help] OMG EVERYBODY THAN KYOU SO MUCH MY FRIEND IS SAFE!!! [everybody: YAY! Gald to hear it - what happened!] NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS YOU NOSY JERKS! ---- Yeah screw that. People will feel less inclined to assist - because they feel that they are an excluded outsider. If you are not told the outcome/reason for the situation in the first place - you are…

First, I don't work for Technorati. I didn't call for help but I'm glad the community responded.

Second, I have enough empathy and imagination to think about how she might be feeling... and in none of the circumstances I can imagine does anyone owe you, random community member, anything more than the exact "Thank you! She's safe!" you mentioned above. I can get my empathy fix just fine from that.

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