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_why is no more

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Re: _why is no more

#241
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's wait for the circumstances before passing judgement.

Name some circumstances which justify pulling down a broadly-used open source project like Hpricot. At a certain point it must be admitted that a project has a life beyond its author.

With all due respect, they were hosted with git, which is by nature distributed. If it's broadly-used, no single person can destroy a repository. Copies of the hpricot repo are all over the internets.

I don't disagree that it's inconvenient, but it's not like he nuked a SVN master repository or something.

Re: _why is no more

#244
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's sad because (if the sites don't come back) it'll be harder for other people to find and enjoy his work that I enjoyed. And it's sad to think that maybe he won't come back and publish more awesome stuff. (But when I think about it, I doubt that someone with _why's drive to create will be able to keep from sharing for very long.)

Re: _why is no more

#245
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried calling that number, I got an automated response from " Solutions" with a pretty generic "press 1 for sales", "press 2 for customer care"-type set of options. That was a bit disappointing, I really hope he's okay...

It was presumably the hosting company (listed in the WHOIS records as "Layered Technologies"). I wouldn't expect them to provide you with any information about him.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't them, it definitely ended with "Solutions". The first word sounded something like "all-doors" but I couldn't really make it out (I'm not familiar with the accent).

Re: _why is no more

#246
post #184

Perhaps he's rebooting his online identity? http://www.jonathanpaulgillette.com/

I don't think Jonathan Paul Gillette is _why.

This site (linked to earlier in the thread) includes a picture of Jonathan Paul Gillette: http://www.uu.edu/centers/faculty/faculty/new/0607newfaculty...

The guy pictured on the faculty page matches the piggyback photo on http://www.jonathanpaulgillette.com/. Definitely not _why.

Re: _why is no more

#247

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

#248
post #239
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.

>>What a mean-spirited thing to do to someone who just wanted to stay anonymous. If this is the reason _why decided to pick up and leave, I understand it. If that's why he quit though it's going to have the opposite effect. I doubt more than a handful of people cared to look into _why's identity before today. I've read the guide, watched his talks, and read probably 80% of his blog articles, and I never knew his iden…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striesand_effect

Re: _why is no more

#250
post #239
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.

>>What a mean-spirited thing to do to someone who just wanted to stay anonymous. If this is the reason _why decided to pick up and leave, I understand it. If that's why he quit though it's going to have the opposite effect. I doubt more than a handful of people cared to look into _why's identity before today. I've read the guide, watched his talks, and read probably 80% of his blog articles, and I never knew his iden…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect .
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