_why is no more • Hacker News Board

Re: _why is no more

#251

Post by cpach » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:18 PM UTC

KVFinn wrote: post #239

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.

>>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…

That would be the Streisand effect: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Streisand_eff...

Re: _why is no more

#252

Post by jvdh » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:20 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #168

dazmax wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.. :)

This might also be the reason that _why just upped an ran. Staying anonymous is one thing, but letting someone else take the hit for you is quite another.

disclaimer: I don't know how long the blog has been trying to figure out who _why is.

Re: _why is no more

#253

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:20 PM UTC

KVFinn wrote: post #239

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.

>>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…

[deleted]

Re: _why is no more

#254

Post by utx00 » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:21 PM UTC

digitalhobbit wrote: post #53

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

Really hope he's ok...

why would he not be ok?!?! lets put this in perspective.

Re: _why is no more

#255

Post by akd » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:24 PM UTC

scott_s wrote: post #182

adbachman wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The elevator analogy doesn't really hold for me. It's more along the lines of one person in the office bringing in bagels every week for a few years, then one Monday morning they aren't there. The asshole isn't the one who stopped bringing in the bagels, it's the folks standing around the coffee machine empty handed, griping about not getting their weekly cinnamon crunch. "I wish Mike would've told us he wasn't going…

Bringing in bagels every day is active. Leaving existing software up is passive.

Keeping software hosted is active. Let's say he waited until his domain name expired... then he could say "I'm not spending the $10" and let it go offline, and people would excoriate him then. He just chose to rip the Band-Aid off at once instead of in bits and pieces.

Re: _why is no more

#256

Post by mbrubeck » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:27 PM UTC

marcusestes wrote: post #52

I have a feeling that this disappearing act is part of a ritualized collecting of energies that he needs to release Hackety Hack. He originally meant it to be ready for Art and Code and I have a feeling that many side-projects since then (including Potion) have been produced out of nervous energy misapplied to tasks other than his One True Project. His feelings aren't hurt, I doubt that very much.

One of my favorite local (Seattle) musicians is Jason Webley. Every year or two he stages a big concert where he "dies" at the end in some staged way, then remains "dead" for the next 6 to 12 months, with no public appearances while he works on a major project. Then, usually on his birthday, he has another big event where he is "born" and then reveals the fruits of his labor.

Re: _why is no more

#257

Post by emullet » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:28 PM UTC

A guy I know used to work at Inetz. Here's a small chat exerpt from a few minutes ago... Confirmation that the guy that worked at Inetz is _why. Perhaps take it with a grain of salt.

emullet you worked at Inetz right?

friend 4:20 yeah

emullet 4:20 You work with a guy named Jonathan Gillette ?

friend 4:21 not allowed to answer that

emullet 4:21 lol why do you say that?

friend 4:21 but I've heard that a lot of his stuff "disappeared" today

emullet 4:21 ya you know whats up?

friend 4:21 nope

emullet 4:21 its very odd kinda cool he worked with you

Re: _why is no more

#258

Post by Adkron » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:30 PM UTC

lylejohnson wrote: post #236

duairc wrote: 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.

http://www.whitepages.com/search/ReversePhone?full_phone=972...

Re: _why is no more

#259

Post by mloy » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:30 PM UTC

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

Being actively anonymous is an open invitation for having your identity discovered and released. He knew it was coming. Deleting any trace of himself was planned, it was not done in heat of passion after being outed.

Re: _why is no more

#260

Post by yooshooa » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 10:30 PM UTC

in pursuit of this new knowledge

i have discovered that every... easily accessible (so far)... copy of his poignant guide to ruby

has disappeared as well

what an eff you

i'm pretty dissapointed.

if anyone has a copy, i would love to talk... i'm certainly the intended audience.

yooshooa@yahoo