… until the HN hug of death
Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
31–40 of 136 posts
Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
#32[deleted]
Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
#33The article makes it look like the existence of this cult is an extremely widely-known fact and thus it doesn't need much introduction. But I only learned about it after clicking this link. It weirds me out that some people are so amenable to this kind of thing, enough to kill themselves.
Surely you're aware of Jonestown, which was a much larger such event?
Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
#34Living on a comet doesn't sound so bad these days
No chance of bear attack, according to a popular meme.
Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
#35An interesting detail is on the bottom of the webpage ( https://www.heavensgate.com/ ) they have this hidden text (perhaps an old SEO hack?): >Heaven's Gate Heaven's Gate Heaven's Gate Heaven's Gate Heaven's Gate Heaven's Gate Heaven's Gate Heaven's Gate ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo ufo space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space alien space ali…
Now, persuading people to paste your keyword dump into the HN page discussion for your site. There’s some real SEO for ya ;)
Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
#36http://www.heavensgate.com/
How come they offer German translations (out of all languages)?
Maybe for the same reasons the German Wikipedia is so large. I'm not sure what they are, but I suspect: It's a large language sphere, speakers enjoy relative wealth and the luxury of time, there is a cultural tradition of cultivating and archiving information. All of them may make it more probable someone would submit translations. In addition, here specifically, the online community was well-developed in the late 90s for similar demographic reasons, e.g. science/engineering communities jumping on board early.
On the other hand, the Heaven's Gate cult made many references to Star Trek in their material as well, and the franchise enjoyed major popularity in Germany, I would wager beyond other non-English language spheres. This may also have increased the size of the potential receptive/interested audience.
Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
#37Fun fact, back in 2017 when I was a junior in highschool, I would meet this friend of mine often at her house. She lived pretty far into this gated community that was right on the edge of where Rancho Santa Fe ends. I really don’t remember how the topic came up, but she told me that the mansion where the Heavens gate cult had killed themselves was literally a 5 min walk. I knew about the cult, but I never knew it all…
I witnessed two police and retired police shootings in California. I also knew the 16 year old that axe murdered his entire family in vista, ca. I chose to leave the state, and now the worst I see is a dead deer 3 times a year. Chances are something unsettling has happened within 500' of you, some time in history. Don't let that weigh you down, in thoughts or body.
My mind went immediately in a satirical direction. I often ignore that actually being there, in the physical space where something that intense happened could be psychologically difficult to handle. The internet gives us enough distance to make things so much more abstract.
Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
How come they offer German translations (out of all languages)?
Maybe for the same reasons the German Wikipedia is so large. I'm not sure what they are, but I suspect: It's a large language sphere, speakers enjoy relative wealth and the luxury of time, there is a cultural tradition of cultivating and archiving information. All of them may make it more probable someone would submit translations. In addition, here specifically, the online community was well-developed in the late 90…
I love that you synthesized that comment on the fly then actually took the time write and share it.
In the back of my mind I have a maybe-never project brewing that would entail finding Wikipedia pages that only exist in one language. English would of course have many unique pages. I wonder how many non-English page translations would be rejected on notability grounds, just due to sheer cultural differences.
Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
#39The article makes it look like the existence of this cult is an extremely widely-known fact and thus it doesn't need much introduction. But I only learned about it after clicking this link. It weirds me out that some people are so amenable to this kind of thing, enough to kill themselves.
If you were a teen or older when it happened, and lived in the US, it was pretty big news. I can still reach my cousin-in-law on an AOL email named after the comet mixed with his last name. Yes, it was cathartic to type this out and hit post.
I was single-digit years old in the 90s and I live in Russia.
Re: Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website
#40The article makes it look like the existence of this cult is an extremely widely-known fact and thus it doesn't need much introduction. But I only learned about it after clicking this link. It weirds me out that some people are so amenable to this kind of thing, enough to kill themselves.
Surely you're aware of Jonestown, which was a much larger such event?
No? Again, I'm non-US.