_why is no more • Hacker News Board

Re: _why is no more

#51

Post by andyleclair » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:44 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

Maybe he's planning for a big star-spangled blowout and is getting us ready for it? Kind of like if MJ had jumped out of his coffin at the Staples Center to start singing Thriller?

Re: _why is no more

#52

Post by marcusestes » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:44 PM UTC

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.

Re: _why is no more

#53

Post by digitalhobbit » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:44 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

Really hope he's ok...

Re: _why is no more

#54

Post by tremendo » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:46 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

That's really odd. Just yesterday he had picked up on Twitter again after a several-days/weeks hiatus.

Re: _why is no more

#55

Post by tcoffeep » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:48 PM UTC

:( A sad day.

Re: _why is no more

#56

Post by daveungerer » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:49 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

I managed to dig up a PDF copy of his Poignant Guide to Ruby over here: http://www.ember.co.nz/resources/whys-poignant-guide-to-ruby...

Anyone who hasn't checked it out yet, do yourself a favour. And for the rest of us, who would like to remember this anonymous creator of cartoon foxes.

Let's hope it's just a quarter life crisis and that he's back soon. Or that he finds something else that makes him happier than programming.

Re: _why is no more

#57

Post by grandalf » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:49 PM UTC

carbon8 wrote: post #6

Apparently he tweeted this yesterday (quoted from a retweet): "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." But _why's contributions are largely irreplaceable. Yeah, software evolves and individual projects might be supplanted by others, but his contributions go way beyond simply writing functioning code.

There has been some negativity about hpricot lately:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=Nokogiri%20hpricot

Re: _why is no more

#58

Post by carbon8 » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:50 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

FWIW, I noticed that all of his sites were down for a period sunday night, too. I figured he was just doing something on the server and everything was back up the next day. I didn't check his github or twitter, though.

Re: _why is no more

#59

Post by gaius » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:50 PM UTC

asenchi wrote: post #38

Wow, one of the few personalities to ever remain truly anonymous on the Internet vanishes in a day. Sad sad day. :(

No, his real name has been on HN before.

Re: _why is no more

#60

Post by random-passerby » Wed, Aug 19, 2009, 5:51 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

Couldn't possibly be that he's fed up with Open Source and the ruby community...