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Comment by newnewpdro | Hacker News Reader

It appears he committed suicide by train [0].

His last youtube video from the local library made it sound like he wasn't having a particularly good time there.

He's suffered so long from his mental illness, frankly I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it's been living such a challenging life for all these years.

From what I saw, occasionally watching his streams, there was a significant amount of internet bullying and general predation going on with Terry and it really messed with his already strained life.

It's all a huge bummer.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/TempleOS_Official/comments/9c63qr/t...

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It is a huge bummer.

"there was a significant amount of internet bullying and general predation"

Hmmm, I think it's more complicated than that... Terry (because of his illness) said a lot of horrible things, including claiming to commit pedophilia, rape and murder. His comments were very often filled with racist rants.

Yes, some people responded very poorly to those comments. You can maybe forgive them for either not knowing Terry had a debilitating mental illness, or not knowing how to respond to someone with that illness.

But if anything I think there was an enormous amount of sympathy and defense of Terry.

There were also a bunch of copycats making those same racist and violent rants. Perhaps they were just pretending. Perhaps they were being ironic. I believe echoing the dark parts of his behavior was exploiting his illness, more than anything. Others acted like it was celebrating him.

Regardless, I hope he is in peace now. I believe he would have wanted people to keep TempleOS going, and I hope someone does. I also hope we all learn a bit more about mental illness and how best to respond to it.

The post linked to by the parent is just an unfounded rumor created by someone on Reddit, with very little basis:

I'm going to call it. From his last video(Aug 11th 2018): https://youtu.be/oH41gGBVpkE We see he is at the Dalles county library.

Later in the evening (Aug 11th, 2018), The Dalles Chronicle reports an unknown man was hit by a train: https://tinyurl.com/ybakopls*

His sister's facebook page has a post memorializing him.

That doesn't mean he committed suicide or that a train was involved.

It's since been confirmed that Terry was indeed struck by a train in The Dalles, OR.
The only question which remains is wether it was suicide or not. A witness described him as "straddling the tracks". It doesn't seem likely to be an accident.

Confirmed by whom? Can you provide a link to something authoritative? I feel that another comment on the Internet making a claim only adds to noise, not signal.

https://twitter.com/WildGoose1776/status/1037056798195372032
If you require more authoritative firsthand confirmation, phone the PD yourself.

This is a random, anonymous person on Twitter named "WildGoose", which is not credible IMO. By now, I hope we have learned not to trust such things. Does anyone have a credible source?

> Does anyone have a credible source?
Yes, the police department of The Dalles, OR. I believe you have both their phone number and email address.

Obligatory: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Our lives have far more worth than we know, of this I am convinced.
The Internet bullying angle angers me.

> The Internet bullying angle angers me.
He would probably still be alive had he never started streaming. It was brutal. He was unable to distinguish fake manipulative interactions from the truth. He live-streamed things like reading spoofed emails from internet crushes, presumably with those responsible watching as it unfolded, with total disregard for his well-being and mental condition.

I'd say I'd love to punch some people, but the sad truth is that whoever did those things likely had no idea what harm they were causing and did it for the attention

You clearly haven't spent much time on 4chan.

I have, albeit on /g/ which is actually quasi-regulated. I'm still not convinced that people understand what they're doing. It doesn't make it right, but I don't think a lot of people grasp that what they're doing has a real impact on a real person with a real life on the other side of the screen. They think it's just a sick role-playing game, and they play the role, and they forget that it isn't just a game.

There was some degree of trying to provoke him once he got very internet famous and latching on to some of his memetic hiccups, but the majority of it was genuine admiration. His projects are a lot more impressive than most of the show hn material that gets passed off here.
He didn't really interact with his followers too much. Most of his later live streams were just him broadcasting his thoughts. If you followed his train of thought for like 7 or so minutes you could see the kernel of some truth.
His live streaming also enabled him to collect donations from his followers. I gave him a few bucks numerous times when he was hard up.

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