Hacker News Reader

Comment by seldo | Hacker News Reader

Donated. As a closeted gay teenager, Trumpet was the software that got me in touch with the people who literally saved my life. I could never thank this guy enough.

(Edit: if you felt like making another worthy donation, the Youth Guard mailing lists are the people I'm referring to -- http://www.youth-guard.org/youth/ . I cannot overstate the impact they had on my life.)

View on HN

There's no easy way to word what I came away from your comment with, so I'll just get it out there: your comment was exceedingly enlightening. I doubt that during the development of Trumpet anybody thought they were saving even one life (it's a sockets API!), and your story speaks volumes about how programmers can touch lives in ways they'd never imagine during development.

Moral I learned: it's really easy to underestimate impact. I'm personalizing that to relate to development, but I think it's applicable to a lot of what we do.

Thank you for sharing your story. Even though it wasn't directed at me, it gave me considerable pause and something to think about.

"it's really easy to underestimate impact"

And I bet the guy who made the video which inadvertently spawned this idea probably didn't imagine the impact it would have on another man's life.

yours is not the only story. While not directly Trumpet Winsock related, I did write an IRC client for DOS, later ported to Windows. I used to spend some time online chatting with folks who had low self esteem and on occasions found myself counselling people whose only connection with reality was the Internet. For these people, the Internet was a lifeline without which they may well have committed suicide or otherwise gone to places where few return.

I am so glad you found peace and a greater sense of belonging to the world.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com