I briefly talked to Ilya in March after he randomly gave me 9001 invites to Diaspora (some here might get the joke). It's like I won some weird sort of lottery. Anyways, it naturally encouraged me to invite lots of people, and I got about forty to sign up. He struck me as a very warm, fun-loving guy who was also fastidious in his work. I saw him announcing bug fixes and new features day in and day out. He really left a strong impression on me.
I'd really like to learn more about the circumstances of his death, and not out of morbid curiosity. I suffer from bipolar 1 disorder, and have been taken medication for two years since I was diagnosed after having a severe manic episode. His death was a bit of a wakeup call.