I think your conflating the treatment he received here with how he was treated on Reddit.
People admired his work and acknowledged the existence of his project. People talked about it a lot and it was definitely interesting to see develop. However the person himself was definitely not welcome on HN (and I can't really fault that logic).
Propagation of harmful sentiments from anyone, but especially someone who (rightfully) inspires admiration will spread those further to people who are easily influenced or unable to separate a technical brilliance from someones capabilities in the rest of their life.
To be clear - Terry remains an inspiration to me, but I can understand the predicament of a moderator who needs to maintain a space.
The most awkward part was when people would talk about him as if he weren't active in the threads.
Now I read many of Terry's comments without ever turning on showdead. Even if he were hellbanned, it would've been a consequence of his actions regardless of the reasons behind them.
But maybe it's not even worth responding to somebody who creates a throwaway to make such statements.
Happy to be downvoted into the ground for my earlier statement.
He deserved so much better.
His mental illness was not his fault. But it is also understandable that when someone uses the n-word, they will get downvoted and banned, even when it’s not their fault.
If you would like to contribute constructively to the discussion you're welcome to cite comments that you feel HN have censored in some way
EDIT: Fixed a typo
All I’m doing is paying my respects to a hyper-intelligent genius who was driven to suicide partially because of this website.
Or to hire one person for him, reviewing all comments from him and filtering out the worst?
And assuming this is really what you think, how long till the next poor racist genious shows up, demanding equal rights?
Would you be able to operate a forum like that?
Mentioning downvotes on HN is incredibly stupid, & if you comb through my past comments, you can see me calling people out for it.
In this very specific & nuanced situation, though - I am using it to mock & make clear my utter contempt & hatred of those who did view Terry as a sad, funny meme, & were laughing all along the way while watching his downward spiral, which culminated in his suicide.
Many of those, still on here & reading this thread, will essentially want to mock my kindness towards Terry & his tormented life. & calling that out is my personal fuck you to them.
No comment regarding anything else in your response.
> And assuming this is really what you think, how long till the next poor racist genious shows up, demanding equal rights?
> Would you be able to operate a forum like that?
Can you name three others? Even one? I don't think "there will be too many" is a remotely realistic worry.