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Comment by spapas82 | Hacker News Reader

Related to that myth, I remember that the most popular usenet group for people that thinking about committing suicide was alt.suicide.holiday.

That was more than 20 years ago of course!

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i always assumed the name of the group was a joke, like, have you thought about taking a suicide holiday

it never occurred to me that it was literally about holiday suicides

IIRC there was a FAQ of that group that explained that it was true (at least that what the FAQ claimed) ; people thought of suicide more throught the holidays because they were more sentimental during this time if they were alone etc...

i never read the actual group but the faq doesn't seem to have survived, though other alt.suicide.* faqs are at http://www.ibiblio.org/usenet-i/groups-html/alt.suicide.holi... and http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/alt/alt.suicide.holida...

the group's one-line description does seem relevant

i guess strn and trn didn't show those descriptions? or i would have known

http://ash.notearthday.org/FAQGuides.html

thanks, this is great

i wonder how many people from that subculture are still alive today

I used to hang out there back in the day (under a different name). The frank discussion there got me through some really dark times. Once, I met one of the posters IRL. It went fine. We didn't talk about suicide.

I wonder the same. There used to be a sentiment expressed back then with the phrase "waiting for the bus". I wonder how many of those folks are gone or are still waiting for the bus. This thought makes me want to cry.

/me raises hand.

I remember a chart that was floating around that usenet group that showed you the ideal rope length for hanging yourself without either choking or popping off your head from too short/long. I think they sourced their info from this chart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Table_of_Drops

Good times.

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