A statement from members of the Toki Pona community | Hacker News Reader

A statement from members of the Toki Pona community

tokipona.net

52 pointsrobinhouston16 comments

Quote from bottom of page.

> We understand that some may wish to sensationalize a public crisis like this, but we would implore anybody to consider the ethics of the situation before publicizing this matter to a wider audience than is already exposed to it, or interjecting with prying questions.

I don't know but I think that having this on the front page of HN is not something helpful according to the post itself. Do you think it should be removed ?

Constructed Languages (Conlangs) are something that I've never personally studied, but I've always been fascinated by their existence. Toki Pona was my first introduction to a conlang outside of pop culture ones like in television or movies, and it always seemed like such a neat project and community.

It seems like the community is responding to a sensitive and difficult situation with the grace and care that I would hope for with the name "The Language of Good."

If you're interested in learning more about conlangs, the youtuber Jan Misali [0] was my introduction to them and has some really fascinating videos about conlangs (and many other various videos). It's a really niche subject, but it can be cool to see just how much thought and care has been put into passion projects like them.

The reason I bring up them in particular is because they have many videos covering Toki Pona and are a member of that community, so it seems relevant.

[0] - https://www.youtube.com/@HBMmaster

She has my sympathy. Psychosis is terrifying

> If you are looking to help Amatullah, the best that most of us can do is to avoid either platforming or making a spectacle of her. Don’t talk to her, don’t repost her posts, and don’t gawk at her or discuss her actions publicly.

I mean, I understand the thinking, but you're also publishing this, there is bound to be countless of speculation and discussions about it, given it isn't some insular small community, it's a relatively old project spanning the globe.

I don't know what to make of it, what are we supposed to do? I guess instinctively, I want to hear what she thinks of this, her side of what's happening, whatever that may be.

I think the statement is more for folks who may have happened across her profiles or the website itself and would be rightly confused if they saw a big change. I've seen similar episodes with friends and it's extremely hard to get them out of it, if at all, for reasons noted in the post. I hope they get the help they need.

Compare the tweets now versus the profile from a few years ago: https://x.com/tokipona vs https://web.archive.org/web/20220511012717/https://twitter.c...

Other links: https://tokipona.org/ https://bsky.app/profile/tokipona.org

Yep this is sad. Let's not post more of these things. I hope they get some help.

Unfortunately, the algos will pick up the impression spike on the profiles and soon, the culture war bullies will arrive.

>seer, peer

That is an amazingly good double entendre.

Anyway, it says "@tokipona hasn’t posted" for me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clanging

I never knew - it's always amazing/depressing how related brilliance and mental illness are.

This was also the nature of my intended comment.

There have been a number of studies that specifically linked advanced "artistic" personalities with increased risk of psychosis and other breaks from reality.

One citation:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-...

I had never heard of Toki Pona, and I find the project amazing!

The only other invented language I have heard of is esperanto. Which I have always been interested in, but never studied.

My heart goes out to the author of this language, I hope they are able to find their way back. There is certainly a community that hopes to help and support them.

This is much more than many distressed people have to hope for, and I hope they are able to find solace in that support.

The human mind is the most beautiful powerful and yet fragile thing. Without it's quirks humanity would have been robbed of so much. But the suffering can be very very painful. It's a beautiful ride we are all on, I know it's hackernews but remember to be nice to people! Ya just never know what someone is going through

I have no idea what is going on but my guess is this person is in a very rough state and they are genuinely trying to protect them. When someone is psychotic they can have lucid thoughts from time to time but putting them in the spotlight can bring out the worst. In school we had a young woman get on a roof and try to kill themselves not knowing that's what was even happening during I think it was an art class where they were pretty erratic but openly expressing themselves. Obviously it's not always that severe but a lot of things can be said and recorded that can really damage a person's public appearance.

It's hard to imagine 30 some odd people trying to take something that was free from someone in a hostile way. Surely it's happened but my guess is this is a particularly sad story from mostly decent people

Judging by her Twitter, she has renamed herself "Major General Musk" (claiming to be the wife of Elon) and appointed herself as CEO of Discord and "Unicode" while claiming to be the first "Jewslim."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com