Aaron is dead. From: Tim Berners-Lee | Hacker News Reader

Aaron is dead. From: Tim Berners-Lee

lists.w3.org

610 pointsedsu30 comments

Repeating with typos fixed:

    Aaron is dead.

    Wanderers in this crazy world,
    we have lost a mentor, a wise elder.

    Hackers for right, we are one down,
    we have lost one of our own.

    Nurturers, carers, listeners, feeders,
    parents all,
    we have lost a child.

    Let us all weep.


    timbl

(I'm heartbroken about Aaron Swartz. He had been helping Beeminder a lot and offered to be an advisor, to be formalized next time he was in Portland. He was a wonderful person.)

This response is touching, sad, but somehow beautiful as well: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2013Jan/0022.htm...

That made my eyes water.

I never met Aaron but I admired his work and his spirit.

I'm a little sad there's nothing on the front page of Reddit about Aaron yet.

Well, /r/truereddit had something up with some decent commentary but it isn't a default reddit. /r/pics sadly is now the default for news like this and the signal to noise ratio there is as bad as you can imagine it to be. No Lessig, no nothing, just a bunch of guys calling him a criminal and a coward for suicide. Fuck you reddit. You are eternel september's child now. Lowest common denominator trash for the lowest common denominator.

On the upside, I do have faith that once his story gets out of the eternal september kiddie's paws, the facts and deep moral issues here will percolate to the surface, eventually. It'll just take some time.

one very big mistake reddit made was removing /r/reddit.com and leaving a vacuum for "default, catch-all subreddit" that people are now trying to shoehorn other defaults like /r/pics and /r/funny into

Amazingly enough the thread about his passing [1] has 34.340 upvotes and 31.742 downvotes.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/16fjjm/aaron_shwartz_r...

My understanding is that the system begins faking upvotes and downvotes at a certain point to fool spammers.

Which is still curious, because it's common knowledge at this point that the numbers are fudged. Why even display it at this point? It serves nothing but to cause confusion.

Even though people know it's fake, I am sure it still plays an important role in gamification.

The difference between upvotes and downvotes is right, but the absolute numbers are random.

It was the top item 11 hours ago: http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/16ffph/reddit_cofounde...

There was a 2.5K entry on Reddit, but that is not a requirement or affirmation the community wants. Nor is it what it needs as a matter of fact. I wish that time could be taken back all the way to the day when prosecutors decided to embark on this mission. And sadly, what we need is a change in the justice system. Change big enough, that felons, the type of capital F felons, are prosecuted for their part in melting down global economy. Not dining at the Whitehouse as the article put it.

I guess (and hope) Alex and the rest are incredibly heartbroken right now, and want to keep their pain private.

It's actually better to shut up than unashamedly try to ride Aaron's coattails -- like Jeff Jarvis is doing at the moment.

It was 2nd and 3rd for two hours or so today: http://redditrewind.com/?id=50f16ca1f4733c000c249218&but...

Front page changes depending on your subs. I've seen multiple stories about it. Also keep in mind that stories can rise a lot faster on HN, so it's not necessarily indicative of disinterest.

None of the default subreddits are really suitable. Adviceanimals? Pics? Funny? Awww?

Reddit just does not have the capacity to cover breaking news for non-logged-in users anymore. Too bad.

Not sure why, but the reddit admins keep deleting all posts related to this.

edit: Seems that more are staying up now. This morning they were being deleted.

You're going to have to give some evidence on that one. How do you know it's admins and not moderators? Admins rarely intervene in these sorts of matters, even if they are close to the story.

Sorting by "Top" instead of "Hot" makes a difference. "Hot", which I find less useful, is the default.

RIP Aaron Swartz.

This is so incredibly sad. I did not know Aaron, but I will try to honour his memory. I've decided to stop hesitating and publish some of my research of the past couple years freely online. I hope others do too.

This is perfect. I have no words.

Just noticing the black "armband" worn by hn today.

Many tributes for this impressive man.

Very sad to hear this, RIP Aaron.

I agree. Very eloquently put.

Very eloquently put. RIP Aaron.

That's a damn fine elegy.

Anyone know which anti-depressant he's on?

That's a very poor way to comment, and even insulting to those who are genuinely suffering from mental illness.

Down-voted. Besides that, the fact that you're able to put a comment here (your voice) or anywhere else is first credit to Sir Timbers Lee [1].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

> That's a very poor way to comment, and even insulting to those who are genuinely suffering from mental illness.

Seconded.

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