For HN: Hacker's Help Network | Hacker News Reader

For HN: Hacker's Help Network

11 pointsCardeck12 comments

Due to this year's unfortunate events and the increasing number of depressed hackers, me and a couple of friends decided to start a community not only for HN but for anyone seeking help.

I am very sad to hear the stories on HN like far_far_away's and others like him.Not to mention the death of Aaron Swartz which definitely changed the mood for many hackers.I've been through this situation (depression) 5 years ago and it was a living hell.Feeling trapped and no way out.

I want to help these people or at least try and I'm sure many of us want the same thing.This is not about money or business!It is about us.We are humans before anything else, and we have feelings.Judging by the current trend we are not on the right path and some of us don't even know it yet.

So starting from today, I decided to dedicate some of my time specifically for this cause.I am sick of seeing people suffering here when I know I can do something about it.If I can improve someone's life by at least 5% I am happy.

If anyone is interested in joining this cause, I am open to any suggestion.This is not about me and you, it's about all of us.

For anyone interested the mail is this: hackershelp2013@gmail.com

I had no time to prepare something special but I believe this is the first step in the right direction.

More updates coming soon...

Thank you all.

I used to volunteer for the Samaritans in the UK (A well known and respected suicide helpline http://www.samaritans.org/).

What you are taking on is a laudable thing, and I would honestly suggest talking to these people (or an equivalent US one), and find out their "ways of doing things".

Providing such support alone can take a toll on you, and there is a difference between sacrificing time and sacrificing you. If you can find others who can "man the phones" too, and if you establish good guidelines (policies on abuse, on anonymity, on sharing data between calls and working with other services and oh a thousand things more) you I hope will do some good here.

Oh and one last thing, I learnt you "worked the phones" for a year or for life. If like me you only do this for a yer, do not feel you are abandoning others. And maybe you will leave something that lasts beyond you

Good luck

Thank you very much but I think you got the idea somehow wrong. We want to support hackers that can be helped without the aid of the doctor.You can imagine that we could never put someone's life at risk if he has a serious condition.

For those who are really on the verge of distruction, the best we can do is send them to a specialized doctor because only they can help the serious cases.

What we can do is create an environment for us that would help avoid a situation like this and also to help those that can be helped without the aid of a doctor.Even then the situation must be analyzed properly.

But the most important thing is, everyone wants to have a place where they can talk to the others, share their thoughts, everything that bothers them from any aspect of their lives, from business to life and so on.Because then, you know where to go when you have problems.

It will be like "Damn, my gf dumped me and my friend kicked me out of the startup, I definitely need to talk to someone who can understand this, how about i go on xyz website or (whatever place we can create for them) and talk about this, cause they will listen".

So not to be confused with a clinic or some medical/mental facility.We cannot do that.But we can try to create a place for us, sharing whatever we want to share.

Thank you again.

And like i said, for anyone who wants to be part of a united group and helping each other whenever you need, join us by sending a mail to

hackershelp2013@gmail.com and Hacker's Help Network (community on google+) one is private (mainly for HN users) and one is public

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