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Comment by brandnewlow | Hacker News Reader

These are great questions. Here's my take:

1. I have a responsibility to all my readers, users, writers, to take care of them and look after them. Because of Timmy's age, there's an extra layer there.

2. I'm not qualified to judge whether I should or shouldn't believe Timmy when he says he enjoys what he's doing and how he's spending his time based on his situation. If his mom thought he should shut down the blog, it would happen in a heartbeat and we'd all be ok with that. He's a kid.

3. Autism or no autism, when I was a teenager, I would have killed to be "exploited" by older people who truly appreciated and enjoyed my work and wanted to help get it in front of more people.

This is a very important topic. Thanks for bringing it up.

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That is a very responsible take on the situation. With regards to #2, I would encourage you to read the 5:17 PM entry here and reflect carefully on it. If you feel unqualified to judge its import, hum a few bars to one of the mental health professionals in your Rolodex.

http://www.windycitizen.com/blogs/avondale-logan-square-crim...

Very aware of those bits. They're not so uncommon. Frankly, it's one of the reasons why people respond to him I think. He's putting his thoughts out there pretty publicly.

Whether or not his mother is reading as closely, I can't say for certain, but it is something his readers and fellow bloggers keep track of.

It sounds broken from an regular perspective, because regular people either don't get involved in thinking very hard about crime and probabilities, or if they do, they get a gun or some other form of protection to put themselves more at ease. Thinking about crime happning right at this moment, in your very own neighbourhood all day, but feeling like you're an ineffectual shut-in nerd who wouldn't even be able to use a gun if his caring mother would let him have one, would drive anyone to paranoia, I think—myself included.

It isn't just the paranoia.

How do you interpret this:

I was kind of hoping I could hand the blog over to someone else, who could release their indentity and really not worry about it. Plus, it would get some pressure off of me.

...want to place bets about the source of that pressure and what it consists of?

> If you feel unqualified to judge its import, hum a few bars to one of the mental health professionals in your Rolodex.

I'll bite - what happened when you took that to the MHPs in your rolodex? Better yet, you reported it to Child Protective Services in Chicago. You did, right?

You know looking over this blog, I think I have to agree with patio11. This is the sort of thing that could end very badly.

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