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What do you mean? He was always treated with respect and admiration on HN, with an understanding of his personal difficulties. I think your conflating the trea

What do you mean? He was always treated with respect and admiration on HN, with an understanding of his personal difficulties. I think your conflating the treatment he received here with how he was treated on Reddit.

s5300 4y ago
This is incorrect. You can very simply go find that out with your own time. Happy to be downvoted into the ground for my earlier statement. He deserved so much better.
- codetrotter 4y ago
  His first account was https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=losethos https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=losethos His mental illness was not his fault. But it is also understandable that when someone uses the n-word, they will get downvoted and banned, even when it’s not their fault.
- IntelMiner 4y ago
  This isn't Reddit. Please don't blather on about "downvotes" If you would like to contribute constructively to the discussion you're welcome to cite comments that you feel HN have censored in some way EDIT: Fixed a typo
  - s5300 4y ago
    You’ve clearly missed the point. All I’m doing is paying my respects to a hyper-intelligent genius who was driven to suicide partially because of this website.
    - hutzlibu 4y ago
      So you think, HN should have made an exception for him to allow his racist posts to be in the open? Or to hire one person for him, reviewing all comments from him and filtering out the worst? And assuming this is really what you think, how long till the next poor racist genious shows up, demanding equal rights? Would you be able to operate a forum like that?
      - Dylan16807 4y ago
        I think the first half of your post is fine, but... > And assuming this is really what you think, how long till the next poor racist genious shows up, demanding equal rights? > Would you be able to operate a forum like that? Can you name three others? Even one? I don't think "there will be too many" is a remotely realistic worry.
      - s5300 4y ago
        No, with response to the comment about the “downvote” mention - (My “You’ve clearly missed the point”) Mentioning downvotes on HN is incredibly stupid, & if you comb through my past comments, you can see me calling people out for it. In this very specific & nuanced situation, though - I am using it to mock & make clear my utter contempt & hatred of those who did view Terry as a sad, funny meme, & were laughing all along the way while watching his downward spiral, which culminated in his suicide. Many of those, still on here & reading this thread, will essentially want to mock my kindness towards Terry & his tormented life. & calling that out is my personal fuck you to them. No comment regarding anything else in your response.
Morgawr 4y ago
Every comment I remember of him on HN threads were all hidden, downvoted and flagged. Now, to be perfectly clear, most of them were completely deranged and absolutely unrelated (usually a lot of stuff about god and bible etc etc) and he clearly was not sane of mind, but saying that he was treated "with respect and admiration" is a huge stretch. People admired his work and acknowledged the existence of his project. People talked about it a lot and it was definitely interesting to see develop. However the person himself was definitely not welcome on HN (and I can't really fault that logic).
- threatofrain 4y ago
  The net attitude of HN is one of admiration for Terry because he's more talented than most of us. I think the biggest thing that affected Terry on this site was being hell-banned.
  - s5300 4y ago
    For most, it wasn’t admiration, it was jealousy. Hateful jealousy.
- Beltalowda 4y ago
  I don't think that banning someone who repeatedly posts "completely deranged and absolutely unrelated" material is not treating them with respect. You don't have to look very far before he starts calling things CIA nigger brainwashing, and stuff like that.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    This site was better with him on it. So what if he said a lot of crazy things? If you let a crazy guy offend you, I think that's a "you problem." He did not have the position or power to act on his prejudices; he wasn't hurting anybody in any real way. Posting here obviously meant something to him, since he kept coming back and creating new accounts. It was cruel to shut him out.
    - 4y ago
SquareWheel 4y ago
His work was commended, and his racist comments were downmodded and flagged. The responses were pretty proportional, all things considered. The most awkward part was when people would talk about him as if he weren't active in the threads.
- glowingnegro 4y ago
  No, he was hellbanned. His comments were automatically marked dead no matter what he was saying. It was a huge mark of disrespect towards him, isolating him and belittling him like this. No doubt worsening his mental state. The moderators of HN have blood on their hands.
  - SquareWheel 4y ago
    Blaming an internet moderator for driving someone to suicide by simply enforcing community standards is extremely callous. You're actually doing more damage with your moral judgement by trying to bring down someone else. Now I read many of Terry's comments without ever turning on showdead. Even if he were hellbanned, it would've been a consequence of his actions regardless of the reasons behind them. But maybe it's not even worth responding to somebody who creates a throwaway to make such statements.
  - phpnode 4y ago
    The vouch button exists on this site because of Terry, and I think it's a pragmatic solution to the problem

s5300 4y ago

This is incorrect. You can very simply go find that out with your own time. Happy to be downvoted into the ground for my earlier statement. He deserved so much better.

codetrotter 4y ago
His first account was https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=losethos https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=losethos His mental illness was not his fault. But it is also understandable that when someone uses the n-word, they will get downvoted and banned, even when it’s not their fault.
IntelMiner 4y ago
This isn't Reddit. Please don't blather on about "downvotes" If you would like to contribute constructively to the discussion you're welcome to cite comments that you feel HN have censored in some way EDIT: Fixed a typo
- s5300 4y ago
  You’ve clearly missed the point. All I’m doing is paying my respects to a hyper-intelligent genius who was driven to suicide partially because of this website.
  - hutzlibu 4y ago
    So you think, HN should have made an exception for him to allow his racist posts to be in the open? Or to hire one person for him, reviewing all comments from him and filtering out the worst? And assuming this is really what you think, how long till the next poor racist genious shows up, demanding equal rights? Would you be able to operate a forum like that?
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      I think the first half of your post is fine, but... > And assuming this is really what you think, how long till the next poor racist genious shows up, demanding equal rights? > Would you be able to operate a forum like that? Can you name three others? Even one? I don't think "there will be too many" is a remotely realistic worry.
    - s5300 4y ago
      No, with response to the comment about the “downvote” mention - (My “You’ve clearly missed the point”) Mentioning downvotes on HN is incredibly stupid, & if you comb through my past comments, you can see me calling people out for it. In this very specific & nuanced situation, though - I am using it to mock & make clear my utter contempt & hatred of those who did view Terry as a sad, funny meme, & were laughing all along the way while watching his downward spiral, which culminated in his suicide. Many of those, still on here & reading this thread, will essentially want to mock my kindness towards Terry & his tormented life. & calling that out is my personal fuck you to them. No comment regarding anything else in your response.

Morgawr 4y ago

Every comment I remember of him on HN threads were all hidden, downvoted and flagged. Now, to be perfectly clear, most of them were completely deranged and absolutely unrelated (usually a lot of stuff about god and bible etc etc) and he clearly was not sane of mind, but saying that he was treated "with respect and admiration" is a huge stretch. People admired his work and acknowledged the existence of his project. People talked about it a lot and it was definitely interesting to see develop. However the person himself was definitely not welcome on HN (and I can't really fault that logic).

threatofrain 4y ago
The net attitude of HN is one of admiration for Terry because he's more talented than most of us. I think the biggest thing that affected Terry on this site was being hell-banned.
- s5300 4y ago
  For most, it wasn’t admiration, it was jealousy. Hateful jealousy.
Beltalowda 4y ago
I don't think that banning someone who repeatedly posts "completely deranged and absolutely unrelated" material is not treating them with respect. You don't have to look very far before he starts calling things CIA nigger brainwashing, and stuff like that.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  This site was better with him on it. So what if he said a lot of crazy things? If you let a crazy guy offend you, I think that's a "you problem." He did not have the position or power to act on his prejudices; he wasn't hurting anybody in any real way. Posting here obviously meant something to him, since he kept coming back and creating new accounts. It was cruel to shut him out.
  - 4y ago

SquareWheel 4y ago

His work was commended, and his racist comments were downmodded and flagged. The responses were pretty proportional, all things considered. The most awkward part was when people would talk about him as if he weren't active in the threads.

glowingnegro 4y ago
No, he was hellbanned. His comments were automatically marked dead no matter what he was saying. It was a huge mark of disrespect towards him, isolating him and belittling him like this. No doubt worsening his mental state. The moderators of HN have blood on their hands.
- SquareWheel 4y ago
  Blaming an internet moderator for driving someone to suicide by simply enforcing community standards is extremely callous. You're actually doing more damage with your moral judgement by trying to bring down someone else. Now I read many of Terry's comments without ever turning on showdead. Even if he were hellbanned, it would've been a consequence of his actions regardless of the reasons behind them. But maybe it's not even worth responding to somebody who creates a throwaway to make such statements.
- phpnode 4y ago
  The vouch button exists on this site because of Terry, and I think it's a pragmatic solution to the problem