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I don't think that I've ever seen anything like this (the sheer number of submissions related to one event) on HN before. I, like most others, follow the tussle
by igravious 14y ago
I don't think that I've ever seen anything like this (the sheer number of submissions related to one event) on HN before. I, like most others, follow the tussle between those who desire a world where the barrier to access information is lower and those who want to copyright, lock up and monetize all the information that we generate.
Most of the time I feel that it is like a high tech soap opera but this events brings it home to me that alarmingly the stakes can be very high and that the weight of the collective system can crush any one individual. Is this naive of me but would it be possible to set up some kind of fund or foundation that could provide real monetary support to help those that are a braver than the rest of us when they confront the system and as a result get overwhelmed.
Apologies if this is inappropriate in any way.
- lizzard 14y agoVery good question. And I agree with you. There are people all around us, crushed every day.
- swalsh 14y ago"Is this naive of me but would it be possible to set up some kind of fund or foundation that could provide real monetary support to help those that are a braver than the rest of us when they confront the system and as a result get overwhelmed." I think the EFF would be pretty close to this already.
- AnthonyMouse 14y agoObligatory: https://supporters.eff.org/donate https://supporters.eff.org/donate
- biot 14y agoI am only vaguely familiar with Aaron Swartz, so the magnitude of the response on this site surprised me and reminds me of the HN front page when Steve Jobs died: http://www.waybackletter.com/archive/20111005.html http://www.waybackletter.com/archive/20111005.html
- jlgreco 14y agoUnlike Jobs, Aaron was actually one of us.
- biot 14y agoIt's rather presumptuous for you to speak on behalf of everybody. I would consider them both "one of us", though I prefer to leave "us" vs. "them" labels to religious, political, and sports nuts.
- jlgreco 14y agoBy "one of us" I mean a part of our community (Hacker news in particular, and the internet hacker/programmer community at large), and I am referring to his involvement in Y Combinator.
- biot 14y agoThanks for clarifying; that makes sense now.
- elviejo 14y agoAaron was part of HackerNews, he posted and answered and Reddit was a company in the first batch of YCombinator founded companies and Aaron was one of the partners. In that sense he was "one of us"... the HackerNews community
- jacquesm 14y agohttp://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw
- aw3c2 14y agoI think it is actually not a good thing that a suicide leads to this much attention. it might encourage others to choose death to be turned into martyrs. same as the coverage from school homicides.