8 ms·

Someone outed him here: http://whoiswhytheluckystiff.wordpress.com/ http://whoiswhytheluckystiff.wordpress.com/

by dazmax 17y ago

pol 17y ago
What a mean-spirited thing to do to someone who just wanted to stay anonymous. It makes me sad and angry. If this is the reason _why decided to pick up and leave, I understand it. We have his code, it will live on. Perhaps he will return in another guise.
- imbaczek 17y ago
  mean-spirited? he gave the internet a challenge and somebody took it up, that's all. oh, and it doesn't have to be his real name, too.
  - astine 17y ago
    Did he literally put out a challenge or do you actually see a person's privacy as a game?
    - moe 17y ago
      The wikipedia page shows an image of him apparently giving a public speech. If his privacy was so precious to him I don't think he would do things like that. Hence I would say this was just a little game - and he lost.
      - astine 17y ago
        If his privacy was so precious to him I don't think he would do things like that. But you don't know, and neither do I. It looks like someone played this game, and we lost.
      - watt 17y ago
        privacy must be respected, and actually should be enforced by everybody, including you. meaning: even if you know him, you should pretend that he is anonymous person, disconnecting the _why persona from the real-life person. for example, if you know him, and you hire him, you still should ignore the on-line _why persona, because for privacy purposes, it is separate, anonymous entity, and you should not connect it to real person. that's what privacy should be.
        adambyrtek 17y ago
        Privacy is not the same as anonymity.
        moe 17y ago
        I honestly don't get the futz about this. Also the whole "if you hire him you're obliged to ignore any other identities you know about" is just completely out of this world. Again: If he valued his privacy so much then why did he appear in public? You can't have your cake and eat it, too.
        Vitamin 17y ago
        Uggh. If privacy must be protected by civic order it's already a lost cause. All these good people standing up for privacy--it only serves to increase the market value of violations. Honestly, I think it's better to throw out the notion of digital privacy entirely and start pushing the notion of universal visibility, and accountability. Once everyone is naked, we'll stop obsessing over the naughty bits.
        csallen 17y ago
        The anonymity and lack of personal accountability provided by the internet rarely have good effects. What's interesting is how fervently people fight to protect this anonymity, even though it doesn't really exist when we interact with strangers in the real world. I'm not saying that online privacy is worthless of course, just noting that it is quite unique.
      - judofyr 17y ago
        Apparently, giving a public speech didn't reveal his identify, so why shouldn't he "do things like that"?
      - Adam503 17y ago
        a public speech where? a programming language conference. No disrespect intended to anyone here, but making a presentation at the technical conference does not make one either a public figure.
  - scott_s 17y ago
    By using a pseudonym, he implied he'd rather not be known by his given name. Telling the world his real then goes against his wishes. It is, at the very least, rude. That someone outed him is inevitable. But that doesn't excuse the act.
    - Semiapies 17y ago
      Rude, I'd agree. No more, though - we're certainly not talking about exposing where Salman Rushdie's sleeping tonight. How rude, even, is an open question. This doesn't exactly rise to the level of pestering J. D. Salinger at his house. Trying to be anonymous is one thing. Trying to remain anonymous while writing books and blogs and making public appearances, all under one common identity, is downright quixotic and just a bit presumptuous. Simply saying his preference was to be anonymous doesn't really create much of an obligation upon the rest of the world. You can't actively be a public figure and avoid being public.
      - scott_s 17y ago
        I actually agree with all of that, but it still requires one person to say "I want to out him!" And that person is being rude.
        Semiapies 17y ago
        I agree. I'm just not sure how rude. When there's a picture of you in your Wikipedia article from a public event you chose to speak at, you've made yourself just a "Hey, I know that guy!" away from being outed. At that point, I don't think you can claim it's a major affront when someone puts public information together to identify you. I think the "who is why the lucky stiff" blog is odd and a bit dickish, but I'm not appalled. I'm also skeptical of that purported outing as the cause of all this; this is one story I think that a bunch of people chatting and commenting are precisely the least well-suited way to work out the truth.
        eli 17y ago
        For what it's worth, Why actively campaigned at one point to have his wikipedia page deleted. Say what you will, but I'm pretty sure he was genuine in his effort not to be identified or celebrated.
  - Keyframe 17y ago
    I don't know why are you downvoting him - HACKERS of all people should understand the nature of challenges - be them called for or not.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
    - eli 17y ago
      Even if I accept that explanation, posting the information online is no challenge. That's just being a jerk.
    - lil_cain 17y ago
      Not every challenge is meant to be taken up. Respect for people's wishes is important too. It's quite clear that _why didn't want people to know who he is. Fair enough, if you wanted to work that out. I don't think you should, but I could understand it. Telling the world? That's trying to wave your E-penis at the cost of one of the ruby world's best contributors.
- KVFinn 17y ago
  >>What a mean-spirited thing to do to someone who just wanted to stay anonymous. If this is the reason _why decided to pick up and leave, I understand it. If that's why he quit though it's going to have the opposite effect. I doubt more than a handful of people cared to look into _why's identity before today. I've read the guide, watched his talks, and read probably 80% of his blog articles, and I never knew his identity was some kind of secret. But with the disappearance it's now on everyone's mind. There's a name for this effect but I can't think of it. It often comes up when somebody sues somebody else to remove some bit of information. The suit becomes a news story, and suddenly where 10 people might have known the information, the info is on the daily news as they cover the suit.
  - projecktzero 17y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striesand_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striesand_effect
  - gjm11 17y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect .
  - cpach 17y ago
    That would be the Streisand effect: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Streisand_effect https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Streisand_eff...
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - ekyuri 17y ago
    >>But with the disappearance it's now on everyone's mind. Yeah I totally agree with you!!
- apotheon 17y ago
  I don't think it was mean-spirited. I do, however, think it's a crying shame.
mosburger 17y ago
Something doesn't seem right about that detective work - there's a Jonathan Gillette online who is a web developer in Harrisburg, PA who doesn't seem to be _why. Obviously it's likely that there's more than one Jonathan Gillette on the internet, but it seems odd to me that this other guy is also a web developer, with a decent online presence, in (somewhat) the same geographic area where _why is suspected to live, that isn't him. But I don't know enough about e-mail headers to provide an alternate explanation if there is one. EDIT: This is that other guy's site, FWIW: http://jonathangillette.net/ http://jonathangillette.net/ And he's on twitter: http://twitter.com/jgillette http://twitter.com/jgillette EDIT 2: The infamous Zed Shaw posted a link to another page which I'm more inclined to believe is the real _why. I'm not going to post the link here, but you can find it in Zed's twitter stream if you really want to.
- burke 17y ago
  That Jonathan Gillette was also going to school in Pennsylvania (http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangillette http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangillette) when _why wrote that message, supposedly from Salt Lake City, Utah.
  - mosburger 17y ago
    Nice find - you're a more thorough detective/stalker than I. :)
    - burke 17y ago
      Yet more detective work: http://javuh.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/javuh/javuh/Model/Psychoo/Object.inc?view=log&pathrev=MAIN http://javuh.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/javuh/javuh/Model/Ps... He seems to have been working on the same file, in the same day, as Jonathan Gillette. Probably poking around this repository a little more could lead to an almost-definitive answer. Also, here: http://javuh.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/javuh/javuh/Services/Unified/Common.inc?view=markup http://javuh.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/javuh/javuh/Services... the @author is listed as: 11 * @author Why Carlisle (whytheluckystiff@mailcity.com) EDIT: Still going.... He talks about a 14-year-old sister here: http://www.advogato.org/person/whytheluckystiff/diary/14.html http://www.advogato.org/person/whytheluckystiff/diary/14.htm... This being written in 2001, that would make her ~21 now. Searching for Jonathan Gillette, http://www.intelius.com/search-summary-out.php?ReportType=1&qf=jonathan&qmi=&qn=Gillette&qs=UT&trackit=74&focusfirst=1 http://www.intelius.com/search-summary-out.php?ReportType=1&... a few relatives are listed, presumably one of which would be his sister, however, none are in the right age range. Right, back to work now, I promise.
petercooper 17y ago
I'm sure someone in the know told me his real name a couple years back (he wrote the foreword to my book) and it certainly wasn't Jonathan Gillette. Of course, he might have changed him name again.. :)
- lylejohnson 17y ago
  Ditto. Unless _why goes by multiple names in real life (which I suppose is possible), that's not him.
  - maurycy 17y ago
    It is possible that Jonathan Gillette and _why worked in the same company, and _why used Jonathan's computer, or so.
    - petercooper 17y ago
      To update, I've received a few anonymous e-mails with significant proof that the Jonathan Gillette theory is sound (though I won't go far as to say it's 100% certain).
- jvdh 17y ago
  This might also be the reason that _why just upped an ran. Staying anonymous is one thing, but letting someone else take the hit for you is quite another. disclaimer: I don't know how long the blog has been trying to figure out who _why is.
jpeterson 17y ago
Nope, whoever created this site was trolled.
UncleOxidant 17y ago
but that was over a month ago, why would he wait that long?
blasdel 17y ago
misuba on HN said his first name is Michael: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=683061 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=683061
scorpion032 17y ago
Ok, Now, who did this?
infodig 17y ago
I am posting this because I feel it is worthwhile information. It is within _why's rights to yank his sites off the Internet at a moments notice. I will not begrudge him that. However, I do think when people come to rely on your tools and software you should at least respect that people rely on you, if informally. Also, I think that, since he was hosting a lot of other sites on hobix, not just his personal stuff something could actually be wrong. So I am sharing this information. Please be responsible. I dug up a Kylie Gillette who is the owner of snapd.net, Snapdragon Jewelry. A quick whois on that domain: Registrant: Layered Technologies TheLuckyStiff Why 1647 Witt Rd. Ste. # 20 Frisco, TX 75034 US +1.9723987998 86a756e735644786cd09875d0acb61365fb02f36@whois.gkg.net So there is also this: http://www.assessor.slco.org/test/cfml/Query/valuationInfo.cfm?Parcel_id=28073270440000&nbhd=962&PA=1 http://www.assessor.slco.org/test/cfml/Query/valuationInfo.c... What are the chances that a Jonathan Gillette hosting a website for Kylie Gillette who posted to a ruby mailing list as _why and Jonathan Gillette in 02 and 03 are different people? If something is wrong or something has happened to him IRL people would rest a little easier knowing what is going on.
sabat 17y ago
http://www.manta.com/company/mmntyj8 http://www.manta.com/company/mmntyj8

Someone outed him here: http://whoiswhytheluckystiff.wordpress.com/ http://whoiswhytheluckystiff.wordpress.com/

by dazmax 17y ago

Someone outed him here: http://whoiswhytheluckystiff.wordpress.com/ http://whoiswhytheluckystiff.wordpress.com/

pol 17y ago

What a mean-spirited thing to do to someone who just wanted to stay anonymous. It makes me sad and angry. If this is the reason _why decided to pick up and leave, I understand it. We have his code, it will live on. Perhaps he will return in another guise.

imbaczek 17y ago
mean-spirited? he gave the internet a challenge and somebody took it up, that's all. oh, and it doesn't have to be his real name, too.
- astine 17y ago
  Did he literally put out a challenge or do you actually see a person's privacy as a game?
  - moe 17y ago
    The wikipedia page shows an image of him apparently giving a public speech. If his privacy was so precious to him I don't think he would do things like that. Hence I would say this was just a little game - and he lost.
    - astine 17y ago
      If his privacy was so precious to him I don't think he would do things like that. But you don't know, and neither do I. It looks like someone played this game, and we lost.
    - watt 17y ago
      privacy must be respected, and actually should be enforced by everybody, including you. meaning: even if you know him, you should pretend that he is anonymous person, disconnecting the _why persona from the real-life person. for example, if you know him, and you hire him, you still should ignore the on-line _why persona, because for privacy purposes, it is separate, anonymous entity, and you should not connect it to real person. that's what privacy should be.
      - adambyrtek 17y ago
        Privacy is not the same as anonymity.
      - moe 17y ago
        I honestly don't get the futz about this. Also the whole "if you hire him you're obliged to ignore any other identities you know about" is just completely out of this world. Again: If he valued his privacy so much then why did he appear in public? You can't have your cake and eat it, too.
      - Vitamin 17y ago
        Uggh. If privacy must be protected by civic order it's already a lost cause. All these good people standing up for privacy--it only serves to increase the market value of violations. Honestly, I think it's better to throw out the notion of digital privacy entirely and start pushing the notion of universal visibility, and accountability. Once everyone is naked, we'll stop obsessing over the naughty bits.
        csallen 17y ago
        The anonymity and lack of personal accountability provided by the internet rarely have good effects. What's interesting is how fervently people fight to protect this anonymity, even though it doesn't really exist when we interact with strangers in the real world. I'm not saying that online privacy is worthless of course, just noting that it is quite unique.
    - judofyr 17y ago
      Apparently, giving a public speech didn't reveal his identify, so why shouldn't he "do things like that"?
    - Adam503 17y ago
      a public speech where? a programming language conference. No disrespect intended to anyone here, but making a presentation at the technical conference does not make one either a public figure.
- scott_s 17y ago
  By using a pseudonym, he implied he'd rather not be known by his given name. Telling the world his real then goes against his wishes. It is, at the very least, rude. That someone outed him is inevitable. But that doesn't excuse the act.
  - Semiapies 17y ago
    Rude, I'd agree. No more, though - we're certainly not talking about exposing where Salman Rushdie's sleeping tonight. How rude, even, is an open question. This doesn't exactly rise to the level of pestering J. D. Salinger at his house. Trying to be anonymous is one thing. Trying to remain anonymous while writing books and blogs and making public appearances, all under one common identity, is downright quixotic and just a bit presumptuous. Simply saying his preference was to be anonymous doesn't really create much of an obligation upon the rest of the world. You can't actively be a public figure and avoid being public.
    - scott_s 17y ago
      I actually agree with all of that, but it still requires one person to say "I want to out him!" And that person is being rude.
      - Semiapies 17y ago
        I agree. I'm just not sure how rude. When there's a picture of you in your Wikipedia article from a public event you chose to speak at, you've made yourself just a "Hey, I know that guy!" away from being outed. At that point, I don't think you can claim it's a major affront when someone puts public information together to identify you. I think the "who is why the lucky stiff" blog is odd and a bit dickish, but I'm not appalled. I'm also skeptical of that purported outing as the cause of all this; this is one story I think that a bunch of people chatting and commenting are precisely the least well-suited way to work out the truth.
        eli 17y ago
        For what it's worth, Why actively campaigned at one point to have his wikipedia page deleted. Say what you will, but I'm pretty sure he was genuine in his effort not to be identified or celebrated.
- Keyframe 17y ago
  I don't know why are you downvoting him - HACKERS of all people should understand the nature of challenges - be them called for or not.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - eli 17y ago
    Even if I accept that explanation, posting the information online is no challenge. That's just being a jerk.
  - lil_cain 17y ago
    Not every challenge is meant to be taken up. Respect for people's wishes is important too. It's quite clear that _why didn't want people to know who he is. Fair enough, if you wanted to work that out. I don't think you should, but I could understand it. Telling the world? That's trying to wave your E-penis at the cost of one of the ruby world's best contributors.
KVFinn 17y ago
>>What a mean-spirited thing to do to someone who just wanted to stay anonymous. If this is the reason _why decided to pick up and leave, I understand it. If that's why he quit though it's going to have the opposite effect. I doubt more than a handful of people cared to look into _why's identity before today. I've read the guide, watched his talks, and read probably 80% of his blog articles, and I never knew his identity was some kind of secret. But with the disappearance it's now on everyone's mind. There's a name for this effect but I can't think of it. It often comes up when somebody sues somebody else to remove some bit of information. The suit becomes a news story, and suddenly where 10 people might have known the information, the info is on the daily news as they cover the suit.
- projecktzero 17y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striesand_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striesand_effect
- gjm11 17y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect .
- cpach 17y ago
  That would be the Streisand effect: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Streisand_effect https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Streisand_eff...
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- ekyuri 17y ago
  >>But with the disappearance it's now on everyone's mind. Yeah I totally agree with you!!
apotheon 17y ago
I don't think it was mean-spirited. I do, however, think it's a crying shame.

mosburger 17y ago

Something doesn't seem right about that detective work - there's a Jonathan Gillette online who is a web developer in Harrisburg, PA who doesn't seem to be _why. Obviously it's likely that there's more than one Jonathan Gillette on the internet, but it seems odd to me that this other guy is also a web developer, with a decent online presence, in (somewhat) the same geographic area where _why is suspected to live, that isn't him. But I don't know enough about e-mail headers to provide an alternate explanation if there is one. EDIT: This is that other guy's site, FWIW: http://jonathangillette.net/ http://jonathangillette.net/ And he's on twitter: http://twitter.com/jgillette http://twitter.com/jgillette EDIT 2: The infamous Zed Shaw posted a link to another page which I'm more inclined to believe is the real _why. I'm not going to post the link here, but you can find it in Zed's twitter stream if you really want to.

burke 17y ago
That Jonathan Gillette was also going to school in Pennsylvania (http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangillette http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangillette) when _why wrote that message, supposedly from Salt Lake City, Utah.
- mosburger 17y ago
  Nice find - you're a more thorough detective/stalker than I. :)
  - burke 17y ago
    Yet more detective work: http://javuh.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/javuh/javuh/Model/Psychoo/Object.inc?view=log&pathrev=MAIN http://javuh.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/javuh/javuh/Model/Ps... He seems to have been working on the same file, in the same day, as Jonathan Gillette. Probably poking around this repository a little more could lead to an almost-definitive answer. Also, here: http://javuh.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/javuh/javuh/Services/Unified/Common.inc?view=markup http://javuh.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/javuh/javuh/Services... the @author is listed as: 11 * @author Why Carlisle (whytheluckystiff@mailcity.com) EDIT: Still going.... He talks about a 14-year-old sister here: http://www.advogato.org/person/whytheluckystiff/diary/14.html http://www.advogato.org/person/whytheluckystiff/diary/14.htm... This being written in 2001, that would make her ~21 now. Searching for Jonathan Gillette, http://www.intelius.com/search-summary-out.php?ReportType=1&qf=jonathan&qmi=&qn=Gillette&qs=UT&trackit=74&focusfirst=1 http://www.intelius.com/search-summary-out.php?ReportType=1&... a few relatives are listed, presumably one of which would be his sister, however, none are in the right age range. Right, back to work now, I promise.

petercooper 17y ago

I'm sure someone in the know told me his real name a couple years back (he wrote the foreword to my book) and it certainly wasn't Jonathan Gillette. Of course, he might have changed him name again.. :)

lylejohnson 17y ago
Ditto. Unless _why goes by multiple names in real life (which I suppose is possible), that's not him.
- maurycy 17y ago
  It is possible that Jonathan Gillette and _why worked in the same company, and _why used Jonathan's computer, or so.
  - petercooper 17y ago
    To update, I've received a few anonymous e-mails with significant proof that the Jonathan Gillette theory is sound (though I won't go far as to say it's 100% certain).
jvdh 17y ago
This might also be the reason that _why just upped an ran. Staying anonymous is one thing, but letting someone else take the hit for you is quite another. disclaimer: I don't know how long the blog has been trying to figure out who _why is.

jpeterson 17y ago

Nope, whoever created this site was trolled.

UncleOxidant 17y ago

but that was over a month ago, why would he wait that long?

blasdel 17y ago

misuba on HN said his first name is Michael: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=683061 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=683061

scorpion032 17y ago

Ok, Now, who did this?

infodig 17y ago

I am posting this because I feel it is worthwhile information. It is within _why's rights to yank his sites off the Internet at a moments notice. I will not begrudge him that. However, I do think when people come to rely on your tools and software you should at least respect that people rely on you, if informally. Also, I think that, since he was hosting a lot of other sites on hobix, not just his personal stuff something could actually be wrong. So I am sharing this information. Please be responsible. I dug up a Kylie Gillette who is the owner of snapd.net, Snapdragon Jewelry. A quick whois on that domain: Registrant: Layered Technologies TheLuckyStiff Why 1647 Witt Rd. Ste. # 20 Frisco, TX 75034 US +1.9723987998 86a756e735644786cd09875d0acb61365fb02f36@whois.gkg.net So there is also this: http://www.assessor.slco.org/test/cfml/Query/valuationInfo.cfm?Parcel_id=28073270440000&nbhd=962&PA=1 http://www.assessor.slco.org/test/cfml/Query/valuationInfo.c... What are the chances that a Jonathan Gillette hosting a website for Kylie Gillette who posted to a ruby mailing list as _why and Jonathan Gillette in 02 and 03 are different people? If something is wrong or something has happened to him IRL people would rest a little easier knowing what is going on.

sabat 17y ago

http://www.manta.com/company/mmntyj8 http://www.manta.com/company/mmntyj8