Why, oh why, _why?

[Karl von Laudermann]

_why the lucky stiff appears to have disappeared from the internets!
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/08/20/resig-why

 

[Bill Kelly]

_why the lucky stiff appears to have disappeared from the internets!
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/08/20/resig-why

Wow. Hope he's OK.

One comment on the page above did give me a good laugh:

"He changed his name to _when and is working on perl 6."






Regards,

Bill

 

[Phrogz]

_why the lucky stiff appears to have disappeared from the internets!http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/08/20/resig-why

Among the terrible consequences of this, one of the lesser but still
notable is that someone with the power needs to edit ruby-lang.org to
remove the link to tryruby.hobix.com

 

[Fabian Streitel]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

wow, how sad. that just ruined my day. he really was an idol to me.
he's one of the main reasons I even tried ruby in the first place.
I just love everything he did...

Sure hope he's still out there and coming back some day...

 

[James Britt]

Among the terrible consequences of this, one of the lesser but still
notable is that someone with the power needs to edit ruby-lang.org to
remove the link to tryruby.hobix.com

Done.


James

 

[Bill Kelly]

wow, how sad. that just ruined my day. he really was an idol to me.
he's one of the main reasons I even tried ruby in the first place.
I just love everything he did...

Yes. _why's poignant guide and tryruby.hobix.com instantly
became two of the most awesome resources for introducing
friends and acquaintances to ruby.

The idea that they might truly be gone has not sunk in.

Sure hope he's still out there and coming back some day...

me2

/me watches "The Least Surprised - Time dot now"

(had it on my hard drive since 2005, hope it's OK that
I uploaded it)

http://cila-search.net/~billk/ruby/_why/The Least Surprised - Time dot now.avi



<3

Bill

 

[Ralf Mueller]

_why the lucky stiff appears to have disappeared from the internets!
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/08/20/resig-why

sometimes hard to accept, but: people come and people go.

no doubt, his work is outstanding. And this will last - no matter, if he
had stopped or will come back in the future.
But making a super hero out of a normal person and all the other
personality cult stuff seems to be a bad thing to me.

I hope, it was his free decision.

Things like that can always happen, even matz could simple start doing
totally different things right now ('Gone fishing...').
Reminds me of Guy Decoux.

Anyway, time to work harder, eh?

 

[Gregory Brown]

Things like that can always happen, even matz could simple start doing
totally different things right now ('Gone fishing...').
Reminds me of Guy Decoux.

Not sure if you are aware, but _why intentionally destroyed all his
work before leaving. That's not consistent with "people come and
go". I don't plan to set fire to my apartment when I move out....

-greg

 

[Michal Suchanek]

Not sure if you are aware, but _why intentionally destroyed all his
work before leaving. =C2=A0 That's not consistent with "people come and
go". =C2=A0I don't plan to set fire to my apartment when I move out....

Still it is completely your decision if you pack up your stuff and
take it with you, leave it in the apartment or throw it away. The
distinction between pack up your stuff and set your apartment on fire
is not so clear in the digital world.

Sure, taking down everything at once is somewhat odd but it's exactly
the somewhat odd side of _why's work which is so inspiring. And even
if his site is no longer around many have seen it and it has
undoubtedly somewhat changed their perception of ruby the language,
programming in general, the life and everything.

Thanks

Michal

 

[Ralf Mueller]

Not sure if you are aware, but _why intentionally destroyed all his
work before leaving. That's not consistent with "people come and
go". I don't plan to set fire to my apartment when I move out....

-greg

Yes, I know. And I'd rather see his work in some others hands than put
out of the community.
But I consider it as his prefered way to 'go'. After all, it's HIS work,
and he took that decisioin.

 

[Gregory Brown]

Yes, I know. And I'd rather see his work in some others hands than put ou= t
of the community.
But I consider it as his prefered way to 'go'. After all, it's HIS work, = and
he took that decisioin.

This is all true. I'm just saying that this didn't happen with Guy
Decoux, and I can hedge my bets that it won't happen with Matz. So I
think those are bad examples.

 

[Gregory Brown]

Still it is completely your decision if you pack up your stuff and
take it with you, leave it in the apartment or throw it away. The
distinction between pack up your stuff and set your apartment on fire
is not so clear in the digital world.

Sure, taking down everything at once is somewhat odd but it's exactly
the somewhat odd side of _why's work which is so inspiring. And even
if his site is no longer around many have seen it and it has
undoubtedly somewhat changed their perception of ruby the language,
programming in general, the life and everything.

Yeah, I just wasn't sure if the OP was aware of what happened given
what he had said about 'this is just something that can happen when
people come and go'.
I used the example of setting the apartment on fire because it's
violent, and it affects other people, not just me. That's closer to
what happened with _why.

The upside of course is unlike my apartment, _why's code can (and has
been) forked and mirrored:
http://whymirror.github.com/

 

[Ralf Mueller]

This is all true. I'm just saying that this didn't happen with Guy
Decoux, and I can hedge my bets that it won't happen with Matz. So I
think those are bad examples.

Sorry, I didn't meant Guy Decoux to be seen as a direct example.
As far as I know, he was killed in an accident. But he was important
member of the ruby community, too.
regarding matz or any one of us: Things happen, and often enough we do
not pull the strings.
So don't be too sure.
I personally think, it should drive our dedication.

 

[Sander Land]

Sad, and somewhat puzzling he didn't just allow people to say goodbye
before leaving or something.

Apparently his youtube channel is still online:
http://www.youtube.com/user/whytheluckystiff

And Ruby Inside has a list of all the stuff that's still there, or
mirrored in some way:
http://www.rubyinside.com/why-the-lucky-stiff-links-2333.html

 

[Rick DeNatale]

Not sure if you are aware, but _why intentionally destroyed all his
work before leaving. =A0 That's not consistent with "people come and
go". =A0I don't plan to set fire to my apartment when I move out....

Well, one theory, and most likely?, is that he did it intentionally,
another is that he was hacked somehow. AFAIK, the jury is still out
on that.

He's probably still out there and may come back, but no matter what, I
suspect we'll never know _why!

--=20
Rick DeNatale

Blog: http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale
WWR: http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale

 

[Martin DeMello]

Well, one theory, and most likely?, is that he did it intentionally,
another is that he was hacked somehow. =A0AFAIK, the jury is still out
on that.

He's probably still out there and may come back, but no matter what, I
suspect we'll never know _why!

Nothing on the shoes mailing list either. (Actually, I wonder if he
took the server for that down)

martin

 

[Gregory Brown]

Well, one theory, and most likely?, is that he did it intentionally,
another is that he was hacked somehow. =A0AFAIK, the jury is still out
on that.

Do you really think there is a remote possibility that he was hacked
at this point? I thought so too at first, but I doubt it now.

-greg

 

[James Edward Gray II]

Done.

I went ahead and pulled all three of his links on the documentation
page as well.

James Edward Gray II

 

[Jason Roelofs]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

Do you really think there is a remote possibility that he was hacked
at this point? I thought so too at first, but I doubt it now.

-greg

It's definitely too late now, or we would have heard if he got hacked. He
closed up shop and destroyed almost a decade's worth of Ruby information,
discussions, library documentation, ticket history, etc. I agree with Zed on
this one, that was a dick move. People use and rely on the tools he's built,
have contributed back to them, and have helped with the documentation. He
didn't just destroy his work, he destroyed the work of hundreds, maybe
thousands, of people who wanted to contribute to Open Source.

I had tons of respect for _why and always marveled at his capabilities
(while wondering when, if ever, he'd burn out, of course). But after this,
well it's going to be hard to take him seriously if he ever shows up again,
in Ruby or some other community.

Huge props go out to github, at least we didn't lose any of the source code,
history, etc, and to Rubyforge for not allowing people to delete their
accounts.

Jason

 

[Rick DeNatale]

Do you really think there is a remote possibility that he was hacked
at this point? =A0I thought so too at first, but I doubt it now.

Or maybe the server(s) (is|are) at home and he forgot to pay the electric b=
ill!

Of course there's the matter of closing twitter and other accounts.

Like I said it's impossible to understand _why.

--=20
Rick DeNatale

Blog: http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale
WWR: http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale