
Let's black bar HN - flocial
Even though he may not be as notable as some of the others, Aaron Swartz's legacy is a very big part of HN in every way.
======
pajju
Aaron Swartz's presence in various networks:

In HN: <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw>

Pinboard: <https://pinboard.in/u:aaronsw>

His last tweet was on Jan 9th, <https://twitter.com/aaronsw>

In reddit: <https://aaronsw.jottit.com/reddit>

Google Scholar: <http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PGTlB14AAAAJ>

Writings: <https://aaronsw.jottit.com/writings>

\----------------------------------------------

Things he has made

<https://www.jottit.com/>

<http://openlibrary.org/>

<http://watchdog.net/>

<http://reddit.com/>

<http://webpy.org/>

HN will miss your contributions. Rest in Peace. Love.

~~~
mej10
Less Wrong: <http://lesswrong.com/user/aaronsw/overview/>

------
Tichy
I must admit I find this and other variations of "let's use the death of a
person to force other people to do things" very offensive.

Black out your own web site. Mourning is a personal thing. If PG decides he
wants to black bar HN, he will do it. If not, he won't. What's it to you?

~~~
pbateman
Calling a gentle suggestion from the HN community to make a minor change to
mourn one of our members "very offensive" is a bizarre overreaction.

~~~
Tichy
Sure, as long as it's gentle. I just don't want a discussion on why it is
wrong to not make the bar black or what not. And as I said, I see this in a
long tradition of making people do stuff because somebody died, which I don't
like. It's all peachy as long as people comply, but if they don't, suddenly
they might be labeled as cold hearted, sociopathic or whatever. Why not just
let it be an individual thing?

As somebody else pointed out, PG is probably still asleep and will probably
black the bar anyway. I don't think he needs a reminder. Also, I know nothing
about his personal feelings towards Aaron.

~~~
pbateman
1) It pretty obviously is gentle. In the _most extreme scenario_ pg is bullied
into briefly making a minor change to the CSS.

2) HN is a community site, which exists and thrives largely because of the
community. I can't see anything wrong with members of said community making
suggestions on occasion, particularly on occasions like this.

3) People are far too quick to take offence these days, particularly on the
internet. IMHO the world would be a better place if these people were
instructed to get over it rather than pandered to.

4) Finally PG is free to say no and I for one will not judge him ill for it.

~~~
Tichy
I didn't take offense in the sense of "if you do this I'll find you and beat
you up". It was just my lack of English skills. What I mean is I don't like
it. Obviously nobody will notice if I join in demonstrative mourning or not
over the internet, so no real harm is done. I also don't mind a black bar on
HN - I find this event very sad myself.

------
rdl
Any relative lack of notability vs. the others HN has black-barred was because
he died so young.

Think of all the things he likely would have done over the next 60 years if he
slowed down even 50%.

~~~
corresation
This is a pretty intelligent bunch so I hope there is rationale in discussing
it honestly, but do you really think so? What had Aaron done lately?

I only raise the question because you say the opposite, and in such situations
the absolutely _worst_ thing the community can do is canonize someone,
exaggerating their accomplishments and raising their words above actual merit
(the front-page is full of his old entries now. Why?)

I suspect that Aaron's curse -- the thing that made a very privileged Western
existence "too painful" as others have said -- is that he peaked so early. He
did the right things at the right times with the right people, and while he
was clearly a very bright individual, I think that ended up becoming baggage
that dragged him down, every future effort unlikely to ever shine as bright.

~~~
homosaur
Well there's some nice 10 cent psychology, but I'd have to guess that the
stress of dealing with government persecution for the last few years probably
had a strong effect on his mental state. However, I sure as hell don't know
that and you don't either. I see most of what you said as judgemental pop
psych bullshit, but maybe I'm misinterpreting your intention so I don't want
to turn this into a flame. It doesn't take a lifetime of anguish to commit
suicide, you just need to back yourself into that mental corner where you
become convinced your problems are overwhelming. I think you should be more
compassionate.

~~~
corresation
How is my response in any way not compassionate? Is this the period where we
all go under the cloud of delusion to show "compassion"? HN is FAR above that:
this is not people.com.

Judgmental pop psychology? Hardly.

------
ashraful
I'm sure the black bar isn't there because PG happens to be asleep. Its
unfortunate that he'll wake up to such bad news.

~~~
lispython
You don't have to wait PG to wake up, I already set my "topcolor" to black.

~~~
jbrooksuk
I believe you can only do that if you have a certain karma level. I for one,
don't :(

------
ig1
I imagine it'll get black barred in the morning (california time). Apart from
everything else Aaron Schwartz was also a YC alumni from YC's very first class
in summer 2005.

~~~
OafTobark
Does anyone know the full background story on this? Every time I hear the
story, it was mostly Alexis and Steve including the retelling of how they
pitched PG. Where did Aaron fit in and how does that story go?

~~~
p4bl0
There are more than one version of this story. Aaron's version is there:
<https://aaronsw.jottit.com/reddit>, here is Alexis' version:
<https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AlexisOhanian/posts/HJz9Vd58Wtb> and here is
what Wikipedia says: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit#History>.

------
Techasura
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw> Aaron will be remembered for
ever.

~~~
brador
It would be nice if an online site existed where we could dump all a persons
writings, images and video for anyone to view at a later date. Really get a
feel for what the guy was all about.

Like a wiki-style crowd sourced memorial site.

~~~
rdl
1000memories ([http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/life-
everlasting...](http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/life-
everlasting-1000memories-126082)) used to do that, but I think they pivoted
somewhat into lifetime photo archives.

------
exodust
His tweets don't seem suicidal. In other words no sign of stress, isolation,
fatigue, burn-out. Mentally unfit people on the edge aren't usually writing
about re-booting democracy and the importance of future peer-to-peer research.
Concern for the future, holding politicians accountable, even warning
politicians about their replacement! That is bold. So the bold activist kills
himself. Something seems odd about this, but I guess it was suicide if they
say it was. Meanwhile I'll keep reading his stuff.

------
esalman
In fact this is the first time after Steve Jobs that the front page is so
dominated by one person.

------
donretag
Very sad to see someone so young end their own life. To me it does not sound
like his current legal situation was the reason so, but it was his overall
mental state.

But I must admit, I never heard of this guy. Not once. I have never used
reddit and skip over all the non-technical/startupy articles here on HN.

------
playhard
Thanks PG for doing this

------
philhippus
It's up to the HN owners what colour scheme they put on their website and why.
I don't mean to sound callous at all, but if HN black barred every deserving
death, it would be a permanent black bar. I had never heard of Aaron Swartz
until he is now dead. Why can't we honour the living?

------
FredericJ
Can't agree more.

------
baritalia
I, for one, don't care. It was his personal decision to end it this way.

Also I'd like to know how many of you will think of his 'legacy' on a daily
basis in 6 months time.

~~~
mikedmiked
> I, for one, don't care

Goddamnit, have some sensitivity, he only just died and many people on here
know him personally.

If this is a troll then why don't you go reevaluate your priorities in life?
Take some magic mushrooms and think about how your actions alter the world.

