
Ask HN: Anyone know where Mark Pilgrim went? - rileywatkins
I went back to diveintohtml5.org to find something today, and it's gone. Then I checked diveintomark.org, diveintopython3.org, twitter.com/diveintomark...<p>Is Mark Pilgrim pulling a disappearing act?
======
jdnier
So check this out: Google "http error code 410" and the second hit is from
diveintomark.org circa 2003.

""" Let’s all talk about HTTP error code 410. ... Error 410 means Resource
gone, as in, a resource used to exist at this location, but now it’s gone. Not
only is it gone, but I don’t know (or I don’t want to tell you) where it went.
... Now, there is not a lot of information about error 410... I suppose
because it addresses a condition that doesn’t come up very often. Also, we’ve
all been brainwashed into believing that all resources should be permanent,
which simply isn’t true. """ Google cache: <http://bit.ly/qxdBi5>

His servers are returning 410 errors but also the same very deliberate HTML:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN"> <html><head> <title>410
Gone</title> </head><body> <h1>Gone</h1> <p>The requested resource<br />/<br
/> is no longer available on this server and there is no forwarding address.
Please remove all references to this resource.</p> </body></html>

Clearly Mark's invocation of the 410 error is deliberate.

~~~
shareme
surprising how many people did not notice its 410 not another http code..

------
samuel
He's OK. I don't know how to link a tweet but see textfiles
account(<https://twitter.com/#!/textfiles>)

Mark Pilgrim is alive/annoyed we called the police. Please stand down and give
the man privacy and space, and thanks everyone for caring. ... The
communication was specifically verified, it was him, and that's that. That was
the single hardest decision I've had to make this year.

~~~
jerrya
Mark is annoyed? How about Mark is goddamn lucky and should be both
embarrassed and grateful that he's enough of a character that a chunk of the
internet cares about him.

Mark is annoyed?

It is Mark Pilgrim's right to disappear, but to disappear in a puff of greasy
black smoke and 4̶0̶4̶s̶ 410s is just attention whoring and begging people to
look for him and call the police.

There is no reason for Mark to be annoyed that some caring people looked for
him. There is every reason for him to count his blessings.

I sincerely wish him the best and hope he recovers from whatever ails him, but
please don't tell me how annoyed he is.

~~~
saurik
He probably/hopefully/certainly also has friends and family that he interacts
with on a day-to-day basis that, were he to actually-really-really disappear,
would care about him and call the police. It is frankly kind of creepy/scary
that a bunch of people he barely knows think it is their place to /call the
police/ if he gets sick of the weird kind of attention you get from that kind
of audience (and frankly reinforces the behavior of wanting to "go 410").

~~~
msbarnett
Jason Scott, the guy whose twitter account that is and the guy who called the
police, evidently knows Mark Pilgrim well enough to verify that he was talking
to Mark because they were discussing a matter "only the two of them knew
about".

That doesn't sound like "creepy Internet people Mark barely knows" to me.

~~~
saurik
Firstly, let me point out that I am responding to jerrya, not Jason Scott
(whom I have also interacted with on a few occasions, and is a friend-of-a-
friend enough that when I heard about this mess I turned to someone else in
the room and asked them about what was up).

"Mark is goddamn lucky and should be both embarrassed and grateful that he's
enough of a character that a chunk of the internet cares about him"

I believe that statement belies a general mentality that I run into
constantly: I myself have "disappeared" a few times, for less than 72 hours,
because I decided to "take a weekend off" (attending a concert, for example),
and I /did not appreciate/ that a ton of people on Twitter seemed to think
that meant that I had "died", and insinuated calling the police to find me.

Regardless, to respond now to your comment regarding Jason: they apparently
aren't close enough for Jason to a) call Mark directly, b) call someone in
Mark's family, c) call any of Mark's friends, or d) have any clue what
happened to Mark other than to "[call] his local PD for a welfare check",
which to me indicates they aren't really close at all.

Seriously: having something "only the two of them knew about" isn't actually
that rare: I've only talked with the man (Jason) a couple times, and yet I bet
I could pass that test as well.

~~~
Tichy
Well if you disappeared for a serious reason, maybe you would appreciate
people caring. Other than that, just tweet "taking a weekend off".

~~~
areyoujoking
oh right, because we're all married to the internet, and therefore should
check in with them whenever we step out for a minute.

Seriously, take a step back and re-read what you just said.

~~~
Tichy
It seems the person in question is married enough to the internet for others
to notice if he goes silent for two days.

~~~
saurik
I think a key issue here is: it isn't any of their business. I did not promise
I would be around 24 hours a day, and they have no introspection into my life
to know when something is normal behavior or not.

There are tons of people who do, though: my girlfriend, the people I hang out
with at my office every day, and even a few "long term allies" (as it were)
I've come to know only online (and talk with on IRC). Some (in fact, many) of
these people even have access to my exact location at all times via Latitude.

But the people I meet at conferences, the people who follow me on Twitter, or
even the people who lurk in IRC channels I'm in? It is simply not any of their
business where I am or what I am doing, and it is absolutely silly for them to
expect me to tell them how long I'm going to be gone.

------
mbrubeck
This isn't totally unprecedented.

In October 2004, Mark stopped blogging after a post titled "Every Exit" which
read: "It’s time for me to find a new hobby. Preferably one that doesn’t
involve angle brackets. Or computers. Or electricity." [1] That post sat at
the top of his previously very active weblog for 18 months until he returned
in April 2006. Of course, that time he only stopped posting new material; he
didn't delete all his existing resources. But he did disappear from online
life for a while.

[1]:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Mqb93dp...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Mqb93dpyOtgJ:diveintomark.org/archives/2004/10/18/exit+mark+pilgrim+new+hobby&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a)

------
chr15
Looks like one of his last tweets:

 _Hey everybody! Adobe has acquired another batch of awesome products that
they will slowly ruin through incompetence and mismanagement!_

From
[http://topsy.com/twitter.com/diveintomark/status/12091889959...](http://topsy.com/twitter.com/diveintomark/status/120918899599474688)

~~~
thefreehunter
The Adobe cartel has kidnapped him!

~~~
bish3al
Oh no! Dude I'm scared... He taught me Python #sadface

------
unreal37
Apparently it has been verified he is alive.

<http://twitter.com/#!/textfiles/status/121436177298493440>

@textfiles (Jason Scott) Mark Pilgrim is alive/annoyed we called the police.
Please stand down and give the man privacy and space, and thanks everyone for
caring.

@textfiles (Jason Scott) The communication was specifically verified, it was
him, and that's that. That was the single hardest decision I've had to make
this year.

------
dangoor
Good question

[http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2011/10/04/searching-
for-m...](http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2011/10/04/searching-for-mark-
pilgrim/)

------
kenneth_reitz
His GitHub projects have been mirrored: <https://github.com/diveintomark/>

Dive Into Python 3: <http://diveintopython3.ep.io/> GitHub:
<https://github.com/diveintomark/diveintopython3>

Dive Into HTML5: <http://diveintohtml5.ep.io/> GitHub:
<https://github.com/diveintomark/diveintohtml5>

------
rdhyee
I'd definitely like to know what happened to Mark Pilgrim and hope he is well.
It's still reassuring to know that his websites are still archived by the
Internet Archive. (e.g.,
[http://web.archive.org/web/20110726001953/http://diveintohtm...](http://web.archive.org/web/20110726001953/http://diveintohtml5.org/))

------
Bo102010
His github account is gone as well (<http://github.com/diveintomark>).

This is troubling. I'm glad I downloaded Dive Into Python 3, at least.

~~~
patrickaljord
His G+ account is gone too
<https://plus.google.com/111966606387715428604/posts>

~~~
jsdalton
Reddit account deleted too:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f545e/i_am_a_fourtime_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/f545e/i_am_a_fourtime_published_author_i_write_free/)

~~~
libria
His python RSS parser, <http://www.feedparser.org/> website is down, too.

------
andyfleming
"Stand down Mark Pilgrim alert. Google, his employer, is on it. Thank you all.
Hoping for “he’s just pissed off at Internet” as outcome."

Source: <http://twitter.com/#!/GlennF/status/121434638282530816>

------
solutionyogi
That's a really sad news.

He hasn't deleted his Hacker News Account yet. He last commented 27 days ago.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=MarkPilgrim>

[I loved his blog and I wish someone has archive for it. I did not archive it
locally because Mark used to write articles about long term archival of his
data and I didn't think he would ever delete all his public writings.]

~~~
naner
_He hasn't deleted his Hacker News Account yet._

I don't believe you can delete an HN account.

~~~
scq
I think you can email pg to delete your account.

~~~
ansy
PG does not typically delete accounts; he just disables the login. All of the
comments and submissions are still there under the original name.

~~~
irrumator
The poor man's HN account delete: change email, change pass to random
gibberish, logout.

You're free.

Until the next account.

~~~
cynest
That's not necessarily the point. The most important use of a delete account
functionality is to protect one's own privacy should you not want to be
personally connected to statements you made anonymously.

~~~
irrumator
That's the great thing about the internet and pseudonyms :)

------
robbiet480
Jason Scott of textfiles.org has called his local police department for a
welfare check...

<https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/121430050930298880>

~~~
jerf
<https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/121436177298493440> : "Mark Pilgrim is
alive/annoyed we called the police. Please stand down and give the man privacy
and space, and thanks everyone for caring."

------
wooswiff
As pointed out by user mikelietz on Eric Meyer's site,
<http://firehose.diveintomark.org/> is still up.

~~~
inportb
Mirrored!

<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1213413/markpilgrim.htm>

<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1213413/markpilgrim.xml>

------
adriand
I really hope Mark is okay, and I'm really going to miss Dive Into HTML5. That
resource had a truly unique writing style, featured a great design, and was an
a absolute treasure trove of valuable information. I was literally on the site
just yesterday, reading up on local storage.

~~~
loire280
His contributions to the community were released under liberal licenses and
will undoubtedly be widely available tomorrow. Heck, you can `apt-get install
diveintopython` on an Ubuntu system. However, a lot of links just got broken
across the internet - and his books are popular entry points for novices.
Hopefully when whatever is going on in his life cools down, he can transfer
the domain names to a responsible custodian.

------
andyfleming
"Mark Pilgrim is alive/annoyed we called the police. Please stand down and
give the man privacy and space, and thanks everyone for caring."

Source: <http://twitter.com/#!/textfiles/status/121436177298493440>

------
WALoeIII
_why 2.0.

------
esigler
Similar (though not as extreme) behavior has occurred in the past:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20110726001259/http://diveintomar...](http://web.archive.org/web/20110726001259/http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/10/18/exit)

------
itsnotvalid
Perhaps he read this

[http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/30/the-upside-of-
quittin...](http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/30/the-upside-of-quitting-
full-transcript/)

(discussion at: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3071854> )

------
pingswept
There's a precedent for this. He disappeared from his blog for a while in
2004. Check the Google cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:diveint...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:diveintomark.org/archives/2004/10/18/exit)

------
kyleslattery
<http://diveintohtml5.com/> seems to still be working

~~~
loire280
The domain for that site is owned by a Chinese university, and the IP address
of the server it's hosted on looks like a shared server (there's over 200
sites hosted on that IP). I doubt Mark has anything to do with hosting that
site.

~~~
someone13
Out of sheer curiosity - how do you tell how many sites (and which ones) are
hosted on a shared server?

~~~
bravura
<http://spyonweb.com/>

    
    
      or
    

<http://w3who.net/>

They are not always 100% complete, but they are free and have good coverage.

For example, did you know that ycombinator.com also hosts workatastartup.org?
<http://spyonweb.com/ycombinator.com>

------
artursapek
Holy shit, I was just using "Dive Into HTML5" at a hackathon this weekend. It
helped a ton, I loved the way that site was designed. This is eery.

------
nostromo
> Is Mark Pilgrim pulling a disappearing act?

Shouldn't we respect his wishes? If he wants to pull the plug on his online
identity, he should be allowed to do so without HN sending out an internet
search squad.

~~~
scott_s
He expressed no wishes. I think that at this point, people just want to know
what happened. That requires doing things like this.

------
tuna
10/4 - never forget. the gayest day on the interwebs. everyone acting like old
ladies towards a grown man. [eagle_cries]

------
sudonim
Maybe he and _why are in Galt's Gulch? (Any Atlas Shrugged fans?)

~~~
DanI-S
I can't imagine _why being an objectivist...

~~~
jinfiesto
Lol, seconded.

------
shareme
Respect his wishes, even his google accounts/profiles gone..

As far as I know he is still working at Google

~~~
8ig8
The problem is that there are no wishes to respect. I think everyone mainly
just wants to know he is okay. If he is and he wants space, I'm sure he'll get
it.

~~~
alnayyir
I think Zed lucky-stiff'd him.

Which is the proper punitive measure for anybody that actually teaches the
usage of JDBC.

------
alnayyir
He's making recompense for making JDBC part of the first exercise in a Python
book.

He'll return from the self-flagellation in two years after some time spent at
a monastery.

I fully expect his enlightenment will bring much into the world of
programming.

~~~
lazugod
You are being needlessly insulting to someone who could be in serious trouble.

