
What's with the black bar? - Grangar
Did someone die?
======
theandrewbailey
Chuck Thacker
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14548030](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14548030)

Worked at Xerox PARC, and project leader on the Alto.

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Grangar
I see, thanks.

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kzisme
Also see:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14549574](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14549574)

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coppolaemilio
[meta] They should add something else to avoid having this question everytime
there is a black bar at the top. It happened to me, it happened to many others
and now to Grangar. Is there a repo where to contribute to HN's code? Maybe an
admin?

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Isamu
I'm not trying to be snippy, but the answer is generally on the front page. Or
you could type "died" into the search box and choose most recent.

Personally I'm glad they resist efforts to "improve" the site. I'm tired of
the slippery slope of fast and information-dense sites becoming slow and
information-sparse. Just my opinion, don't shoot me.

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andai
A thin black bar that occasionally appears with no context is pretty
information-sparse imo.

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hashkb
Look at every other venue for black bars... sports, military, flags at half
mast... they never have a person's name on them. That just isn't how it's
done.

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Grangar
Just making it clickable to link to the relevant post would be enough IMO. I
never knew the black bar principle myself. Assuming knowledge is not the way
to go.

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budu3
There's a long standing tradition on Hacker News to put up the black bar when
a Computer Science/Engineering/Tech pioneer passes away.

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yellowapple
I think the implied follow up question there is " _who_ died?".

The answer is apparently Chuck Thacker.

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kzisme
This is also one of the top posts currently.

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vertex-four
It's currently number 20 - below this post even.

~~~
kzisme
Also for what it's worth:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14549574](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14549574)

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coldtea
Hmm, the black bar could be a link to the person's wikipedia page or
something...

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ocdtrekkie
The suggestion that it be a link or something similar has come up... almost
every single time there's a black bar. Hasn't happened since I've been here,
doubt it's gonna happen anytime soon either.

I just scroll through page one until I see the word "died".

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egwynn
These threads wouldn’t happen if there were enough information carried in the
bar itself (e.g. text, linking, hovering, etc.).

I feel weird that this thread is marked "[flagged]”. I’d read the post about
Chuck’s passing yesterday, noticed the bar today, and _still_ didn’t realize
that’s what it was for. This thread is what answered that question for me.

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Fej
Flag at half-staff.

