Well, what did he think was going to happen? "I'm just going to 410 Gone some of the most useful pages on the Internet and all my social media accounts without saying anything about why. Ho hum. Surely there will be no consequences to this whatsoever."
Let him be annoyed. In the meantime, I'm going to be annoyed that he's pulled his content. Surely this violates some implicit social norms and the trust of the Internet community. "Here is some useful content which will educate and inform the world! Come, refer to it and rely on it. HAHAHAHA 410'd!"
I'm sure both of our Being Annoyed's will be very productive. [/snark]
Pardon my pontification/speculation, but I wonder if _why and Mark's disappearance is a symptom of a larger disease — programming just isn't as rewarding once a hacker goes public.
As much as I love _why, and Mark, it looks to be more of an exception than the rule. _Many_ hackers are comfortable with being 'public', each with their own quirks. Off the top of my head, DHH, Ryan Dahl, Zed Shaw, etc.
Just as a reminder, this is the guy that refuses to update Dive into Python because he feels that things older than five years or so should never be touched again, even if they've got glaring errors that should be fixed.
Let him be annoyed. In the meantime, I'm going to be annoyed that he's pulled his content. Surely this violates some implicit social norms and the trust of the Internet community. "Here is some useful content which will educate and inform the world! Come, refer to it and rely on it. HAHAHAHA 410'd!"
I'm sure both of our Being Annoyed's will be very productive. [/snark]