Where's Ryan Dahl?

iloveponies · on Dec 8, 2012

Ryan caused a lot of drama not so long ago saying some things that escalated into quite a lot of people flaming him on Twitter - I'm unsure if this is why he's abandoned the other websites as well.

olegp · on Dec 8, 2012

All I could find was this: http://shitryandahlsays.tumblr.com/

I don't see the problem with him saying what he thinks; heck I agree with most of his points.

rdtsc · on Dec 8, 2012

Some of it is inflammatory and though I don't agree with such treatment I can see why he received it.

One example is this: "Node.js has linear speedup over multiple cores for web servers."

In general it is possible to say crazy and inflammatory things without repercussions only if these 2 things are true: 1) There is already enough dev karma and respect 2) The things you say are true.

Think of Linus. Linus rails on people publicly and is quite insulting. But he has both lots of dev karma and also most stuff he says is true.

Think of average Joe programmer some place on a mailing list. They don't have public dev karma and even if they are right and say true things, if they say it in an insulting way they will face repercussions. Others might point out that he is right but he will still have to handle negative responses coming his way.

Ryan in this case has lots of dev karma (#1) but he messed up (#2), he said things that are wrong and because he put them in a rather insulting tone, this amplified the response.

rymith · on Dec 8, 2012

I'm all for someone talking shit, but you have to be able to stand up to the blowback. I have little respect for someone who talks shit, then gets all bent out of shape that someone is talking shit about him.

bilalhusain · on Dec 8, 2012

The sad part is when this someone doesn't defend and people start ridiculing the argument (instead of just losing the credibility for the person) whereas a defense instead can potentially make them a convert (a radical example can be programming development methodologies) regardless of the sense of the argument; or at least humanize the enemy.

bilalhusain · on Dec 8, 2012

I was baffled with his Clojure comment but hoped it was trolling and flipping off paraparazi until further explanation. But, now I feel sorry for not defending while he was being laughed at.

napoleond · on Dec 8, 2012

Flagged. I understand the curiosity, but as was the case with Mark Pilgrim and __why, it's not right to pry into the private lives of these people.

Obviously, Ryan Dahl no longer maintains a public internet presence--his reasons are his own.

bilalhusain · on Dec 8, 2012

The curiosity is about his well-being, and this hype for possible loss-mitigation by collecting the remains from the erased persona. Also, a reminder to be nice towards fellow programmers. Referencing Paul Buchheit's write up in this context http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.in/2011/08/i-am-nothing.html

zengr · on Dec 8, 2012

One of those heated discussions on HN 4 months back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4306241

cleverjake · on Dec 8, 2012

A few months he was being harassed on twitter and just left the Internet.

jgrahamc · on Dec 8, 2012

What sort of harassment?

bilalhusain · on Dec 8, 2012

A direct attack on a creative soul is quite daunting. I'm talking about stuff like http://shitryandahlsays.tumblr.com/

"Creative people are on the whole fragile beings, and letting each other down gently and quietly was the unwritten rule." - http://www.lindsredding.com/2012/03/11/a-overdue-lesson-in-p...

shelleyp · on Dec 10, 2012

Oh give it a rest.

He didn't 'leave' the internet. He's just taking time away from all the fooflah. You know, not everyone needs to be hooked up to the machine 24x7.

bilalhusain · on Dec 10, 2012

But he deleted his stuff which makes me sad :(

shelleyp · on Dec 10, 2012

It is his stuff. People can do that.

Sometimes people want to do something different,

imsofuture · on Dec 8, 2012

Who cares?

maga · on Dec 8, 2012

I do.