The news and eulogies are all over the net, so I don't see how denying him a black bar would prevent possible copycat suicides.
The stigmatization against suicides as something dishonorable has to end. He was a great hacker and distinguished activist, and through I don't know him personally, I'm pretty sure he was a great guy overall. He deserves a black bar.
He died from depression. Others die from other diseases, car accidents, smoking, drugs, heart attacks, strokes and what not.
We have to be careful with the way we talk about people who died by suicide.
We have to be careful because copycat suicide is real, and we do not want to cause it. Yes, other sites are being irresponsible with their reportage. HN is not other sites.
This has nothing to do with continuing the stigma against suicide or suicidal thinking.
I agree that we should be careful about glorifying suicide, but if you want to minimize suicides, you have to raise awareness about depression among those affected by it and the people close to them, not tabooing it.
If the affected accepts professional help, it's curable. Too many don't, because they are completely oblivious of their medical nature of their condition, because of the fear of being stigmatized, or because they are literally not able to muster the strength to go to the nearest clinic. It's of utter importance that the they, or the people close to them recognize the situation and take the necessary steps, instead of berating them for being lazy, restless or whiny and giving them lectures about how good they have it.
Has it been established that black barring HN would cause copycat suicides? Maybe the amount of attention Aaron is getting on HN (top stories all about him) is sufficient cause for copycat suicides. Should we all stop upvoting stories for fear that it might cause copycat suicides? Should we stop discussing the subject altogether? I think discussing it is very healthy for the community since we might be able to draw conclusions about what we could do better to help those in the same boat.
> The stigmatization against suicides as something dishonorable has to end.
I agree completely. Someone who has hope does not commit suicide, black bar or not. Perhaps we, as a society, should work towards a world that will not leave anyone without hope.
Is Aaron's death any less regrettable because it was a suicide rather than a car accident? I don't think so. The black bar signifies sadness for the loss of someone, it's not a political statement. I, for one, would like HN to be black barred for Aaron simply because the world is a worse place without him in it.
In that vain of thought, one could argue that many actions should not be done because of possible, unintended, consequences. Perhaps some software should not be written? Perhaps even code you wrote will have unintended consequences? Where does this line of thought stop?
