[camccann]

A few people did some internet stalking back when he first disappeared and tracked down some of his real-life friends and family. Creepy, yes, but also enough to determine that the man behind the pseudonym is alive and well.

And, since one of the suspected reasons for why he chose to disappear as he did was "people prying into his real-life non-_why identity", it's probably best if we leave it at that.

[octover]

I know I'm not alone in knowing the real _why, knowing that he was okay, passing that message on and I trying to stop the stalking/detective work. While I'm not sure he wanted people who know him to do so, I think it was the lesser of two evils to tracking down everyone who might know him and exposing them and bothering them.

[iamwil]

Too bad it's not like the Dread Pirate Roberts. I wonder if any of the students of the wandering professor will take up his name in the future.

[steveklabnik]

As someone who's picking up one of _why's projects, I know I'm deathly afraid of someone thinking I was trying to replace such a legend. So I certainly wouldn't, as cool as I think the 'wandering professor' title was...

[eli]

Wow, what kind of jerk would call up his family when it's painfully obvious that that was exactly the sort of thing he was trying to get away from?

[1gor]

Actually, when a person has touched lives of so many people in a very good and profound way, he cannot escape a bit of attention back. The enquiry "are you ok?" is human and not evil.

[eli]

I understand the impulse, but stalking _why's family has much more to do with selfish, lurid curiosity than any legitimate concern for _why's safety.

[unalone]

Stalking _why online doesn't turn into Internet stalking. If I hunt a guy down in real life, but all I do with his family is talk to them and see if he was okay, I'm not stalking them. I'm just contacting them.

[randallsquared]

It was only painfully obvious after someone had done the detective work to verify that he hadn't suddenly died in real life. Obvious in retrospect is easy...

[eli]

It's rather poetic to think that when you die in real life, all your digital work vanishes too. But were there people who really thought that's what happened?

I hadn't heard about this detective work until just now, but there was never a great mystery in my mind. Not to be a jerk, but I think it was obvious at the time that this was just a person who really valued his privacy.

[camccann]

At times, _why projected an image of the "troubled artist" archetype--either "real" or part of the _why persona, no one knew--and if memory serves me he'd had a couple disappointments recently and left some downbeat tweets.

So, while I can't speak for randallsquared, at least some of the people wanting to know if he'd "suddenly died" or some such were just being too tactful to say that they were afraid he might have committed suicide--in which case the deleting all his online stuff would have been completely plausible.

[randallsquared]

Indeed, I thought suicide was implied. Not so much tact, as it just didn't occur to me that it needed spelling out.

[camccann]

I don't know if direct contact was made, but they were definitely aware that the internet private eye squad had found their online presences. Names and locations were also found.

Like I said, it was kinda creepy. I wouldn't even have been reading about it but... well, I wanted to know if _why was okay. And yes, I realize that even if I didn't actively participate, watching others do it doesn't necessarily make me blameless.

Make of that what you will, but I do encourage everyone to not pursue the matter further. He's fine, don't worry about that, let's show him some respect.

[FooBarWidget]

There are better ways to get away from people contacting him. Like, you know, actually telling people that you want to get away from them before shutting everything down.

[eli]

Honestly, I bet if he had left a note, people still would have tried to track him down and find out "what really happened."

[Legion]

Probably, but I think the overall zeal would have been much less intense.