[stephth]

Both stories have more than 200 votes and are only a few hours old. Mark Pilgrim doing an info suicide is newsworthy and obviously a lot of people care about it, so can someone explain how and why those stories have been kicked out of the first HN pages?

[andrewljohnson]

I imagine they got flagged to death by reasonable people, or a moderator star-chambered them.

Either way, good riddance. Mark didn't want them there, obviously, and neither did anyone except rubbernecking thrill-chasers.

It was ridiculous to think the guy was in trouble or to send the freaking police to his house. The man has friends, family, and co-workers, and the people who surfaced this story didn't so much care if he was alright (because they weren't his friends) so much as they wanted a few seconds of internet fame for being the first to notice the data wipe.

The story should have been posted as "Lookie, lookie - Mark Pilgrim disappeared from the internet!" That would have been fine.

Instead, it was the morbid internet at its worst.

[thaumaturgy]

Not defending anyone's actions here one way or another, but, being a sort-of-internet-celebrity and suddenly removing everything associated with yourself without a comment or explanation is bound to attract some attention.

[chc]

Normal people in good mental and physical health don't generally "disappear from the Internet" in that way. Such a drastic measure warrants some concern. If he didn't want people to be concerned, he could have done it in a less drastic way.

[stephth]

Mark didn't want them there, obviously, and neither did anyone except rubbernecking thrill-chasers.

Or people interested on the subject of mark pirlgrim's work going 401, or the subject of info suicide. There seems to be some kind of censorship goin on, and whether or not there's a legitimate reason for it, HN readers deserve an explanation.