Controversy surrounding a Mac Tonnies obituary on MetaFilter?

I don't care about MetaFilter. Seems that Twitter is a more democratic way to share links, and I'm not a Twitter fan either!

What I think this boils down to is the sad realization that Mac's passing is of no importance to the majority of people. The Fortean world in the web is a very marginal space, and even though Mac was an exceptional thinker and a prolific writer —although not prolific in the classic sense of the word, since he had only published one book, but I think he got to write over 6 thousand posts on his blog, which is pretty remarkable in my book!— the fact of the matter is that not a lot of people cares about the stuff he wrote about —which is why I personally find the majority of people dull and boring.

Mac's entry on Wikipedia is... sketchy, to put it mildly, and if you do a news search with his name, you'll find that he's not been mentioned in any news site —Correction: he's mentioned onthis site, but that's it so far.

Oh, but everybody and his dog knows that the idiot father of balloon boy is a UFO believer who thinks Hillary Clinton is a shape-shifting reptoid! That's how the media works: by painting a demographic using its lower common denominator :(

I don't care about Metafilter, Twitter or any other social networking site when it comes to human sorrow and loss...

I have 'known' Mac now since 2003 when I began blogging. He was one of the most intelligent human life forms I ever had the pleasure of encountering. Only recently had we begun 'chatting' - I will treasure my contact with him - I am still in shock as I write this and last night I was crying (I JUST found this out)...

Sadly, I have to agree that no one is really going to 'know' who Mac was other than those of us who were graced by his presence in our lives. And it does not surprise me to hear of people passing judgment on him because well...to put it bluntly and truthfully, most people are simply idiots...

What causes me sorrow is that other than leaving 'notes' here and there - there is no way for me to pay my respects in person to what must be a grieving family and close friends of this wonderful and kind soul. It makes me think too about the double/secret lives that in some ways those of us who do 'blog' or otherwise share our lives in the 'nethersphere'/innerworld of the Internet will pass on and our writings may perhaps be lost forever. I believe someone pointed out that losing Mac's blog/writings would be a huge loss - is there any way to preserve it for posterity - I don't know if there is a way or an answer but hopefully we are not the only ones thinking and feeling this way and Mac's contributions will go on into infinity.

I hope he is resting - where ever he is - and that he is beholding the great joys and secrets of the universe in all their multifaceted glory.

I think it's just a sad situation. For a lot of us, I think when we lost Mac we felt like the world should acknowledge that a pretty darn good person just left this world. But this is happening constantly all over the planet - it's just that when it happens to us we feel that sudden emotion, "oh crap, the rest of the world really doesn't care". Which, unfortunately, it doesn't.

In this case, David felt like the world should know. Unfortunately, he linked his own site, which is obviously a big no-no on Metafilter - some there are saying that it is a bannable offence. It's hard then to criticise the admins, when they simply removed the story, rather than the more hardline removal and banning - they have a job to do, and rules have to be enforced...you can't make exceptions. What David should have done is post the obit without the links.

The behaviour of others, such as those trash-talking Mac even though it's obvious he just died at a young age, is less excusable. But, unfortunately, this simply shows that there are a *lot* of idiots and nasty people on the Internet (read through YouTube comments if you ever want to lose complete faith in the human race). If you post something to a public space on the web, you have to expect this to happen.

I would also take issue with a moderation policy which bans self-promotion, but allows trash-talk of dead people - but each to their own. The web is a free place, so if you don't agree with a website's policies - don't go there. Can't say I have any particular attraction to Metafilter.

Kind regards,
Greg