Well, we should at least try to find out what happened. It's the natural thing to do, and the easiest way to do that, is to dig up links related to the matter, so we know the true story.
This is a terrible loss. I've been a Debian user since Bo (1.3) and have interacted with Ian on a number of occasions. RIP
What I'd like to know going forward is what we can do as a community to help when we see this happening. Ian was clearly suffering, and I know that a number of folks did their best to help.
Yet, those efforts were in vain. It occurs to me now that perhaps the community could have done more? Perhaps Twitter could have done more? Perhaps I could have done more? Did HackerNews make the right call in closing that thread? I'm not seeking to assign blame, but to ask what we can do to help the next person.
If there is something more the community can do to help the next person, we should identify and address it. Someone I know likes to say, "bugs in process are like software bugs, we need to file an issue and fix them".
Twitter just yesterday released new policies and procedures for reporting on self-harm and harassment. I'm afraid they may not go far enough, but I'm happy to see some effort there.
Perhaps the time for this conversation is too early, but I look forward to having it when the time is right.
