I'm willing to take the rep hit...but I have to ask... there have been other threads that loss has been indicated...in all cases...it sucks...why is this one trending more than others?
this forum sees legacy individuals passing on, near by contributors passing on, and in instances like this one, a young life taken from us. i don't mean to be harsh or question, but given the community losses, i've seen long term contributors to technology relegated to the dustbin where stories like this are in the top couple for some time.
It all sucks, but the "dynamics" cause me concern.
Eric, bravely, was open enough to share his experiences about his daughter's illness. I think many, like me, have followed along in this heart braking journey and Eric's authentic words have captivated us.
As a person who has been greatly impacted by Eric Meyers technical work, I along with many others in the front end/ css community have been following his story over the last year. But many other people in the tech community have not.
The loss of a child is profound - and as you can see there are others here who have also gone through the loss of their child. The python programmer who lost a child might skip over all of the php posts here, but posts like this can let that person reach out the the Meyer family. The parents who posted on there loss, also are giving the rest of us valuable advice when we might not know what to do but would like to reach out.
When people who are older and have had full lives pass away, in general, as a community we know what to do. When children die, many times we are at a loss.
The other reason I would like to see posts like this remain high in the rankings - is because to outsiders - some people summarize the lot of programmers into the myopic no social skills bucket. This is generally incorrect - but if someone sees this, and it gives them from sending the "Dude when are you going to update your reset" tweet I think it is worth it.
That's an interesting question. I think there are a few factors. Meyer was one of the pioneers of modern web development (many people here have mentioned using his `reset.css`). Related to that, many people on HN are or were web developers, meaning that he has a built-in brand among that group. Lastly, he has been very public about his daughter's disease and his family's struggles with it. It's cliche to say that social media tends to be about self-promotion. His tweets and blog-posts on the other hand have been real, emotional, and sad. That's rare (and experimental), and his celebrity status within a population active on social media meant that many people not only knew about his daughter but actually became invested.
this forum sees legacy individuals passing on, near by contributors passing on, and in instances like this one, a young life taken from us. i don't mean to be harsh or question, but given the community losses, i've seen long term contributors to technology relegated to the dustbin where stories like this are in the top couple for some time.
It all sucks, but the "dynamics" cause me concern.