Slashdot Mirror
Yahoo Deletes Journalist's Pre-Paid Legacy Site After Suicide
New submitter digitalFlack writes "Apparently Martin Manley has been a popular blogger and newspaper journalist for many years. For his own reasons, no indication of illness, he decided sixty years on this planet was enough. He designed a 40-page website with sections such as: 'Why Suicide?' and 'Why Age 60?.' Martin planned his suicide meticulously, but to manage his legacy, he picked Yahoo. He even pre-paid for five years. After he left this mortal coil on his 60th birthday, Yahoo decided they don't want his traffic, so they took the site down. Sorry, Martin."
Not only was this website paid for, it was obviously part of the deceased's last wishes. If Yahoo has no respect for the law or its customers, it should at least show some respect to a dude's last wish.
Remember: it's Ya-"let's delete early Internet history because keeping 1TB around is too expensive"-hoo we're talking about.
Never trust Yahoo. Ever.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
This little quote from the guy's site:
The thought of being in a nursing home, physically or mentally disabled, was the single scariest thing I had ever thought about
This is exactly what I've been thinking for years now; I've always thought that I will commit a suicide and end my life one day when I feel I'm getting too old, when I feel I'm losing control over my own thoughts and body. Honestly, the most horrible thing that I could imagine is being locked up in a bed 24/7 at the mercy of others without being able to do anything by myself -- I do not want to end there. I will commit a suicide if it looks like it's coming to that, I want to be in charge of my own life. As such I fully understand the guy's reasoning and I agree: good for him.
It definitely belongs to his estate. No "maybe" about it.
with the exception of some of the Alzheimer stuff he mentioned every thing he described is treatable, and even a lot of the Alzheimer stuff is. That is, if you have access to the health care. This sounds more like a failing of our society than anything else.
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From what I read of it, he was talking about his personal feelings and opinions.
I could see if it were a site that he put video of his own suicide on, or other graphic depictions, there would be a reason to remove it. In this case, there was none. It was left as his legacy, or at least for the 5 years he paid for.
There was no good justification in taking it down, except possibly that it took too much traffic. If it were a small hosting company, and had a negative impact on services to other customers, I could see it. Yahoo has enough resources to continue supporting that site for the full term as paid for.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Putting a bullet to your head in front of witnesses and the police means there's little to no investigation - or, cost to society. They clean up the street, but it's obvious why, how, and when you died.
Disappearing into the woods could prompt a million-dollar manhunt trying to 'rescue' you, until or unless they find you first. And once they do find you, they'll have to do an autopsy to investigate cause of death - possibly quite an expensive one, as your remains will have degraded. You'll cause a lot of extra cost and grief to society that you could have avoided.
Maybe that was important to him.
'Sensible' is a curse word.
I intend to be living a fantastic life and raising hell for another decade or three yet. Deal with it.
So... your magic number isn't 60, but possibly 85 or 90. Ok, that's fine. I am more than happy to let you define how long you think your quality of life is good. So what happens after that?
I've one great-great-uncle who lived to be 106. (They found him one evening leaned up against a fencepost, where he'd evidently stopped to take a little break whilst making his daily walk around his farm. Nothing wrong with him, the doctor said, except that he finally just wore out.)
Yeah, and I've got an 80+ year old great uncle in-law or something who's been bedridden for years now. Adult-onset type 2 diabetes. The diabetes so far has caused blindness, and has led to the amputation of both legs. It could happen to anyone, even you. 51 is a long way from 70.
My own grandfather developed Alzheimer's, and although he remained perfectly healthy in body until the end, that was probably the most horrifying and heart wrenching thing to undergo. He was terrified at least for as long as knew what was happening, and it wasn't much better for those around him.
We all wish to age gracefully, die in our sleep peacefully, and while I agree arbitrarily committing suicide on your 60th birthday is nuts... committing suicide when the circumstances of your final days are rapidly becoming apparent is pretty rational in my books.
I'm sure anybody who knew him would like to read it. That may very well include people who didn't know him all that well, so a website would be an obvious way to reach all potentially interested parties. A major part of the reason for creating the site may be to comfort those left behind. With that in mind I cannot see how anybody could think it was an acceptable move from Yahoo.
Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
Remember: it's Ya-"let's delete early Internet history because keeping 1TB around is too expensive"-hoo we're talking about. Never trust Yahoo. Ever.
You're talking about Geocities? Well, actually it was *several* terabytes, so it would have cost them two or three *hundred* dollars to store all that. Quite a lot for a small company like Yahoo. *cough*
In all seriousness, I agree with you- I guessed at the time of the shutdown that the storage requirements would be in the ballpark of the low-terabytes (slight underestimate, but not by much), and- more importantly- that the cost of the traffic would (by modern standards) be negligible. Indeed, the profit or loss- either way- at that time would have been small by Yahoo's standards, but I figured out that they should still be able to easily turn a profit it by making it archive-only. *If* they'd been that bothered about it, that is.
The conclusion I came to was that the reasons for shutting down Geocities "probably had more to do with either indirect legal issues (tax write-offs, accounting and the like) or some executive who wanted to be seen doing something that looked more significant than it actually was." Things I read later pretty much confirmed I was right on this.
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The content does, but the publishing contract ends. A dead person can not be part in a contract. Continued publication would be Yahoo's responsibility, and they would be nuts to keep publishing something this controversial.
Because there are times when it is OK.
Actually you can read what he wrote, just on a mirror of his site. Inadvertently yahoo have invoked the Streisand effect.
It is interesting what he has written and also what he hasn't. One thing was a failing memory that was one thing he didn't like the idea of having to be taken care of in future years another issue was the costs associated with getting old his medical insurance was due to expire sometime next year and he didn't see that as being affordable. Wanting to leave a legacy and not to be a burden on the state.
There are other reasons that he wrote about which you can choose to read about if you wish.
What he didn't write about was love, ok he was interested in the future of his step children but there was no love in his life, nobody who was special in his eyes nobody who he woke up with each morning no one who he treasured being in his life. That to me seems key. I'm not young and with my health i can't expect to live to any great age. Do i want to die earlier than i have too? the answer is without doubt no.
4 years ago I had a heart attack and in the ambulance, although i didn't know it was a heart attack i knew it was serious and I also knew I felt i was too young for this! Three months later I had to return to the hospital, but this time i drove myself and with periods of crushing chest pains i got there and parked my car and walked the 400 or 500 yards to the A&E department - maybe the hardest walk of my life. To finally present myself at the desk and say i think i'm having a heart attack in actuality it was a 97% blocked coronary artery. Was a tough 24 hours but after a stent fitted i was ok again.
Recovery in the months that followed was difficult, the 50% rate after a first heart attack is about 6 to 8 years and thats after 30% who died of that first heart attack. Becoming mortal, and realising there was a fair chance that I might not last that much longer was quite depressing, some outstanding long term goals have had to be put aside as I don't see them as viable any more.
On the positive side since then I've met the most wonderful woman around my age (for a change) and loving her makes all the difference. We are living too far apart right now but that we can work on. She is in my thoughts everyday and well I hope we get to grow old together. You see being rich or poor is not that important but being with someone you love is. Without love your life can be without reason.
Thing is you don't know when fate will bring you together but it can happen any day if you leave an opportunity for it too occur. Any way love is why I want to keep on living, trying to do the best I can for the people I care about and why I won't bow out by suicide. Family, friends, and an understanding lover what else matters.
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Why? Because it is controversial? Some one needs to talk about it. This is the core problem now. Everyone is afraid to offend someone.
Political Correctness can be so fucking offensive.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.