Mark is annoyed? How about Mark is goddamn lucky and should be both embarrassed and grateful that he's enough of a character that a chunk of the internet cares about him.
Mark is annoyed?
It is Mark Pilgrim's right to disappear, but to disappear in a puff of greasy black smoke and 4̶0̶4̶s̶ 410s is just attention whoring and begging people to look for him and call the police.
There is no reason for Mark to be annoyed that some caring people looked for him. There is every reason for him to count his blessings.
I sincerely wish him the best and hope he recovers from whatever ails him, but please don't tell me how annoyed he is.
He probably/hopefully/certainly also has friends and family that he interacts with on a day-to-day basis that, were he to actually-really-really disappear, would care about him and call the police. It is frankly kind of creepy/scary that a bunch of people he barely knows think it is their place to /call the police/ if he gets sick of the weird kind of attention you get from that kind of audience (and frankly reinforces the behavior of wanting to "go 410").
Jason Scott, the guy whose twitter account that is and the guy who called the police, evidently knows Mark Pilgrim well enough to verify that he was talking to Mark because they were discussing a matter "only the two of them knew about".
That doesn't sound like "creepy Internet people Mark barely knows" to me.
Firstly, let me point out that I am responding to jerrya, not Jason Scott (whom I have also interacted with on a few occasions, and is a friend-of-a-friend enough that when I heard about this mess I turned to someone else in the room and asked them about what was up).
"Mark is goddamn lucky and should be both embarrassed and grateful that he's enough of a character that a chunk of the internet cares about him"
I believe that statement belies a general mentality that I run into constantly: I myself have "disappeared" a few times, for less than 72 hours, because I decided to "take a weekend off" (attending a concert, for example), and I /did not appreciate/ that a ton of people on Twitter seemed to think that meant that I had "died", and insinuated calling the police to find me.
Regardless, to respond now to your comment regarding Jason: they apparently aren't close enough for Jason to a) call Mark directly, b) call someone in Mark's family, c) call any of Mark's friends, or d) have any clue what happened to Mark other than to "[call] his local PD for a welfare check", which to me indicates they aren't really close at all.
Seriously: having something "only the two of them knew about" isn't actually that rare: I've only talked with the man (Jason) a couple times, and yet I bet I could pass that test as well.
I think a key issue here is: it isn't any of their business. I did not promise I would be around 24 hours a day, and they have no introspection into my life to know when something is normal behavior or not.
There are tons of people who do, though: my girlfriend, the people I hang out with at my office every day, and even a few "long term allies" (as it were) I've come to know only online (and talk with on IRC). Some (in fact, many) of these people even have access to my exact location at all times via Latitude.
But the people I meet at conferences, the people who follow me on Twitter, or even the people who lurk in IRC channels I'm in? It is simply not any of their business where I am or what I am doing, and it is absolutely silly for them to expect me to tell them how long I'm going to be gone.
I do not know Mark nor have I ever read his books, but this has been an interesting phenom he pulled and it is attention getting - I came to this story through slashdot. I think it is small-minded to imagine that things are different when people all over the world have been consuming Mark's works and have relied on that material as a resource day in and day out. Pretty bizarre. Wake up to the new world that Mark blogged about... HTML is the medium for publishing in our age and maybe one of the unintended consequences of that model is celebrity. There is nothing anyone can do to remove their internet likeness from the internet which seems silly that Mark of all people would attempt it without the world reacting - isn't that referred to as naive. It would have been easier to let all the resources rot to obscurity and no attention would have been drawn to his disappearance.
Did it occur to you that disappearing in such a manner might be similar to death and cause a similar reaction in people? Maybe their is a grievance cycle going on with people with such a sudden departure from their lives. One day the site is up, the next is a 410 with no explanation. For those where Mark's works were a reality, the sudden disappearance may be experienced like death as there is no explanation as to what was important to you is no longer and never will be. Are you a psychologist or sociologist that understands what is happening? Aren't you curious as to how it became that so many people depended on Mark's reality that do not know Mark personally? Who are you to react to those that are impacted psychologically to his disappearance? Do you claim to understand these things and how profound the internet affects us? I think you presume much about things you do not know about.
This doesn't make sense to me. Is there any example of a way Mark could have not been okay in a way that is helped by people on the internet tracking him down? Clearly his material was intentionally taken down.. short of "silenced by the gubbermint", I'm not sure how tracking him down could help. It seems more like voyeurism..
Yes, this behavior is a typical pattern of people suffering from long-term depression who are entering a final stage before suicide.
Of the typical signs: a sudden change in behavior, loss of interest in favored activities, setting affairs in order, withdrawing from others, self destructive behavior.
You wouldn't believe the number of suicides who, as their last and final act, cleaned up (shaved, got a hair cut, put on a suit or nice dress, put on makeup, etc.) and prior to that suddenly gave away all of their stuff particularly prized possessions (and for creative types, their lifetime collection of work).
It is Mark Pilgrim's right to disappear, but to disappear in a puff of greasy black smoke and 4̶0̶4̶s̶ 410s is just attention whoring and begging people to look for him and call the police.
Come on. If I could, I would downvote you to hell. Seriously? You think nobody has a right to delete stuff they put there? They do not have the choice to lose interest in one thing and considering that maintaining it is a liability "take care of it" the old fashioned way? How can you be annoyed that a guy is annoyed that people sent a police car in front of his house. That is just the most ridiculous thing I heard since this morning.
Mark has every right to disappear, I said so.
And Mark has every right to delete all of his stuff. Sure.
And Mark has every right to delete all of his stuff, stuff that has been widely linked to, stuff heralded as brilliant, and he has the right to delete all of his accounts, but what he has no right to do when he does that and leaves no explanation, is to be annoyed that people wonder what happened to him?
This is an age passed the kids' faces on milk boxes.
We have google that puts up a infobox for suicide prevention if you search for suicide.
We have amber alerts. We have diggs/reddits/farks starting searches for missing people.
We have had several famous net suicides including one in January 2011, where a woman posted her suicide intention, people read it, no one took her seriously, and she went through with it. Needless to say all of her Facebook friends were heavily criticized in the following days.
We have a zillion different ways to connect in an age that stresses how wonderful the socially connected internet is, and Mark goes off and deletes all of his stuff and his accounts with no explanation whatsoever,
And he's annoyed that people notice and take action?
If he wants to delete his stuff, fine. Leave a nice page up saying he is fine but for reason X he is taking down his material for awhile. Wish everyone well, and thank them for their concern. And he's clearly smart enough to understand that.
Why would he explain it to anybody, I didn't know him or his work, but by god if he wants to disappear he disappears. Also he posted no suicidal tendencies as far as I gather, he posted nothing stating he is suicidal or even sad. Maybe just bored, but definitely not sad. Why would he explain his actions to everyone. Who are you to demand an explanation? Did you contribute to his work in any way? Do you hold stake or shares in his work? Did you invest in him or his work? You didn't. One can say that he was a public figure and public made him. Big deal! Did he practically rallied to become famous? No. Did he have ad campaigns? No. Did he actively marketed his work? No. He just posted his good work and was happy that people used it in whatever way. But then he gets bored and says "I am out". Giving up a hobby should not result in a immediate police welfare call.
What did people notice? That his public side is gone? So they immediately assumed that he is dead? That looks like a leap of faith. There were other ways to reach him than police. They could have found out who knew him and told those people to make contact. Police calls are drastic actions and an embarrassment.
Some of the people who contacted the police, like Jason Scott, did know Mark Pilgrim. And were probably concerned that a drastic and dramatic action with no explanation was a prelude to something like a suicide attempt. Even if it was just a small chance, I can see why they wouldn't want to risk inaction.
This is seriously pissing me off now. People downvote and never explain why. Did any of my statements ring as aggressive? Am I wrong in my assumptions? Or is it that people cannot stand someone who uses numbers as an account name.
Mark is annoyed?
It is Mark Pilgrim's right to disappear, but to disappear in a puff of greasy black smoke and 4̶0̶4̶s̶ 410s is just attention whoring and begging people to look for him and call the police.
There is no reason for Mark to be annoyed that some caring people looked for him. There is every reason for him to count his blessings.
I sincerely wish him the best and hope he recovers from whatever ails him, but please don't tell me how annoyed he is.