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anyone know his real name or history? Or the origin of his nick? - BioGeek 00:37, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
I've heard from various sources that his first name truly is 'Why', though the origin of it is mysterious. -- 71.193.234.115 21:14, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
I, too, came here trying to find the origin of the phrase "why the lucky stiff." It's very familiar, in fact I think it may have come from a farside comic. Anyway, that would be very appropriate content for this page. 69.106.241.23 15:30, 19 September 2006 (UTC) -Trav
I had the pleasure of eating dinner with _why at rubyconf 2002 and according to him, it's a nickname given to him by his sister. Whether that's true or not is another story. :) 204.130.247.244 ( talk) 14:16, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
Just for the record that's why I came here too. I am also curious where the underscore in _why comes from. -- nertzy 07:48, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
If you watch, you'll see that Why doesn't always use the underscore. He told me that he uses it in situations where the word "why" would otherwise be ambiguous. Glv 23:35, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
I think this page deserves a discussion of (a) why _why doesn't use a real name (surely he's talked about this on his blog or in person or ...?) and (b) what his real name may/may not be (based on sourced statements, obviously) Natebailey ( talk) 10:59, 6 August 2008 (UTC)
I agree with not putting his real name here. Besides it being his wish to remain anonymous, we cannot be sure it is his name until he himself verifies it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.105.27.164 ( talk) 20:55, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
This got cut from the main article because it was unsourced. But it's still interesting so I want to put it here:
This article is a stub which clearly should be merged with the main entry, Elf With Ham. 69.49.44.11 14:01, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
_why is 13 years old and from Norway. I knows it. I sure it. I knows it from here!
_why exists on alternate dimensional planes. Sometimes he shows up in Harrisburg, PA as a person who isn't him.
Hey Hu12, why don't you actually look into the external links you're removing as "spam" before removing them. This is a biographical article, and I was inserting a link to why the lucky stiff's blog titled RedHanded. He's known for his writing there more than anything other than his book... -- Sinned 22:51, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
P.S. that means I recommend someone else add the link to RedHanded that Hu12 removed, as I'm not doing it or he'll try to ban me for not listening to him. -- Sinned
No problem, Sinned. I also added _why's photo blog (which is awesome), hopefully that'll survive Hu12's wrought iron fist. -- Klondike 18:11, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Hi, I cleaned up the article and rewrote some of it. some thoughts about it:
Zorbid 18:18, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
This looks like a home page of a Jackie Brown as it is... "look at me", "here's what I like to do", "my hobbies", "photoes of my pet cat", "look look what I have drawn"... ouch. -- Sigmundur 12:44, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
The link seems dead, it's normal. It is only accessible to people with the technical know how, as described in http://hoodwinkd.hobix.com/ . (Assuming it's still up, since I'm barred from accessing it from behind this firewall). Zorbid ( talk) 15:18, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
_why looks like Jack Black. I'm sorry, it just has to be said. :P Jesset77 ( talk) 09:36, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
Is the article photo a joke? Is ALL THIS ARTICLE a joke? The guy is Jack Black!!! Sebasbronzini ( talk) 06:28, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
On February 23, 2009 _why tweeted with a request for his page to be edited. [15]
I've added quotes by John Resig and Tim Bray.
They were self published, but the high notability of both authors turns them into WP:RS. - Zorbid ( talk) 17:51, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
I don't know if this counts as notable, so I'm putting it here: "Why, the lucky stiff!" appears on page 114 of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, as seen at < http://books.google.com/books?id=YtcIAQAAIAAJ&q=%22why+the+lucky+stiff%22&dq=%22why+the+lucky+stiff%22&ei=Gik3SobgAZqGkATV9-mlBQ&pgis=1>. Noah Tye ( talk) 05:22, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
I am going to remove the large "disappearance" sections and reduce them to a small mention of today's events. The information currently on the page openly states that little is known except for speculation and sensationalism, so I feel that a simple "His online presence has been mostly removed" will do until sourced information emerges. Max ( talk) 18:05, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
Here's a RS regarding this topic: http://www.h-online.com/open/why-the-lucky-stiff-Vanishes--/news/114042
And here's another: http://www.rubyinside.com/why-the-lucky-stiff-is-missing-2278.html
I'm a bit pessimistic about this. He had been very quiet lately, with this message staying for about one month at the top of his twitter log.
why the lucky stiff (_why) on Twitter "i'm trapped in a labyrinth of my own design." 10:19 AM Jun 3rd from web
Then he came back, committed himself to work more on Shoes rather than Potion (on the Shoes ML), worked some more on Potion and Greg (until the 18th of august) then abruptly pulled the plug.-- 139.165.38.29 ( talk) 10:39, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
This might be relevant only to Hackety Hack, but _why had pulled all available code for Hackety Hack, and changed the site prior to his art and code presentation. The site said that a new version would be released shortly there after, but this never happened. So to me, the "dissapearance" doesn't have one hard date like August 19th 2009 but rather started a few weeks prior to art and code, which was on March 7th 2009 http://artandcode.ning.com/page/hackety-hack. A colleague who attended claimed that these lectures didn't occur, but I can't confirm that as it's unsure if they just didn't find them in time while attending. Dlamblin ( talk) 06:44, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
_why has closed down. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.241.137.240 ( talk) 21:31, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
The fact that this happened after the anonymous blog claimed he to identify him make it seem likely that they were correct. Raucanum ( talk) 04:16, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
I feel that his "outing" is about as notable as his chickpea burgers. Let the man have peace. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.63.124.86 ( talk) 00:37, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
I think this should be in the article. It's probably no coincidence that the man disappeared after this started making the rounds —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.51.243.107 ( talk) 02:36, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
Definitely - there is not anywhere near enough reason to suspect his disappearance had anything to do with that little Wordpress blog. Certainly not enough to describe them as linked on his Wikipedia page. Klondike ( talk) 14:30, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
Someone should delete that part about The Child Who Was a Keyhole. Is it sourced? That band happens to have a member whose name is the same as the name that some have associated with _why. You've tried so hard on Wikipedia to remove all references to his identity and his real name, it would be a shame if you left that in. 76.19.221.246 ( talk) 15:05, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
I'm going to add his real identity in, it was confirmed by Annie Lowrey in Slate. [16] Mrfeek ( talk) 13:41, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
The links pointing to the github repos are now dead. I found an alternate repo at github that seems to have a large percentage of the originals: http://github.com/whymirror/. They seem to be gathering as many of the original repos as possible from a number of different sources(quite evident in the public activity) and merging them into one account. All one needs to do to get to one of the original projects is to replace /why/ in the original url with /whymirror/. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.39.159.225 ( talk) 19:17, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
Why does something posted via twitter about his freaking dinner constitute sufficient notability to wind up on Wikipedia? 216.240.30.23 ( talk) 23:05, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
I mean come on, the cites point to articles with his name in it but we can't post it here? 24.151.65.120 ( talk) 04:29, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
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The article about _why is a bit confusing. I mean I can understand that wikipedia wants to gather objective facts; that is fine. But a lot of the article seems to have been written with an anti-why focus in mind.
That is strange. Again, not against the facts, but the wording is really odd ...
Take this here:
"In April 2013, a complete book attributed[15][16] to Jonathan Gillette was digitally released via the website whytheluckystiff.net (which has since changed ownership) and the GitHub repository cwales."
So that makes it clear that this did not come by _why, yes? I mean, if it was ANOTHER owner, why would the article insinuate it came from him? If the ownership changed?? That makes no sense. It also contradicts other parts of the article.
I don't really want to get involved in this, but my opinion is that the article isn't totally objective right now. Probably because different people wrote it, and a few may have had a specific agenda in mind. Someone should go through the whole article and make it more objective, without removing the facts. But I mean just if you think about the () parens part ... "which has since changed ownership" ... by the way, why would he retain the website in 2013, if he retired from the _why personae in 2009? That just does not add up! Who wrote that? 2A02:8388:1602:6D80:C080:419D:679D:C9F8 ( talk) 13:38, 19 April 2021 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Why the lucky stiff article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
This article was nominated for
deletion. Please review the prior discussions if you are considering re-nomination:
|
This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page. |
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anyone know his real name or history? Or the origin of his nick? - BioGeek 00:37, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
I've heard from various sources that his first name truly is 'Why', though the origin of it is mysterious. -- 71.193.234.115 21:14, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
I, too, came here trying to find the origin of the phrase "why the lucky stiff." It's very familiar, in fact I think it may have come from a farside comic. Anyway, that would be very appropriate content for this page. 69.106.241.23 15:30, 19 September 2006 (UTC) -Trav
I had the pleasure of eating dinner with _why at rubyconf 2002 and according to him, it's a nickname given to him by his sister. Whether that's true or not is another story. :) 204.130.247.244 ( talk) 14:16, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
Just for the record that's why I came here too. I am also curious where the underscore in _why comes from. -- nertzy 07:48, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
If you watch, you'll see that Why doesn't always use the underscore. He told me that he uses it in situations where the word "why" would otherwise be ambiguous. Glv 23:35, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
I think this page deserves a discussion of (a) why _why doesn't use a real name (surely he's talked about this on his blog or in person or ...?) and (b) what his real name may/may not be (based on sourced statements, obviously) Natebailey ( talk) 10:59, 6 August 2008 (UTC)
I agree with not putting his real name here. Besides it being his wish to remain anonymous, we cannot be sure it is his name until he himself verifies it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.105.27.164 ( talk) 20:55, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
This got cut from the main article because it was unsourced. But it's still interesting so I want to put it here:
This article is a stub which clearly should be merged with the main entry, Elf With Ham. 69.49.44.11 14:01, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
_why is 13 years old and from Norway. I knows it. I sure it. I knows it from here!
_why exists on alternate dimensional planes. Sometimes he shows up in Harrisburg, PA as a person who isn't him.
Hey Hu12, why don't you actually look into the external links you're removing as "spam" before removing them. This is a biographical article, and I was inserting a link to why the lucky stiff's blog titled RedHanded. He's known for his writing there more than anything other than his book... -- Sinned 22:51, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
P.S. that means I recommend someone else add the link to RedHanded that Hu12 removed, as I'm not doing it or he'll try to ban me for not listening to him. -- Sinned
No problem, Sinned. I also added _why's photo blog (which is awesome), hopefully that'll survive Hu12's wrought iron fist. -- Klondike 18:11, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Hi, I cleaned up the article and rewrote some of it. some thoughts about it:
Zorbid 18:18, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
This looks like a home page of a Jackie Brown as it is... "look at me", "here's what I like to do", "my hobbies", "photoes of my pet cat", "look look what I have drawn"... ouch. -- Sigmundur 12:44, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
The link seems dead, it's normal. It is only accessible to people with the technical know how, as described in http://hoodwinkd.hobix.com/ . (Assuming it's still up, since I'm barred from accessing it from behind this firewall). Zorbid ( talk) 15:18, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
_why looks like Jack Black. I'm sorry, it just has to be said. :P Jesset77 ( talk) 09:36, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
Is the article photo a joke? Is ALL THIS ARTICLE a joke? The guy is Jack Black!!! Sebasbronzini ( talk) 06:28, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
On February 23, 2009 _why tweeted with a request for his page to be edited. [15]
I've added quotes by John Resig and Tim Bray.
They were self published, but the high notability of both authors turns them into WP:RS. - Zorbid ( talk) 17:51, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
I don't know if this counts as notable, so I'm putting it here: "Why, the lucky stiff!" appears on page 114 of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, as seen at < http://books.google.com/books?id=YtcIAQAAIAAJ&q=%22why+the+lucky+stiff%22&dq=%22why+the+lucky+stiff%22&ei=Gik3SobgAZqGkATV9-mlBQ&pgis=1>. Noah Tye ( talk) 05:22, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
I am going to remove the large "disappearance" sections and reduce them to a small mention of today's events. The information currently on the page openly states that little is known except for speculation and sensationalism, so I feel that a simple "His online presence has been mostly removed" will do until sourced information emerges. Max ( talk) 18:05, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
Here's a RS regarding this topic: http://www.h-online.com/open/why-the-lucky-stiff-Vanishes--/news/114042
And here's another: http://www.rubyinside.com/why-the-lucky-stiff-is-missing-2278.html
I'm a bit pessimistic about this. He had been very quiet lately, with this message staying for about one month at the top of his twitter log.
why the lucky stiff (_why) on Twitter "i'm trapped in a labyrinth of my own design." 10:19 AM Jun 3rd from web
Then he came back, committed himself to work more on Shoes rather than Potion (on the Shoes ML), worked some more on Potion and Greg (until the 18th of august) then abruptly pulled the plug.-- 139.165.38.29 ( talk) 10:39, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
This might be relevant only to Hackety Hack, but _why had pulled all available code for Hackety Hack, and changed the site prior to his art and code presentation. The site said that a new version would be released shortly there after, but this never happened. So to me, the "dissapearance" doesn't have one hard date like August 19th 2009 but rather started a few weeks prior to art and code, which was on March 7th 2009 http://artandcode.ning.com/page/hackety-hack. A colleague who attended claimed that these lectures didn't occur, but I can't confirm that as it's unsure if they just didn't find them in time while attending. Dlamblin ( talk) 06:44, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
_why has closed down. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.241.137.240 ( talk) 21:31, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
The fact that this happened after the anonymous blog claimed he to identify him make it seem likely that they were correct. Raucanum ( talk) 04:16, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
I feel that his "outing" is about as notable as his chickpea burgers. Let the man have peace. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.63.124.86 ( talk) 00:37, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
I think this should be in the article. It's probably no coincidence that the man disappeared after this started making the rounds —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.51.243.107 ( talk) 02:36, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
Definitely - there is not anywhere near enough reason to suspect his disappearance had anything to do with that little Wordpress blog. Certainly not enough to describe them as linked on his Wikipedia page. Klondike ( talk) 14:30, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
Someone should delete that part about The Child Who Was a Keyhole. Is it sourced? That band happens to have a member whose name is the same as the name that some have associated with _why. You've tried so hard on Wikipedia to remove all references to his identity and his real name, it would be a shame if you left that in. 76.19.221.246 ( talk) 15:05, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
I'm going to add his real identity in, it was confirmed by Annie Lowrey in Slate. [16] Mrfeek ( talk) 13:41, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
The links pointing to the github repos are now dead. I found an alternate repo at github that seems to have a large percentage of the originals: http://github.com/whymirror/. They seem to be gathering as many of the original repos as possible from a number of different sources(quite evident in the public activity) and merging them into one account. All one needs to do to get to one of the original projects is to replace /why/ in the original url with /whymirror/. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.39.159.225 ( talk) 19:17, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
Why does something posted via twitter about his freaking dinner constitute sufficient notability to wind up on Wikipedia? 216.240.30.23 ( talk) 23:05, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
I mean come on, the cites point to articles with his name in it but we can't post it here? 24.151.65.120 ( talk) 04:29, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
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The article about _why is a bit confusing. I mean I can understand that wikipedia wants to gather objective facts; that is fine. But a lot of the article seems to have been written with an anti-why focus in mind.
That is strange. Again, not against the facts, but the wording is really odd ...
Take this here:
"In April 2013, a complete book attributed[15][16] to Jonathan Gillette was digitally released via the website whytheluckystiff.net (which has since changed ownership) and the GitHub repository cwales."
So that makes it clear that this did not come by _why, yes? I mean, if it was ANOTHER owner, why would the article insinuate it came from him? If the ownership changed?? That makes no sense. It also contradicts other parts of the article.
I don't really want to get involved in this, but my opinion is that the article isn't totally objective right now. Probably because different people wrote it, and a few may have had a specific agenda in mind. Someone should go through the whole article and make it more objective, without removing the facts. But I mean just if you think about the () parens part ... "which has since changed ownership" ... by the way, why would he retain the website in 2013, if he retired from the _why personae in 2009? That just does not add up! Who wrote that? 2A02:8388:1602:6D80:C080:419D:679D:C9F8 ( talk) 13:38, 19 April 2021 (UTC)