Hacker News Front Page Snapshot from Last Night

[MatthewB]

I still can't believe Steve Jobs is gone. I don't think I've ever felt this sad about someone I've never met.

I always thought I would meet Steve eventually, especially since I finally moved to Silicon Valley recently. He will always be my hero and an inspiration to me in every aspect of my life.

[wuster]

16-year Mac user here - I wouldn't go to the extent of saying Jobs changed my life. Apple devices influenced how I got my work done, which is non-trivial, but I won't idol worship him in an emotional manner. He's still only human just like the rest of us.

[hesdeadjim]

I feel the exact same way. This is the first time I've felt truly sad to see someone die who I did not know personally. I never had a chance to meet him, but I had always held out hope that maybe someday I would be able to simply tell him "Thanks" and shake his hand.

If it weren't for him and his team totally disrupting the phone market with a truly futuristic device, I wouldn't have discovered my passion for making games or be making a living doing so!

[_4zly]

In every aspect, are you serious? You have to diversify your influences...

[mike-cardwell]

I would like to see what happened to the traffic on this site yesterday. I spent considerably less time here than average because of the lack of tech news.

[billjings]

Initially, it was slammed.

[jessedhillon]

Has anyone else noticed the black band (actually a table row) at the top of HN? I only noticed it yesterday, so I'm assuming it's pg's way of signifying that HN is mourning the loss of Steve Jobs.

[uniclaude]

Two things are very interesting to me here:

- This 100% Steve Jobs page was actually organically generated.

- Several members of the community took screen/snapshots yesterday when they discovered the frontpage like this.

Those things make me realize how like-minded can some of the members in this community be.

[potatolicious]

It's not just the HN crowd - I walked by the SF Apple Store today and the front windows were covered in post-it notes full of thoughts from passers by. I know we in the tech world followed his every little move, but it surprised me how much, well, regular people cared.

I've never seen this kind of reaction for the death of any famous person who isn't a politician/community leader.

[barredo]

I took a Safari ".webarchive"

http://cl.ly/3m3g1p2r1T0x1S172V0q

> Those things make me realize how like-minded can some of the members in this community be.

Communities gather around like-minded people and like-minded people creates communities of shared interests.

[AndyKelley]

Here let me aid your statistics:

http://superjoesoftware.com/temp/hn-steve.png

[robryan]

Yeah, I did to: http://s3.amazonaws.com/affclicks-static/hn_steve.png

[cambriar]

http://p.twimg.com/AbLpPwQCQAAu-tu.png:large

Like-minded indeed.

I remember at about 6:05PM there seemed to be a few threads about it, but when my eyes caught the first title...instant grief.

[nec4b]

For a community that takes pride in being intelectual, this is pretty sad and bordeline to religius worship. The black band and a single thread where one could express his appreciation for the deceased would be respectful and enough.

[cwp]

Actually, I had been offline all afternoon, and only learned of it when I opened up HN. I was stunned by the top story, and it was good 3 or 4 minutes before I noticed that the entire front page was devoted to Steve. At that point I got something in my eye and had to close my laptop.

[catshirt]

in case it's not clear from the comments, op is most certainly a snapshot. surprisingly cooler than a screenshot.

[ck2]

I've made a filtered feed that removes most of those stories

http://feeds.feedburner.com/hacker-news-filtered

I'll delete it after the weekend to respect PG (after the news-cycle finally breaks).

[gbog]

What I would be looking for is a diversity enforcer.

[petercooper]

You can see every single hour at http://hackerslide.com/

[wxl24life]

It's really great!

[dstein64]

This was the first time I have seen the entire front page consisting of articles on one topic. The snapshot is from 11pm PDT, and it is from a site that archives the Hacker News front page.

[throw_away]

well, there was the great erlang flood of '09 (though I can't find a screen grab): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=512145

[cosgroveb]

I was shocked last night when I counted 27 articles about Steve Jobs and three about other stuff.

[DiabloD3]

I counted last night that not only was the first page 30/30 Saint Jobs, but the second page was at least half Jobs.

Really, the man made an impact on everyone. I wonder why it took until he died for everyone to realize it?

[mechanical_fish]

People realized it all along. It just wasn't the time for everyone to say so at once.

Mourning time is that time.

It won't last forever. Mourning doesn't, and shouldn't, last forever. Which is all the more reason to make it count now, when it is appropriate.

[ArchD]

I suspect that this has something to do with the competitive nature of human beings. Publicly praising/endorsing a famous living person on one hand gives him more power, and on the other hand encourages antagonism from the detractors/enemies/competitors of that person because praising/endorsing someone is an act of aligning with that person.

Giving power to others is not something human beings naturally want to do. Neither is inviting opposition. When the subject of the praise or endorsement is dead, the whole equation changes. Dead people have no power over you, and whatever enemies or competitors they used to have are usually no longer opposed to them.

Just my two cents. It would be interesting to have a way to test this theory.

[bad_wolf]

I think it took his death only to make the realization (and discussion) simultaneous.

Heck, I had been thinking about his impact this past weekend, and I've spent a grand total of two dollars with Apple (and own no Apple hardware).

[matthewlehner]

This is good to see - I don't think any one person has had more influence on the way we use computers/technology than Steve did.

It felt good to know that someone with his vision also had the power to create and guide new technologies and inovations within many industries. Now that singular force is gone. Hopefully Apple, or the other major players are able to continue to innovate and not just add better specs and more features.

[geoka9]

> I don't think any one person has had more influence on the way we use computers/technology than Steve did.

Just wondering, if I don't use macs, smartphones and tablets, do I still owe it to him for the way I use computers/technology?

[ComputerGuru]

If any man deserved this, Steve Jobs most certainly did.

[romaniv]

However, there are plenty of people whose contribusions to humanity wastly exceed what Jobs did. Would they get this kind of coverage if deceased? I seriously doubt that.

[binaryten]

what a complete knob

[binaryten]

Only a complete idiot would say this. Wow :-(

[ahuibers]

http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=3000

[nhebb]

And patrickthomas went from 0 to 3335 karma in a single post.

[dstein64]

The next highest is 1227, so a bound of 1228 also only includes that post. http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=1228

[bryanallen22]

While this is obviously the post with the most points, I just noticed that something might be broken with this. Looking for posts with over 1000 points omits the following post with 1770 points:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2555349

Anyone know why?

[colinprince]

http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=2000

[chj]

A hacker doesn't have to write code to be respected.

[mahyarm]

I thought PG put a filter on only Steve Jobs stories because of his death.

[pg]

No, it was organic.

[iqster]

Like many here, I've been feeling really down because of Steve's passing. At first, it was confusing ... I never even met the guy. Why am I grieving so much? Seeing all the posts on HN and FB, it is comforting to know it's not just me who never met him, and yet is profoundly sad at his passing. He was a personal hero to so many of us.

[dlikhten]

I was actually worried it would not go away. Fortunately today is back-to-business minus a few posts.

[doc_larry]

Steve's death just underlines how real his Stanford commencent speech hits home. His life certainly had its ups and downs, but through it all he persevered and fought for that he felt was true and was worth it. Although his accomplishements went beyond what anyone would have possibly dreamed (aside from himself) there are so many people around us who are also heroes of the real world. We mourn today a great man and in a sense we hold hommage to all of those people who strive to make this world a better place. Rest in peace Steve, may God bless you and your family

[robjohnson]

This shows the incredible influence that Steve had on the tech community. Unlike others who have disrupted the world like him, we can at least be glad that he got to witness the incredible impact that he had.