anneonymous
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2011
- Messages
- 27
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- 14
I keep thinking it's worth revisiting the alt.suicide.holiday connection. It came up earlier as a potential source of instructions for Lyle's hanging method (Steven's suspension hanging). Alt.suicide.holiday was a newsgroup, an early form of internet message boards grouped by topic. I never read or posted in that group, but the timeline does seem feasible.
I remember that by 2001, newsgroups were so full of spam that very few kept their sense of community. Newsgroups had a reputation as the seedy anonymous underbelly of the internet-- file sharing & *advertiser censored*, especially the bad stuff. Most community groups had moved on to some combo of private message board software (like websleuths uses), and maybe IRC for chatting. Google groups has an archive of the newsgroup, filterable by date, and there were still active, human posters having conversations in 2001. It must have been one of the few 'survivors'.
The web archive page says it is a snapshot from mid 2002. If Lyle was looking to the internet for help on how to commit suicide, he would have been able to find that content, whether via the newsgroup, the group's website (it appears they also had a geocities page) or someone else rehosting their content elsewhere.
A year earlier, this person talks about leaving their ID and keys behind, taking a bus trip through Washington state, and deciding whether to disappear or commit suicide. Just like Lyle. Too eerie.
I remember that by 2001, newsgroups were so full of spam that very few kept their sense of community. Newsgroups had a reputation as the seedy anonymous underbelly of the internet-- file sharing & *advertiser censored*, especially the bad stuff. Most community groups had moved on to some combo of private message board software (like websleuths uses), and maybe IRC for chatting. Google groups has an archive of the newsgroup, filterable by date, and there were still active, human posters having conversations in 2001. It must have been one of the few 'survivors'.
The web archive page says it is a snapshot from mid 2002. If Lyle was looking to the internet for help on how to commit suicide, he would have been able to find that content, whether via the newsgroup, the group's website (it appears they also had a geocities page) or someone else rehosting their content elsewhere.
A year earlier, this person talks about leaving their ID and keys behind, taking a bus trip through Washington state, and deciding whether to disappear or commit suicide. Just like Lyle. Too eerie.