I went back to diveintohtml5.org to find something today, and it's gone. Then I checked diveintomark.org, diveintopython3.org, twitter.com/diveintomark...<p>Is Mark Pilgrim pulling a disappearing act?
So check this out: Google "http error code 410" and the second hit is from diveintomark.org circa 2003.<p>"""
Let’s all talk about HTTP error code 410.
...
Error 410 means Resource gone, as in, a resource used to exist at this location, but now it’s gone. Not only is it gone, but I don’t know (or I don’t want to tell you) where it went.
...
Now, there is not a lot of information about error 410... I suppose because it addresses a condition that doesn’t come up very often. Also, we’ve all been brainwashed into believing that all resources should be permanent, which simply isn’t true.
"""
Google cache: <a href="http://bit.ly/qxdBi5" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/qxdBi5</a><p>His servers are returning 410 errors but also the same very deliberate HTML:<p><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>410 Gone</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Gone</h1>
<p>The requested resource<br />/<br />
is no longer available on this server and there is no forwarding address.
Please remove all references to this resource.</p>
</body></html><p>Clearly Mark's invocation of the 410 error is deliberate.
He's OK. I don't know how to link a tweet but see textfiles account(<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/textfiles" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/#!/textfiles</a>)<p>Mark Pilgrim is alive/annoyed we called the police. Please stand down and give the man privacy and space, and thanks everyone for caring.
...
The communication was specifically verified, it was him, and that's that. That was the single hardest decision I've had to make this year.
This isn't totally unprecedented.<p>In October 2004, Mark stopped blogging after a post titled "Every Exit" which read: "It’s time for me to find a new hobby. Preferably one that doesn’t involve angle brackets. Or computers. Or electricity." [1] That post sat at the top of his previously very active weblog for 18 months until he returned in April 2006. Of course, that time he only stopped posting new material; he didn't delete all his existing resources. But he did disappear from online life for a while.<p>[1]: <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Mqb93dpyOtgJ:diveintomark.org/archives/2004/10/18/exit+mark+pilgrim+new+hobby&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Mqb93dp...</a>
Looks like one of his last tweets:<p><i>Hey everybody! Adobe has acquired another batch of awesome products that they will slowly ruin through incompetence and mismanagement!</i><p>From <a href="http://topsy.com/twitter.com/diveintomark/status/120918899599474688" rel="nofollow">http://topsy.com/twitter.com/diveintomark/status/12091889959...</a>
Apparently it has been verified he is alive.<p><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/textfiles/status/121436177298493440" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/#!/textfiles/status/121436177298493440</a><p>@textfiles (Jason Scott)
Mark Pilgrim is alive/annoyed we called the police. Please stand down and give the man privacy and space, and thanks everyone for caring.<p>@textfiles (Jason Scott)
The communication was specifically verified, it was him, and that's that. That was the single hardest decision I've had to make this year.
Good question<p><a href="http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2011/10/04/searching-for-mark-pilgrim/" rel="nofollow">http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2011/10/04/searching-for-m...</a>
I'd definitely like to know what happened to Mark Pilgrim and hope he is well. It's still reassuring to know that his websites are still archived by the Internet Archive. (e.g., <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20110726001953/http://diveintohtml5.org/" rel="nofollow">http://web.archive.org/web/20110726001953/http://diveintohtm...</a>)
His github account is gone as well (<a href="http://github.com/diveintomark" rel="nofollow">http://github.com/diveintomark</a>).<p>This is troubling. I'm glad I downloaded Dive Into Python 3, at least.
"Stand down Mark Pilgrim alert. Google, his employer, is on it. Thank you all. Hoping for “he’s just pissed off at Internet” as outcome."<p>Source: <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/GlennF/status/121434638282530816" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/#!/GlennF/status/121434638282530816</a>
That's a really sad news.<p>He hasn't deleted his Hacker News Account yet. He last commented 27 days ago.<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=MarkPilgrim" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=MarkPilgrim</a><p>[I loved his blog and I wish someone has archive for it. I did not archive it locally because Mark used to write articles about long term archival of his data and I didn't think he would ever delete all his public writings.]
Jason Scott of textfiles.org has called his local police department for a welfare check...<p><a href="https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/121430050930298880" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/121430050930298880</a>
As pointed out by user mikelietz on Eric Meyer's site, <a href="http://firehose.diveintomark.org/" rel="nofollow">http://firehose.diveintomark.org/</a> is still up.
I really hope Mark is okay, and I'm really going to miss Dive Into HTML5. That resource had a truly unique writing style, featured a great design, and was an a absolute treasure trove of valuable information. I was literally on the site just yesterday, reading up on local storage.
"Mark Pilgrim is alive/annoyed we called the police. Please stand down and give the man privacy and space, and thanks everyone for caring."<p>Source: <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/textfiles/status/121436177298493440" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/#!/textfiles/status/121436177298493440</a>
Similar (though not as extreme) behavior has occurred in the past:<p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20110726001259/http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/10/18/exit" rel="nofollow">http://web.archive.org/web/20110726001259/http://diveintomar...</a>
There's a precedent for this. He disappeared from his blog for a while in 2004. Check the Google cache: <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:diveintomark.org/archives/2004/10/18/exit" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:diveint...</a>
> Is Mark Pilgrim pulling a disappearing act?<p>Shouldn't we respect his wishes? If he wants to pull the plug on his online identity, he should be allowed to do so without HN sending out an internet search squad.
He's making recompense for making JDBC part of the first exercise in a Python book.<p>He'll return from the self-flagellation in two years after some time spent at a monastery.<p>I fully expect his enlightenment will bring much into the world of programming.