19 year old from Florida commits suicide on Justin.tv

A kid broadcasts his death on your service, allegedly egged on by your community, and your CEO statement falls back on cut-and-paste boilerplate?<p>Do better. Fast.

<a href="http://blog.justin.tv/2008/11/moment-of-silence.html" rel="nofollow">http://blog.justin.tv/2008/11/moment-of-silence.html</a><p><i>Justin.tv staff would like to take a moment to recognize and reflect upon the tragedy that occurred within our community today. We respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this challenging time.<p>Michael Seibel CEO, Justin.tv</i>

Protip: This is not Justin.TV's fault.<p>This is no ones fault but the adult's (he was over 18). It really is that simple - though you wouldn't know it from the media.<p>America: where self-entitlement lives on and accountability goes to die.

A similar thing happened on a site that I co-founded: <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-01-rampage-messages_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA" rel="nofollow">http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-01-rampage-messa...</a><p>It was pretty horrific. We spent about a week being interviewed by the media and trying to limit the damage both to the site and to the perception of AS.

I'm sorry to the family and friends of the kid, suicide is the only kind of death that never makes sense no matter how much time passes...<p>As for justin.tv this could cut both ways. The family could sue, their traffic could go nuclear or both could happen. I don't think justin.tv did anything wrong but if you can sue McDonalds for making coffee too hot you definitely have a shot at this. This could also make national news and justin.tv will attract millions of viewers. I think that they need to be really careful to play down any real or perceived financial benefit that comes from this. They got a lot of attention when the cops banged down his door and this will be a much bigger deal. Being "the place to go" for shocking live videos is a double edged sword. Maybe they should donate to charity in the kid's name?<p>While a confused teenager's suicide is a tragedy, j.tv is also a victim here. The kid unwittingly put a bunch of other young guys he's never met who are just trying to make a startup in the middle of what may become a major witch hunt.<p>Good luck with this...

This is one of those critical moments that may well define how people think about this company in the future. As mentioned before, the CEO needs to do better, right away.<p>Just to clarify, I am referring to the response, not to the actual event.

Wow, check this out: <a href="http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/315/random_pics/bad_move_moderator.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/315/random_pics/bad_move_m...</a> ... The image shows two messages on the bodybuilder.com forums.<p>"A poster has said he was going to OD on JTV in the link here: <a href="http://www.justin.tv/feels_like_ecstacy" rel="nofollow">http://www.justin.tv/feels_like_ecstacy</a>. It seems like he is not breathing by the looks of the stream. Please track his IP and alert someone."<p>And in response, a bodybuilder.com forum moderator said:<p>"he's an attention whore, you should see all the threads he starts, then deletes"<p>This might've all turned out differently had the moderators acted on the information available. I'm not saying that it should be illegal for the moderators to not care, just that I personally would have at least <i>looked</i> at the information the poster provided before dismissing it as "just another attempt at attention whoring".<p>If you wanted to get to know the kid a little bit, or if you wanted to know the mentality of someone on the brink of suicide, here's a link to Bigg's blog: <a href="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&#38;friendID=206599326" rel="nofollow">http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&#3...</a>

Life's hard. I don't know if that many of us here on HN have had suicidal thoughts, but i have. I wasn't serious though, i was more like an attention whore. There is this thing that keeps us going, and that thing is very deeep, and is older that our species, and when that thing conflicts with our modern brain, we get confused. What is the meaning of life? Why should i go on? The answer to these questions can't be "our instincts tell us to", it doesn't make sense, but it does, actually life is worth just for the living, and we should just go on, because our instincts tell us, they know better, they had billions(not millions) of years to evolve and refine them selfs, our minds have been around for only a few million years, which one should you trust? I have more to live for than what my instincts tell me, but many don't, and they have the power to ignore them, and we have no right to judge them, they overcame the most important of all our instincts with their minds, that takes will, even if its a stupid decision, its a valid one(not always of course).

I'm holding back tears.<p>We must find a way to make the internet a nicer place. Such astonishing cruelty breeds here. Why?

This is horrible.<p>Hopefully it gives the Justin.tv community a reality check. They were egging him on?!? As someone who volunteers on a suicide helpline, I'm amazed that people won't condemn that kind of behavior <i>before</i> it causes real harm.

This has happened before and will happen again. The first internet-based 'televised' event I know of is the 'ripper' event on IRC channel #shroomery. Logs are stilla vailable online, one instance at <a href="http://b00mb0x.org/blog/pic/chattrans.html" rel="nofollow">http://b00mb0x.org/blog/pic/chattrans.html</a>

God the media is going to try to blame Justin.tv for this. While the CEO's statement was bad, he was probably caught off guard and didn't know what to say. At least I hope that's what happened.

It is a tragedy and I feel sorry for him. This is, I think, the only appropriate comment.

Reason number 245 why Justin.tv won't be able to sell advertising.

My heart and my prayers go out to this guy's family and to all families who have similarly suffered.

Sad story. I'm sure they'll get a new statement out.<p>Also see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Vedas" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Vedas</a>

Idiots: also available on justin.tv.

Sad for his family and friends. Nothing to add about the legal/corporate aspects, as you have already addressed those. Human tragedy. Here's a helpful resource for the prevention of teen suicide you can share if you wish...<p><a href="http://www.SpeakUpSaveLives.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.SpeakUpSaveLives.org</a>

You know, people would do this less often if they generated less public attention. Ultimately, it's up to the person to save themselves, and if they choose not to, that's their choice.<p>Plus, we should start calling suicide for what it is: cowardice and selfishness, instead of fawning over the poor souls who didn't receive enough love and attention.

&#62; The contention that filming and uploading (and even hosting video of) a crime is a crime as well might not be valid, but given the very nature of live broadcasts, the issue becomes more complicated.<p>Is suicide a crime?

Please remove this.

Which begs the question of justin.tv's whole raison d'etre:<p>How the f--- does facilitating self-perpetuated voyeurism (to this particular degree) add value to society?

This is sad, really sad.

Crazy stuff. Poor kid. Just show's you can't take what you're told online seriously.

www.nonhackernews.com

Reminds me of that James Woods film, "Videodrome", an existential musing on reality, specifically, television being more "real" than real life. While dated, one could update the "Videodrome" movie concept for the internet age. Obviously, Justin.tv did nothing wrong, in terms of the fact one cannot edit live video. It does bring up questions about the need for sensationalism, that somehow there is a collective need for it, almost like an archtype.

Question: how do I downvote people.

he told u he was hardcore

Pills? If you're going to live broadcast your own death, make it more interesting than watching paint dry. Sheesh.