They commited suicide after decades of harrassment from KiwiFarms and the Retroarch devs.
They even attempted to change their internet alias multiple times to avoid their incessant stalking until settling to their final one (Near).
They even attempted to change their internet alias multiple times to avoid their incessant stalking until settling to their final one (Near).
Edit: A child post has provided reasonable evidence that I'm mistaken about Near preferring singular-they pronouns; "he" is likely fine. Apologies for the mistake. I will leave the original body of the post as I still think it's worthwhile to remember why Near was targeted for such harassment.
I also believe marcan (another friend of Near's) commented something similar, but I can't seem to find it (I think it was on Twitter).
Near's spouse referred to Near via "he/him/his" in all of the police/consulate correspondence in the FOIA, so it seemed alright to me.
That's just the tip of it though.
TLDR; The retroarch devs had an IRC channel where they would shit on byuu/near all the time, for no reason other than a group of them did it constantly. It was part of their "community".
I'm always wary with these one-sided "X was oppressed by meanies for no valid reason!" and using suicide as a way to enshrine it.