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Comment by dbbolton | Hacker News Reader

I understand that Stallman is an important figure in the software community, but this really doesn't qualify as news in my opinion. To be fair, the server went down so I can't access the article, but unless he had something really important in that bag, like the only copy of a new C compiler written from scratch, this article is just a minor inconvenience in the life of a celebrity.

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He had his passport.

I believe he is currently traveling through South America to give FOSS talks in many universities. I believe part of the issue is that because of this very details, it puts an end to his trip which has been rough and marked by health issues.

What I don't understand is why the post's author dares mentioning how RMS reacted. A bit of decency is always a nice thing to have, not to mention due respect.

Decency? We're adults, we respect him like other humans and we can handle the real story. At least we should have the decency to.

You're right on your last point however the way he initially reacted didn't add anything to the story. It was the nervous reaction of a man who realized the trip he had spent days organizing was being called off because of one individual.

Having personally met RMS and knowing other persons that have the same type of condition, I would say that those people need some respect in the way they handle emotions and other social artifacts.

Simply throwing a verb doesn't give enough depth for a correct understanding. In that regard, it's disrespectful.

Whoah, wait, what condition? I wasn't aware that Stallman had any condition that would cause him to react that way. I even just posted a comment that touches on that topic. I hope I didn't just sound like a jerk picking on someone with a mental/emotional disorder I didn't know about.

Read the second comment on the link.

You mean the second comment on the actual article page? I did. It mentions how distressed he was and why he was distressed but mentioned no condition. We are talking about a medical condition, right? I'm sorry, if that's not it then I might need it spelled out for me. If that is really it then I still think it was a little bit of an overreaction. I can definitely relate to being that upset but to be punching yourself in the head and carrying on that way where others can clearly see you is strange to put it nicely.

I am sympathetic to the fact that it was quite inconvenient for him, but it seems to me that this is only news because it happened to a celebrity.

It seems that his laptop was also stolen, which led to the cancelling of some lectures. That to me would have been a better article headline (i.e. "rms lectures cancelled due to computer theft).

Knowing HN, it will inevitably trigger discussions about the organization of conferences. For better or worse.

The article is not about rms, but about the venue where the celebrity got robbed.

Yeah. Right now the story is an hour old and has fifty comments.

"How can Richard Stallman getting his bag stolen be that interesting a story?", I thought, as I read the headline. "I guess I should read the story, there must be, in the details, some more important point about how the bag was stolen or what it contains that has broader relevance!"

... turns out, nope. He just had his bag stolen. Y'know, that sucks and all, but I'm still not sure why I'm supposed to care. Richard Stallman didn't care when I got my bag stolen.

Oh come on. I'm sorry, but how can you be older than 12 and not understand how this stuff works?

Would Steve Jobs have come to any of our funerals? Doubtful. That didn't stop literally the entire front page from being filled with articles about his passing.

They're celebrities in our little community. For better or worse, people want to know when painful, wonderful or otherwise-interesting things happen to celebrities.

Check out a copy of "People" or another celebrity gossip magazine next time you're at the grocery store. Same thing, but for a different community of people.

You may be immune to celebrity-fascination, but most people aren't and that's just how the world is. Get over it.

Even by the standards of celebrity culture, though, so-and-so gets his luggage stolen is a pretty darn piss-weak story.

It may be relevant if his following appearances - as it looks like he was on the tour - will be affected by this. I.e. if he will be unable to appear at the next planned event, people would want to know what happened. I know if I planned to meet some interesting person and the event was cancelled at the last moment, I'd like to know what happened.

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