410 Gone

the resource is intentionally unavailable

the server owner desires that remote links to that resource be removed. (Fielding et al. 1999)

Online suicide

Infosuicide/infocide

Disengaging from the Internet via the deletion of all your publicly available information. (quadhome 2011)

Flounce

proclaim[ing] that they are leaving a community forever… leav[ing] a long ass, boring, nonsensical post explaining why they are so much more highly evolved than anyone else in the community. (Dramatica 2011)

Also

• Internet suicide
• Digital suicide
• Twittercide
• Facebook kevorkian
• Wikicide
• Wiki Mind Wipe
• Scribble

Community exit and the removal of one’s presence and contributions in an open content community

Method

Communities

open and voluntary communities producing free cultural products

Time

2006-2012

Data

100+ sources

Approach

naturalistic inquiry via theoretical sampling / emergent design

Analysis

iteratively coding sources into various categories

(1) Real Exhaustion

“It’s time for me to find a new hobby. Preferably one that doesn’t involve angle brackets. Or computers. Or electricity.” (Pilgrim 2004 qtd in rileyw 2011)

I recently returned to photography after a long absence…. If you’ve written to me in the past few years and I haven’t responded, I apologize; and if you’ve known me that long, you probably already know why.

(2) Community discontent

I have lost all my belief in the wikimedia projects. On some projects I still have moderating bits, I hereby ask the stewards to take these bits away as I do not wish to spend too much time anymore on the projects, I might shout a bit from the sideline. (Kalken 2006)

(3) Privacy: The collision of the real and virtual

(1) Silence

(2) Drama

Bye bye. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, you whining prima donna (Anonymous 2010).

(3) Sleuthing

If anyone is in direct contact with Mark, please let me know that he’s okay …, even if his internet presence has been erased. As much as I hate for the world to lose all of the incredible information he’s created and shared, that would be as nothing compared to losing the man himself (Meyer 2011)

a little later…

Mark Pilgrim is alive/annoyed we called the police. Please stand down and give the man privacy and space, and thanks everyone for caring. (Scott 2011)

• Mark Pilgrim made The Economist blog
• Phil Agre made NPR
• “JZ’s” mysterious ailment made Boing Boing

(4) Thanks and mirrors

Barnstar for missing Wikipedians

Mirrors of _why’s work

hence

Infocide…

… can be an antecedent to suicide

• a consequence of online exhaustion and discontent
• a dramatic performance
• a privacy-protecting measure

It can also be graduated.

Yet, should people be able to infocide?

Infocide > removing an embarrassing MySpace page

“Right to Leave” vs. “Wiki Mind Wipe”