Mourning the loss of someone is a personal thing, yes. Friends, parents, teachers will mourn his absence in a deeply personal way, fondly holding on to fading memories.
The encouragement to black out HN is an acknowledgement of a communal loss. This is not "everyone change their desktops to his face." This is "let's unobtrusively black out the top bar of a site frequented by people just like him." This is someone who made contributions to the software community and fought for open access to information. People of similar calibre fought and continue to fight to keep the internet free and open.
It is not just for him, but to demonstrate as a community that we're here for anyone else facing similar issues. It shouldn't be "offensive" as a group to recognize our like-minded allegiance to the ideas and vision he passionately pursued.
I wouldn't be offended by a black bar. I just don't like calling on other people to do stuff. Likewise you could ask of a widow to wear black for a year, and if she wouldn't, you could start gossiping and badmouthing her.
Also, there are more and more people who go through HN. Perhaps eventually the bar has to be black all the time because somebody always dies.
The encouragement to black out HN is an acknowledgement of a communal loss. This is not "everyone change their desktops to his face." This is "let's unobtrusively black out the top bar of a site frequented by people just like him." This is someone who made contributions to the software community and fought for open access to information. People of similar calibre fought and continue to fight to keep the internet free and open.
It is not just for him, but to demonstrate as a community that we're here for anyone else facing similar issues. It shouldn't be "offensive" as a group to recognize our like-minded allegiance to the ideas and vision he passionately pursued.