Well, nothing's ever permanent in life so I shan't shed a tear if Lauda voluntarily chooses to leave the forum.
So much for trying to “avoid histrionics”. I just spent 12 hours obsessed with an Internet forum thread, then passed out drunk for awhile. LOL.
* nullius slaps himself with a large trout.
(Also, you know, OP did not really sound so “voluntary”. What the fuck!? No, I don’t know.)
It is real. Don’t get your hopes up. :-(
I was about to ask you to poison a couple of merit for the OP on my behalf since I'm empty... But I see that you have already appreciated the OP's post to the maximum
At least 51% of the reason why I returned to the forum on 2020-01-01 was to reconnect with Lauda. And now she’s gone, as if she waved a magic wand and vanished into another plane of existence.
Although there are others here whom I respect and admire and should wish to consider my friends, I have had limited interaction with most of them. Lauda was the only person on this forum whom I deeply trusted on a personal level (not considering those whom I’d say I very much trust professionally, such as Bitcoin Core developers). She is also one of the only true freethinkers whom I have ever met.
She and I had our disagreements. We had some rousing debates in private. For one thing, she was what I considered to be softhearted (LOL). But she was not one of the sheep who proclaim themselves “freethinkers”, then bleat in horror if anyone steps away from the herd. She had negligible tolerance for stupidity, and none at all for malice; but I think that anyone who is honest and intelligent (in that order) could get along with her just fine.
And I cared about her opinion. And I actually cared what she thought of me! In case nobody noticed, I do not give a damn about most people’s opinions—and I tend to be contemptuous of others’ opinions of me, personally. Whereas Lauda commanded respect—not by demanding it, but by deserving it. I think it’s inevitable that anyone with basic honesty and intelligence would come to respect her, sooner or later.
Lauda was always for privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, financial freedom... freedom, freedom! —the things without which all of the other things I care about cannot exist! And she once told me that if I agreed with her about everything, it would be boring.
Whoever she is, she is a rare mind. Not just some screen name on the Internet. Outside of my family, of all the people whom I have ever met in real life, I cannot think of even a half-dozen who have been more personally significant to me—who have merited such significance.
Wherever she is, I hope that she’s ok. She said some very worrisome things; but I can’t worry about it, when I can’t do anything about it.