Twenty years ago a young man I had never even met spoke right to my soul when he said that Everything2 is a Community. Days later, he proved the truth of it when his death provoked an outpouring of grief and confusion as hundreds of noders struggled to come to terms with his decision. We were the first generation living our lives online. Our loves, dreams, fears, petty fights and daily inanities filled hundreds of writeups a days, not to mention the constant dizzying chaos of the Catbox. The world, we said, had changed in an instant. What, we asked each other, could be more shocking than this terrible loss?

Adam, I am sorry we didn't have time to mourn you as you deserved. Your choice, our loss, shaped this community in ways none of us could have predicted on September 9, 2001.

/me misses Hermetic