Think about it this way...<p>Imagine you were the caretaker of a public establishment like a school or business, and news broke of the passing of an eminent person who was deeply respected and admired by many of the people who frequent that establishment.<p>So you went and lowered the flag to half-mast, because that is the customary and respectful thing to do.  And whilst most people appreciated the gesture and felt comforted by the shared sense of mourning and respect for the deceased person, a small minority erupted into a noisy debate about how appropriate it was to lower the flag, and whether someone else was more worthy of having the flag lowered in their honour, etc.<p>If you can imagine this scenario in real life, you can understand how dang feels when this kind of argument erupts on a bereavement thread on a site he runs and cares so deeply about cultivating as a pleasant site to visit.<p>He can&#x27;t be the one to call people out for being insensitive, but he can at least say &quot;Thank you&quot; to someone who does, and who in doing so, gives him some much-needed reassurance about the level of emotional intelligence around this place.<p>Discussions about the merits of customs and policies on the site are fair enough, but if we&#x27;re to be as humane and compassionate online as we would try to be offline, the time and place of the mourning and honouring of a just-deceased person is not the right time and place.