Current Events > The developer of the best SNES emulator ever made committed suicide...

(+) Yeah! (+)

Conflict posted...

ClunkerSlim must be a really huge fan of Kiwifarms to the point where he's coming up with braindead conspiracy theories because he really doesn't want to think they might've actually contributed to someone's suicide.

What? Im the one who believes in conspiracy theories? You read one google doc written by an almost anonymous user and bought into a story no one can verify. If anyone is believing a conspiracy theory then its YOU.

For the record, I dont know what the deal is because theres no verifiable proof that this actually happened.


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BeyondWalls posted...

OK, I found the threads on Kiwi Farms.
I'm reading now.

This shit goes deep and it looks like it's mostly nerd in-fighting. Arguments about SNES carts, ROM dumps, money, etc. This wasn't something over sexual orientation, etc (EDIT - maybe it was, seems like there's some mocking about him being a furry or something). It looks like he suffered from severe depression and was fighting a lot with his gaming community. I think Kiwi Farms cataloguing his fights was a source of anxiety, but I don't know if I'd say he was "targeted" by them. But I'm only one page in. I'll keep reading. But this honestly reads like a fight between Tails and Error over GameFAQs policy.

Could be that the argument went deeper than just sexual orientation but since the latter is the easiest method to gain views and blame someone...

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@Conflict

A Twitter user (@marcan42) published a Google Doc explicitly blaming the Kiwi Farms for harassing Byuu. No evidence of this harassment exists.

Byuu had a 13 page thread on the forum. Byuu participated in this thread. You can read the thread in archives here. 13 pages on the Kiwi Farms is an extremely small amount of discussion, especially for a thread as old as Byuu's.

Last year, Byuu said in this thread directly that he was not affected by the thread in any way. You can read the archive here and here.

The document claims that Byuu took his own life. No evidence of this exists. The person claiming to know he has died refuses to elaborate or provide evidence.

The last call with Byuu described in the accusation does not make sense. Consider that this person is supposedly a real life friend of Byuu (when Byuu also claims he had no real life friends), and consider that he did nothing for half an hour, but could remember the call well enough to describe an obscure French metal song playing in the background.

This is a ridiculous story. It does not pass any level of scrutiny and is not told in a way that makes sense.

Byuu has previously accused unaffiliated people of stalking and harassing him.

He made a post on his forum (which has since been deleted) accusing a rival emulator developer named Squarepusher from Retroarch of doing the same. A copy of this post is here.

Byuu has a history of posting ominous messages and then disappearing.

Last year, Byuu posted a message claiming he would no longer be active in development (archive).

He claimed to be getting too old and too burdened by work to continue development.After purging his social media, it triggered concern from the emulator community (archive).

At no point does he mention an intolerable, organized harassment campaign - let alone any abuse inflicted by the Kiwi Farms.

There is a claim that Byuu was 'doxed', then harassed in real life. This is also false.

Nobody knows who Byuu is. Even after years, nobody knows his last name. Nobody knows where he lives. Nobody knows where he works. He is completely anonymous and even now it is not possible to do a wellness check on him.

marcan42 claims that he contacted the Tokyo Police and confirmed the suicide (archive).

The Tokyo Police are not going to diclose, to a foreigner, in English, over the phone, that another foreigner living in Japan has killed themselves.

This alleged confirmation - stated as absolute fact by the sole person originating the claim that Byuu has killed himself - seriously undermines his credibility. No police department on Earth works the way Hector Martin has claimed the Tokyo Police does. And, despite this, there is still no independently verifiable evidence that Byuu is dead.

Byuu emailed me before posting his tweet chain (archive).

In it, he attempted to exort me. Byuu claimed that if I did not delete all information about him on the forum, he would kill himself and blame me.

He offered me $120,000 cash. I saw this as a legally and morally dubious offer at best, entrapment at worst, so I declined.

He also offered me his services helping write software for the Kiwi Farms.

I told him I would have to consult an attorney regardless. He did not wait even 24 hours after his first email before closing communications and deciding to go through with his plan at 3am my time.

In his emails to me, he promised a trusted friend would deliver a scan of his passport on Twitter within 5 hours of him killing himself as proof. Two days later, we still do not have this passport scan or any evidence he has killed himself besides the testimony of a Twitter user, citing an anoynmous third party.

I don't know what's true. But Kiwi Farms has made some compelling points.

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BeyondWalls posted...

marcan42 claims that he contacted the Tokyo Police and confirmed the suicide (archive).

Death is considered highly sensitive information, and the police will only ever report on deaths of high profile people.

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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

Death is considered highly sensitive information, and the police will only ever report on deaths of high profile people.

Which certainly lends creditability to Null's accusation that this is a hoax.

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The whole story seems very strange to be honest. The giant amount of money being offered for null to take the thread down, the suicide ultimatum, the only "confirmation" of the suicide coming from a word doc by one of his friends that reads like something from 13 reasons why, etc.

And I'm not a psychologist, but the notion that Near was suicidal to the point that they would complete it seems at odds with the fact he cared enough about his life/reputation to want that forum thread removed so badly. You'd think you'd become numb/apathetic to anything like that once you've entered a state of mind where you'd seriously end your own life. That's why people giving away treasured things to family/friends is seen as such a big red flag. :v

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Ardbert posted...

The whole story seems very strange to be honest. The giant amount of money being offered for null to take the thread down, the suicide ultimatum, the only "confirmation" of the suicide coming from a word doc by one of his friends that reads like something from 13 reasons why, etc.

Null also claims that Byuu has a habit of blowing up at people and then disappearing off the internet, only to reemerge sometime later. We'll just have to wait and see what happens here.

But if a new anonymous user showed up on GameFAQs, claimed I died, then later said they called the police in Japan to verify it but offered no proof, and then this mysterious user just vanished again.. well... I don't know if very many people here would believe that.

Kiwi Farms is clearly a horrible place, but everything about this seems like a hoax.

There's no proof this happened. It's just a random google document from an anonymous user who clearly seems like he's lying about calling Japan, and when people point that out, he disappeared.

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BeyondWalls posted...

Null also claims that Byuu has a habit of blowing up at people and then disappearing off the internet, only to reemerge sometime later. We'll just have to wait and see what happens here.

But if a new anonymous user showed up on GameFAQs, claimed I died, then later said they called the police in Japan to verify it but offered no proof, and then this mysterious user just vanished again.. well... I don't know if very many people here would believe that.

Kiwi Farms is clearly a horrible place, but everything about this seems like a hoax.

There's no proof this happened. It's just a random google document from an anonymous user who clearly seems like he's lying about calling Japan, and when people point that out, he disappeared.

Yea, Kiwi Farms is a cesspool, not trying to cast doubt on the story as some sort of defense for that site. Just this story is a lot to accept at face value. And I'd much rather him be alive and this be some sort of elaborate take down plot to stick it to the farms. lol

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https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/hwvyqw/does_anyone_know_if_byuunear_is_alright/

https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/fm7tvs/near_byuu_farewell/

https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1409549226325942275

Since this has come up privately a few times: I've been told that Near's wishes were for donation drives and similar fundraising campaigns to never happen in their name. Thank you.

More evidence that this might be a hoax. Two threads from last year where Byuu got angry, deleted his internet presence, and vowed not to return (he did.) And a tweet from the person who started all this and claimed Byuu died. Maybe those were Byuu's wishes (which seems really strange? who has that conversation?) Or maybe you don't want people sending in money in this guy's name if you know he's not really dead. Especially if some huge gofundme pops up and then people realize you helped swindle them based on a lie.


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