You and the GGP author joined in 2018, so maybe you haven't noticed yet, but the black bar has always very much been an "at the whims of the site operator" thing. If you try to apply any other metric (like "tech giant"), you'll be scratching your head at who gets one and who gets left out. (I don't think you're missing anything, the only thing I know about this person is that according to my browser history I visited his July 2023 post, but I had no recollection of that as to me it was just another in the long line of sad posts about cancer and terrible government barriers in attempts to treat it.)
> You and the GGP author joined in 2018, so maybe you haven't noticed yet, but the black bar has always very much been an "at the whims of the site operator" thing.
I'm not questioning that at all. I'm just trying to understand who this person was and why they're getting this attention.
> Jake joined HN in 2008, and has (had?) 80000 karma and change.
Is that all though? I kind of find it hard to believe he'd be getting this much attention because he has a lot of internet points.
The OP makes it seem like he was some kind of libertarian activist. It looks like he wrote some kind of 50 Shades of Grey-like novel ten years ago.
Is answer that he's a long time blogger known for writing very personal blog posts about dying of cancer?