Man fakes death online as ‘bad experiment or joke or whatever’

After being a member of the MetaFilter Internet community for about six years, a man faked his own death. The only explanation either he or his — potentially also fake — accomplice offered once caught was that the whole thing was a "bad experiment or joke or whatever carried too far."

MetaFilter is a community weblog where members contribute links and comments. MetaFilter — frequently shortened to MeFi — membership requires a one-time sign-up fee of $5.

A man who went by the username "holdkris99," had paid his sign-up fee about six years ago and had been an active and beloved member of MetaFilter since that time. But on May 14, not long after holdkris99 had last been active on the site, MetaFilter administrators received an email from someone claiming to be the man's wife. This individual explained that holdkris99 had committed suicide over the weekend and that she wanted to let MetaFilter members know about the incident as the community had played a significant role in his life. Read more...