> Give them a call, you're not harassing them.

Before posting this idea online... Maybe, possibly, but personally I still think it's a bad idea.

After posting this on HN - no! If you think it's a good idea, so will other people reading this. (And others have before you) After the post reaches the front page - absolutely no - there's a bunch of socially awkward people already thinking about calling the author and they really should NOT DO THAT.

The author owes us absolutely nothing and if they want to disappear, that's their right. Calling them is demanding their time in a not trivial to ignore way. Just write an email that can be deleted async.

You are right: it is silly, but also, given the amount of robo-calls in the US, cold calling someone you don't know is a good way to be put on auto-spam.

If you really want to reach out, his email seems to be the way he prefers to be reached, so that's what I'd recommend.

PS: He did some commits to his personal website about 1.5 years ago: https://github.com/Hopding/Hopding.github.io/commits/master

> I think that's silly. Do we really live in an age where we feel it's better to simply not communicate with people in the slightest?

I agree it’s silly. But it’s also the prevailing view that I’ve seen.

I still answer calls, even if 95% of them these days are either phishing attempts or vendors trying to sell me stuff. But my friends will text me first and say “can I call you” even if I say they can just call.