Well, I'm off to the monastery for a week. I highly doubt there will be any opportunity for monastic blogging, so just in case there is any interest *ahem*, here are the rest of the responses to the Craig’s List suicide note.

Response #25, heavily edited for syntax, grammar, formatting, and especially brevity:

Date: 2003-09-25, 3:23PM

Well sir, if nothing else you have provided this day on Rants & Raves with some interesting food for thought. It blows my mind the amount of people who shut-up about their whiney complaints and tried to extend help. It reaffirms my faith in the human race. Thank you for that! I am fascinated that suicide generates more responses than just about any other topic. Maybe down deep beneath all the bitching and moaning and groaning, we aren't that horrible as a people.

Have you noticed that Craig’s List actually makes you more depressed? After spending time in Rants and Raves, I find myself feeling more depressed due to the constant hate, bitterness, and fighting spewing out of everybody. After feeling completely drained by it all, it can leave you feeling like what is the point of even trying anymore. This board can actually be damaging to your emotional well-being. I am saddened and frustrated by the amount of ignorance and hate in the vast majority of people here. This site alone can lead someone “on the verge" to want to kill themselves!!

BUT (BIG BUT) . . . LOOK AT ALL THE GOOD you have generated here today!!!!!! You have accomplished something of great value. By all means stick around, we could use more of your input here! Send us a postcard from Tahiti or somewhere. Time to get out BUT NOT GIVE UP! Already, YOU HAVE HELPED MANY OF US HERE, just today. IMAGINE how much more you can do with your entire life ahead of you. Peace, Bro.

P.S., if you are a fake, thanks anyway. IT HAS been a good day on CL, AT LAST!

This response was considerably longer and really didn't say much more than this. It had more of a sarcastic edge, though. Overall it's positive and sympathetic, but affirms the negativity the suicide feels. I don't know. I just don't get a strong feeling out of this response, maybe I'm jaded after going through all these responses. Maybe it's just his style that isn't doing it for me. Maybe it's the irony and contradiction in how he's telling the suicide to not kill himself because of the positive effect he's had by posting on Craig's List that he was going to kill himself.