I'm glad they have that choice, and the ability to share their story. In perspective there are many people in this world who die "unknown" - PBS airs the pictures weekly of teenage American soldiers who died in Iraq or Afghanistan - then there are those who were killed while trying to non-violently protest their unjust government (China, Iran, etc.) - then there are those who are too young to speak yet who are dying of starvation in certain parts of the world today.
Not trying to judge or weigh who is more worthy of a voice, I can only say it's good this one person got to be heard.
I guess they forgot to explain that while it's not bots that do it, there's a feature in reddit code itself makes it look to many people that such bots exist: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/eaqnf/pardon_me_but_500...
I've linked that so many times in threads about tragic events or sensitive questions where people even a single downvote personally (ie. it can happen with very small scores but high activity)
For example, years ago when reddit was new I used to post actual articles and consistently make the front page with them. But one day all my submissions suddenly started getting downvoted, many almost immediately after posting as if someone or something was constantly monitoring the new submissions page, killing any chances of developing the critical mass they used to get or of making it to the front page.
The nature of my postings hadn't changed at all, but the nature of reddit's voting behavior had, and not gradually but unnaturally abruptly, hence the suspicion. Whether it was a human voting ring like was exposed at Digg a while back, or actual bots, or just some no-life basement dwellers with nothing better to do than game reddit all day, I have no idea. I eventually abandoned that account, and now only post comments and the occasional question thread to smaller subreddits.
Of course one person's anecdotal experience is hardly evidence, much less proof, but suspicious nonetheless. When the reddit guys visited you and denied there were any bots, did they explain how they knew this? User agent info, statistical behavioral analysis, etc? I'd be really curious how they go about testing that hypothesis against their massive amount of data.
The numbers are fudged by a very small amount in a certain direction, based on my observation. I observed this by refreshing one of my own submissions and watching it gain a vote or lose a vote, and I knew exactly how many people had voted on it because it was in a purpose-created subreddit. One of the admins that lurks Hacker News can probably set us straight on which is correct.
I love that whenever I make a comment here even loosely related to Reddit, someone takes it upon themselves to assume that I've never even been to the site and condescend based on what they think they know. My comment wasn't even remotely about Reddit, but thanks for the correction.
Displayed numbers: 9498 Up, 6876 Down.
Real numbers: 2666 Up, 140 Down.
You cannot judge proportion by looking at the numbers Reddit shows.
That's a fascinating look at peoples' reactions to this. A reminder of mortality split right down the middle.