I had largely moved on from Usenet and mailing lists by the mid 00s when I started using Python in earnest, so I was largely unaware of the people involved even if I would have recognized the names. Tim's participation in Stack Overflow gave me (at least as best I can recall) my first real exposure to him as a person, and resulted in a cherished memory and one of what I like to cite as the feathers in my cap: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21297887 .
He wrote a very detailed answer to a question I had years ago: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61758735/find-longest-ad...
At the time I didn't realize it was the Tim Peters. Very helpful guy. RIP
Re:In Memoriam: Tim Peters 1952–2026
by burning_hamster on Friday November 13, 2026 @07:32AM
(#50482597)
I had the same experience. I was new to stackoverflow, and got all kind of flak for my question (but not a single useful answer), but then came along Tim Peters and provided a thoughtful answer that improved on my original approach and a solution that worked perfectly [1]. I was blown away that someone with so much clout in the python community would bother to take quite a bit time out of their day to help a noob. That answer was probably one of most important reasons why I continued to hang out on stackoverflow, which made me a much better problem solver in the long run.
RIP, Tim.
I like reading his answers. He always seemed to have something interesting to say, and his answers are kind, light-hearted, approachable and insightful.
[0] https://stackoverflow.com/a/69859068
[1] https://stackoverflow.com/a/19391867