alt Hacker NewsRead Going Postal as a teen and absolutely loved it. But from today's perspective, I don't think this header as a general way of mourning is a good idea.
It took two very specific bits from the Discworld lore (the Clacks overhead and GNU) and made it in a general ritual of mourning. But not every techie is a Discworld fan, and the obscurity of the name would draw more attention to the Discworld lore than to the people being mourned.
The idea of sending a header to remember a tech person is a great one, but I think the name should be something neutral, or something that has some relation to the person and not a random fantasy reference.
(Reminds me a bit how the Berlin Pirate Party used to have a "Pony Time" paragraph in its charter, that members could use to request joint My Little Pony watching sessions on congresses. [1]
Seemed like a good idea at that time as Bronies were a new thing and there was a lot of overlap with Pirate Party members. But seems pretty cringeful looking back from today, and also a tad disrespectful towards those who tried to do real political work within that party. Disclaimer: Only got to know about that from the outside, so if their own stance on that is different, I take it back)
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> random fantasy reference.
I think you underestimate just how much Pratchett is part of the pantheon of all time greats for many science fiction and fantasy fans. I suspect there is a considerable percentage of Pratchett fans among the people running the fractal infrastructure of the internet
obviously the difference is between the artistic merit of MLP and discworld.
Pony Time actually reminds me of the hard-boiled egg from the revolutionary rallying cry in another Terry Pratchett story.
Part of me feels a little sad that they set it aside if I understand your story correctly. Real world politics is rife with this kind of tradition for tradition's sake. It's one of the things that ends up binding people together in the long run. Compare and contrast The Black Rod in the British Parliament and their role in summoning the Commons.
> The idea of sending a header to remember a tech person is a great one, but I think the name should be something neutral, or something that has some relation to the person and not a random fantasy reference.
You made me laugh - this has 'old man shakes fist at cloud' vibes, which is concerning as it seems we are about the same age!
If you wanted to add a header `X-In-Memorium` to any site that you control, go ahead. If anyone adds `X-Clacks-Overhead` to their site, its not going to affect you.
The My Little Pony thing seems, from an outsiders quick look, like it does meaningfully affect other people.