in which a good person is kind

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My son Ryan was home from college all week for Spring Break, and I kept expecting him to grab one of my logged-into-Twitter devices to tell the world how awesome I think he is. (I pretend to get all mad, but I secretly love it when he does this.)

Today, he went back to school, and I went out to meet a friend for lunch. We left the house at the same time, and when I got back and logged into Twitter, I saw this:

Who’s the greatest? Ryan. He’s the greatest. Someone should make a website named RyanWheatonEqualsGreatest.com. 

My first thought was, “I’m so glad he did that.” My second thought was, “Oh fuck. Some dick is going to buy that domain and do something horrible with it.”

Ryan is tremendously kind, and isn't the sort who would think "I better not do this, because someone may do something really terrible with it," but I've been around the block and through the wringer a few times, so I put the URL into Chrome, and steeled myself for the worst … but instead I saw that someone had indeed bought it, and made it go to the post he made on Twitter from my account.

I’m really lucky for a lot of reasons, but I’m especially grateful to interact with people on the Internet who are, for the most part, good people. I don’t know who bought RyanWheatonEqualsGreatest.com (whois is all protected and anonymized and locked and stuff), but whoever did it is a good person.

If you’re reading this, Person Who Bought RyanWheatonEqualsGreatest.com And Didn’t Do Something Cruel With It, please get in touch with me; I’d like to give you something awesome as a thank you.

64 thoughts on “in which a good person is kind”

  3. You know, my faith in the human race is restored by acts of kindness like this. :D
    But then I’m reminded we’re all doomed when the kid next door decides throwing water bombs at the window. Let me deal with this…

  4. I don’t know whether it’s just the the timing of the troubles in Japan, Red Nose day/Comic Relief here in the UK or just an apparently sudden burst of goodwill from a lot of people lately, but there do seem to be a lot of people behaving like decent human beings of late.
    So nice to hear about. :)

  5. There are a lot of cruel people in the word; who oft disregard the value of others. However; there are many more who nurture kindness in the world – and I always smile when I see their values shine through.

  6. Totally didn’t even think about that possibility. Yeesh. Glad it turned out okay and this AB Ale is for you! Also Ryan you rule.

  9. Man, I have had a hard week in terms of remembering being around the block and through the wringer, so this made me really, really happy.

  11. Saw the tweet and thought the same but I didn’t click at first that it was Ryan not you posting so thought ‘surely Wil would have bought the domain before posting that message’
    Bless Ryan for being the nice guy he is and bless whoever did buy the domain and wasn’t a dick about it.

  16. Running errands this morning I was confronted with an almost non-stop barrage of reasons to hate our people. Coming home and reading this reminded me of why I don’t. Well played Mysterious Domain Purchaser. :) And Hi to Wil and AwesomeRyan!

  17. That was me! I’m still shocked that I was able to get it!
    I’ve been reading your blog for a long time now. I can’t believe Ryan is already in college. I thoroughly enjoy the occasions when he commandeers your unguarded Twitter account. :)
    Anyway, if you want the domain for a Ryan Wheaton blog of awesomeness or something, shoot me an e-mail at that long obfuscated e-mail address in whois or at [email protected] and it should forward over.
    Thanks for being awesome, Wil. And good job, Ryan!

  18. You know, when I saw that I briefly thought about registering it just to make sure a troll didn’t do something rude with it, but I am not quite that good.
    Glad to see somebody used their $9 on behalf of the powers of good. :)
    (Also, this explains that tweet, which sort of confused me. :)

  20. Hey man…
    One of your older posts talked about a STAND BY ME film festival (in Portland I think).
    Was surfing the web and saw you and your co-stars celebrating the 25th Anniverary of the film.
    Will you be posting about it here? It would be an intersting follow up (unless there was something negative about it).
    All the Best!

  22. Wil – There was this one time when you tweeted about me and my friend, and you said something to the effect of “a non-zero percentage of people on the internet are dicks,” so that we weren’t super shocked when the mean comments rolled in. My newest thought on this matter? A non-zero percentage of people on the internet are complete dolls :)

  26. There are good and kind people doing good and kind things everywhere. You have to pay attention to see it because it typically does not end up on the news. Today I was a woman stop traffic to retrieve a couple lost dogs that were darting between cars….the frantic owner showed up seconds later and was so thankful. Later I saw a fellow drop his wallet at the grocery store and a teenager grabbed it right up and got it right back to him…the man looked more than a little shocked and impressed. There are truly beautiful souls all around you….believe it.

  27. I salute you sir and if you are ever stranded between Sandusky and Cleveland and need a rescue beer- I’ll be sure to get one to you.
    Side note… the gamer in me totally giggled at obfuscate and I crossed my arms.
    #Youcantseeme #gamergirlnerd

  29. As I was walking up the hill to get coffee this afternoon, there were two little girls playing by the sidewalk. When one of them saw me coming she ran down to me and handed me a four-leaf clover. Yeah, there is hope.

  32. awww that’s super sweet. It’s really great that you have such awesome relationships with your kids. My father and I have, aside from genes, virtually nothing in common unfortunately.

  33. I did something similar once. “Friends” (actually friends of a friend) were setting up a club, and had foolishly printed and distributed flyers for it BEFORE registering domains. Being savvy and a decent guy I bought up the rational choices, with an intention of presenting them to them at the first anniversary of their first venture a week later, only to get a stream of invective in threatening e-mails for squatting. After the threats I was inclined to flip them the bird, but I did the decent thing – in spite of, not because of, their behaviour.
    Not always easy to be the good guy. Bad feeling and a sour taste in the mouth for a long time over that.

  35. This is awsome and restores a little bit of faith I have in the world! Now lets pray that when the domain comes time to expire a spam bot doesnt pick it up. I would suggest checking on it every 6 months just incase if you cant find the person. I have lost a few websites to spambots. Not fun when they try to resell the site to me for 10 times what I orginaly payed.
    And if you (wil) had any influance in his life (I know you have), as any good parent would, I am sure that he is the greatest! becaus though thick and thin, parents do love their kiddos and tend to know their kiddos the best, both good and bad.

  36. There appears to be some mistake. When I was a young man, I enjoyed watching you in movies and then in Star Trek, where you were an annoying young teenager. (Hey, we all go through it.)
    Now someone appears to have hijacked your blog to talk about your son who goes to college. This is ridiculous, because you are a young punk. So if I was an adult when you were a teen, and you now have a college-age child…no, see, that just doesn’t make any sense.
    Please check again. Your son must be just a few years old, because I’m quite sure I’m still a young, young man.

  43. Wil,
    It is great to see such a positive entry with all of the current saddness in our world today. Not that I am forgetting about the suffering people but it is just nice to have some good news.
    FG

  44. To the person who did such a nice thing….. You ROCK!!!! Thanks for showing us there are still nice people out there.

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