Why have people downvoted this? The linked statement doesn't give any background on why he's leaving so it's not an unreasonable question.

I downvoted it because it was needless speculation by an anonymous account called "routergate" which was created 35 minutes ago for the purpose of stirring the pot.

Exactly right. If you want to say something snark then human-up and say it, don't try to hide behind a throwaway account.

I've never had any problem making critical comments about Heroku's load balancing design under my real name. I honestly don't know what you paranoid people are on about.

I don't understand. Why can't you mention Rap Genius's problems with Heroku routing if your name is attached to your account?

Starting rumors about someone's termination/resignation is never good for your professional reputation.

Then, don't do it?

If you are anonymous why not?

This is the elephant in the room that everyone wants to know.

I doubt this story would even have made the front page of HN without the outing by Rap Genius.

Thanks, that does make sense.

It doesn't read like he was fired or quit in disgust, so what's a hypothesis that could explain the connection?

So you believe what you read? This post gives exactly zero insights about his leaving reasons. The stuff about the nice team is just normal happyspeak, he could be completely pissed off he would have written the same exact words.

Is this a troll too? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5801991 Or is it only a 'troll' if someone of 'ill repute' (aka anonymous account) says it?

calling someone a troll is basically bullying: it's using a label to shut someone up, implicitly identifying with the majority ("you're not one of us; you're not normal; hence you're wrong").

the way to deal with this kind of bullying is to call them out on it. show that what you are is normal. hence my post. because bullies aren't going to attack someone who has status and confidence, who shows that the behaviour they were criticising is reasonable.

sure, some trolls are simply wrong. but if they're wrong you can show that. there was nothing wrong here. just a bunch of cowards who saw a chance to bash someone else in the name of being offended (and i suspect, depressingly, with the hope that the person they were being offended for would recognise and reward them - because famous entrepreneur on hn. eugh).

I would say no, but the routergate comment could be a case of sockpuppetry, which I would personally classify as a type of trolling.