Links

This section contains links and references to a myriad of places on the Internet, which may be useful for both the depressed and the suicidal.

Newsgroups

 * alt.suicide.holiday (ASH) - a non-moderated, uncensored and pro-choice Usenet newsgroup that was founded in early 1990. Its message archive is here.
 * alt.suicide.methods (ASM) - a non-moderated, uncensored and pro-choice Usenet newsgroup that was founded in late 1997 as a sister-group to ASH. Its message archive is here.
 * alt.support.depression (ASD) - a non-moderated and uncensored Usenet newsgroup that has been around since at least 1994 and which focuses on providing support for people suffering from depression and other mood disorders. Obviously not suitable for any suicide method discussion.

General message boards

 * The Bus Stop – Chronic Suicide Support - a moderated forum (which includes a chat) that was founded in mid-2009 as a response to all the trolling on ASH. Suicide method discussion is strictly prohibited there.
 * Suicide Forum - a moderated British forum founded in early 2004 and which is reputed to be rather popular. Suicide method discussion is strictly prohibited there.
 * Freitod Forum - a moderated German forum that existed from late 2001 to late 2008. Archived versions are available at The Wayback Machine.
 * Suizid Area - a moderated German forum that was founded in late 2006, which does allow suicide method discussion. It was previously located here.

Specific message boards

 * Drugbuyers.com - a moderated forum dedicated to providing information about obtaining prescription drugs.

Regular chat

 * SuicideChat! - a chatroom for the suicidal.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

 * #alt.suicide.holiday - a pro-choice channel on the IRC-network Dal.net, it was first founded somewhere in 2000 (but has since had to be re-registered since the channel expired more than once). The channel is still occupied as of 2010, but the degree of activity varies. The channel is moderated by all members who have been trusted with the operator status. Suicide method discussion is seldomly seen these days, as people tend to primarily talk about their issues in the channel.
 * #alt.suicide.bus.stop - abbreviated to #asbs in everyday speech, this originally pro-choice channel came into existence on Dal.net in mid-November 2000, as a spawn-off of the aforementioned channel #alt.suicide.holiday. The channel no longer exists today but has a replacement in the form of #asbs on the Darkmyst IRC-network; the new channel is part of a greater community at the Mad Season network. #asbs is neutral and is mostly about general, non-specific discussion about depression and suicidal ideation. Partly out of fear for legal issues, the channel founder and moderators strictly forbid discussion of suicide methods, the formation of suicide pacts and announcements of dying dates.

Miscellany

 * alt.suicide.holiday - a group on Last.fm dedicated to the newsgroup of the same name.

General information

 * Suicide - the Wikipedia article about suicide, where one will be able to get a fairly good general idea about the cultural, legal, philosophical, etc. views about suicide.
 * ASH Busstop - located at http://ashbusstop.org, this exhaustive website no longer truly exists but still hosts the explanation for its shutdown on its address. Fortunately, one can still consult this website as it is largely archived by The Wayback Machine: click here for the last archived version available.
 * Being a friend to someone who is suicidal - a website about how one should *properly* deal with a suicidal person.
 * Suicide statistics - global suicide statistics, featured on the website of the World Health Organisation (WHO) here and here.
 * American compressed mortality rates - statistical information about the mortality rates of the USA during the 1999-2006 time period, as featured on the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) WONDER database.
 * Lost All Hope - located at http://www.lostallhope.com - statistical information on popular suicide methods from the UK and USA, minimum lethal dose information, various information about suicide methods compiled from a variety of sources, and a range of information and links designed to offer help to those feeling suicidal.

Written digital media

 * Suicide - an entry about suicide by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which explores several philosophical aspects of suicide in an extensive manner.
 * "Living as a Suicidal: In Defense of ASH" by Carthago deleta - a rather extensive essay which defends the existence of ASH and the state of being suicidal.
 * "Is Suicide a Sin?" by colonel Robert Green Ingersoll - a letter which explores whether suicide would be a sin and also provides a few core interesting thoughts about suicide.
 * "Suicide: A Civil Right" by Lawrence Stevens - a fairly short essay which explores why suicide is/should be a civil right.
 * The View from Hell - a blog which is apparently written and maintained by someone known as Sister Y. Even though the writer is not pro-suicide, he does support the right to one's own choice and despite his personal stance on suicide, has managed to write objective, rational and insightful entries.
 * "How not to commit suicide" by Art Kleiner - an informative and extensive article about exactly what the title says.
 * "Zelfmoord in een schijnwereld" by Misdefinitie - a modest Dutch essay, of which the title roughly means "Suicide in a shadow world" in English. Essentially, it is about suicide as a societal taboo, and how that taboo must be broken by talking about the subject freely. Those that don't speak Dutch might still be able to read the essay via an on-line translator like Google's (which is located at http://translate.google.com).
 * "The Parable of the Jelly Donut" by Hermotimus Boukephalos - a parable about why one's life is completely one's own to do with as one wishes, even if one was gifted his life.
 * "The Parable of God's Pottery Class" by Hermotimus Boukephalos - a parable similar to the one mentioned above.

Audio-visual media

 * Death - a free 26-lecture course from the University of Yale, given by professor Shelly Kagan.
 * The Bridge - a 2006 documentary about suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. One should be able to rent it somewhere, or view a legal, free stream of the documentary somewhere on-line.
 * ASH World Wide Suicide - a 2002 Dutch documentary (which is presented in English) about the newsgroup alt.suicide.holiday. It was available for free watching at HollandDoc, but after a redesign of their website, the documentary is currently not available. However, it is expected to be re-added to the website in the future.

General

 * Suicidemethods.net - official website of Geo Stone's book Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences, which contains informative excerpts from his book and other useful information. Note: Somewhere between July-November 2011, the website was taken off the air and replaced by a pro-life blog (which is not owned by Geo Stone). An archived version of the original website is still available at The Wayback Machine.
 * ASH Methods File - this is just what the name says it is. The original version is located here, and the most recent version can be found here (I mentioned both versions for a reason, so that one can compare the two). Both versions are outdated as per 2010, and should therefore never be unthinkingly regarded as 100% reliable. Another alternative link is this one, by the way.
 * A.S.H. website - dedicated to the newsgroup alt.suicide.holiday, this website existed from 1993 to late 2002, during which time it went through many maintainers. Its last known address was http://ash.xanthia.com, at which it had been located since December 1998. After the website's shutdown, an archived version of the website was available at http://ash.spaink.net from mid-2003 to early 2008. Some parts of the website can still be consulted at The Wayback Machine, but probably the best archived version can be found at Ashspace: http://archive.ashspace.org/ash.xanthia.com.

Detergent suicide (as presented by Dr. Kiriyu)

 * How to detergent suicide - two tutorials (here and here) about how to carry out the detergent suicide method, written by the Japanese Dr. Kiriyu. Warning: these tutorials contain pictures of dead people that used this method.
 * Detergent suicide information in PDF-format - Japanese information about detergent suicide in two PDF-files, which were located here and here but were removed at some point in time.

Miscellany

 * Suzy's Law - a website dedicated to the Suzanne Gonzales Suicide Prevention Act of 2009. The namesake of this bill, Suzy Gonzales (+ 2003), was a member of the newsgroup alt.suicide.holiday at the time she decided to end her life.
 * William Francis Melchert-Dinkel - a Wikipedia article about the Internet predator Bill Melchert-Dinkel, who was active on the newsgroups ASH and ASM and at least one channel on IRC. He played a significant part in the deaths of at least two people.
 * Prosecute William Melchert-Dinkel - a Facebook group dedicated to encouraging the prosecution of Internet predator William Melchert-Dinkel.

Audio-visual media

 * alt.suicideholiday.net - a 2005 Dutch film (which is presented in English) inspired by the newsgroup alt.suicide.holiday.

Digital art

 * ASH Doodleboard - a collection of often funny art made by members of the newsgroups ASH and ASM at the currently still-functional doodleboard. Originally hosted at http://altsuicideholiday.tripod.com, the ASH Doodleboard has been located at http://www.sketch.me.uk since 2005.

Miscellany

 * Church of Euthanasia - a semi-serious website that seems to be mostly comic and satirical.