Matt Haughey’s Twitter bio reads: “I make things on the internet. He’s been doing that for years and he’s also been leading a pretty public life by way of his personal blog, his old-school community site and now his Twitter account.

Matt is also, by all accounts, an incredibly nice guy (I’ve met him a couple times, bugged him a few more times via email, etc, and have found nothing to the contrary). A few days ago, Matt found out he might need brain surgery (they are currently attempting hormone therapy as an alternative).

Would this be information you’d share online? In the abstract, I’m pretty sure my answer would be no. But since Matt shared his troubles, I may have changed my mind. The outpouring of support for Matt, from those who know him, have met him, and only know his web personality has been truly inspirational. Matt is facing tough obstacles. But he knows he’s touched many people. He knows he has their thoughts and support. You get enough 140 character messages and it adds up. If there is any truth to the notion that a person is better able to heal with good vibes and massive community support, Matt will surely benefit greatly, as he explained a few days after the support rolled in:

It’s oddly amazing to see the outpouring on twitter, and in a weird way I feel like I got to attend my own funeral and hear all the nice things people said about me after there was a chance I could be gone. It was all quite a surprise and I felt awed and loved and supported by everyone’s good thoughts and kindness towards me. As I shut my laptop I feel like I just crowd-surfed the entire internet as they held me high above and as cliched as that sounds it was a very good feeling to sleep to.

Like thousands of others, I am inspired by the outpouring of good thoughts and I wish Matt the very best.

This post originally appeared in Tweetage Wasteland which has been merged with NextDraft.