I was searching for methods which lead me to The New York Times article, which lead me to here.
They used to run a poll asking this. I think it was in the sticky threads for a while...
It called to me when it was a subreddit sapling. We need that slogan back. DELAYING THE INEVITABLE
sanctioned-suicide.net
I actually wish it would be re-stuck there. It might make these 'do-gooder' journalists and You Tubers reconsider what they're doing- as in- refering a whole bunch of suicidal people to a site which gives them method information!
Personally, I was grateful. I'm sure a lot of other people were too but- there's a whole lot less filter on who sees their media. I was already suicidal. Had been decades prior. I was actively looking for somewhere like this. I think that's how it ought to happen though- organically.
Longer term members will likely remember that, since the Tantacrul video hit and seeing as I don't think he age restricted it initially, the site was swamped with very young members. No doubt a lot of minors tried to join and some likely did sneak in too.
I'd argue these journalists inadvertantly 'advertise' the place to a whole lot of people. If they truly believe it's that dangerous, it's so irresponsible to do that!
Personally, I don't think it's the 'death cult' it's made out to be. However, it is predictably a very negative space. We tend to share a fairly negative perpective of the world and our prospects of living in it. I don't think that necessarily is the best environment for some people. So, it seems stupid to advertise it to lots of people!