This Is Something We Don't Want To Talk About But I Think We Should.

[DEM FAN]

I Have Been Thinking About This. I Think We Should Do SOMETHING
When One Of Us Here At DU Dies. I Think We Should Do Some Kind
Of A Shrine. I Am Thinking About Something Small But That Is Worth
While. I Think We Should Retire That Persons Log In Name.After All
We Are A Family Here And I Just Think We Should Do Something. Of
Course We Can Come Up With Some Other Ideas. What Do You Think.

[trof]

1. I think that's a great idea.

We lost an elderly member (even more elderly than me) a few months ago. Some kind of rememberance roll would be nice.

[Buns_of_Fire]

3. I remember that. His son said goodbye for him.

Unfortunately, it happened on DU1. I have the URL saved, but it doesn't do much good on DU2.

I think it would be a very nice thing to do. The only problem (and forgive me if I'm being too morbid here) is that people tend to come and go. Who knows who has died, who is merely taking a break, or who has just gotten fed up for one reason or another and left for good?

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. That was alljunkmail.

His grandson or great-grandson belongs as prodigal junkmail.

[efhmc]

2. It is a great idea but I have a better one: No one die. We need you all.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

4. How will we know?

You know, some people just stop coming...how do we know if they're dead or just don't like us anymore?
Duckie

[Cheswick2.0]

6. we won't know about most

but we will know about some of them and that is the best we can do.

[ikojo]

7. Excellent idea...

Reinforces the idea that this is a community and not just a shoutfest...

After all don't you yell loudest with those you love?


I hope there is no immediate need for such a thing. I have had too much death in the last two years.

[blondeatlast]

8. We can't always know. It's a great idea and when we are aware of any

difficulty, I think we should share our concern (with the "victim's" permission, of course). Doesn't need to be official; when I posted about my dad's cancer and then his death, I was overwhelmed by the love I was given from DUers. People kept it kicked, even posted a link in the more popular forums so that it wouldn't be missed.

All in all, we are one hell of a wonderful bunch of people.

Thank you to you all!

[Ivory_Tower]

9. I've thought about the same thing

A small remembrance page would be nice. At a minimum, it would be nice to have it indicated somehow in the User Profile. (Unfortunately DU uses a tombstone to indicate banned users in the profiles -- which, while I appreciate the humor in that indication, adds a bit of morbidity to putting something more serious in some profiles. Maybe an image of flowers or something would work?)

Of course, that's just more work for the admins, so I'm not going to push it. They have enough to worry about already.

And yes, it will be difficult to know who simply stopped logging in, and who actually passed away.

alljunkmail and ArthurDent42 are the only two deceased DUers I can think of off-hand.

Still a nice idea, though.

(Edit: formatting, and some clarification (hopefully))

[mike_c]

10. this is a wonderful idea....

DU is a community, and communities should remember their dead. I think I'm going to add a statement to my will-- if I die while DU exists, someone-- maybe just a lawyer, but someone-- should notify the community. Damn. That's a nice idea.

[grasswire]

11. you each need to leave instructions taped to your computer

Leave instructions for someone to send notifications to your netizen contacts in the event of your incapacitation or death. Leave the proper passwords, leave the email addresses, etc. Tape it on your computer or on your desk.

Very important in this era of new communities.