This has come up here before... well not the issue of what to do with someone's profile... we've only been able to speculate, but we're almost certain we've lost at least one since I've been here. Unfortunately, in most cases, we can never be sure if that's why an active member suddenly stops posting.It actually was the catalyst for us to put in an option on member profiles to add an emergency number for us to contact should we become concerned about the well being of a member.
We don't really have a clear protocol about when to contact someone, or what to do if such an event happens... I wouldn't think we'd be deleting anything though.
On another site I was a member at, there was a very tragic loss of a member - we found out almost immediately as she was at the home of another member when it happened. Nothing of hers was deleted. We honoured and grieved her as a community, and everything she ever wrote stayed put exactly as she wrote it.
I think it's appropriate for a person's posts would remain there for anyone who might like to come and revisit them... I hope we would never consider removing someone's profile after they've left us for any reason.
It is a bit sobering when you think about it though... to think that every word you've ever written on a forum might be there long after you're gone - even the stuff that may have been written in the heat of battle... do you think if people thought about that before they hit submit, they might reconsider what they've written?
That is always my intention everytime I post, which is to best represent who I am as a real person within each of my posts.... both good and bad.
I have thought about this situation as it would relate to me sometime in the future and wondered what kind of procedures I myself should go about setting up for when I die.
Do I just cease to exist in here and not get someone to let everybody know that I didn't get fed up and leave, that I actually died, or should I get someone I know to pop onto the various places I have been and let other's know, via using my account one last time?
Then again, who would really care and would it be worth while? We all die, that's a given.
As it goes for what to do about members who pass away, I don't believe clearing their account and/or wiping their posts and all records of them would be the best thing you could do. Sure in some cases some people might feel too emotional seeing their avatar, or their posts, or anything else by them for that matter...... but wiping everything they have done, everything they spent time in doing, all the information they wished to share with many other people, does a big injustice to their memory, as you're deleting those memories..... why? Because they hurt..... sure, I can understand that.
But it's not your information to delete or remove, it's theirs that they wished to share with everybody else, not just yourself. Generally speaking, I feel it's a selfish act when people do this just to comfort themselves..... what happens after you accepted their death, moved on from it, and learned to deal with it? Would you still have wanted all their information and work removed? What if you requested it to be removed only to regret the decision down the road? Once it's done, it's done..... there's very little chance of getting it back.
But I did say generally speaking, in some cases, such as the OP (I don't know, nor do I want to know what happened) it is best to do so..... it depends on the situation. But I feel that for myself, no matter how much it may hurt me to keep seeing someone's information, posts, contributions in a paticular web site, I would never request their stuff be removed/deleted.
If it bothers me that much, then I will either remove all the information I can from my own account so it isn't always shoved in my face, or I just will leave the place period.
Regardless of what it all is we're speaking of.... be that myspace, facebook, forums, whatever.... that is a part of their history.... history that will last for as long as the site does. When I die, my Myspace, Facebook, etc. will remain the same, so that if anybody wishes to, they can visit my stuff and reflect apon anything they wish..... and I would do the very same.
Going back to how one would post knowing that much of this would remain long after they are dead..... I go back to the point that we are all human, with our own emotions, reasoning, logic, beliefs, etc..... whether they are good or bad to you, may turn out to be the opposite for another. Perhaps much of my stuff could be considered crap.... then again, maybe it's just so-so.... or good.... who knows? Who cares? I let people take it for what it is and make their own judgements for themselves.
If I'm remembered as a decent person who liked to shake things up, then so be it..... if I'm remembered as a loud mouthed jerk.... then I'll be haunting your ass :twisted:
