This is a bummer.

It's kinda long so to summarize, it's a post written by an online friend of a man who passed away recently. He disappeared from the internet and it wasn't until two weeks after he died that they found an article about his death from a Detroit newspaper. It wasn't an obituary, it was a plea for someone to come pay their respects before he was buried. In those two weeks no one had shown up for him. None of his online friends, whom it sounds like were his only friends, knew that he had been living in a homeless shelter for a few months and walked to the library to get online.

What happens in this situation is an interesting subject I haven't seen come up often. My only experience (at least, to my knowledge, which is kinda the whole point of this) was a couple years ago when a guy from another forum I used to go to was killed in a theatre lighting accident. His wife spread the news online, otherwise I guess no one would have ever known what happened.

This also reminds me of a killer idea I had for a business that continues twittering and updating facebook statuses and what not after you die so you can haunt the internet in perpetuity.

One of my good internet buddies from Ebaumsworld.com forums whom I've known about as long as you guys passed away last month due to Cystic Fibrosis. Feels bad man.

I swear I brought this up a couple years ago...too lazy to look it up. There's a service (or a couple actually) that notifies your online friends if anything should happen to you, so that they may pay their respects. They actually hold on to all your passwords and send them over to your one 'beneficiary' is how it works, I think. I can't remember exactly.

Reminds me, where's Cid? I fear the worst of that kid, but there's no way of me every knowing...

Yeah but mine's better cuz instead of informing people, it deceives them. And opens up a fascinating value of life dialogue! What happens when you die, your social networks keep getting updated, and no one notices you're actually gone. It's like American Psycho without all the fun murder.



Yeah, exactly, where's a good chunk of the old regulars here? THEY COULD ALL BE DEAD AND WE'LL NEVER KNOW PROBABLY.

I have a friend who passed away a few years ago, and his daughters created a facebook page in his memory, under his name. I was slightly freaked when I got the friend request, but common sense prevailed and I knew it had to be something of the sort. I have never posted anything on the page...it just kind of feels weird. I didn't know his girls when they were growing up- I only knew him from high school. I probably won't ever post there, but I respect it is a place where his family can share and I'm glad to be a part of it.
I had a great friend who was in my guild, and passed away from a heart attack one morning getting ready to do pvp battlegrounds with another guildmate (both of whom were my friends in real life and live near me) and we didn't find out until later that night when his son (also in the guild) let us know. That was hard. But it worked out that we got to let everyone know quickly- it did save for awkwardness in the future. **On a side note his son got to take over the account; he had to produce the death certificate to Blizzard to not only take it over, but to get the automated credit card payment cancelled. It was a hassle and pretty much in poor taste on Blizzard's part. But yeah, it's still strange when I see his characters log on. I know it's the son, but I played with these people daily for 4 years. I still haven't been back in a bg other than for an achievement since.
One other thing I'd like to mention. I have mutual friends who are friended to a girl who died in a car accident last year. Someone is keeping up with her page, and it's hella creepy. It's made public, and not to set any kind of example so it seems. You can literally relive the post-accident drama that ensued from the morning after it happened...complete with pictures and comments, none that are constructive or memorial. And her friends post to her on her wall to this day. Personally, I would want my family to shut it all down. How would you feel if someone was gone, and then one day their name pops up as being online somewhere?!? I wouldn't want that for anyone.

Yeah I agree and it's not really how I would like to be remembered. Hopefully one day social networking companies like Facebook and such can come up with a better way to handle these cases.

Oooh, I've got my newest 'social network' idea, In Memoriam Virtual Haven, it's a little wordy, but you get my drift. Instead of visiting graveyards, or more specifically, when you can't due to location, post a poem, picture, prayer, or whatever to your lost loved one. Who is with me, I'm going to need some capital to start this up. I'm half serious, too.

Pretty sure those exist already dude. Anyway my internet haunting idea is better

Yeah, maybe someday people will find out a way to deal with that.

I have also wondered where some of the regulars have gone. Cid, DEADEYE, StealthSniper, and others.

Look at the Members page and sort it by "Join Date" if it doesn't come up that way, to see some of the people that signed up a long time ago but never stop by anymore.

Do any of you still talk to them online?

It would be nice to see them hear again even if they just stopped by to tell us they are okay.

Yo

You see, if his wif didn't tell you about his death, Ypu would probably never know about what had happened... That's why I always say that you can't have a real friend in the internet, everything here is just virtual, even friendship

Actually, in my case, my friend and his son and son-in-law were all in the same guild as myself, and we played regularly if not daily. We became close friends due to that, so I knew of my friends' passing within hours through another guild member as well as a phone call from his son. I believe what you are speaking of is an online acquaintance; there are definitely online friendships that become real.

**also waves @ Raven! Sup??

What's up?

I'm agree!