I was just (morbidly) curious if anyone knows of any dopers (besides WallyM07, of course) who have died.
Anyone?
Zev Steinhardt
That should be WallyM7, of course. I’m sorry.
Zev Steinhardt
Umm, I don’t have a life. Does that count? :rolleyes:
I’ve dyed a couple times since I came here. Red (that was an accident), black (to cover the red), and “Chocolate Frosting”, because I thought it’d be cool. I was wrong.
Oh… DIED! Uh, whoops. 
I died…
but i got better…
OK, OK, we can’t go at this in such a slipshod manner. The way this is going, the tally will take forever.
So, everyone who has died, please raise your hands . . .
(Sorry, zev, I couldn’t help myself . . . )
Well, I finally died, which started the whole world living.
I don’t think anyone can answer this one, zev_steinhardt. If anyone with a high profile died, like WallyM7, we’d know about it right away. And we did.
Contrariwise, any of us who didn’t know other Dopers IRL would just stop posting upon death (presumably) and as far as we’d know they’d just moved on to other things, lost Web access, etc.
Thinking about this now, yes, I’m almost certain some Dopers have died, given the size of the community and how long it’s been around. We just don’t know about them. When I make a list of my affairs that need tending to upon my death, I’m not going to charge one of my family members with “Log onto the Straight Dope Message Board, register, and post a message in MPSIMS that Fiver has died.”
That’s much further down the list than “find good homes for my cats” and “delete the porn before giving the Mac to my nephew.”
(pause while other dopers finish laughing)
(continued pause while my seriousness sinks in)
(yet more pause for the shock to wear off)
Zev, the problem with such an inquiry is that we have such a poor method of collecting data. (Scarlett’s suggestion notwithstanding ;j )
We know when Wally died because his daughter, a doper - albeit too darn infrequent one - told us. For most of our population, we probably don’t have direct family members posting. (Of course there are plenty of couples posting, but you get the idea.) If I recall, this was a thread by MagicalSilverKey. I’d search, but it’s mid afternoon here and I don’t want to capsize the server.
The next level could be friends. Suppose you and I are good e-mail buddies and I confide a serious illness (here my wife’s bubbie would toss in a “Kein-ein-hora” and a “tu-tu-tu” ;j). It would still be difficult for you to get any news of my passing unless my wife sent out a global email to everyone in my address book.
The best “non-family” method could possibly be if a doper who knows me IRL read my obit, verified it and posted. Somewhat unlikely.
Now, having said all that, I’ll give you my take on the deal.
We are a population ranging from mid teens to people in their 60s (perhaps older?). We come from many countries, ethnicities and have gobs of predisposed conditions. We are represented by manic-depressives, depressives, and plenty of other risk groups. We have among our members drinkers both heavy and social, smokers, people having unprotected sex with multiple partners, drug users and most any other life-risk behavior you could name. We, as a population, have been around for a few years. It would seem quite likely that Wally was not the only registered member who has died. Further, I doubt that he was the only poster who has died in medias, that is to say, while an active poster.
Your question is not morbid; rather it shows a deep seated compassion for other dopers. What is morbid is that I’ve given Mrs. Spritle instructions to post my passing should it occur during my tenure here.
*You’ve ** got tenure? How does one obtain that status? What benefits come with it? Do I have to publish once a decade or something like that? :;kicks dirt:: I want tenure * toooo
On the OP. I suspect Spritle is correct. How would you know?
The Straight Dope: Home of the Beautiful People. wiping a tear from his eye
Presumably, you could (or could have prior to last week) check(ed) all the threads that ever existed, pull every single doper ever’s profile, type in their email address and send out a big ol’ spam asking all of us the ultimate question…
Hey, Guy, Are you dead? If not, why aren’t ya posting?
This would probably be widely frowned upon, however.
I myself dropped off the radar a year or more ago and only started posting again recently. I doubt anybody cared if I was dead, though. I just didn’t (and don’t) have that kind of persona here yet. I wasn’t dead, by the way.
I know that most people, if they died, would simply “fall off the map.” I was just curious to know if anyone knew of anyone (even if not high-profile).
Zev Steinhardt
I believe I recall a poster named Doc Watson (hope I’m getting that right) died not too long ago. I think he was more active on Fathom, however.
I’d assume if I died, zyzzyva or virtee would be too overwhelmed with grief to post news of my untimely demise. 
Ahhhhh . . . <we need a light bulb smiley!> I saw a reference to this not too long ago and thought that the REAL Doc Watson, banjo player, had died. But I couldn’t find an obit. All is clear now.
On the subject of notifying online communities, our will (when it’s finished) will contain instructions to notify my professional mailing list, but not the Dope. I suppose one or two folks might wonder where I went, if that. But while I enjoy posting here, the Dope just isn’t a big enough part of my life to warrant a line in my will. Sorry, guys.
I must say that I’ve told my sister that if I were to ever die that you guys would be nearly the first to be notified.
you guys are like my family to me.
“I die every night.”
Doc Watson died. Details are sketchy, but he apparently died in an accident in Africa. 
At the last L.A. Dopefest, which was one year after WallyM7’s death, we raised glasses to Wally and Doc.
Wally and Doc Watson have been addressed. And others have noted that without somebody making an effort in that regard, we would never know. I’ll just observe that with the number of correspondents we’ve had come and go over the last 2¼ years, it’s a pretty sure bet that there’s more than one who doesn’t sweat the bills anymore.
I spent a year dead for tax reasons.
Like I said in MSk’s thread…it’s in my will that everyone on my email address list gets notified. There are some people who used to live in my area that I only keep in touch w/ via email.
::Checks address list::
There are eleven Dopers on my list so I’m sure one of them would notify the boards.
Plus the three Dopers who know my phone numbers…