# How many Dopers did we lose to death over the years-without knowing it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 23, 2020, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643 "2020-10-23T00:10:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/1 "2020-10-23T00:10:40Z")
Often one will come in and announce their disease, either expressing a hope to defeat it, or telling everybody that it likely is terminal. When the day comes, a relative or friend will often post and let us know. I just wonder-how many have we lost that never got any sort of announcement? I guess there is no way to know for sure-does anyone have any prominent candidates? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/2 "2020-10-23T00:32:15Z")
@VinylTurnip has been MIA since June. I hope it’s simply because he’s finally cut the last remaining thread that held him captive of the SDMB and that he floated somewhere nice.\* \*Yeah, that’s one of his. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/3 "2020-10-23T00:34:57Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > @VinylTurnip has been MIA since June. - He’s over on the Longneck Board. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/4 "2020-10-23T00:36:46Z")
I’m glad he’s okay, but still heartbroken. 😭 ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/5 "2020-10-23T00:43:48Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > He’s over on the Longneck Board. Ah. Slumming. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/6 "2020-10-23T00:48:07Z")
Sampiro? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/7 "2020-10-23T00:51:01Z")
An Aussie Doper, **TheLoadedDog** passed last year, although he hadn’t been a regular poster for a number of years before that. A good bloke, it was very sad to hear the news. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/8 "2020-10-23T11:25:57Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Sampiro? Alive and active on FB. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/9 "2020-10-23T11:55:26Z")
You won’t hear about it when I go, I don’t think. Nobody in my real life has a clue who you are, and if it happens it’s likely to be sudden and without warning. I am sure I’m far from the only one here with that kind of situation. I’ll tell you if I’m terminal, though. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/10 "2020-10-23T12:47:42Z")
Chiroptera disappeared abruptly off the board and we have no idea what happened to her. One of her last posts, though, was about having chest pains and going to seek medical help… I’m sure we’ve lost a few over the years to sudden death or other abrupt calamity and we’ll never know what happened to those people. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/11 "2020-10-23T12:50:39Z")
Yes, I’m certain that’s what happened to **Chowder**. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/12 "2020-10-23T12:53:28Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Chiroptera disappeared abruptly off the board and we have no idea what happened to her. [Here’s a thread about that](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worried-about-chiroptera-anyone-know-her-in-real-life/712450/8). She did log in 8 days later but didn’t post. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/13 "2020-10-23T13:44:28Z")
There is a field called actuarial science which could help you make a reasonable estimate. We have had threads about how old Dopers are. So if we know how many Dopers there are of a given age we can plug numbers into the formulas to estimate number of deaths. Suppose there are 50 Dopers 68 years old. Then we can estimate then using an actuarial life table that one died in the past 12 months: > **[Actuarial Life Table](https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html)** > > Actuarial Life Table ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/14 "2020-10-23T15:41:44Z")
Ref @PastTense (great username + thread combo BTW!!) 😉 Here’s a learned article from a few years ago about the same issue as applied to Facebook. They’ve got a _slightly_ larger userbase than we do, but the logic is the same. [https://what-if.xkcd.com/69/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/69/) ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/15 "2020-10-23T16:31:14Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > You won’t hear about it when I go, I don’t think. Nobody in my real life has a clue who you are, and if it happens it’s likely to be sudden and without warning. I am sure I’m far from the only one here with that kind of situation. Same here. If I’m every gone more than two weeks, you can assume I’m truly gone. (you’d never catch me at any rival boards, don’t worry about that) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2020, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/16 "2020-10-23T17:53:33Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Yes, I’m certain that’s what happened to **Chowder**. He’s the one I always think of. I liked him. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/17 "2020-10-24T00:28:54Z")
I remember the whole Chiroptera thing. Hope she was OK and decided not to post here any more, for whatever reason. I know that people may abruptly stop posting because (long story made short) one of my IRL friends posted almost 20,000 times on a board which was about one of her interests, and stopped abruptly in 2010, posted one more time in 2012, and last logged on in 2015. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/18 "2020-10-24T00:30:33Z")
I’ve been part of an online roleplaying game for the last 14 years and often wonder this myself when some friends don’t come back. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/19 "2020-10-24T01:41:32Z")
Askthepizzaguy? I doubt he’s dead but didn’t he vanish suddenly? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2020, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643/20 "2020-10-24T03:54:38Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Askthepizzaguy? I doubt he’s dead but didn’t he vanish suddenly? - He’s also over at Longnecks. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-did-we-lose-to-death-over-the-years-without-knowing-it/923643.md?page=2)