Yes. Thanks
Great turn of phrase. Sure describes me more and more as time goes on. About which I’m increasingly discomfited.
I am sure a LOT of people are dead - just not memorized in the “in-memoriam” thread. → also Survivorship bias
Yeah, we’ve had a number of long-term and reasonably prolific posters just suddenly vanish. In some cases they probably just decided to move on without causing a fuss. But I imagine others simply dropped dead, as unfortunately people are want to do. That probably will be me some day.
Yeah, I was 42 when I joined, 25 years ago. And what a quarter century it’s been.
Annie Xmas comes to mind. Well-known poster, posted often, then completely disappeared. Her last post was in mid-March 2020, due to her location, job and age I suspect she was an early victim of covid.
The Charter price did rise and was to be half the cost of new Membership which (I think) was $15 when last available.
Yes. I really liked Annie, and kept an eye out for her. At first, she was forced off-line because she didn’t own an Internet device, she used the public library. But when she didn’t return, i feared the worst.
Same here. IIRC, her username derived from the fact that she was born on Christmas Day.
Which brings up a related question in my mind: how do you (the collective you) know when another poster has passed on? I’ve been on the Dope for about 8 years, and I know the names of exactly four other Dopers, and that’s only because I once participated in a holiday postcard exchange. But if one of them passes away, I wouldn’t know about it, unless it’s posted in the Memoriam thread.
Some of us have some circle of friends who are Dopers and who communicate beyond what gets posted publicly. For any one of us, it’s a pretty small circle, but collectively I’d bet a hefty fraction of all Dopers have a backstage or offline connection to somebody else here.
Back in the early days when Doper membership was highly Chicago-centric, there was lots of opportunity for IRL meetups. Or for people who started out knowing each other IRL to recruit those folks into Doperdom. We still have a relative overage of Chicagoans, but they’re a dwindling percentage of the total.
Related thought, and one that came up in a semi-recent prior thread about recovery email addresses, but for all active posters and lurkers, it’s probably worthwhile to make sure the board has a current and active email address for you.
No, it’s not going to give anyone a definite answer unless a spouse or child with access informs us, but without a current email address the board/mods loses an important option to contact you.
I mention this because I added a backup email address in the prior thread (and recovery goes to your primary only it seems) in part because my old address is so full of spam / ads that I only check in every other week or so, as opposed to my “current” one which I check at least once a day.
Some people have had a spouse or other designated person come and tell us. Some have other Durpers who are real life friends or connected via social media. The rest just fade away.
That part - for me is the sad part …
there is quite a difference between @TubaDiva or @Colibri passing (and long goodbye threads) … and the presumed passing of @panache45 …(et al.)
Maybe closure is the best way to describe it, I have this unspecific feeling they Deserve more
Yeah, I know what you mean.
I should probably make a will including passwords and usernames for sites I want notified when I die. I do not have significant savings. I don’t really care who gets my money. I do need to make it clear who gets what stuff. I can seriously see physical fights breaking out over some things.
On the other hand, if I don’t hear of their passing they are still alive my book.