Having been active on the Dope now for 7 years I’m noticing quite a few posters have died. A search for some old threads or posts of mine often includes somebody gone but not forgotten.
We recently had somebody awaken a multi-year old zombie thread with significant contributions by now-deceased posters; he was embarassed to learn he’d tried to restart a conversation with a dead man.
With the recent changes to a more zombie-tolerant moderating stance now the front page often contains threads with posts by the now-deceased.
I’m going to suggest that the staff add a new membership status of “Deceased” and set a former member/guest’s status to that status when appropriate.
It just seems respectful. A bit of a tribute. We know you’re gone, but you and your words are never forgotten.
Comments?
after being caught up in reading a few zombie threads i tried starting to pay attention to dates. in the times that i didn’t, then i knew it was a zombie either by noticing postings by people no longer living or those with a BANNED membership status.
a “Deceased” would eliminate some new people or people who frequents other board areas from replying to a silent keyboarder.
Which makes sense for people you knew. You have good memories that override the sad feeling. But when it’s someone you didn’t know, you now just get hit with a sad feeling for no reason. Or at least, I do.
But, hey, I’m okay with figuring out how to deal with it myself if everyone else wants it. It’s not the first time I’ve created a script to “fix” something about the boards, and it probably won’t be the last.
I think the Something Awful forums did this with custom titles, and someone immediately hijacked the account of a user who died in a motorcycle accident and spammed the forums with “HOW DO I RODE BIKE” everywhere.
Retired With Extreme Prejudice
On Hiatus(many television shows go “on hiatus”, never to return)
Moot
Zombie-In-Training
Ex-Member
Guinness Book Of World Records Winner-Holding Breath
