If a regular poster to ILP was to die, would we ever find out or just wonder where that person went? This is something that I’ve been thinking about over the years. As the 'net becomes more ubiquitous and the communities become more virtual, where are the online obituaries?
First off, is ILP a real community? We all have Avatars and nics, but behind each is a person. Certainly we create personnas and put on airs, but isn’t that just as true in our flesh-and-blood, face-to-face lives? Perhaps we don’t know each other as well as our aquaintances we make in the wider world, or perhaps we don’t know each other at all. On the other hand those of you who’ve read my posts since I got here probably know a lot of things about the “real me” (or at least the ‘me’ I like to think I am) that the people who inhabit my daily life have no inkling of.
And this is but one online community. I’m deeply involved in forums dedicated to old-school paper RPGs, high end video and high end audio. Some of those people I actually have gottent to know in “the real world.”
Which brings me to this: as our virtual lives begin to complement or even supplant our relationships with those who merely happen to be geographically close, how would we know when a fellow forum traveller has shuffled off this mortal coil? I’ve often wondered about old posters- did they get bored and move on? Did they die in a traffic accident? I could have seen their picture in the paper and not know them.
Has anyone heard of an online registry that one could enlist to notify all the forums and blogs in the event of their death? If not, how would I go about starting one?
This is a fair point. If someone died how the hell would we know…I have spoken to hundreds upon hundres of people over the internet since I started using it nearly a decade ago…what the hell has happened to all those people?
I know that on myspace they actually have a mydeadspace which is quite pathetic…but I must confess I had a quick look through it…the dead were so young…but it forms a strange kind of memorial and registry. I suppose other than close family and friends who else needs to know.
Any close relatinships you have aquired via the net that you think important enough will surely already have some way of finding out if you are dead or dying or lost.
If not: Start exchanging mobile numbers right now.
(That might not be a bad idea)
If I die I promise to come back and post my death, but, I don’t ever plan to die. my goal is to continue and change and become one with myself and be different and is there really death?
This is why it is necessary to have a thread where each member of ILP is required to post. We could call it the “Still Alive” thread. Once every month, in the least, we would have to post in the thread.
I don’t know if a service such as I suggest exists or not, but I’m seriously going to investigate it over the coming months. If it doesn’t perhaps I’ll examine the feasibility of creating it. I know a good many people only in virtual space; it bothers me to know that if something happened to them (or me) no one would ever know why they stopped coming around.
you make a very good point, as the world evolves their sociological perspectives to the global community, we’ll definetly need to know if someone close died. So yea i think u should really go through with it =D>
sounds like a good idea to me… you could upload your aim buddy list or something as well
i wanted to post a humorous reply to this thread but the only joke i could think of that hadn’t been done yet was “i’m still alive” and frankly, that isn’t funny.
in large gaming communities, … there’s always someone who knows someone irl, because it’s often so that one drags the other into it… so when someone dies the community usually hears about it and gets the chance to show their grief and support to the relatives…
anyway, it’s a bit different here, because ilp isn’t such a huge community and we met eachother on the board, … it’s not like (some might, but not many right?) most of us have siblings or rl friends in here
Fantastic idea!!:lol:
