Facebook To Preserve Accounts of the Dead 292
Barence writes "Social-networking site Facebook is planning to preserve the accounts of dead members. The new 'memorialized' accounts will continue to display photos and wall posts, but remove 'sensitive information' such as status updates and contact information. Friends or family who want to report the death of a Facebook member are encouraged to fill out the site's Deceased form. The form asks for proof of death, such as an obituary or news article, although it's not clear how Facebook can validate the death of a member if neither of those pieces of information is published on the internet. How long before someone snuffs it on Facebook before their time?"
Status updates for a dead person? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Status: Dead"
"Status: Still Dead"
"Status: REAL Dead"
"Status: Excitedly Dead"
"Status: Dead Dead"
How long? (Score:5, Insightful)
what a spin (Score:5, Insightful)
>> Social-networking site Facebook is planning to preserve the accounts of dead members. The new 'memorialized' accounts will continue to display photos and wall posts, but remove 'sensitive information' such as status updates and contact information.
So... basically what you are saying is Facebook's new data retention policy is "we retain your data forever, no excuses."
Timing (Score:5, Insightful)
Facebook to preserve accounts of the dead
Does it feel inappropriate that they announce this right before Halloween?
Re:A Good Thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Usually you add FRIENDS on facebook. If your friend dies you are likely to say something positive, or meaningful not give 'senseless opinions'. You chose your facebook friends when you are alive, its not like randoms show up when you die. Its not a public forum unless you make it that way.
I think that family and close friends would be the main people participating on a deceased persons facebook page. Maybe you have never used facebook but family and friends are the only people that seem to interact with me when I am alive, why would that change in death? I would only see it tightening to the closest friends and family.
Re:How long? (Score:5, Insightful)
I give it......Thursday (tops) before someone is memorialized as a prank.
Well when I first read about it, I immediately thought about which of my friends had a sufficiently generic name that I could find an obituary for him. If I wasn't at work, it'd probably be done by now, so I'd say Thurs is pretty generous.
Re:How long? (Score:5, Insightful)
My mom died, and she's on Facebook. I know my dad and other relatives want her off because it keeps suggesting to add her as a friend, which is slightly cruel. I think however the processes of producing a digital obituary notice etc. is a little insensitive - it would be best if the process was as quick and painless as possible. I also very much hope it doesn't suggest "You might know this dead person"
Re:A Good Thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a novel idea... It isn't up to her family. It is up to her. Facebook should make the post-mortem page an opt-in service, and then not allow anyone to interfere with the wishes of the deceased.
Re:A Good Thing (Score:3, Insightful)
I hate this kind of thing. By "keeping a memory alive", and revisiting that memory every day, I feel you can't get past grief, and move on with your life. Parents who keep a shrine, friends who keep facebook pages going forward - are you actually moving through your life?
The person is dead. They don't care anymore about Facebook. Let them fade, remember the good times you shared, and move forward. Honoring someone's memory doesn't mean canonizing them. If that person was the only thing keeping a group of people connected, then their absence means that the group should drift apart and move on - that's how humans should work.
All these sorts of things do is keep a wound open and fresh. Keep a page up for maybe a short time for those people who can't attend the funeral/wake/whatever ceremony you have, then gracefully remove the page.
Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.
Re:A Good Thing (Score:3, Insightful)
I suppose you're not big on leaving flowers at people's graves on Memorial Day, either?
It's not like the advent of technology has suddenly made this prolonged parting thing possible.
Re:Watch the network decay! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Status updates for a dead person? (Score:3, Insightful)
(face) Book of the Dead
Re:A Good Thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Everyone grieves in their own way and in their own time. For some a constant reminder of their loved ones is a good thing, for some it is bad. It depends on the person.
Re:Smart move! (Score:3, Insightful)
Doesn't bother me, so long as they don't include them in their "auto-networking" functions. For example, one of my friends who died two years ago came up recently on the list of "people I should reconnect with."