mike turnbull

Sorry, but bit of a morbid one. A friend of mine who subscribed to FT, has sadly recently passed away. It just got me thinking about how many subscribers may in fact be deceased and if in fact, there may be a way of advising you guys as such ? Or even if you want/need to know ?

graraps

My condolences.
I have thought about this, too. You just think the person got bored with FT, stopped travelling and/or generally moved on, where reality may instead have been rather less pleasant...

Gnopps

Sorry to hear about the loss. I though the quoted poster had passed away when he stopped posting a year or two ago.

3timesalady

My condolences for your loss. There was just a thread a week or two ago about someone who had stopped posting some time back who had turned out to have passed away.

I can't really think of any good way for the board to know if someone has passed, though. I mean, I registered for my FT account with an email address that I don't use for anything else (i.e., none of my friends know it). I have a few friends on FT who know my real name, but these are mostly internet friends... they probably wouldn't know if I had passed away in the night (wow, that sounds sad).

graraps

blooming heck! I was just busy enjoying the free booze onboard CSA.

ILeftMyHeartInTexas

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your friend. I personally think of many of my FT friends as my family and appreciate you sharing this loss with us.

Jenbel

There have been several threads about the deaths of FT members - one very recently. But we do have to consider whether the member (or their families) would be happy to have threads about their deaths on FT as well - death can be a very private affair and some people will just not want a large fuss made - and others might!

After a discussion around this subject, I've now created a FT will - I've told some close friends (who are also on FT) what I want to be done on FT in the event that I die untimely. Now, it's up to them to decide if they want to follow my wishes, but I've also told them what I said to say about anyone who choses to ignore my wishes

But I think it will always remain a difficult topic for us, and I'm sure there are many members out there who have died and we are simply not aware of their deaths.

graraps

The FT will sounds good. I think I need to make one, too.
Problem is, as 3TAL said, that most of my friends here are internet ones so wouldn't be able to know straightaway.

gakke

Sorry about the loss of your friend.

When I die, I would like my FT will to release a post that flames all the flammable, so that I will be permanently banned. I'll call it my eternal flame. That way I won't waste any more time thinking about what I'm missing.

lucky9876coins

My condolences to you and your friend's family.

Owlchick

I'm so sorry for your loss

Even in our day-to-day world, one of my bosses insists we call in, even if we're going to be late to work. He's had a couple of situations in the past where single coworkers who failed to turn up at the office were later found to have died in their sleep at home. By making sure his staff calls in, he has an idea of who might need a home visit to ensure that they're okay.

It did sort of creep me out a little when a friend of mine who's a cop mentioned to me that if I ever got a call from "Andy," it would not be a good sign. Apparently, I'm on his "call if something happens to me" list.

mike turnbull

Thanks one and all....no, I'm still around..although slowing down a bit nowadays....40 odd years on the road, around the world, I think is taking it's toll a bit on me now ! At the last count I still have around 3 million+ odd 'miles' to burn....couple of trips planned for me and my wife...but apart from that, I'm going to treat and spoil my kids, (and theirs,) with some surprise tickets...(if I can get hold of them, which seems to be an ever increasing problem nowadays.) Regards to all.

restlessinRNO

My condolences.

As FT is now 10 years old, there are going to be members who have left us. I personally felt it was a mark of respect that bernie's passing was noted on CommunityBuzz. I also read that this was mentioned on TalkMail. The above posters raise thoughtful points. I think most FTers do want to be know if another FTer moves on, especially if they had corresponded with him/her on FT, attended DOs that he/she may have organized... Otherwise, as graraps writes, one would only assume that person's interests had changed.

Jenbel raises the point that some members may not want their passing noted on FT. I surely think this would be a minority. We are talking about giving members an opportunity to express their appreciation to someone for their contributions to FT. As always, an individual's handle is used, not their real name.

Like ILeftMyHeartInTexas, I have come to regard many of my FT friends as family. When the time comes for my member number to be "retired", I would be glad if this were noted here. Otherwise they might conclude I'm just being rude, ignoring their PMs. However I'm not sure how this would occur - when my mailbox overflows, when I fail to sign on for an annual DO I usually attend ... ?

BiziBB

Sorry mike turnbull for your loss. Thank you for raising a good point.

Among FTs large membership there must be a number of people who only post occasionally (even if they lurk very regularly) and whose non-posting may not be missed until a long time after their last post.

Of these, some are getting past their golden years and may not be in the best of health, or whose family may not be online. All of us could be taken by accident, ill health or something else, if not by age- or health-related causes.

Thanks Jenbel for sharing your FT Will plan as this would be worthwhile for many of us, especially those who post infrequently and who are among our eldest generations.

I've met some lovely people (of all ages and interests) on FT or catching up around Sydney. I am always glad to see they are still posting, some of whom are much, much older AND wiser than me.

ILuvParis

I often wonder what happened to certain people. More often than not, I click on their handle to find that they're suspended or banned. However, there are probably others who post anonymously, that we may never know about one way or the other because they don't have any personal relationship with anyone else on the board. Then, a couple years ago, we had member who turned out to be involved in criminal activity and took his own life, in a violent way IIRC.

There is one person I wonder about who was a poster in a particular forum I frequent. I heard he may have had a drinking problem. I wonder how he is.

I also wonder about the extremely nice poster from Texas who shared great stories of his family and his experiences as a gay black man raising a son with his partner. His posts were always very thoughtful, regardless of the subject.

I guess, in many cases, we'll just be left to wonder.