Originally Posted by
mike turnbull
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 ?
Originally Posted by
graraps
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...
Originally Posted by
3timesalady
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).
Originally Posted by
ILeftMyHeartInTexas
I personally think of many of my FT friends as my family and appreciate you sharing this loss with us.
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 ... ?