If you die will you notify us?

[DaRizzle]

NEW YORK - When Jerald Spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father's gaming friends know that he hadn't just decided to desert them.

It wasn't easy, because she didn't have her father's "World of Warcraft" password and the game's publisher couldn't help her. Eventually, Melissa Allen Spangenberg reached her father's friends by asking around online for the "guild" he belonged to.

One of them, Chuck Pagoria in Morgantown, Ky., heard about Spangenberg's death three weeks later. Pagoria had put his absence down to an argument among the gamers that night.

"I figured he probably just needed some time to cool off," Pagoria said. "I was kind of extremely shocked and blown away when I heard the reason that he hadn't been back. Nobody had any way of finding this out."

With online social networks becoming ever more important in our lives, they're also becoming an important element in our deaths. Spangenberg, who died suddenly from an abdominal aneurysm at 57, was unprepared, but others are leaving detailed instructions. There's even a tiny industry that has sprung up to help people wrap up their online contacts after their deaths.

When Robert Bryant's father died last year, he left his son a little black USB flash drive in a drawer in his home office in Lawton, Okla. It was underneath a cup his son had once given him for his birthday. The drive contained a list of contacts for his son to notify, including the administrator of an online group he had been in.

"It was kind of creepy because I was telling all these people that my dad was dead," Bryant said. "It did help me out quite a bit, though, because it allowed me to clear up a lot of that stuff and I had time to help my mom with whatever she needed."

LINK

Crazy times...

So Barfo, ABM, Grandpa Blaze....gonna let us know?

 

[AgentDrazenPetrovic]

When a poster died on HW, word got around somehow. that was strange.

 

[BalancedMan]

LINK

Crazy times...

So Barfo, ABM, Grandpa Blaze....gonna let us know?

One of my friends from when I studied abroad was killed in a car accident in Washington last October. His brother sent a message to his friends, including me, on Facebook, letting them know. It was useful because a lot of his friends lived throughout the world, and tracking them down any other way would have been impossible. His Facebook page is still up, and people post RIP messages.

In January a girl I know up in Portland fell asleep on the wheel and nearly died. She was outside in freezing weather for like eight hours before someone found her. A buddy of mine's father was nearly electrocuted yesterday and is in the hospital with burns. I found out about both of these events due to the Internet, Facebook in particular.

Crazy how fragile life is.

 

[barfo]

So Barfo, ABM, Grandpa Blaze....gonna let us know?

I've been dead for years.

barfo

 

[DaRizzle]

I've been dead for years.

barfo

yeah? how many years have you been married to her?

 

[ABM]

LINK

Crazy times...

So Barfo, ABM, Grandpa Blaze....gonna let us know?

As it relates to you, attempting to find my flash-drive would be akin to that which takes place in the movie, National Treasure.

Sorry.

 

[OddEnormous]

When a poster died on HW, word got around somehow. that was strange.

Et's hapend thrice on forems eyem uh regular at...

veree wyrd endeed.... won waz a suizide frum wat seamed lyke a hapee chap.

 

[44Thrilla]

I'm still alive in case anybody was wondering.