Death and the internet

[BlueFox gui]

i don't remember so much but there is one guy i meet on temp and idk what happened to him, his temp account isn't accessible anymore and his discord isn't online since a long time too, i still feel bad sometimes asking if he died, some times i think too how would be if one of my online friends die or i die.. and yes it hurts but it's better not think on that and enjoy those loved people why they are still alive, or while I'M still alive.
and x65 be careful in there

 

[osm70]

https://www.deadmansswitch.net/

You type email adresses and messages. In 30 days, they send you an email with a link. If you don't click it in 15 days they send you another one. And if you don't click that one, they send you the last link in 7 more days. 8 days after that (if you don't click it), they send all the emails you set up. So, you have to click a link in your email at least once every 60 days. If you click it, the whole thing resets back to day 1. And it also resets if you change your settings (who to email and what to send them).

 

[spotanjo3]

Yeah, they come and go. I don't. I do go sometimes from some forums but I returns to some of them that I think they deserved it.

Many people lost in touch and don't care about them. Very sad. We are all human being and we are supposed to be one big family with love and care no matter what if we are blood or not. We are all family, period. many people realize that ? Absolutely not. Sometimes I am ashamed to be human being, yeah. Sighing.

 

[Sliter]

Well I'm very worried when sudden lost contact or stuff with online friends of some time ago, we never can be sure what is happening so Idk :/
I saw that facebook have something alike, you can choose some people to be able to post in your page if you don't be online for a long time, ask them if you are alive and stuff, and, I think, then you page change into a memorial thing? not sure
idk it's kinda scary that social media is also like a graveyard :v
We had these old e-mail stories about dead person sending you a mail and send it to friends else you gonna be cursed hahha what about haunted accounts being stories now?? lololo

(a kill switch being an automated message that is released if you do not log into a website/account once per week)

week? internet problens or scholar stuff can be bigger ta=han a week lol

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Internet friends come and go, but you always wonder what happened to them.

I'm sure most of you here have lost contact with people online, and that the thought has crossed your mind "Did they die?"

Now think about yourself. If you died, would anyone online know about it?

Have you ever thought about setting up a kill switch like Snowden or Assange? (a kill switch being an automated message that is released if you do not log into a website/account once per week)

What are your experiences with losing online friends? For me what hurts the most is a lack of closure. You are never quite at peace because you're not sure what happened.

(This is on my mind because I'm doing some water heater repair, and I'm scared I'm going to die from a gas leak or something).

I read an article about this a while back, but it was more on the topic of what happens with all of your accounts after you die.
The article suggested having a plan in advance where your family members are instructed as to what they should do with all your accounts after you die (and of course they would need to be able to gain access to the accounts as well), so that once you die your accounts aren't just in limbo and no one online ever knows what happened. Some accounts, like Steam accounts for example, might have a lot of value on them and it might be a good idea if someone were to inherit that, other accounts like Facebook might be best to close after leaving a message for the Facebook friends to see and so on, and it's probably a good idea.
Of course a lot of that could be automated with a kill switch. But when API changes are introduced you never know if the kill switch script is going to work as intended so you'd have to keep updating the script to make sure it works, something that might be hard to do if you become sick.

 

[BORTZ]

There are a few member here who have straight up vanished. I haven't done much internet/google fu to try to uncover any more data about them but one comes to mind.

Eerpow - I used to play mario kart with him and black-ice back in 12-13. One day he never logged in again. Leaves me wondering, really.

 

[Ziggyhacks]

Death is something that can occur over time, but there are factors that can influence it: whether you drink alcohol/do drugs or not, whether you eat healthy food or not, and whether you're gay or straight. These factors are small, but have a pretty big impact on life span.

 

[Lacius]

I've got an online dead man's switch so certain real-life friends and family receive emails and links to other pieces of data if I don't activate it in 75 days. I activate it the first of every month when I pay most of my bills.

 

[Deleted User]

But the serious answer would be, that I could never allow myself to set up something like this. Why? Because it's that thinking that really kills you. You are all so young, there should be no reason to think about something so horrible. There mustn't be

It is kind of a depressing topic to be discussing, especially considering that most users here are probably no older than 30. Death is a part of life, though, and it would be foolish to pretend like it's not a thing.

Many people lost in touch and don't care about them. Very sad. We are all human being and we are supposed to be one big family with love and care no matter what if we are blood or not. We are all family, period. many people realize that ? Absolutely not. Sometimes I am ashamed to be human being, yeah. Sighing.

Hey, you can't get along with everyone. Inevitably, we're all gonna meet someone who we just don't like. Like death, it's also a part of life. We're also gonna lose touch with people we know; that really isn't anyone's fault.

 

[Flame]

if i dont login for a year, guys know that Sony & Nintendo both fucked up by not having holes in the codes and now i have to leave GBATemp cause i have to pay for my games...


i plan to live to 200 years old

 

[spotanjo3]

Hey, you can't get along with everyone. Inevitably, we're all gonna meet someone who we just don't like. Like death, it's also a part of life. We're also gonna lose touch with people we know; that really isn't anyone's fault.

I know that and that is why I am ashamed to be human being. Discard dislike and learn to like instead. After all, we are only human being. Learn to like each others. Of course, I didn't say it is easy, thought.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I question what use a dead mans switch would actually do for most people in the situations talked about here?

If you hadn't been online in a while anyone who actually cared would have noticed. Then that person get's an email one day saying "sorry i've not pushed a button for a while, i enjoyed our chats, but presume i'm dead" what's that really gained other than that person still wondering if you are actually dead / what happened to you?

Now if you had something confidential that might affect the life of someone you'd left behind if the worst did happen to you, a dead mans switch would be a great way to ensure it was destroyed.

If your really good friends with someone online chances are you have them on Facebook, or their mobile number so you'd probably find out from people who knew them in real life if something bad happened,

Interesting topic though, what's the longest people have known someone online and never actually met them? the other day Facebook told me i'd been Facebook friends with someone for 10 years, then we worked out we'd probably known each other 15 years and never actually met.

Then on the flip side i ended up on the same course at Uni as someone i'd played online games and chatted with on MSN since i was 12 or 13.

 

[FAST6191]

Again other than the Switch event in January I have never knowingly actually met anyone at all online first. That said I don't really view online as much more than an advanced AI (or perhaps something more philosophical), have never actually bothered with the more traditional types of social media and actually don't really care for it, not to the point of actively avoiding it but actively dismissing it. Going through real life I am not the only one like that which I meet -- quite a few people I have met with facebook accounts, or had me set them up one (insert blind leading the blind comment), just use it as a crappy version of email, have someone else manage it for them like any other website, and assign no greater value to it than they might whatever soon to be failed web service (I don't know if or maybe when it will go the way of myspace but I see it fracturing all the time) they have previously used, which is to say leaked passwords is annoying so avoid that and that is about it.

I too did wonder at what the value of letting a place like this know of such things might be. I can see password escrow, or indeed password burn boxes, being a useful thing but for a forum eh. That said I am OK with being ignored beyond not being crashed into and being forgotten 5 minutes after I am gone, if not sooner.

"Still wondering if" is an interesting one. The idea that you would think that way maybe says things -- from where I sit it is either a distrust of technology or a distrust of people. I presume the message would include some info which could be used to locate them if such things were otherwise not known so you could try for an obituary or contact someone which could fill you in.

Perhaps all this makes me anti social in some flavour, similar to those which value postal letters and phone calls more than email and [insert voice chat protocol of the moment].

I know that and that is why I am ashamed to be human being. Discard dislike and learn to like instead. After all, we are only human being. Learn to like each others. Of course, I didn't say it is easy, thought.

Pending my getting infinite energy, computing power and time then dislike is a useful tool which I plan to continue using.

 

[Pacheko17]

I've had many internet friends kill themselves or die in some other way.

I usually get to know about it because we're pretty connected, a lot of friends in the same group and stuff and we try to contact each other's families when they don't come online for a while.

 

[Cyan]

I've seen quite a few users who created their account in 2002 and never logged for 10 years coming back to GBAtemp and say hi
not connecting for a week or a year doesn't mean they are dead, just they have other better things to do in their life.
an automatic kill switch is not a good idea in my opinion, it would declare someone dead or delete an account wrongly. A lot of users love finding their account are still available years later!


the best kill switch is probably letting your family or friend know what they have to do, and who to inform in case of problem.



The only place I go on internet is here.
I would have no one to create an account and confirm it's true in case something happened to me. I guess I would just be missing and not log anymore.
I could ask someone to contact costello, but never bothered to do it.

Eerpow - I used to play mario kart with him and black-ice back in 12-13. One day he never logged in again. Leaves me wondering, really.

Eerpow was last seen in 2013, already? time flies...

I have a lot of members I also wonder, and remember only they were there one day. Some I don't even remember their username, but I remember him/her as individual I exchanged with. making short-lived contact and relationship with people.
I often think about @Tamyu and her son back from 2007. She used to maintain a blog, it's now gone too.
Not that I liked following and reading about it, but just wondering from time to time how well he is doing now.
I just noticed she logged here in 2015 (more recent than eerpow), so she still log in ! If/when you read this message, You get greetings from France o/
See, not logging in for years doesn't mean they are dead, they just have more important things in life to take care of.