Dave Sinkula

[Ancient Dragon]

Shouldn't his account be retired? He passed away a couple years ago, I think it's time for DaniWeb to retire his account and move on. I see his name in such places as Endorsements, which don't really mean anything for him any more.

[mike_2000_17]

What does "retire his account" mean? I guess it should mean that it is deactivated in the sense that it won't "participate" anymore (e.g., doesn't show up on endorsements, cannot send him PMs, etc.). But obviously, all past posts and stuff should remain, probably also the user profile (maybe with a eulogy-like notice).

[Ancient Dragon]

Yes, Mike, that is what I mean.

[happygeek]

What DaniWeb needs is a 'memorial account' option, similar to Facebook, perhaps?

[<M/>]

similar to Facebook, perhaps?

i didn't know facebook has such a thing.

What DaniWeb needs is a 'memorial account' option

I read a couple of Dave Sinkula's posts, he has some pretty good posts... why not create a memorial page for him...

But how would you know if a Daniwebber is no longer living...? Wouldn't that be kind of challenging to figure out?

[Ancient Dragon]

We only found out about Dave because another member who knew him personally told us. No one is asking anyone at DaniWeb to periodically search world-wide death records for all 1,000,000+ members, that would be just stupid. A memorial account for known people is a good idea.

[deceptikon]

He passed away a couple years ago, I think it's time for DaniWeb to retire his account and move on.

No offense toward Dave's memory in any way as he was easily one of my best friends online, but why would we need to retire his account? How is it different from any other member that suddenly stops posting?

I guess it should mean that it is deactivated in the sense that it won't "participate" anymore (e.g., doesn't show up on endorsements, cannot send him PMs, etc.). But obviously, all past posts and stuff should remain, probably also the user profile (maybe with a eulogy-like notice).

There's no way to do that presently, we don't make a distinction between active accounts an inactive accounts except through hard deletion (though deletion does a lot of what "retiring" seems to be). And I'd be against deleting Dave's account, for personal reasons.

What DaniWeb needs is a 'memorial account' option, similar to Facebook, perhaps?

That I can get behind. Something to mark an account as being special in the hearts of the community even though it's no longer active.

But how would you know if a Daniwebber is no longer living...? Wouldn't that be kind of challenging to figure out?

It depends on the cause of death and how friendly the member is with other members. In Dave's case it was advanced cancer. While things progressed shockingly fast, there was plenty of advance warning that he'd likely not make it. We knew because he told those close to him and also blogged about his experience.

[ddanbe]

You could delete an account of a member, but what about the answers he/she gave in all the different threads? I'm in with deceptikon here, you can't delete. Unless you do a "tabula rasa" and start up daniweb all over again, but I guess that is totaly out of question.

[deceptikon]

You could delete an account of a member, but what about the answers he/she gave in all the different threads?

Thread continuity isn't affected when an account is deleted, it just shows up as a deleted account. While we could delete Dave's account without any negative effect, I'd be against it on principle.

[ddanbe]

@deceptikon: Agreed! and thanks for the info.

[TrustyTony]

Maybe something like this frame: http://www.giftsforyounow.com/Engraved-Memorial-Glass-Picture-Frame-G912901.aspx?green=2A927110-429A-5A5C-9B79-C483BA514055

as avatar style (original avatar in center)?