What Happens When A Blogger Dies?
Its something that I’ve been wondering about for a long time. What happens to my blog if I’m gone? There must be blogs that have been abandoned due to their owner passing away. Where are those blogs? Would anyone ever know? Unless we had immediate family who has access to our blogs or very close friends, our readers might never know where we went. Maybe even thinking that we merely lost interest in blogging.
Its a strange and eerie thought, but still a reality. The ideal would be for a fellow blogger to be in touch with your family - right? And that fellow blogger will have access to your blog’s username / password just to let the readers know what has happened. I don’t have someone like that unfortunately. Maybe I should try to find one?
The same counts for all my e-mail addresses. I have quite a few of those, and though my work e-mail addy would be sorted, I doubt if anyone would figure out the security questions / passwords for my other e-mail addy’s.
Any advice on this? Have any one of you got a backup plan I can use?
Email This Post
9 Comments so far
Leave a reply
Wow, in the blogosphere (in my world at least) there have been some gruesome posts today!
I’ve ran into this once, and usually a family member ends up checking the mail. But a blog, who knows, I think people eventually somehow find out. Most people send comments or emails and that’s how I’d imagine they find out.
I suppose if you had a living will, you could put the username/password in that. Wow, intriguing how technology does things differently nowadays.
I’ve seen a couple of cases where the blogger disappeared for months, and when they come back (having not died) they thanked everyone for all the concerned e-mails. But obviously the people on the net don’t know what happened to you and will likely never find out. Oh, and your domain will eventually be taken over by a domain parking page, advertising internet casinos and male enhancement products.
Getting Access to Gmail Accounts of the Deceased
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/013645.html
What happens when you die? (Comedy clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Dm5KErQuY
I have thought of the same thing…I’m still trying to figure out what to do, I know I want a viking funeral so maybe I could get someone to take a picture and make it my last post!!
Dizzy,
It is actually not that uncommon for you to think about this. In fact, I have heard many bloggers mentioning this very thing at blogger meets. Ostendo, however is one of the group blogs, and I cannot quite say the same thing … 3 of our authors are rather closely linked in the 6-Degrees of separation concept and will enquire if any single one becomes too quiet for comfort. Many of our commentators and readers also know each other and the authors in some way or other. I think this concerns bloggers that merely throw their personal thoughts out there to an environment in which they prefer to stay anonymous in. Yes, such blogs can get very lonely and, one day this mysterious blogger just go quiet … will people know that he/she died … it is a rather disturbing and mind boggling thought. It is also very lonely and sad, should this happen. The person laterally turned into and electronic page that touched many and suddenly stop doing so.
Regards
D
I have never considered this. I guess it’s something to think of, since you never know what might happen. I would suspect a friend/significant other would most likely post, stating what had happened, and the blog would at some point vanish from the internet due to lack of updates/use/etc. OF COURSE, if your friend/significant other doesn’t know your passwords, that may be problematic.
I have thought of this as well. Especially in light of my best friend recently loosing his life in a motorcycle accident. In his case, he had recently listed out all of his user/pass info. for his wife. It got me thinking, and as a web marketer, designer and webmaster - I have a lot of ‘virtual’ stuff out there that no one would have a clue about.
I have come up with a solution, however. Show or leave instructions or both with a close friend or family member on how to access one of your google accounts. Upload a spreadsheet to ‘Docs and Spreadsheets’ with all of your pertinent info. Or, if that bothers you - print it out and add it to your will or other safe location.
In Peace,
Josh
Tell your boyfriend what he needs to know and remember should you unfortunately suddenly pass away.
It’s the easiest.
katieb4me has my keys in case I get wiped out by a Taxi.
Sheees this is actually a very scary thought! :-O
Thanks for all the tips yall! Something else to add to my will… ewwwww
Good point. For years an overseas friend and I emailed and he suddenly stopped. I too fear that he has passed away .. but I don’t know. He moved states and I never bothered to ask for his new home address and now I dont know what has happened.