I had a family member die a few years ago and it bothered the crap out of me when I saw somebody logging in to their Facebook account, showing up as "active" in the chat menu. So what I did was ask Facebook for their account to be
memorialized. That means that the account is still there yet no one can log into it, kind of like Satoshi, and there's a little message that accompanies it saying "Remembering So Andso"...
The qualifications for the memorialization of a loved one's account is quite simple. It reads as follows:
Please provide a scan or photo of your loved one's obituary, death certificate, memorial card or other documentation confirming that they've passed away.
Nobody here knows better than Facebook when it comes to deciding what to do with a dead person's social media account.
I'm sorry -- you just don't. They know an obituary is
pretty strong evidence that someone is deceased. That's what I submitted to them, and voila, memorialized account. No more anybody pretending to be my dead relative.
Should it turn out that this person was not dead or faking their own death for $7 grand... guess what?
The account can be reactivated! Problem solved.
Now I'm not going to call everybody who thought he was still alive after I posted his obituary 2 days after his death a moron, but Jesus Christ people, I'm utterly disappointed with how many of you are lacking some pretty basic common sense. People don't fake their own deaths for $7k. It doesn't happen.
Bruno never scammed anybody, so everyone who decided to whip up some far-fetched conspiracy about how this was some kind of master scam needs to do some introspecting and just be quiet on this issue for a while.
Facebook's approach should be standard for what happens whenever a notable forum member is decidedly deceased. And it won't happen often because almost nobody is as public with their identity as Bruno was.
After somebody presents theymos with an obituary from a website that specializes in such, or a newspaper, or whatever, the account should be locked. Adding "In Memoriam" is a nice touch if appropriate. Again, it won't happen often, so there's no real reason to argue about the "what ifs."
Now I'm thoroughly sick of discussing the issue - I have been for a month and a half - so this will be my last comment on it. I just beg of people to please have a little more forethought before churning out a post on what is a sensitive issue that we all must face one day.
