The Facebook of the Dead

[Dannyalcatraz]

*Psst!* Danny! EN World *is* social media!

*pffffft*

You're a mod so you know- as social media goes, places like this are pretty anti-social. There are ham sandwich Facebook pages with more traffic than ENWorld.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My will is already in order and the appropriate people have the right information. But I'm a responsable person with education and some money at my disposal. The people who do not have/can't afford a will are the ones who will not have an electronic will.

Does your jurisdiction recognize wills in wholly electronic form? Some probate systems will take video, but PDFs and the like are not quite acceptable everywhere.

 

[Umbran]

*pffffft*

You're a mod so you know- as social media goes, places like this are pretty anti-social. There are ham sandwich Facebook pages with more traffic than ENWorld.

Yeah, well, a Smartcar's got a puny little engine, but it is still a car, dude. Try to argue to the cop who pulls you over that you shouldn't get a ticket in one because you're not *really* driving.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yeah, well, a Smartcar's got a puny little engine, but it is still a car, dude. Try to argue to the cop who pulls you over that you shouldn't get a ticket in one because you're not *really* driving.

I'm in Texas- those things are legally considered rollerskates. People use them as riding mowers and some of our malls rent them out as mobility scooters.

 

[Kramodlog]

Does your jurisdiction recognize wills in wholly electronic form? Some probate systems will take video, but PDFs and the like are not quite acceptable everywhere.

Nah. Paper and that notary seal are still king. I guess it is fear that electronics can be easily modified.

Wills are serious business. The notary didn't even want to write in my will that I was leaving everything to my cat and have a battle royal death match between selected individuals to decide who inherites the cat. As a joke of course.

 

[Janx]

I'm in Texas- those things are legally considered rollerskates. People use them as riding mowers and some of our malls rent them out as mobility scooters.

I'm pretty sure it's legal to strap a Smart car on your truck if you get a flat.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

In case you guys haven't read it before, another interesting article on the same subject :

https://what-if.xkcd.com/69/

AR

 

[Kramodlog]

Frankly, for future generations, and I mean centuries from now, Facebook could have unprecedented archeological value. Pics of clothes, hairstyles, food, what people actually talked about and the words they use, the news, etc, could be accessable to historians.

Just for that, I sort of do not have objections to Facebook keeping those dead accounts around.

 

[Janx]

Frankly, for future generations, and I mean centuries from now, Facebook could have unprecedented archeological value. Pics of clothes, hairstyles, food, what people actually talked about and the words they use, the news, etc, could be accessable to historians.

Just for that, I sort of do not have objections to Facebook keeping those dead accounts around.

that would certainly be useful.

I think a key problem is whether FB will be around (or its data) in some capacity 100 years from now.

As the XKCD article points out, web sites don't last. Remember Web Crawler? Alta Vista? GeoCities?

Where are those GeoCities sites now? That last is important, because if somebody doesn't archive the data, once the company is done, the site comes down and the hard drives get trashed.

Sure, the Internet Archive project might catch a copy of the site, but given that your not supposed to see profiles unless you are a friend or an idiot with bad privacy settings, external parties can't see your stuff to snag a copy.

 

[Kramodlog]

that would certainly be useful.

I think a key problem is whether FB will be around (or its data) in some capacity 100 years from now.

As the XKCD article points out, web sites don't last. Remember Web Crawler? Alta Vista? GeoCities?

Where are those GeoCities sites now? That last is important, because if somebody doesn't archive the data, once the company is done, the site comes down and the hard drives get trashed.

Sure, the Internet Archive project might catch a copy of the site, but given that your not supposed to see profiles unless you are a friend or an idiot with bad privacy settings, external parties can't see your stuff to snag a copy.

I wonder if FB's password feature will help it endure. Having almost all your passwords centralized and not having to remember them is way useful.