Deathswitch

[MA-Caver]

Death leaves online lives in limbo (AP)

Posted on Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:32PM EDT
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090316/ap_on_hi_te/tec_death_onlineNEW YORK - When Jerald Spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father's gaming friends know that he hadn't just decided to desert them.
It wasn't easy, because she didn't have her father's "World of Warcraft" password and the game's publisher couldn't help her. Eventually, Melissa Allen Spangenberg reached her father's friends by asking around online for the "guild" he belonged to.
One of them, Chuck Pagoria in Morgantown, Ky., heard about Spangenberg's death three weeks later. Pagoria had put his absence down to an argument among the gamers that night.
"I figured he probably just needed some time to cool off," Pagoria said. "I was kind of extremely shocked and blown away when I heard the reason that he hadn't been back. Nobody had any way of finding this out."

He set up a site called Deathswitch, where people can set up e-mails that will be sent out automatically if they don't check in at intervals they specify, like once a week. For $20 per year, members can create up to 30 e-mails with attachments like video files.
It's not really a profit-making venture, and Eagleman isn't sure about how many members it has — "probably close to a thousand." Nor does he know what's in the e-mails that have been created. Until they're sent out, they're encrypted so that only their creators can read them.

If Deathswitch isn't going to do it then check out Slightlymorbid.com for an alternate.

I wonder what would happen if I stopped posting here for a month or so (other than Terry increasing his own posts by a hundredfold). But there are members here who know me personally (Ceicei to name one) who would make the announcement.
Still something to think about. It happens to everyone so. If you've got a good cache of friends on line that you'll probably never meet face to face but still feel close to ... having an automatic mailing might be the ticket.