Every once in a while I go and visit my “Writers Resting in Paradise” page where I have saved blogs that I used to link to that are no longer in circulation. (Is that the right term? Makes it sound fancy!). It’s fun/sad to see what some of the old URLs have been hijacked by but often they are preserved right where they left it. Sometimes, the blog remains pristine and clean and other times it is falling a part a bit. It really makes things feel like a neighborhood where you can walk down a street and see some houses abandoned, and others with new “people” living in them. Makes things feel very tangible.
As how I often talk about it, WRIP isn’t a message of death or being gone, but just moving on to something better. (hence the “Paradise” instead of “Peace” – although I do hope they have peace in their paradise as well)
On one of those visits I was reminded of Chris “River” Cavelle’s Blog, High Latency Life. I was shocked to see that he had passed away in 2014, so we passed the 5 year Anniversary of his sudden death. Even though he and I weren’t close in real life it was something that hit me when it had happened as we did link to, comment and read each other. And there is still a bond there for that. The good news is that his blog is still there for all to read, not that I expect many do. But his words and thoughts remained preserved. For how long? Who knows. Still, I chuckled to myself when I started to think how he would have responded to the new woke-ness of today. Probably would have been interesting conversations.
Outside of Ravious (from KTR) I think those are the only deaths that I am aware of from my little corner of Blognation – and not to get sombre or anything, but I have no idea on how to find out on those that do who have not put aside a plan to let people know via access to the blog or otherwise. Not happy thoughts, and sorry for the downer on a Monday.
Perhaps WRIP can (and should) mean both – for those we miss regardless of why. I truly hope they are on better adventures! I mean, I can’t end on a down note 🙂
It always throws me when someone just stops blogging suddenly with no warning or explanation. My blog roll is full of them. Sometimes I do a search for their name or nickname, whatever I know to see if they turn up on Twitter or somewhere. Tipa from West Karana is still active on Twitter under her real name, for example, although she’s abandoned her blogs to the extent that one of the domain names has been grabbed and used for a very dubious purpose. Many of them, though, just seem to vanish.
After this year, when there were a couple of times I could have gone silent with no warning, I’m thinking of leaving some instructions with my passwords etc so that whoever has to deal with my estate (hah!) can at least post a final coda. I think I’ll draw the line at composing my own obituary, though.
I think – if I knew when my time was coming I would leave a trail of those things. When I was sick (and thought to be very serious, but was luckily a misdiagnosis) I had a plan to write 40 birthday cards for my son, one for each year I had lived and write a short “What I was doing at 14. What I was doing at 15” type thing where every year he would learn a bit about me (can’t really tell him about my 20s when he is 14 due to the parental guidance ratings). I thought a lot about that including whether or not that would be painful or helpful for him – and if it was selfish for me to be thinking that way (Because it felt like a good idea to me). I think you think about life differently when it’s reminding you what life really is. Anyway, none of that happened. Thankfully!
A friend of mine ran a website called the MMO player graveyard where people could go and upload their now defunct characters so your friends could track you down. Of course it didnt go far and I toyed with the idea of reviving it – but I am a pure nostalgic fool.
May be an unpopular opinion, but I took both KTR and Gevlon’s retirement with the same reaction. I may have agreed more with Zubon than Gevlon, but losing those viewpoints makes it more of an echo chamber. Jewel from Healing the Masses pivoted to DnD at least.
When RL gets in the way… that’s more of a reminder of who is actually behind the keyboard. Or that there actually IS someone.
Oh, I read Gevlon everyday and had him in my blogroll. I enjoy reading different opinions, and he was clear his background which can also help shape their perspectives. Anyway, I miss most voices, even the ones I disagreed with. It does make the community more dynamic.
I try to remember to post something every couple of months so dragonchasers doesn’t end up on WRIP prematurely! 🙂
I’ve lost a few online friends over the years and it can be tough since you often have to do some digging to find out what happened; and of course you don’t want to intrude on the family’s mourning.
One of the best stories, this is pre-blogs (or at least before they were called blogs) back when I ran a gaming forum, was when a friend passed away and a few months later someone logged in using his account. I questioned them, of course. Turns out it was his father, and he was really touched by how much his son was loved and missed by “Internet people” from all over the world. (Friend was Australian, most of our members were in NA or the UK. He was responsible for MANY late nights in UO since I’d often stay up to play with him and another member from Oz).
I add people to the list after 6 months, so you have a good buffer there 🙂 And when I see they post again, back off the list!
That is a great story and one even more prevalent in today’s digital life/world. I recently lost a friend/colleague, and what was the most sad for me was that at his funeral his wife shared with everyone that he suffered from bipolar disorder – but didn’t tell any of us because he was afraid we wouldn’t accept him. This was a talented, very lovable man in his 40s. That made me sad that he hid that from us and I wondered if we had failed him someway.
Still, imagine that in today’s lens as well, with many relationships formed and cultivated online. I wonder how much we truly know of people!
Oh one more thing. You don’t have stroppsworld.com on your radar, but as best we can tell, he passed away some time ago. His blog throws up a browser warning but his twitch page lives on: https://www.twitch.tv/stroppsworld