An "In memoriam" feature/plugin

[Pavel Chernitsky]

Hi all, 

Last night, one of the most prolific and known members of our community passed away and we decided we want to do something to commemorate their memory and give them a special "in memoriam" status, put a link to their death notice thread and any other idea you guys can think of? maybe a page on the profile that shows off their posts and pictures or something? or at least a way to customize their tag line or whatever the text under their avatar is called.

Does anybody know of a built-in/purchasable tool that can do something like that?

Edited July 16, 2020 by Pavel Chernitsky

[WP V0RT3X]

Hi, sad to hear that 😞

You could create an extra usergroup and customize/format the names.

[Pavel Chernitsky]

Yeah, it really does suck...
So far I've found a way to edit the tagline (What I previously called title) and add a link to the death notice thread to the signature. 
I was thinking about a usergroup, but I want to see if there are other ideas, because having a "dead guys" user group kinda bums you out every time you go into the group menu... 😕 

[Ocean West]

once i am made aware of someone's passing move them in to a Group "Memoriam" and remove them from other groups, I also disable any email notifications for that users account. So as not to bother next of kin. Probably best to turn off their messages too.

I use the Announcement feature to make a post visible for a few days at the top of the site with link to a post. 🕯️

[Pavel Chernitsky]

6 hours ago, Ocean West said:

I also disable any email notifications for that users account. So as not to bother next of kin. Probably best to turn off their messages too.

I use the Announcement feature to make a post visible for a few days at the top of the site with link to a post

Those are really good ideas. Thanks!

[The Old Man]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the loss of your member @Pavel Chernitsky, I know how upsetting it can be. We lost 2 main cornerstones of our community from the US in the last 2 year that I'd known for almost 20 years despite never meeting in real life, both were forum staff and and it really hurts. We've probably had more go over the years, I've tried to look for a few, but many people's families wouldn't know to let websites know, for obvious reasons.

However the reason I say this is because it gave me an idea at the time to create an 'In Memorium' style app where members could leave thoughts and prayers (i.e. comments) and light a virtual candle or leave virtual flowers etc, get a reminder of the anniversary in future years etc, but I'm still learning plug-ins for now due to ill health, I get 2-4hrs sleep a day when I'm lucky and losing my career in 2017 due to auterity left me very depressed, so its really put me behind in my plans, but its something I'd love to be able to do and is still at the top of my 'apps to do' list. I once even thought about reaching out to Michael J to see if he would be interested in the idea.

For both members who passed, I too used announcements and preserved them in a special group, where I can do my best to preserve their profile and content etc.

Re member group styling, I ended up with this, you could try it in your member groups's Group Formatting boxes:

<strong style='color:#FFFFFF; text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #888888'>

then

</strong>

gives you something like this:

Edited July 16, 2020 by The Old Man

[Pavel Chernitsky]

Thanks a lot for that. I'm sorry to hear about your predicament (that's the best word in English I can think of, and I'm not actually sure it's adequate...) and I'm sure you'll pull through and exit it better and stronger. DO NOT rule out professional help. Depression is a biological/medical condition and there are ways to just "fix" it with proper medication and/or psychological treatment. DO NET neglect it.  

I'm taking all the ideas suggested here into account, but for now I think I'll avoid creating a specific user group. I opened a thread asking people to link to deceased users' profiles or the threads announcing their passing, and just going through this thread and remembering the people was a chilling experience. I really would not like to go through it every time I look at the user group list...