completed When a member dies...and their private messages?

One of the well liked members of my site, John, suddenly died this week, it's quite sad.
His son has been in touch with me and has joined my site and it now 'following' his father's profile. There's a memorial thread going on, which is comforting to his family.
But my question is this-
I'm not sure about what happens to a deceased member's private messages...? I cannot currently log in as John unless i change John's old password (which I naturally don't know). If I change John's password and then give it to his son, would his son then be able to read John's private messages or not? Or are they totally 'lost' now to his family?
I haven't broached the subject about what to do with John's profile (he has contributed good content to my site for years) with his son, but I wondered about the private messages/inbox left behind when a member dies.

Any thoughts on how folks tend to handle this kind of thing?



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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 06/05/16 09:25:19PM

Facebook offers this: https://www.facebook.com/help/103897939701143

I think if someone wanted access to the actually account on my site, I think I would purge the messages and let them have it.

Its really up to you how you handle this, but personally, I'd suggest that unless there was a very good reason, his private messages ought to stay private, so to achieve that, clone his quota to a 'Memorialised Quota', disable the PrivateNote module for that quota, then move him to it. You would also then have the option of testing for the quota in the profile templates and adding 'Memorialised' next to his name, say.
I'd also set his profile to one of the 'followers only' options and certainly set the 'approve followers' option. I wouldn't give his user account to anyone (unless there was a very good reason, of course) and I'd even consider deleting it, leaving the profile owned by master admin (you), but if not, certainly change his password, just in case anyone else has it.
hth


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

on the technical 'howto' side of things, you could set the email address for that user to his sons one, then change the password to one he wanted and he could login as that user and see the private messages.

sad.

"I'd suggest that unless there was a very good reason, his private messages ought to stay private, so to achieve that, clone his quota to a 'Memorialised Quota', disable the PrivateNote module for that quota, then move him to it."

Paul- if i did that, would his private messages be automatically deleted for good?, or might I be able to turn the messages back on later ...if for example his son or daughter wanted to have their father's private messages? (sort of like having someone's old letters)

"You would also then have the option of testing for the quota in the profile templates and adding 'Memorialised' next to his name, say."

Paul, I'm not sure I understand what/how you mean about this 'testing'...? Yes I would like to create a Memorialized Quota and I know how to clone off the member quota...but can you clarify the other part you said, and how to add Memorialized next to the profile name in that quota?

"I'd also set his profile to one of the 'followers only' options"

What exactly do you mean by this and what setting are you talking about...and why would this be good?

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Sorry to have so many questions!

Micheal- yes thank you understood.

Thanks as well, Dazed.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

No messages would be deleted. If you re-enabled the module, all his messages would appear to the logged in user.

In the appropriate skin profile templates you could just add a bit of code like this in the required place -

It might be easier though just to change his profile name to "John (Memorialised)"

Go to his profile update view and checkout the Profile Privacy options.

Please note that these are just suggestions of what can be done. You know all the circumstances in this case so need to decide the best course of action.
hth


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Ok, thanks for your help.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015