A trend that didn't materialize.
When I long ago examined this issue, I thought that the idea of "a moment
of silence for ..." had a proper ring to it. In the resonatingly loquacious
atmosphere of online communities (particularly, at that time, discussion forums
and listservs) a short eulogy written about someone (and often someone with whom
we weren't really well acquainted) was sure to be quickly lost among the non-stop
pace of new messages. Thus, a moratorium on writing (a blank message titled only
"a moment of silence for ...") could serve as a tool for making us stop
and reflect for a moment. An admittedly cursory search for examples of this via
Google Groups, however, came up empty handed.
The idea seems not to have caught on.
Interestingly, although I predicted that the web site of the young horn
player killed in an automobile accident would disappear:
Nicole herself had a web
page, and chances are good that with the closing of her account her page
was closed as well. Personally, it would seem to me that a fitting memorial
would be the maintaining of her pages on some other server.
this didn't happen, and her pages are still on that same server. I don't know
whether this was a decision on the part of her family, or simply nobody attended
to removing them. No mention is made of her death, and to
the casual observer they seem like just another youthful experiment with a
web site that someone lost interest in. On the other hand, the memorial page that
was suggested by a member of the horn list was actually prepared, and is still
available. It sits as a dedication page for the hornplayer.net
web site.
Go to: Accepted use, or
Go to: In health and in sickness