Nathan Potznick, a 1999 graduate from our CS dept, died a few weeks ago after a routine surgery following a motorcycle accident. Nathan was working for Yahoo at the time.
Nathan's girlfriend notified our dept chair of his death when she saw him listed as a friend in Nathan's Facebook account. I remember Nathan a little... I think he might have taken me for a class since I started teaching in the department in 1997. My prayers go out to Nathan's family.
I ran across this entry on MyDeathSpace.com about Nathan. There's something a little disturbing about this website, but I can't exactly place my finger on it. Maybe I'm just imagining random people speculating about my death on there... it's just a little morbid and weird.
On a side note, how long will it take for Facebook to determine Nathan's account is no longer active and shut it down?
Update on 1/9/2:
What happens to your web stuff when you die? states that Facebook accounts are never closed unless you explicitly ask Facebook to close them.
Facebook will never delete his account. I think there is a time limit where the account is "inactive" after a certain amount of time. His acct. will stay there until someone with his pwd (like his gf) goes in and shuts it down.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I read about this one on a Los Angeles motorcycle accident attorneys blog, what a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteMy condolences for his family and girlfriend during this tough time. I'd suggest they get a hold of some Los Angeles motorcycle accident attorneys that can help them out during this tragic incident.
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