DIMINISHED THOUGHT

Last spring I posted about Mydeathspace.com, a web site that tracks the profiles of deceased myspace users. I though it was interesting that social networking profiles were being adapted to online memorials giving friends and family a place to come online and mourn. However, at the time mydeathspace was having problems with community members making offensive and demeaning remarks about the dead.

According to the New York Times, Mydeathspace has made some significant changes to the community design in an effort to cull inappropriate comments. First, they have made it essential that members who desire to post must register. This creates a formal barrier to participation that may discourage casual visitors from making hurtful comments. Another important feature of the site is “Report to Moderator” link on every post which allows site members a hand in policing the community themselves.

Unfortunately, there are several flaws in the site as well. Although the main page asks visitors to be respectful of the deceased and rule postings ask for discussions of particular deaths to refer to individuals by name, senior moderators and administrators break their own guidelines with same thread by making crude remarks about an unspecified woman’s death. Until mydeathspaces administrators can behave in way a that sets a positive tone and fosters true compassion for others, they may never be acknowledged as a legitimate memorial site by the loved ones of those commemorated there.