If a significant Inaturalist contributor dies, do you ensure that the legacy/contribution is not lost? A friend of my died last year; he was a major contributor (16,000 observations). I was just talking about this with his parents.

The person’s records, IDs, and comments remain on the site. Another major contributor died last year and a notice of that passing was added to his profile page by staff. Sorry for your loss.

@hb100 I’m sorry for your loss. As far as I’m aware, his contributions should stay up for as long as the site exists. If you or his parents have access to his account, it might be good to add a note to the profile about his passing, just in case anyone was going to try to contact him about an obser…

[image] graysquirrel: This also got me thinking: I wonder if it would be possible for iNat to switch accounts over to always accepting community IDs once someone has passed? There’s a major contributor who passed away last year, and I’ve noticed many of his observations becoming casual-grade due…

I hope if GBIF will end its existence, there will be another platform to pass on contributions, I thought about diversification of platforms quite a lot in the past weeks. I hope as it was discussed two or three years ago, iNat will add a normal system of closong accounts after death of the user, l…

[image] graysquirrel: If you or his parents have access to his account, it might be good to add a note to the profile about his passing, just in case anyone was going to try to contact him about an observation. That’s a good idea. And a deceased person’s contributions are not removed from iNa…

I could see where it might be difficult to ascertain that an iNatter has passed away and that a notice on their profile page may be warranted. If the person is well known to other iNatters by their real name then it’s more easily determined. But if the person uses a pseudonym and no one can determi…

Perhaps observations could revert to accepting community IDs if the user is inactive for X number of years? And I know I’ve seen mention of the possibility of showing an indicator on accounts if the person hasn’t logged in for a long time. That’d probably be enough for practical purposes. It isn’t r…

If you knew the contributor well or know someone in their circle well who is willing to write it, maybe an In Memorium post on the forum? A recent one I’ve seen: RIP Vic Fazio, long-time contributor and ornithologist, entomologist This only reaches forum members, unfortunately. Maybe a community-…

Well, some people leave and come back, so it would make sense to still write comments for the possible future, won’t do that if person is dead.

[image] jnstuart: Greg Lasley was known to many and there wasn’t any question when he passed This is what the top of Greg’s profile shows now, presumably having been edited by close family or friends with access to his account: [Screenshot 2022-08-16 at 12-27-22 greglasley's Profile · iNatur…

If a significant Inaturalist contributor dies

General

vreinkymov August 16, 2022, 4:06pm 13

Greg is also mentioned here too:

Greg Lasley passing
Tribute to Greg Lasley 6/28
Where will your data go when you die?

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If a significant Inaturalist contributor dies

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