I am not sure where to put this but I have a thought/idea. One of my members unterkircher who joined trivia at the same time I did in 2009 and was a terrific player and teammate who was also on three different teams with myself and others now currently on my team passed away last week. I see that she still has an avatar on her profile and of course I am keeping her on as a honorary member but it saddens me that her avatar cannot stay on as is since that is the way I remember her. I was just wondering if there was any way of honoring our past members with any kind of a special avatar so that their profile just doesn't go back to before the Gold membership which she always had. I don't want to bother her family about this right now so I thought maybe it would be a nice idea to have something other than an anonymous face to honour our very devoted teammates who are no longer with us.

I really like that idea. It's too late to save the avatar for our Dave, but I often wished that it could have remained on his profile.

I wonder if this has ever been done before and if it is a workable idea. It would be up to the team to request it if something is put in place for this in honour of their teammate. I am glad you like this idea too Dagny1 as I am sure other team leaders/mates would also. Sorry about your teammate. I was thinking maybe there could even possibly be a standard avatar set in place to honour your Dave and others.

We have had two members pass away over the last couple of years. Both of whom were Gold members. One has still got their Gold membership in place as less than a year since they passed but the others has ran out and now just has a bag on their head.

I would never remove these team members from our team but it would be nice if there was a standard Avatar for those who have passed, or maybe just a simply R.I.P. On their profile.

Not being an "techy" I don't know how difficult this would be to put in place. Maybe a simple rule that Team Leaders advise the powers that be and they action it.

It would be a fitting memorial to a team mate lost.

I think this is a lovely idea. It would be great to reinstate the avatars of those who have passed away and whose symbols have already reverted to paper bags.

This does sound like an excellent way to memorialize past members.

Might I suggest a black bunting draped across the top of their avatars? I believe Terry can authorize lifetime gold memberships whenever he wants. I think it should be a site acknowledgement and not just a team thing. After all, most of our competitive meetings are with non-team members.

I think the idea itself is simply wonderful and says a lot about you as players/team leaders; that you'd still wish to pay respects to your fellow teammates even after they've moved on.


You are all Rock-Stars!

i think this is a lovely idea!

I like the idea of keeping the avatar too.

The black bunting feels grim to me. Also, black is not the color of mourning in every culture. Since this is an international website, it would be inappropriate.

MiraJane, I prefer the black bunting idea to R.I.P or "DECEASED" and it is a universally understood symbol

Facebook does "Remembering" before the person's name. I think that is a really neutral way to convey death.

A black stripe across the upper left corner of the avatar box would serve like a mourning arm band if the bunting is too imposing.

Except black bunting or a black stripe or black anything is not "a universally understood symbol" of mourning. It's is for American, Canadian, Australian, and European culture. But not for other cultures.

Colors for mourning in other countries:

China - white (this is a question on this site.)
Hinduism - white is worn at funerals
India - brown. Widows wear white.
Egypt - yellow
Burma - yellow
Ethiopia - yellow
Korea - blue
Brazil - purple (also a question on this site.)
Thailand - purple
South Africa - red

In 2004, the four daughters of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands all wore white to her funeral.


There were other countries and cultures mentioned that did not use black as a mourning color but I could only find one reference. I never use a "fact" that has only one reference.

What about making it customizeable to match the color of the deceased person's background color on the profile page? That way you forego any such cultural hitches since it would be a personalized memorial to the individual in a small way.

Maybe some people don't care too much about their color but in most cases I think it would be a nice touch, especially since it is for the survivors too and that is a piece of how their closest friends from FT remember them.

I may be in a minority here, but I don't think that altering a person's profile page after their gone is something I want to do. All I'll end up doing after the fact is thinking 'wow, they've passed on and their profile page has been changed since they died'.

Not that they necessarily worry about it too much after the fact, of course. I just know that, right now, I don't want people adding things to my page, tampering with the colours, or adding banners. I worked hard to add things to my page on my own, and if that's the legacy I leave to FT, then at least it wasn't influenced by something outside my control.

That said, whatever someone wants to do with their own profile is fine by me. There are plenty of other ways around here to respect and remember our deceased members that I'm happy to participate in.

Sorry if my suggestion made no sense ..I am a bit out if it today. I see what you are saying Kyle. Mine was just a stray thought. I am fine with leaving a passed member's page as is (beyond just preserving the avatar if they have one, so long as Terry sees no issue with that.)

(IMO doing nothing at all is also a fitting way to remember them. I dont visit graves very often at all beyond the funeral...I would rather remember them as they were in life than view a headstone. So I sort of see Mira's point. Such an emblem might be a tad grim.... no matter what it looks like.)

I do understand the desire to have some visual tribute though as well. I hope a workable solution is found.

I like the idea of keeping their avatar and suspect it wouldn't be too technically difficult....at least not from this point on, might not be something that can be done retroactively.

I think that if a previous GM lapses then is reactivated as a GM then the avatar returns. If they were to be given a lifetime GM to restore their avatars then precautions would need to be taken to prevent the account from being used by someone else, not that it would happen in most cases but there will always be some people spoiling it for others but perhaps a simple password change might be sufficient to prevent that.

Edited for typo

I agree Sue. Changing the password would solve the problem.

I think all these suggestions are great. Kyle mentioned he wouldn't want his profile altered or that it would remind you that this person is no longer with us. I like the idea of keeping the avatar if possible. It would sadden me more if I just saw a paper bag in her place rather than anything at all since she was such a devoted team player and trivia player. I feel that your avatar is a reflection of your personality and that is why I like that idea. I came to know my member/teammate/friend quite well and she would want us to smile when remembering her. I know there is some talk about someone else using the accounts but I check up on who my members are periodically and if I saw that someone that shouldn't be there was on it would certainly ring a bell. I am not sure when my particular member/teammate membership expires but if her profile could be kept there permanently I know that she would love that as so would I and my team and for other team members that have lost a dear friend.

One minor problem with keeping/restoring the avatars as they are is that FT has no control over the site where the avatar is hosted or over the user's account - and it's quite possible that the family would close that down. Of course long as the avatar can be accessed it could be retrieved and hosted elsewhere (e.g. the FT server if Terry would allow it, we're not talking about a huge number after all) but that would have to be done manually. There is also the problem of copyright... I'm sure that everyone mentioned in the thread was punctilious about ensuring their avatar images were copyright free/in the public domain but not everyone is.

I wouldn't worry too much about using a black border/ribbon. Mira Jane is quite right, there are many colours of mourning but the vast majority of people using this site are from countries that follow the Western European tradition of using black and other users will know what it means. Sometimes we can be so attentive to cultural differences we forget that we are not the only people who can make allowances.

My suggestion would be to use a generic avatar of some sort, perhaps a simple border and/or ribbon, maybe a yellow rose, and a statement, such as "This member's profile is kept active in remembrance". Or something.

It is my intention to contact Yvonne's family eventually through facebook to let them know that I am keeping her as a honourary member but it is just too soon at this time. In her death notice that they put online and in their local newspaper they made reference what things she loved to do and trivia was one of them. The family knew how much she did like trivia and I think they would like this idea.

I like this idea.

I like this one too.