Taking Note on the Website of a Classmate's Death

A simple solution is to change your classmate's address to "Deceased" - that will show up in the Classmates List page without any other change (at least, if "address" is currently displayed in your list).

You might also create an unpublished check box in the profile - if checked, then it could show that the classmate is deceased in your Classmates List page. I've done something similar by creating a "Radcliffe" box and a "Lives Near Boston" box in the profile.

As for creating a profile link to your In Memoriam page, you can create a URL field for that in the profile. A living classmate may write a web address there; then when a classmate dies, the website administrator would just replace that with a link to your In Memoriam page.

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An alternative solution (from class of 76):

1. Create a form field of Editor Text Area type (note that a regular text field will not work in the same way) and designate it for Admin links of interest to this individual.

For this to work properly, the field must be set up as follows:

 - Required = No
 - Show on Profile = Yes, on 1 line
 - Display field title in Profile = No
 - User Read Only = Yes
 - Show at Registration = No
 - Published = Yes
 - Prefilled default value = blank

2. Position the field so that it will appear directly below the person's formatted name on the initial tab (usually, Contact Info ) of the profile.

Note that, because you chose not to display field title for this field, there will be no extra space left for individuals without content in this field. Because you chose User Read Only, it will not be editable by a user who is editing his or her profile.

3. For all lists, show this field in the same column as, and directly below, the Formatted name. It's best to make this behavior consistent for all lists, even those that are not presently published, and carry it through in the future.

Again, no extra space will be consumed in lists if you do it this way, for users who do not have any content in this field.

Once you have set things up this way, you can do the following for any user of the site who is deceased:

1. Turn off "OK for Webmaster to contact".

2. Add a link to the In Memoriam page to this new field, which will appear in lists and profiles only where appropriate (content exists) for the current user:

Note that we opt not to change anything about the profile, including the displayed email address, for the deceased site member. This is something a family member can do if desired, but we will start from the assumption that everything about this user's online presence belongs to somebody and should not be changed without a request. As Webmasters, we can send an inquiry to the displayed email for this user, and possibly make changes if we get no response, meaning that nobody is monitoring the email now, but it's best to wait a while before deciding that. It often takes months for family members to sort out on-line passwords and presence issues.

The same field can be used for an admin note about this user with any other internal or external page relevant to this user, for example a page that they have authored on the site or a news story that has recently appeared about them.