A 'deathblog' Definition

Christopher Null coins a term

Adrian Heideman, an 18-year-old college student, wrote about hating his chemistry lab, his love of skateboarding and how he cost his Pi Kappa Phi pledge class "house chore points" for failing to take down a flag on time.

It was a typical sort of entry on LiveJournal, a popular online diary and weblogging site. But Heideman, a student at California State University at Chico who posted the note on Sept. 19, 2000, had no idea it would be his last to the site

Two weeks later, he died in an apparent fraternity-related alcohol poisoning. He left behind a grieving family, a mournful college and an impromptu electronic memorial that has generated a deluge of comments from friends, classmates and total strangers.

Eulogies and random postings have continued to appear on the site in the years since Heideman died, and the journal has become a place for grieving and friendly banter among old colleagues.

[...]

Finding such weblogs is a challenge, since there's rarely any warning that entries are about to cease. Because idle and abandoned blogs are more the rule than the exception, it's impossible to tell if a site is simply being ignored or its creator has, in fact, died.

But deathblogs, to coin a term, do seem to offer comfort to those left behind, whether the sites are visited regularly or not.

It an interesting concept, one with very strong Serial Experiments Lain-style qualities. What writers write comes from within and is a piece or representation of that person's unique self. Thoughts conferred to electronic form. A blog can be just as personal as a secret diary. So when a sequential Internet journalist dies, we are left with a very personal and very intact record of their feelings and personality. It certainly isn't as if the person is still alive, for the material left behind is quite static and unchanging and nothing new is written ever again...but I can understand how having that blog there to read could comfort those affected by the death.

Now, on to my definition. Feel free to add, subtract, modify, and disregard. :)

deathblog
n.

A blog (or section within a blog) whose sole author dies in an unexpected or sudden manner, leaving behind an inactive but accessible archive of posts for future visitors. New content comes from the bereaved.

Posted by Drizzten at April 22, 2003 03:13 PM