Hey, everyone. The only time your name is replaced automatically by an @mycopdteammember identifier is when someone deletes their profile or deactivates their account.

There is no human involvement - it’s a system default to tag broken hyperlinks to deleted profiles.

When someone simply stops signing into the site, their profile remains active. It’s up to friends and family or designees tagged by you to KNOW that one is on this site, and that you wish a message posted if you pass away. They can further decide to keep the profile up, or they can deactivate it, it’s up to you to leave a trail of breadcrumbs so that your digital friends know where you went.

Normally, we are only informed of someone’s passing away if they have friends on this site and other sites like facebook, instagram, etc., and someone sees an obituary and lets the rest of us on here know by posting a copy of the obituary or other “official” notice.

So, just like everything else we do to hand off the keys to our daily activities by designating someone your “POA” or “Power of Attorney”, we need to maintain a login list of sites we access, since so much of our information is handled digitally via electronic notifications, reminders and automatic payments.

If you haven’t already created such a list, now is an excellent time to do so.

You can either print out a hardcopy and leave it with your other important papers (best recommendation to avoid hacking via email shares of spreadsheets), as well as hand a hard copy of the sites / Login Ids / Passwords to your designee (updated every 6 months to a year), letting them know of your final wishes if individual instructions are needed (credit lines and debit cards should be self-explanatory), but digital social networking sites may need a few lines of instruction regarding your communication preferences.

In my case, every credit card, utility company, social media account, etc., is contained in a coded entry within my electronic devices notes feature, so that *I* can remember my login IDs and passwords.

I’ve also left instructions for any final farewell comments to my doctors, stylists, pedicurists, etc., in a separate spreadsheet in my firesafe so that no one is left hanging should I pass away suddenly.

Most people would be surprised to realize that they have 50 or more contacts who will miss them if we are suddenly gone, and while we may have pre-paid our final expenses, etc., this extra step to document our digital footprints and friendships and let the folks who will miss us when we’re gone know what’s happened is simple courtesy.

Please think about creating this list sooner rather than later. Our family and friends aren’t mind readers, so it’s important that we think ahead to making sure the end of our story gets told, too.

I hope everyone reading this post will consider creating such a list. Butting out again.

Tuesday night, 23-JUL-24

See, @A MyCOPDTeam Member, being a busybody with opinions about EVERYTHING does pay off, LOL.

Happy Thursday to you, 25-JUL-24

Mentioned Users

A MyCOPDT...

@A MyCOPDTeam Member I hope she is ok too. She was a special friend to many on here. I hope you are doing well my friend! Chris
@A MyCOPDTeam Member I just can't imagine what has happened, but she must have let management know she was leaving for some reason or they wouldn't put the @my copdteammember on the posts; they just wouldn't say anything. This is a real puzzlement for sure. Thank you both for your answers! Chris
July 23, 2024

Mentioned Users

A MyCOPDT...

A MyCOPDT...

@A MyCOPDTeam Member I know that there is nothing the management can do to inform us unless they are given permission from the family. There are probably a lot of people on here who haven't made that notation in their profile or wherever you put something like that. I have given my daughters the name of the COPD site so they can let you all know when my number is up. Would you care to share who you are looking for Jan? Maybe someone else has heard from this person. It's ok if you don't want to say. Chris
July 23, 2024

Mentioned Users

A MyCOPDT...

@A MyCOPDTeam Member no one has heard from @A MyCOPDTeam Member for probably a couple of years now. It's so sad when people just disappear and nothing is said about them. There are a few other people I haven't heard from lately too. Bothersome wondering how they are and not knowing. Chris
July 23, 2024

Mentioned Users

A MyCOPDT...

A MyCOPDT...