Memorial Account

[vakkotaur]

In the recent LiveJournal news post there is mention of purging deleted accounts and freeing up user names. In the discussions following someone asked about deleting accounts that were simply dormant. So far LiveJournal does not do that, but there have discussions about such things. That came up in this thread.

I replied, thanking the LJ folks for not deleting simply idle accounts as one them is that of moufette. That got the reply that one can write to webmaster@livejournal.com with his username and ask that the account be set to "memorial". I have done so, and I believe film2edit has done so as well.

If this has been done, it's not visible by looking at the account. Evidently memorial status is an internal LJ flag that means that the account cannot be posted to - which makes sense since the account holder isn't alive to post, and that the account is never to be deleted. One issue that might come into play is that it is, naturally, preferred that a relative make the request.

ADDENDUM: Both film2edit and I have received replies to our e-mails about this. I am quoting part of the reply I received below:

The account is now in memorial status, which disables future entries by the account, but allows comments on existing entries.

Comments

[wordslinger.livejournal.com]

I wish there was some explaination that the person had died (and how, perhaps.) I didn't know either of them and I was left feeling a little bewildered.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that. It was moufette who died in 2005 (http://vakkotaur.livejournal.com/212710.html) of complications of neurofibromatosis, and from his history it was apparently NF2 (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/neurofibromatosis/detail_neurofibromatosis.htm#41823162).

film2edit is very much alive, as can be seen by her reply below.

[film2edit.livejournal.com]

Greetings. I got a reply that it has been placed under "memorial" status. Whoever sent the reply was very polite and sincere as well. The journal will not be erased.

People can still leave replies.

Take care, and thank you for mentioning about this earlier to me.

-Erika

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

You're quite welcome. I received a similar response. I'll make an addendum to the post with the relevant part of that.

[cordykitten]

Thank you for posting this; I've read in the comments of the news post about these accounts and google (finding your entry). I hope you won't mind that I quote you and link to your entry? If you do I'll delete the link again.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I do not mind. And you are welcome.