About memorializing (on the MS forum and maybe other forums as well)

[Sunshine 2]

((((Dear Agate))))

I like having a thread like this . We ought never forget our former members whether they were controversial or not l they were part of our MS BT Community

Just like a family, we don't always like everyone, but we ARE A FAMILYl and that's what matters

Peace Out
Sunshine 2

[agate]

I can think of at least half a dozen people who have checked in here every 6 months or even every couple of years but they do check in. A couple of the people who were more frequent visitors have been in situations where they've been too busy to be here. I'm hoping they won't forget us.

[Virginia]

I too hope they will return, but right now things appear dim.

[agate]

Just to let people know that there has been some debate on the MS forum about whether it's a good idea to post regularly recurring (monthly) threads in memory of someone who was a member here but has died.

I have no opinion one way or the other really. I went along with an opinion opposing it based on someone's recollection of a controversy about this issue in connection with Grassman's passing. The archives are no longer accessible, and so there was no way of checking back to refresh my memory. I did recall some discussion but can't recall what the issues were, and so had to use someone else's memory of it, but recalling that Grassman was sometimes a controversial person here, I found it believable--and I do recall many very very heated controversies on this MS board, about a variety of issues.

Grassman wasn't always beloved by all, and most people here, like people everywhere, aren't everyone's cup of tea. That's one problem with memorializing one person while others aren't so honored.

And they can't be because there wouldn't be enough ways to include all of them. Joy, Sally, Matt, Frog (Vicky), and the list goes on and on! A case could be made for each of them.

The MS forum was very active many years. Many other members have undoubtedly died but we weren't aware of their passing. They simply dropped off the board and weren't missed because there were so many people there that no one could keep track of all of them.

I think it was a lovely idea to name a thread in memory of Peg, as happened recently. And I hope that the discussion about it hasn't driven anyone away. No one seems to know whether the person who posted that thread intended for it to be a regular, recurring thread, and I for one am unable to reach that person in any way in order to ask, but when the next month rolled around and that person didn't post a new thread memorializing Peg, I didn't know what to do--and so went ahead and started a July thread, but without Peg's name attached.

Another problem with memorializing people by naming them in threads is that newcomers, and we do have them, might conclude that we are a group of people interested mainly in celebrating our past, a past they don't share. It is somewhat exclusionary, and we already may seem like a group of people so firmly established that newcomers are reluctant to barge in.

Instead, we're actually a group of people interested in telling how we're getting along with our MS, day by day, month by month. Time keeps passing and we keep having MS. Why not talk about it here?

I hope that those who have been discouraged, for whatever reason, will return, but if they don't, some of us are still here.

As Grassman used to sign off,

Peace Out