Myspace pages that become telling epitaphs

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Epitaphs can be interpreted as literally or figurative here... either way, one's life has either ended or permanantly changed for the worse (whether deserved or not.)

It just seems really awkward to me; probably because, for once, we're seeing these people in the very state they were before said tragedy occurred... we're not seeing highly polished obituaries or recounts in newspaper stories about "He/she was a cherubic individual who had a lot of creativity but unfortunately had some vices that did him/her under, and could not control.", which we're all so used to, whether we like it or not.

Now we're seeing a raw snapshot.. and on MYSPACE... so we get to see friends -- warts, radiance, and all.

I see the good and bad in both, I guess. Anyway, forgive my Reader's Digest type commentary here.

― Dom iNut (donut), Sunday, 5 February 2006 20:30 (nineteen years ago)

Well, this has certainly taught me that while I won't hide who I am on my Myspace page, obviously.. I'm going to keep this little thought in mind whenever I do update the page.. and won't proceed to go out of my way to make a statement on that page that could , well, potentially stamp my ghost for eternity, if you will.

― Dom iNut (donut), Sunday, 5 February 2006 20:33 (nineteen years ago)

I think mine currently quotes a Lil' Flip song so I'm cool.

― Miss Misery xox (MissMiseryTX), Sunday, 5 February 2006 20:35 (nineteen years ago)

I think Harris & Klebold were sort of the heralds for this new, as-it-happens style of obit, and I agree that it's interesting

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 5 February 2006 20:50 (nineteen years ago)

Teen opens fire in Massachusetts gay bar, injuring 3

― A BOLD QUAHOG (ex machina), Sunday, 5 February 2006 20:59 (nineteen years ago)

Yup, that was the thread that inspired this thread, pretty much.

― Dom iNut (donut), Sunday, 5 February 2006 21:17 (nineteen years ago)

see, bold quahog, that one there is about the story, and this one here is about a broader issue, that's how come the new thread

always happy to help

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 5 February 2006 21:18 (nineteen years ago)

People might want to read the thread, you newbie choad

― A BOLD QUAHOG (ex machina), Sunday, 5 February 2006 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

noob!

― Peter Densmore (pbnmyj), Sunday, 5 February 2006 21:44 (nineteen years ago)

hahaha yeah I'm a real newb, just got here yesterday, not two years ago, and I certainly wasn't here under another name for about three years before that

posting a link to a similar thread sans comment is generally taken to mean "we did this already" as I understand it and I don't think I'm alone amongst us ahem newbie choads in thinking that

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 5 February 2006 22:15 (nineteen years ago)

oldie choad ;-)

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Sunday, 5 February 2006 22:43 (nineteen years ago)

There's an LJ community dedicated to finding myspaces where people have died and trying to then locate who they really were via obits in the paper, articles on accidents/murders/etc. They've had to pull back to not mentioning names now I think (they got into some trouble) but its a curious phenomenon. I am really not comfortable with how much places like myspace encourage people to spill. This is why I've tended to stick to no-surname handles, bare minimum personal info and/or locked or passworded pages.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 5 February 2006 22:53 (nineteen years ago)

Trayce, xpost

I don't even know who you are. I intended the link as a crossreference. Eat my balls

― A BOLD QUAHOG (ex machina), Sunday, 5 February 2006 23:02 (nineteen years ago)

Now now boys!

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 5 February 2006 23:14 (nineteen years ago)

err, I meant to ask you for the link Trayce :D

― A BOLD QUAHOG (ex machina), Sunday, 5 February 2006 23:19 (nineteen years ago)

Oh! haha. Bugger now I dont remember how I stumbled across it. It was a community. Maybe its called lj_death or myspacedeath or something. Lemme find out.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 5 February 2006 23:20 (nineteen years ago)

Hrm there was a myspacedeaths comm but it has been suspended. haha. I wonder if that was it?

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 5 February 2006 23:22 (nineteen years ago)

haha sorry to be a dick bold quahog I just thought you were sayin' "we did this domiNut" in a kinda aggro way so I took offense

I think this particular thread topic is very interesting

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 5 February 2006 23:25 (nineteen years ago)

http://community.livejournal.com/myspace_deaths

― She's been known to sleep on piles of dry leaves... (papa november), Sunday, 5 February 2006 23:36 (nineteen years ago)

wasn't there a thread about that community?

― tehresa (tehresa), Sunday, 5 February 2006 23:44 (nineteen years ago)

they put a lot of work into that. i hope they cache pages somewhere

― A BOLD QUAHOG (ex machina), Sunday, 5 February 2006 23:51 (nineteen years ago)

Aha thanks Kate.

Tehresa: yeah its possible that is where I heard about it from! I dont remember to be honest :/

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 6 February 2006 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

found it!

Myspace deaths, but the profiles live on.

― tehresa (tehresa), Monday, 6 February 2006 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

First off... otm Trayce... The MA Teen thread did inspire this thread, and I took Jon's cross posting of the other thread as just that... I realize that style of posting can be taken both ways.. but I think we've all hugglezed by now.

Anyway, I know that only a gazillion "thug" teens always like to portray themselves as "serial killaz" on their profiles, but I feel just disgusted seeing that pic on that kid's Myspace pics, and all the comments saying "Aw cute", or "Aw yeah. Motherfucker rocks!" or whatever his friends are saying. Obviously, I doubt any of these friends would want to have anything to do with this profile now, much less the whole incident, and are probably dealing with a lot of horrific shit right now... it just makes it sadder that their little "aw kewt" comments to, essentially, a homophobic killer are not there for the entire world to see, and therefore will be associated with him.

Shit like that has NEVER happened with obituaries before the web.

I just fear that people will start seeing this and getting all wary about "those types of people". I feel sorry for juggalos now, because 99.999% of them would never do evil shit like that kid did, yet they're going to not only be made fun of bigtime, but be vigilantly watched.. and its the latter that bothers me. It's Columbine High all over again.

Obviously, personal home pages of the deceased have been around for well over a decade, but with Myspace, all you need is an afternoon to put one together.. no Chapter Zero on HTML required, even.

More to the point, there's a bit of a "rebellious" ribald spirit about how folks approach Myspace pages. They're usually not meant to be nearly as serious as "personal home pages". Ironically, they're the easiest to find in case of a tragedy like this, so this is what most will see.

Anyway, this phenomenon is going to become a lot more common; and I fear that a lot of traumatized parents are going to aim for wanting to have government involvement in refining "rebellious" culture after seeing their "wayward" children commit horrible crimes or O.D. or however they choose to end their life or chance at a real life.. which is only going to propogate this phenomenon even more, and will make this worse, IMHO. :(

(That said, I'm NOT -- in any way -- blaming Myspace for this at all.)

― Dom iNut (donut), Monday, 6 February 2006 04:27 (nineteen years ago)

it just makes it sadder that their little "aw kewt" comments to, essentially, a homophobic killer are not there for the entire world to see, and therefore will be associated with him.

..are now there.. (sorry)

― Dom iNut (donut), Monday, 6 February 2006 04:29 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

Granted, it was posted in the context of trying to be funny, which I didn't take well at all, but here are some profiles of the folks who got murdered this past Saturday night in Seattle at the afterparty of the zombie rave:

http://www.myspace.com/sushiismyname

http://myspace.com/flesheatingrabbits

http://www.myspace.com/deacon808

...again, instant snapshot. No filtering. No rewriting history. just.. raw.. people. Now no longer.

And of course the inescapable irony of the "night of horror" theme at the zombie rave night. Fucking hell

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Sunday, 26 March 2006 23:16 (nineteen years ago)

i'm actually doing my college dissertation on dead people's myspaces.

― Barnaby (Barnaby), Sunday, 26 March 2006 23:29 (nineteen years ago)

Should be noted that flesheatingrabbits (the middle link) is alive (which is good). I had copied and pasted, assuming all were victims. MANY apologies to friends of flesheatingrabbits if they google this.

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Sunday, 26 March 2006 23:38 (nineteen years ago)

Some of the "epitaph responses" people leave are inane and ineloquent beyond belief.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 27 March 2006 00:38 (nineteen years ago)

Like we're all top-class here.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 March 2006 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

Forksclovetufo inadvertently brought up another excellent point about this phenomenon... nothing rehearsed about the eulogies... really top-of-the-head stuff, and the people writing them know it's very reactionary. Again, is this better or worse? (I would never use the terms "inane" and "ineloquent" on ILX, though, to describe comments on other web pages.. just out of principle.)

― Yoo Doo Nut (donut), Monday, 27 March 2006 00:44 (nineteen years ago)

"They have MySpace in heaven, right?":
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid7187.aspx
Great article.

― Nigel (Nigel), Monday, 27 March 2006 06:30 (nineteen years ago)

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