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Missing In Action: Members Who've Gone Silent / Haven't Been Seen For Some Time

This might seem a bit mad, but I swear there was a poser called 'old time radio', it seems like it might have been a dream at this point, but I am sure it was this forum. The poster, I think, was male and in the US.

Also, 'Birdy'. And 'Kchoo'!

Also, this Cromer place sounds mighty interesting..

I know Kchoo. He still posts at AE, but not very often. Maybe once or twice a year.
 
There certainly was a very respected poster called Old Time Radio, but he hasn't been around since January 2016, unfortunately. ...
This is all I will say about the case of OTR ... He had self-admittedly been severely ill for years, but claimed to be "getting better" at about the time he disappeared from the forum. He disappeared from the forum a bit more than 2.5 years before the 2018 exodus, so he wasn't a migration casualty. Prior to, and following, the exodus I made a point to go looking for him. Multiple fellows with the same name passed away in OTR's known / admitted geographical area from the year of his last forum appearance to the present day. I was unable to definitely correlate any of those deaths with him.

I strongly suspect he became incapacitated or passed away sometime after making his last post in January 2016.
 
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This is all I will say about the case of OTR ... He had self-admittedly been severely ill for years, but claimed to be "getting better" at about the time he disappeared from the forum. He disappeared from the forum a bit more than 2.5 years before the 2018 exodus, so he wasn't a migration casualty. Prior to, and following, the exodus I made a point to go looking for him. Multiple fellows with the same name passed away in OTR's known / admitted geographical area from the year of his last forum appearance to the present day. I was unable to definitely correlate any of those deaths with him.

I strongly suspect he became incapacitated or passed away sometime after making his last post in January 2016.
Thanks for the info. It is of course a possibility. 'Gone but not forgotten' would be well placed in this instance; I always enjoyed his posts, he had lots of interesting stuff to tell, if I recall correctly. All the best to him, wherever he is.
 
I'm guessing we all have our membership linked to an email address so (should we go 'MIA' for any unusually lengthy period) that 'the mods' can attempt to contact to check on our vital signs?
 
Mine is currently linked to an old email address that I can't access anymore, this is why I never log out. Seems I ought to do something about that!
 
It's a nice idea, but unfortunately contrary to GDPR (personal data only to be used for its stated intention).
That's easy, issue a consent form to all members asking if they are willing to be contacted for such a purpose...
 
I'm failing somewhat here, aren't I?

I obviously have modly permissions that I thought were universal.

Apologies again.
You have not yet used all your powers, Grasshopper. :)
 
That's easy, issue a consent form to all members asking if they are willing to be contacted for such a purpose...

To be honest, it's a can of worms we are glad to have been legislatively freed from opening.

We have (some time ago) used personal data to locate and contact members in real life in response to clearly urgent exigencies, but since having done so, we have had further requests to take similar action for non-negligible (but non-emergency) purposes and have elected to turn these down.

It's a fine line and we'd rather not be in the business of making such calls, which, I can readily conceive, could provoke an indignant response from an unreceptive contactee.

If you are fond of fellow members here, please exchange contact details, keep in touch with one another, and do not rely solely on the private messaging system.
 
Unfortunately that profile is restricted.
Here's why that is the case ...

At the point (October 2018) when the forum's prior sponsor (Dennis Publishing) jettisoned the FTMB and allowed us to spin the forum off as an independent entity, we migrated all membership accounts to the new independent platform (Forteana Forums; sponsored by the Charles Fort Institute).

Once migrated and re-established, the Forteana Forums' membership database contained many more accounts / records than today. The majority of these accounts were dormant / dead - a state many of them had been in for several years.

After a one-year grace period for re-registration had expired, all valid but un-re-registered accounts were processed into a special "fossilized" status - stripped of discretionally-posted personally identifiable data, locked down against further logon access, and locked out of reach for inspection by anyone other than forum staff.

These fossilized accounts are the ones that carry the "Gone But Not Forgotten" by-line.

This protocol allowed legacy postings to continue to be labeled with their original authors' IDs. This avoided the problems it would cause if all the dead accounts' posts were dumped into the single giant meta-identity "Anonymous", from which any single former member's posts couldn't be identified, much less retrieved and restored with attribution to that former member.

This allows us to maintain the dead accounts in such a way that they can be resurrected and merged with a new registered account if the former member re-joins the forum.

By the same token, it was necessary for both operational and legal reasons to functionally disable the dead accounts and withdraw them from public access so (a) their data couldn't be harvested for spamming / spoofing purposes and (b) we were compliant with GDPR restrictions.

This is why no one other than designated forum staff is allowed to view whatever profile data remains within the fossilized accounts' records.
 
I also recall Shaybarsabe, Mooksta and Cavynaut, all gone but not forgotten! There's something slightly sad yet mysterious regarding retired members who we once knew to post so often. I know life changes, as do our interests and commitments online, but still...
 
Yeah. She lives in Ottawa and was in the living middle of the protests around the time she was last here. I hope she is doing ok. The protests were causing her a lot of personal stress.

Ginger Tabby is missed.

I wish Ginger Tabby would return.

The large striped quadruped has returned. Thank you to all for your kind words! I didn't think my absence would be noticed since I'm not a prolific poster.

My life has been quite hectic over the past several months and I haven't had much time or energy to spend on leisure activities such as browsing Forteana Forums. I'm the power of attorney for a 96-year-old friend whose health began to deteriorate earlier this year. She was still living in her own home and I arranged for her to receive home support through the local community care centre. After a few stays in hospital over the next few months it became clear that she could no longer cope at home. In May I managed to get her moved into a retirement home. While this has resolved her personal care issues, I found myself faced with another dilemma in the form of her house. I knew the house needed cosmetic work done but I was surprised to learn that more serious problems had to be addressed, including a mould infestation. Since then I've been dealing with various contractors, one of whom is maintaining radio silence. The house is going to have to be sold but I know my friend will not be pleased about that. At the same time as all this was going on, I had contractors in my own home doing renovations on my bathrooms. I probably need to take a course in project management.

I hope to be here more frequently from now on if only for the purpose of distracting myself from other things in life.
 
The large striped quadruped has returned. Thank you to all for your kind words! I didn't think my absence would be noticed since I'm not a prolific poster.

My life has been quite hectic over the past several months and I haven't had much time or energy to spend on leisure activities such as browsing Forteana Forums. I'm the power of attorney for a 96-year-old friend whose health began to deteriorate earlier this year. She was still living in her own home and I arranged for her to receive home support through the local community care centre. After a few stays in hospital over the next few months it became clear that she could no longer cope at home. In May I managed to get her moved into a retirement home. While this has resolved her personal care issues, I found myself faced with another dilemma in the form of her house. I knew the house needed cosmetic work done but I was surprised to learn that more serious problems had to be addressed, including a mould infestation. Since then I've been dealing with various contractors, one of whom is maintaining radio silence. The house is going to have to be sold but I know my friend will not be pleased about that. At the same time as all this was going on, I had contractors in my own home doing renovations on my bathrooms. I probably need to take a course in project management.

I hope to be here more frequently from now on if only for the purpose of distracting myself from other things in life.

Welcome back!
 
The large striped quadruped has returned. Thank you to all for your kind words! I didn't think my absence would be noticed since I'm not a prolific poster.

My life has been quite hectic over the past several months and I haven't had much time or energy to spend on leisure activities such as browsing Forteana Forums. I'm the power of attorney for a 96-year-old friend whose health began to deteriorate earlier this year. She was still living in her own home and I arranged for her to receive home support through the local community care centre. After a few stays in hospital over the next few months it became clear that she could no longer cope at home. In May I managed to get her moved into a retirement home. While this has resolved her personal care issues, I found myself faced with another dilemma in the form of her house. I knew the house needed cosmetic work done but I was surprised to learn that more serious problems had to be addressed, including a mould infestation. Since then I've been dealing with various contractors, one of whom is maintaining radio silence. The house is going to have to be sold but I know my friend will not be pleased about that. At the same time as all this was going on, I had contractors in my own home doing renovations on my bathrooms. I probably need to take a course in project management.

I hope to be here more frequently from now on if only for the purpose of distracting myself from other things in life.
Welcome back, @GingerTabby.

Let There Be Cake!


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