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Improving Mindat.orgObituaries

20th Oct 2015 17:03 UTCErik Vercammen Expert

A lot of messages about the passing away of prominent collectors and scholars have been put on Mindat, most on the "general" page. Isn't it possible to put them together in a new part, with the name of the person as the title of each topic. This may be put either in alfabetical or cronological order. In this way, it will be possible to know if persons are still with us and can be reached to ask for informtion.

20th Oct 2015 18:14 UTCBob Harman

ERIK has got a good idea and I would back him up with his idea if it can be incorporated into the Mindat website repertoire of threads. In fact, in the nearly 4 years that I have been posting on this website, I have occasionally wondered if any other less well known members had passed without proper notice or recognition. Some folks like ROCK C and others were known to all, but many others are less well known collectors or members of the mineralogical community known only by a few others; all will be missed after passing. ALL of us should get some recognition. CHEERS......BOB

20th Oct 2015 19:06 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

Sounds like a good idea. Would make it easier to find people. Also make it so one can add pictures like one adds pictures to a mineral page.

20th Oct 2015 19:44 UTCDon Swenson

Some folks like ROCK C and others were known to all, but many others are less well known collectors or members of the mineralogical community known only by a few others; all will be missed after passing. ALL of us should get some recognition.

Bob,

You are SPOT ON!! The mineral world has its giants and they deserve FULL recognition. There are MANY (somewhat) lesser lights who also deserve their 15 minutes of fame. A separate thread makes perfect sense to me.

20th Oct 2015 20:45 UTCRui Nunes 🌟 Expert

An obituary here on Mindat ??? I think that this issue is somewhat morbid, isn't it ?

20th Oct 2015 22:08 UTCSteve Federico

I agree with Rui Nunes An obituaries page would be a bad thing.Maybe a memorial page of links to these post's within the general area?....Steve

20th Oct 2015 22:13 UTCMatt Neuzil Expert

Rui Nunes Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> An obituarie here on Mindat ??? I think that this

> issue is somewhat morbid, isn't it?

I don't think it'd be much different than looking up a president or someone on wikipedia or somewhere to find what year they were born and the year they passed. A few lines could be added as to their collecting expertise, where they specialized in or where their shop was.

Maybe there is some way to have it a bit like a mini database and have a clickable link to where members have posted. People can always go back and read what stories members have told about the collectors or mindat members who have passed.

Just look at the page for benavidesite. It reads as an obituary. No one has brought that up though. http://www.mindat.org/min-623.html

23rd Oct 2015 11:44 UTCErik Vercammen Expert

Maybe I misunderstood the full meaning of "obituary". My propostion was to gather all the messages about the passing awy of collectors and scholars in a thred of its own, with the name of the person as the title, to be able to search names.

26th Oct 2015 16:46 UTCMatt Courville

I like Matt's approach to having a resource type-of link rather than a true obituary. Perhaps something like a biography could be added to the passed individual's home page and a simple search will show the person. Any who may not have had a homepage could have someone kindly make one for them as a tribute?

28th Jan 2016 04:19 UTCKeith Compton 🌟 Manager

Hi

The Mineralogical Record has a biographical section of noted mineral people on its website (both alive and deceased) via its label archive.

No reason why we couldn't develop something similar for those that have passed and to include those for whom minerals are named after (alive or deceased).

Those of us alive, without minerals named after us, would of course still have our home page to provide relevant info!

Perhaps two sub sections under a heading of Mineralogical history:

(a) Persons after whom minerals have been named; and

(b) Deceased members of the Mindat community

Cheers

Keith

28th Jan 2016 14:32 UTCEd Clopton 🌟 Expert

Whether it's a full obituary, a note about one's career and contributions, or merely a one-sentence death notice, having those collected under one heading would be useful. If the entries could contain links to other sources of more complete information, that would be helpful.

What to call it? Something euphemistic like "Passings" or "Passages", perhaps; or if the scope were broadened to include retirements and appointments to major positions, perhaps "Milestones". Myself, I would see nothing wrong with "Obituaries", since it is immediately recognizable to someone searching for that kind of information, even if most of the listings fell short of proper biographical obituaries.

And no, it's not a morbid subject; death is just a brief punctuation mark at the end of life. The point of an obituary is to reflect on and appreciate the length and breadth of a person's life, not to dwell on the moment of death.

28th Jan 2016 15:04 UTCJamison K. Brizendine 🌟 Expert

Another suggestion I might offer as a compromise instead. If a Mindat member is deceased is it possible for a manager to put this information in parentheses on their Mindat page?

It also might save some embarrassment for somebody if they tried to send a private message to Rock Currier or Alan Plante (another valued contributor to Mindat who passed away) and expected a reply.

28th Jan 2016 23:46 UTCDoug Daniels

Of course, someone has to know such person was a member of Mindat, and knew how to access the site to provide the info. And, how should they provide it? They likely won't know who the managers are, or if they were in contact with other members on the site. My wife is on various knitting sites; if she passes (hopefully not for many years), I wouldn't know who/how to contact anyone she had knew on those sites.

30th Jan 2016 16:30 UTCVandall Thomas King Manager

The major professional mineralogical journals post notices of people of interest who have passed: American Mineralogist, Geological Society of America, Mineralogical Magazine, etc. I refer to these journals constantly to discover biographical information for the species description pages.

30th Jan 2016 17:44 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder

I think we need a way to flag a member as deceased (as in what Jason suggests), but in a way that allows people to view what they had uploaded but without the contact options.

There are some issues to think about - for example who does someone ask when wanting permission to use a photo uploaded by a deceased member? In the case of Rock Currier the answer is us as mindat.org will be looking after them.

Jolyon

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