4.15.2005

Virtual tombstone: A blogger at the online community MetaFilter recently passed away, and the tributes to him--35-year old Eric Osterhoudt of Winslow, Maine, but known to the community mainly by his login name "poopy"--offer a curious and moving glimpse into online rituals and commemoration in a placeless space. One user posts his never-again-to-change final login statistic (at right), others use a single dot as a micro-moment of silence. As poster Zurishaddai writes, "Something about the nature of this community makes it unsettling to put together a screen voice with a fuller life that has ended. But it seemed wrong to see this news and keep it to myself."

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