So this may seem a bit morbid, but I was thinking about this today and I was wondering what others thought:

Internet communities have now been around long enough that certain members, active members, may well die.

I was browsing the list of sifters and noticed many sifters are simply absent and I thought, "maybe they are dead," and there would be no way of knowing if this person had really died or not. It is strange that you can have so many lengthy exchanges with an individual and, in the end, not even know if they have shed the mortal coil.

A deceased friend of mine has a ghost myspace account, obviously no one can erase it so it remains as an eerie tombstone and the same would be for the Sift. Perhaps we keep voting for their videos, and leaving private comment no one will read.

I don't have a real "question" here, but I was more curious on your thoughts...