The drama of "Leaving SL"

Sorry Trout, Ive been away a while. I have been dragging up new business for you. See, people leave SL all the time and all that property just gets reposessed by the state (SL). It seems to me you could make a killing auctioning off estates and handling the inheritance taxes, etc.

So I've been running around SL as different Alts causing drama and driving people to quit.

Here's to business, Cheers!

By the way, Im quitting now ......
Ill be your first case in this venue ....
Oh wait, I don't own anything. Seems my boss doesn't pay well......

I feel the same way. There's one person who is very active in SL that I know very well in RL, and I'm sure if I bought the farm, she would come here and let you all know. But I'd sort of like to know if any of my friends on here passed away. There's no way of finding out. My dad was very active in an online forum before he passed away. It gave him a great sense of community when he was bed-ridden and then stuck in the hospital. I remember logging on and posting about his death, and the outpouring of condolences and well wishes was incredibly gratifying at a very difficult time. They even rallied together and sent my mom flowers. At any rate, it's a weird and difficult situation to deal with in online communities because of the level of anonimity.

In the case of a Planned Exit where I would be actually cancelling my account, I would let those on my friends list who were of import know. I don't see this happening anytime soon unless improvements in the game require hardware upgrades that I'm not ready to make. There may be a gradual fading out as RL takes more time, or interests change, that has happened to a degree, I've stopped being a Premium Member, and each month I re-evaluate whether I should keep my land, but I'd probably still check in here for my daily laugh.

As far as something catastrophic happening, I have no other online presence to speak of, and no one knows the details of my SL. One friend did sign up earler this year but she has since left. So in that case I would just disappear. I'm OK with that.

I have a list of accounts and passwords with instructions to who si to be notified in the event of my untimely death. There are several people I have not spoken to in a great while that would want to know. There are a couple people here in SL one that list as well. If nothing else I hope this would let them know that I hold no il will on them when I pass. That they may grieve or go on with their lives instead of worrying about if they made me mad.
My wife knows this list exists as does my brother. but they won't get the list unless I am dead.
It may be meaningless, but It makes me feel better to know they will be told.

spadesrun, that is a very good idea.

I had a friend in SL who passed away in RL a little less than a month ago, and it was only by luck that I found out about it. He had exchanged RL emails with a handful of SL friends, and when he died his brother thought to fire up his computer and see if there were any email contacts that should be notified. Fortunately one of SL the people my deceased friend's brother found there also knows me, and knew I would would want to hear the news.

(Incidentally, after reading various threads here my first thought was "could it be drama?" I didn't think my friend was the drama type, but just how well do you really know people? In short order it became clear to me that it was not drama, because I quickly met other people who knew him and had met him in RL, saw a death notice on a RL funeral home website, &c. I wish it were drama! )