I remember Alembic as if it were just yesterday. Damn.

Maybe someone has. Come to think of it, I never really searched.

Good analogy.

“Dotsam and netsam” — love it!

I have seen those social networking suicide machines, but it I think it would be much more edifying to do it oneself. Automating the process makes it too easy, like jumping off a bridge versus taking up smoking.

The notion of leaving blog instructions in a will is an interesting one. Probably not a bad idea for a site that has a lot of followers.

Have you seen these social media suicide sites: Web 2.0 Suicide Machine and Seppukkoo both of which will kill off your facebook, twitter and other social accounts.

I remember it well — a brilliant recovery journal. I can see why you’d tire of having it out there for anyone to read, but I’m a little shocked that you never even saved your posts. It might’ve made an excellent memoir.

Good point about the need for bloggers to have wills. I don’t have one. I suppose my parents would put up a notice on my Facebook profile (my computer remembers my password), but they wouldn’t have any idea how to access my various blogs, none of which would stay up unless the domain registration and hosting fees were paid every year. If you want a blog to survive your death, it’s probably best to go with Blogspot, since Google doesn’t ever like to see information lost. The people at Automattic, who run WordPress.com, have made it clear that they will not maintain blogs indefinitely if they aren’t updated.

How about a follow-up post about what happens when you expire? Does Via Negativa (or any of our blogs) have a will? When you perish, will someone else inherit the password, and instructions for a final note?