De-activating a friends account

[+Scubasonic]

I have a caching friend in the area he has been battling cancer for about 4 months it had been in remission before this, but he has now been diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia and has chosen not to continue treatment and die peacefully in the hands of hospice at his home. His wife has contacted me and given me his password and account information, and has asked me to have his account disabled, and for me to deal with this for her as she knows nothing about it, and I'm sure has more important things to tend to. so I do know the first step is to archive his caches but what about the steps of deactivating his account completely.

 

ScubaSonic

[4wheelin_fool]

I have a caching friend in the area he has been battling cancer for about 4 months it had been in remission before this, but he has now been diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia and has chosen not to continue treatment and die peacefully in the hands of hospice at his home. His wife has contacted me and given me his password and account information, and has asked me to have his account disabled, and for me to deal with this for her as she knows nothing about it, and I'm sure has more important things to tend to. so I do know the first step is to archive his caches but what about the steps of deactivating his account completely.

 

ScubaSonic

 

You don't need to "deactivate" his account, it will be ok.

 

As far as his caches are concerned, if they get archived all you should do is to physically remove them.

 

Alternatively, you could consider adopting and maintaining them in his memory.

[+WRASTRO]

I think that is about it. The account can't be deleted.

[+brslk]

Agree with what has been said already and wanted to add, sorry about your friend.

 

Bruce.

[+Harwell5]

First, my thoughts and prayers are with the family.

 

I'm not a moderator, but I would like to also note on the adoption thing. If you are unable to adopt all or any of them, you could put notice out in your caching community (on the cache pages or online forums groups) that those caches are avaliable for adoption by anyone willing to take them. I think keeping them as active would be a great memorial to the original CO who loved the sport. Just a thought.

 

On the closing account issue. I don't know, but I have heard of accounts being blocked from access which may even mean that they could be closed. I'm just speculating though.

 

Please let your friend know that the geocaching community's thoughts and prayers are with him. I'm sure I am not the only one who would agree to this.

[+wimseyguy]

I would send an email to contact@geocaching.com and discuss this directly with a member of the paid staff. They will be able to provide far more assistance than you will get in here.

[+Roland_oso]

The main thing to consider and take care of through contact@geocaching.com is to make sure there is not an auto renewal for premium membership set up. The last thing his wife will need is a $30 charge popping up.

[Mushtang]

In addition to the already mentioned archiving or adopting out of his caches, I'd suggest:

 

Change his profile to indicate he's no longer active so people won't try and communicate with him for some reason.

 

Remove any contact information from his profile.

 

Change the account's default email address in case emails are going to a joint email address or an email address she'll be dealing with.

 

See if there's a local caching organization and ask them to remove his email from their lists also.

[GOF and Bacall]

I don't have anything to add except my prayers.

[+StarBrand]

I don't have anything to add except my prayers.

me as well.

[Motorcycle_Mama]

Yes, send an email to Grounspeak at the "contact" address and explain the situation. They will advise you of the proper steps. They may need for the email to come from the email address associated with the account for verification at some point.

[+Scubasonic]

Thank you all for the comments he did not have many caches his username was "Popdawop" and he was a very passionate about caching and love the competition in finding FTFs may he rest in Peace.

 

ScubaSonic

Edited December 3, 2009 by Scubasonic

[+hydnsek]

If you are unable to adopt all or any of them, you could put notice out in your caching community (on the cache pages or online forums groups) that those caches are avaliable for adoption by anyone willing to take them. I think keeping them as active would be a great memorial to the original CO who loved the sport.

Scubasonic, since you're in the Pacific Northwest, if you want to ask the community to adopt any of his caches, we have a pinned thread in the Northwest Forum for this very thing: Cache Rescue and Adoption Area.

 

My prayers are with your friend and his family.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

The main thing to consider and take care of through contact@geocaching.com is to make sure there is not an auto renewal for premium membership set up. The last thing his wife will need is a $30 charge popping up.

Another thing would be to aet up an alternate email account, and transfer the email coming from Geocaching.com to that, so He and his family will not have to weed through Geocaching related emails.

[+Ambrosia]

I think it's a good idea to perhaps make a mention on his profile about what happened, and perhaps to change the email.

 

But other than that, I would encourage you to not change his profile or his cache logs, etc. in an attempt to "de-activate" the account. His profile is a memorial of who he was and what he was to the geocaching community. Having an accurate memory of him is a wonderful testimony to his life.

 

I had a caching friend who was extremely active in the beginning of our caching community here years ago, who suddenly decided to geocide. Instead of leaving everything how it was, he changed every one of his cache descriptions to a cut and paste explanation of why he was leaving, and deleted all his find logs. It was a hard thing for me to see, and still affects me to this day, even though he is still alive. Every time I go back and look at my finds on his logs, I can't remember what the original cache descriptions were, because he changed them. I can't look back at logs on caches we found together and know what he said about the experience, because he deleted them. I understand his decision, but it made me sad.

 

I'm just giving you an example from my life that shows how others can be affected by seemingly unimportant info on a website. Keep his geocaching memory alive! Blessings and prayers for him and his family. I'm sorry for your loss. (HUGS)

[+Wacka]

Since you have the password for his geocaching account, you could adopt all of his caches by acting as him on the site..

A local cacher that was in great shape (hiked Yosemite, etc) died of a sudden heart attack last year. His wife did not know his password. According to Groundspeak, his caches couldn't be adopted. Local cachers, including a reviewer got together and divided up the maintenance of his caches. If they get disabled, the local reviewers know to contact the local people maintaining his caches. One of teh parks in the area allows teh dedication of new picnic tables to people. Geocachers got together and got one engraved with a tribute to him. i think it's near where his ashes were spread.

 

Another geocacher died when she lost control of her motorcycle several years ago. The local cachers have been maintaining her caches.

[GOF and Bacall]

Since you have the password for his geocaching account, you could adopt all of his caches by acting as him on the site..

A local cacher that was in great shape (hiked Yosemite, etc) died of a sudden heart attack last year. His wife did not know his password. According to Groundspeak, his caches couldn't be adopted. Local cachers, including a reviewer got together and divided up the maintenance of his caches. If they get disabled, the local reviewers know to contact the local people maintaining his caches. One of teh parks in the area allows teh dedication of new picnic tables to people. Geocachers got together and got one engraved with a tribute to him. i think it's near where his ashes were spread.

 

Another geocacher died when she lost control of her motorcycle several years ago. The local cachers have been maintaining her caches.

 

If you do this just save the best of them. Those he would want to be remembered for. His masterpieces as it were.