Owner Passed Away

[Arch]

This is a rather touchy subject, but I'm really not sure how it should be handled. Long story short, I'm involved in a community and the owner of the site passed away. He lived alone and a few that knew him well have been in contact with his family. He was only 27 and died of a heart attack, so there was no will or things set up for in case something happened...because no one saw this coming at all. He wouldn't have wanted the site to just end, so we're looking into all the details.

Obviously, we can't just send someone to the host he used and get things transferred. Can someone in the family "sell" it to another member and he can rehost it? They don't have passwords for any of it, so I'm not sure how they'd be able to handle it. If we wait for his domain to expire, can someone else immediately buy it (and re-host it somewhere) and things continue on smoothly....or is there something else that can be done?

 

[chatterbox]

Tough situation

I'm sorry to hear of anyone passing away so young. As to what happens with the site, that situation could be a bit of a mess. You might want to consult with a lawyer that has experience with the internet arena as the laws aren't always the same as offline. If worse comes to worse, start a new forum and let all the members know so you can continue the community.

 

[ANMMark]

I'm really sorry to hear about the owner's untimely death.

As for the site, please keep in mind that the owner built more than a website, and in the grand scheme of things, the site itself is useless. The owner built something bigger...he built a community.

The community can live on, no matter what the domain is, what the site looks like, or what the name of it is.

I'm sure the owner would want his community to carry on, because building a community takes a lot more work, effort, and care, than merely building a website.

By all means, try to get things to stay the same, but as chatterbox said...don't dismiss the community on the sake of a domain or name...I'm sure the owner wouldn't want it that way.

 

[Arch]

Well before you guys go too far with that side of things, the community exists elsewhere actually. He didn't build the community...and although he was a great part of it, he was more like one of the regulars than he was the head hauncho, running the whole show. He did own and maintain the site we used in our offtime, though, so we would much rather continue it there than try to build a new one and lose all the old information, etc. It was sort of like its own sub-community, I guess, and moving locations just....it just wouldn't be the same, and it's not going to be the same without it, but it would feel better if we could keep it as it is than trying to replace it.

 

[NexusWebLinks]

i'm sad to hear that. this is a great community. hope someone
will be able to continue his legacy one way or another.

 

[brianf]

Absent a will, the laws change from state to state with regard to who will receive the individual's assets. If there aren't any surviving relatives that meet the legal requirements the assets could be held by the state. The best course of action would be to contact a relative and inquire about the specifics, which would give a clearer idea as to what direction you would need to take.

As far as the passwords are concerned, the individual who inherits or buys the domain registration and hosting account would be able to have the registrar and the host reset the passwords and contact emails.

Keep in mind that if the domain expires before the estate is settled, it could be registered by anyone upon release by the registrar, which may be 45 days after expiration. If the hosting account is paid monthly or is close to annual renewal and the estate is not settled the files will simply be erased as the host is not likely to maintain the site for free. It's possible, if there is enough traffic, that the host may be willing to host the site for some period until there's a settlement.

 

[ldcdc]

Contact with the relatives should be established. If there's value behind the site, they may want to sell it. With the death certificate, they should be able to get control over the online assets that their loved one owned.

I'm sure that the old owner would have wanted his community to thrive, but I'm sure he would just as much want his family to benefit from the work he has put in it. They may actually need this support, quite a bit.

 

[Artashes]

Very sad news indeed, and a difficult situation, but I think Dan above is correct - the best way is to contact the relatives and assist them in taking ownership of the site. If they have no skill to manage the resource, someone should be kind enough to offer their support either in management or sale of the site with proceedings donated to the family. It will be one heck of a problem. Web hosting is just part of the puzzle - if he used other services like email, software, etc - all of which had their own login information - it will take a long time to reestablish full access information.

I for one, have a will (I didn't need a lawyer to write it up - all you need is a piece of paper), with all the login information, instructions on how to proceed, updated records, and an appointed person to contact for help if needed. As a community builder myself, I can relate to the amount of effort that is invested in creating a site, any site, so it must go on no matter what happens!

 

[JamesCWilson]

This is really sad to hear, but I sincerely hope that something can be worked out so that the community can continue on for many more years to come. As ANMMark already mentioned, building a community takes a TON of work and patience, and chances are the owner would have wanted it to even outlive him and continue to grow strong.

Best of luck to everyone in getting this worked out

 

[alemcherry]

Somebody from the family would be able to get access to ddomain name and hosting. Probably one of the community member can buy the site from family, probably after putting it on auction for on sedo or something.

Get in touch with the registrar to know the legal details of passing the domain access.

 

[JamesCWilson]

Whatever the outcome is, do keep us updated Arch!

I would seriously be interested, in how this all gets worked out.

Heres hoping for a positive end, that keeps the community going at least it's current level of success.

Events like these can be very tragic, but i'm hoping this one has a good ending...well besides the death

 

[Arch]

Well it's still being worked out, but so far things are going smoothly. This really wasn't a matter of the family running off to sell it elsewhere or being more concerned about how much money they could get off it. Actually, he owns either 26 or 27 other sites, so surely one of 'those' they could profit from if they really want to.

Instead, the family embraced members of the community wholeheartedly (several flew out to his funeral and met many of his loved ones). They were amazed how many of us there were that they never knew even existed and were simply overwhelmed by what an impact the guy had made. It has nothing to do with the legal hosting side of things, but they even set up a computer science scholarship fund for a local college in his name so that we could donate to it instead of everyone sending flowers.

As for the site itself, there is a man and wife that have stepped up to work out all the nitty gritty details. The family agreed to transfer the site over to them as soon as they figure out how to and we've continued as a community.

 

[SANTREX]

I'm really sorry. Very sad history. Anyway you are right and do things correct. You are real man.