billso.com

The New York Times had an article in today’s edition about a web site I’ve never heard of - Legacy.com. The Times and 300 other US newspapers pay the site to post obituaries, and the site found a profitable business model in the process. Mourners can pay a fee to make the “guest books” available for a longer period of time. A traditional guest book allows mourners to write their names and thoughts at a funerl ceremony. An online guest book, like those offered by Legacy.com, let anyone with Internet access post a comment.

The web site devotes 30% of its annual budget and 60% of its employees to reading and removing over 200,000 “inappropriate comments” from the online guest books. Examples from the article include the following comments, which we were all deleted by Legacy.com employees:

“Everyone gets their due,” a former client writes of an embezzling accountant. Or, “I sincerely hope the Lord has more mercy on him than he had on me during my years reporting to him at the Welfare Department.”

Others are subtler: “She never took the time to meet me, but I understand she was a wonderful grandmother to her other grandchildren.”

“Reading the obit, he sounds like he was a great father,” says another, which is signed, “His son Peter.”

Many of the other deleted postings are spam, adversting caskets, religions, and pharmaceuticals.

Another site called MyDeathSpace.com posts over 25 profiles a day for recently departed MySpace members.