FindaGrave - The ethics debate
Now in light of my post about an upcoming change to FindaGrave, I’ve been having a think because in theory, on one side of the coin the people contributing to help fulfill FindaGrave’s mission which from their ‘About’ page states:
“Find a Grave’s mission is to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present final disposition information as a virtual cemetery experience.”
But on the other side of the coin, grieving families haven’t been able to create the memorial of their recently deceased loved one because a volunteer might have done it very soon after the death.
So what side do we lean to? On the post I did on Facebook is where a lot of the discussion happened. And for people wondering what the upcoming change is, I invite you to please watch this two minute video I did talking about the change. This video can be found below:
<a href="https://medium.com/media/8557f060aa1eb9ce0049ef4232b48c5e/href">https://medium.com/media/8557f060aa1eb9ce0049ef4232b48c5e/href</a>
But one thing that was mentioned was that FindaGrave members aren’t expected to know if this person has family so they mightn’t know that they might be depriving someone of being able to put the memorial up themselves. And when the topic of ‘hoarders’ (not the term I use, it was the term mentioned) was brought up — there was quite a discussion as to whether anyone was in it for the numbers. The answer? Inconclusive. But looking at the quote I begun with from their website, it might perhaps be a case of people believe that they’re doing good and they mightn’t realise that they’re offending anyone by doing it the day of/in close parameters of the date of death. And the only problem is, when there is some potential remedy suggested there looks to be a group of people that might not agree with that remedy that had been suggested. So to me it seems that nothing can be done to do to make the vast majority of FindaGrave users satisfied.
Another very good point made was that there is technically no moratorium being put in place but the thing I’d mention is my #WaitDontMake post: see here. While FindaGrave may never do a moratorium that doesn’t mean that we can’t do our own. Especially during these COVID-19 pandemic times that we’re living in, we have to be way more considerate and careful than we could be before.
Also this is going off on another rant again of mine but just in general where as referring to FindaGrave, if you have to abbreviate the name — can you please say FG and not put a capital a in the middle as the acronym will seem rather derogatory and offensive and can even be flagged on social media platforms. I always refer to it as FG and not the rude acronym because if you look at the site name: ‘FindaGrave’ — the a is not capitalised [see below]. So next time you’re having a discussion about FindaGrave, please either spell it out in full or FG. Even though there is no agreed abbreviation, please be careful! (rant over…)
