Announcing the Death of a Fellow Member

[Colin]

Announcing the Death of a Fellow Member

The BenzoBuddies administration team operate within a framework to guide them about announcing the death of a member. We wish for members to better understand our rationale, and how you should behave when they hold such information.

There are three main considerations for the Administration Team:

1. To protect the sensitives of the deceased member's family, requests for an announcement must come from the immediate family, spouse or life partner.
    
2. The death must be confirmed. A verifiable obituary is a good starting point.
    
3. The announcement must be judged to be in the best interests of our members. The default, and usual position, is that such announcements are in the best interests of members.

Please keep in mind the following:

• In the past, we have had family members request that we do not make an announcement - we have honoured and will continue to honour such requests. If the circumstances of the death are particularly tragic, we require the express permission of a close family member for us to make an announcement.
   
• Since BenzoBuddies opened in 2004, two members have attempted to hoax their suicides. This alone is reason enough for us to be cautious.
   
• An announcement of the death of a member must be considered carefully because of the fragile nature of many within our community.

For these reasons, if you learn that a BB member has died, irrespective of the circumstances, you must not post about it to the BB forum. Instead, you should Contact the Team with the information you hold so that we can determine that the death is: 1) reported in a way which respects the wishes of family; 2) verifiable; and 3) in the best interests of our members.