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Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's exactly what you can do - I had to last year for a friend, see: http://www.facebook.com/#!/help/contact.php?show_form=deceas...
Does it notify their friends? eg "XXXXX has regrettably died" :/
You know, software developers know EXACTLY why facebook is recommending dead friends. Yes, almost all of us KNOW that the algorithm has absolutely no way of knowing that dude is dead. We also understand exactly why the trigger "he is not posting much" works. But for whatever reason, when someone mentions something like this, we pretend we don't know the algorithms behind it. Dudes, you know it's no facebook conspirac…
Yes, we know how it works. Someone was looking at what happens in the common case and didn't think of this edge case. It's a reminder that social situations are complex and though we try, it's impossible to think of every edge case. That's why you need a way for people to report bugs to you, a way to quickly disable features that aren't working, and a process to fix them.
If they implement a tag to show someone has died what are they going to do about the zombie apocalypse/second coming?
Edge cases.
You can't really blame facebook for sending messages like these when they have no idea what's happened to him. The simple solution is to let them know: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=842#!/help/contact.php?sh...
Facebook could send a condolences message to the associated email to catch false positives (people that the gov think died but really didn't!) and then a week later or so put the account into "deceased" mode.
Thoughts?
Imagine if there was a method of notifying facebook that members are dead. Now imagine the sheer insanity that would result from random people 'deadifying' their friends as a practical joke. Even if it was 'verified' by humans at some point, there would still be error and it would be a nightmare. Getting told to 'reconnect' with a dead friend can be mildly traumatic. Finding out that your friend is dead when they're…
Funnily enough, there is such a way - at least, sort of. http://www.ehow.com/how_5177993_memorialize-deceased-faceboo...
Think they're trying to tell me something? :-)
Here's another good link about how to delete and memorialize facebook accounts: http://blog.entrustet.com/2010/03/29/how-to-permanently-dele....
I don't think its something that Facebook can fix with code. The social security administration has a good database of US deaths, but they only update the feed 4x per year and Facebook would have to correlate it using info they currently don't ask for. A few companies are developing good death data, but I think it's really far off.
Other countries like Sweden have national registries that update daily, so Facebook could try to implement a code based solution, but I don't think it's likely to happen.
In reality, a survivor needs to notify facebook. You currently can, but you can only memorialize your account, not delete it. To do that, you'd need to give someone access to your account.
I'm the cofounder of Entrustet, one of the companies that helps people store their last wishes for all of their online accounts. It's important to make your wishes known so that your survivors know what to do.
Facebook is really the tip of the iceberg. Think about your blog, servers, family pictures and all of your other valuable digital assets. If you'd like more info, check us out.
Nathan Lustig cofounder, http://www.Entrustet.com