
A Sad Startup Idea :( $$$  - OoTheNigerian
http://oonwoye.com/2010/10/06/a-sad-startup-idea/
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pessimizer
I would absolutely pay for this. I'm a hypochondriac and think that I'm just
about to die for a different reason every day, and have a fear that some
people that I keep in contact with on the internet simply won't know until
years after the fact.

The company would have to be extremely trustworthy to get my passwords though,
and that'll be a tough hurdle. The key to distinguishing yourself would be a
great UI with sensible (well researched) defaults and offers of form letters.

But $10-$20 bucks a year? Done.

~~~
StavrosK
<http://www.deadmansswitch.net/>

You can encrypt your passwords or just say "I've left my passwords in a locked
box, the combination is X".

DISCLOSURE: That app is mine.

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willz
Great. My question is, if I use your service, what if you die before I die :)

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StavrosK
I'll send you an email telling you how to pay the webhost :p

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willz
oh, well, I think you and I agree ... The death idea is inspiring, but is an
overkill. 99% death are natural death. For people who worry about it, they
should add their logins to their will. But then, dead people are supposed to
be gone, with most of their stuff.

~~~
StavrosK
I agree, but some people just want someone to tell their online friends that
they died, I guess...

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jacquesm
I had a similar idea around something I called 'deadmansknob', a number of
timed releases when you don't check in to a webservice for some period of
time.

~~~
kmak
I also had wrote some stuff that I ping alive once in awhile, except that if I
don't, it'll tweet and send random emails to friends, complaining about the
temperature.

My idea was way less practical in that it is really more of a prank..

~~~
pavel_lishin
A particularly cruel one, too, if you die and they keep getting posthumous
messages from you.

I kind of like it. Might have to adopt this, but I'm not entirely sure how I
can set this up to live on after I'm gone. If I don't pay server bills, they
tend to shut off service.

~~~
araneae
Reminds of that "animal crossing" story about the guy with the dead mom.

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rrival
Entrustet.com and Legacylocker.com are chasing this to some extent.

Lifehacker had a similar post recently: [http://lifehacker.com/5617683/what-
should-i-do-about-my-virt...](http://lifehacker.com/5617683/what-should-i-do-
about-my-virtual-life-after-death)

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DanHulton
Isn't this called "leaving a will"?

~~~
pavel_lishin
"And to my family I bequeath my entire fortune, providing that they log into
my twitter account, and tweet 'I DID IT FOR THE LULZ' upon my death."

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incomethax
There actually is a company, on of my friends built that does this - they're
called Entrustet (www.entrustet.com) and they have something to "manage
digital assets" after your death.

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mgrouchy
I can't remember where I read this, but this service already exists. I
searched around and couldn't find it either though. so there is probably
opportunity in the space.

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edw519
Instead of having a service deliver your last thoughts to your loved ones upon
your death, tell them yourself, right now. You should be doing this anyway.

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swah
If I'm not around, I won't be bothered.

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TheSOB88
A problem with this: The majority of the death-prone population (the elderly)
are not tech-savvy and thus have no (perceived) need for such a service. Call
back in 25 years.

