Unless you've been living under a rock, then you know that Steve Jobs lost his battle with cancer yesterday. If you don't know who Steve Jobs is then you need to get out more, but since you can find loads of info about him all over the internet I'm not going to give you a bio. In fact, this post is not about Steve Jobs, except as he provides a perfect example of what I am going to blog about.

And what I'm going to blog about are the people over at Find A Grave who are gunning for prestige through dead people (I've ranted about this type of thing before, if you haven't read it, you can find it here).

Some time ago, I noticed that seconds after the newspaper came out each day, the people whose obituaries were in the paper for the first time were already in FAG...and since the memorial creator for each one is the same person I know it can't possibly be that some family member has posted the memorial (seriously, unless you live in a dinky community where everyone is related to everyone else then one person is not going to be related to 5-10 different people listed in the newspaper). I then started to notice that as soon as some "famous" person showed up dead in the news they were immediately put up on FAG...and I mean, immediately!

Steve Jobs is no exception. After reading that he had passed away I checked FAG to see how many people had created memorials for him -- there were three (for the record, FAG got right on that and now there is only one).

So what's my point here? I have created over 1,000 memorials in just over 1 year (if I would get my act together it would be even higher) and I have created memorials for several people that are known. I have not created any memorials for "famous" people, however, and do you know how I know that I haven't created any memorials for "famous" people? I know because I had to create the memorials for them. Trust me, if any of these people were "famous" then I never would have gotten the chance to create their memorials because there would have already  been one thanks to the Obit Trolls.

An Obit Troll is a person who creates memorials for everyone in the paper (or online obituary sites) before anyone else has an opportunity to do so. Obit trolling is super tacky. It's super tacky for three reasons:

1) It means you are trying to be "First," which is always tacky, regardless of the forum.
2) It means you are trying to get on the Top Contributors list or want your name associated with someone "famous" because you're a greedy bastard who needs validation/recognition.
3) It means that family or friends of the deceased cannot create the memorials themselves and must then request to have them transferred (which can be a colossal pain in the ass when an Obit Troll manages loads of memorials).

Obit Tolls are not cool, helpful people, they are annoying glory hounds.

And so are the Photo Request Trolls who claim every photo request in their area and then let them lapse. There is absolutely no reason for this. You are given up to two weeks to fulfill a photo request but it should never take you that long! If you don't know that you are going to be able to fulfill that request within the first three days (first week maximum) then don't claim it; especially if you live in this state. There are loads of other people around here who would happily fulfill that request that you are just sitting on. If you do claim it and then something comes up and you are not able to fulfill it (within the first three days-week) then unclaim it! Let someone else have it so the people who are waiting on the photos don't have to wait on you! You don't have to volunteer if you are a member of FAG, but if you choose to volunteer then actually do it.

FAG trolls are not in it for anyone but themselves. If, after reading this, you discover that you are a troll, make a change! Do it for the people you are creating memorials for, both living and dead, not for yourself.