The Plugin No-one Wants To Install
I’ve been having fun going through plugin lists at one of my new blogs and came across one that is promoted as one that people won’t want to install but should anyway. Why? Because it’s designed to notify next of kin of the existence of your blog should something happen to you. To quote what they say:
Next Of Kin is the plugin we don’t want to install. It handles what happens after we die. It monitors your own visits to your wordpress system, and will send you a warning email after a number of weeks (of your choice) without a visit. If you fail to visit your blog even after that, the system will send a mail you wrote to whoever you choose. All time intervals and messages are customizable. This plugin is useful for those that want their blog to out-live them, and serve as an online memorial. Even without use of this plugin, all are recommended to make sure someone can handle their website in case of emergency. By Tzafrir Rehan.
You can get this plugin at http://tzafrir.net/nextofkin/.
Having experienced a loss in our own family last year and the challenges we went through trying to determine what presence she had online and where, and how to contact her friends, etc, then something like this is probably worth considering – at least for your blogs. Not sure if the social networking tools have anything like this in place yet but it will most likely be a worthwhile addition.
Does make you think about what information or records you should have available, just in case, doesn’t it? I have a client list easily available for family members or a close associate to access should something happen but a list of all my social networking tools and memberships? Perhaps I need to set up a small database or something.
Tracy Collins provides a service for her clients. Her clients set up a list of things for her to do in event of an emergency, drop off the face of the earth, etc. A backup system to take care of essentials in time of crisis.