Guest said:

Hmmm...so no votes so far for restricting OBIT threads to reverential and mournful outpourings about the deceased?

Celebrity worshippers, why the silence?

Looks like another Mudcat regular is trolling, doesn't it?

Simple good manners tend to dictate some reluctance to blast the deceased if they're well-known but not in the legally definded role of a Public Figure. This means folks who are performers but who maintain private personal lives should probably be treated this way. Those who set themselves up as "examples" for others and who fall on hard times have already removed themselves from that polite consideration (when Jimmy Swaggart dies, for example, his life will be out there for all to view and poke fun at if they wish--he is his own worst enemy). Big office politicians fall into this category also. We had quite a healthy debate following the death of Ronald Reagan, as I recall, but that's because the debate was a continuation of the debate that took place while he was alive.

Perhaps what "GUEST" sees are members who want to run a "hagiography," which they may confuse with "obituary."

HAGIOGRAPHY: From the late Latin usage, "that which is written about the saints": the type and also the body of literature and knowledge based on written sources and relating to the lives, sufferings, and miracles of the saints.

Whatever the case, those who are inclined to be rude or to be polite will no doubt continue to follow their own dictates, so trying to parse out the subject headings would be a waste of time.

SRS