Thoughts and opinions on the death list 2019

[Redrumours 860]

16 hours ago, drol said:

Ok, we give up.

THE DEATHLIST IS DEAD!

[CoffinLodger 1,248]

I like to compare this years list to 2007 when we had to wait till mid june  for the 2nd  hit, then by mid august there were 9 hits.Maybe I'm a bit optimistic though ...

[Lafaucheuse 4,045]

At this time of the year, do you really think there won’t gonna be a lot of deaths this year ? How much can we expect ? 

I’m not here for a long time so idk What to expect honestly...

[ebless 203]

A barren spell must mean a summer avalanche. 

[DeathClock 379]

[Bibliogryphon 9,570]

If the next hit is before 15 June then 2019 will overtake 2014.

[ebless 203]

My thoughts on the remaining 48

 

Kirk Douglas - really old, still think 2019 is his year. 

Herman Wouk - Could go anytime

Olivia de Havilland - 103 in July, no guarantee she'll survive this year. 

Prince Philip - Autumn will be his first real hurdle. 

Leah Bracknell - Still think she'll finally go this year

Vera Lynn - Quiet of late, no guarantee she'll see out the year. 

Robert Mugabe - Now in the 50/50 zone. 

Jimmy Carter - 2020 may be his first hard year to keep on living. 

Pierre Cardin - Too old to be dropped

Bob Dole - Think he'll be an autumn goner. 
Henry Kissinger - Reached the age of a DL bedblocker, wouldn't surprise me if he goes this year.  
Jerry Stiller - Who knows

Javier Perez de Cuellar - 99 now, think he'll die any day now as he's been quiet of late coupled with last year's death hoax. 

Bob Barker - In and out of hospital. Getting increasingly harder for him. 

Murray Walker - Still think he'll be alright this year, now at an age of a DL bedblocker.
Akihito - Frail, think he's returned to the list at the nick of time. 
Betty White - If Doris can go with previously unknown health issues at 97 then so can Betty. 

Hosni Mubarak - Still got at least a couple of years left in him. 

June Brown - Should be alright this year. 

Stirling Moss - A goner for sure this year.
Bob Hawke - Don't think he'll survive the Aussie winter.  
Alan Greenspan - Random but could be worthy. 

Jacques Chirac - Frail but could last a bit yet. 

Dick van Dyke - No matter how sprightly he is, think he's a lock until he goes.

Nobby Stiles - Had to return, outside chance now he'll see 2020. 

Barbara Walters - Maybe
Honor Blackman - Think she'll stay on the DL until she goes but not this year.

Harry Belafonte - Was a long overdue first appearance but likely to see out this year. 
Desmond Tutu - In the 50/50 zone.

d'Estaing - Still makes public appearances, possible attempt to outjinx

Ed Asner - Recently lost wife, still tweeting, next year at earliest. 
Vanessa Redgrave - Wouldn't surprise me if she goes this year. Think she's a bedblocker. 

Jimmy Greaves - Looks horrid but may last a bit yet. 
Sidney Poitier - Quiet of late, likely to de dropped for 2020 if 2019 finishes on a low number. 
Valerie Harper - Quiet of late but sensible keep. 
Cleo Laine - Interesting pick, still performing though.  

Loretta Lynn - Could be a lucky break. 
Gorbachev - Overdue DL debut year, in the 50/50 zone. 
Tony Britton - Really old so who knows

John McCririck - Looks horrid, think he's an autumn goner. 
Clive James - Summer or Autumn goner. 

Prunella Scales - Think December will be too much for her. 
Little Richard - Could go tomorrow, could go in five years time. 

Larry King - Recently had heart surgery, think he'll be dropped for 2020. 

Tina Turner - Probably time she made her DL debut but not this year. 

Shane McGowan - Long overdue on the Deathlist, but I'd drop him next year as I think he has a good chance now of seeing 2021. 

Ginger Baker - Still touring, should see 2020 now. 

Johnny Clegg - Should be alright this year, but I'd keep him for the 2020 list. 

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,337]

Daring to think it might just might redeem itself with a busy eventful summer given the developments in the past few days. 

[The Old Crem 3,582]

On 21/02/2019 at 06:04, Bibliogryphon said:

@En Passant I did try and think about the relative levels of fame. At the top you have Prince Philip which I don't think anyone would dispute and I put Kirk Douglas below him because he was a global superstar actor.

 

World leaders scored high and film stars but I tried to rank them in their levels of iconography.

 

Whilst we spend more time discussing Olivia de Havilland I think Doris Day would be more recognisable in the public.

 

Struggled with people like Tina Turner and Vera Lynne trying to think outside the paraochial UK centric box. How famous is Vera outside of the UK?

 

The US stars that have no traction over here I tried to place higher than the equivalent UK TV stars because of your point about global populations but someone like Honor Blackman was Pussy Galore.

 

I did tend to penalise people that I have only heard about because of the Deathlist.

 

Please send me your own version by DM (to avoid clogging the thread with endless lists) and I will try and create and averaged out one.

The Coverage of Doris's death has probably proved your point. I can't see Olivia when she sadly goes being the top story on the BBC News. Vera Lynn will through unless they is a big story that day (And Vera may well get full pages front covers.)

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,337]

Beginning to look like I might be right about a summer deluge compensating for a quiet start. Three deaths within a week! 

[TQR 14,385]

Let's not wet our knickers over this three deaths in a week, we all know that next week when no one dies we'll be lamenting about another death drought.

[Bibliogryphon 9,570]

We are now level with 2017 - The record breaking year.

 

Anything can happen

[The Old Crem 3,582]

Looking at old threads and I saw some people suggesting rules should be amended so that at least one non UK obituary is required. Of the British celebs on the list who would fail that?

John McCricick doesn't seem to have any non Uk or Ireland fame. Cleo Lane and June Brown would suffer. Emmerdale is popular enough in Sweden for Leah's demise to get reported there.

Of course all reasonably well known British celebs get Irish obituaries as well

[paddyfool 379]

Does anyone know why the deathlist hasn't been updated with the two recent hits?  Did the committee fall asleep during the long lull? ;-)

[drol 11,923]

The sad truth is that the Deathlist won't last forever. Not the forums, those attract new members almost every year, but the DL himself as it is in the hand of a restricted bunch of people. And as everything which is managed by few people, it is destined to end with those people, not necessarily because they are dead, but maybe because they have simply lost interest.

 

There was a site in Italy called "Il Morto del Mese". Every month you could vote your favourite celebrity who died durig the last 30 days. The site started about in 2008 and it published dozens of humorous obits, mainly of unknown people (to give you an example, Dumiso Dabengwa would have probably been there). But the site was managed by a very small bunch of people and as years passed number and quality of obits started to decrease. As there was a chat on the site many asked the curators to delegate writing obits to people willing (and there were many, it was a popular site), but they always refused. Someone sticked up for the admins. saying quality of the site would become lower enlarging the group of obit-writers. But it was clear the site was utterly dying. 

 

And on 13th October 2017 the site died. Barry Dennen was the last obit. No one has ever given explanations about what happened, not on the site, not on its Facebook page. And it has been decomposing for a year and a half. It's a matter of time, but the DL will meet the same end. That said, I think it will still hold some years.

[The Old Crem 3,582]

1 hour ago, paddyfool said:

Does anyone know why the deathlist hasn't been updated with the two recent hits?  Did the committee fall asleep during the long lull? ;-)

Holiday apparently.

 

[JQW 281]

A message-board I occasionally visit has a long running thread that's ideal for dead pooling - it's essentially mentions anyone in a particular field of interest who has major health issues. I've managed to pick up quite a few dead pooling hints from that site over the years, although many of the mentions were of people highly unlikely to receive an obit over here.

 

Last year that thread stuttered to a halt, with no updates for several months. It turns out that the most regular poster to that thread had died suddenly, and no-one else was taking it over.

[msc 18,437]

It'll update when it updates, real life tends to take precedent (rightly). Mind 2014 - no updates for 6-7 months.

[Toast 16,130]

On 25/05/2019 at 10:39, drol said:

The sad truth is that the Deathlist won't last forever. Not the forums, those attract new members almost every year, but the DL himself as it is in the hand of a restricted bunch of people. And as everything which is managed by few people, it is destined to end with those people, not necessarily because they are dead, but maybe because they have simply lost interest.

 

There was a site in Italy called "Il Morto del Mese". Every month you could vote your favourite celebrity who died durig the last 30 days. The site started about in 2008 and it published dozens of humorous obits, mainly of unknown people (to give you an example, Dumiso Dabengwa would have probably been there). But the site was managed by a very small bunch of people and as years passed number and quality of obits started to decrease. As there was a chat on the site many asked the curators to delegate writing obits to people willing (and there were many, it was a popular site), but they always refused. Someone sticked up for the admins. saying quality of the site would become lower enlarging the group of obit-writers. But it was clear the site was utterly dying. 

 

And on 13th October 2017 the site died. Barry Dennen was the last obit. No one has ever given explanations about what happened, not on the site, not on its Facebook page. And it has been decomposing for a year and a half. It's a matter of time, but the DL will meet the same end. That said, I think it will still hold some years.

 

The Rotten Deadpool site seemed to suffer a similar fate.

[Spade_Cooley 9,515]

DDP's gonna go the same way unless we get a new gamerunner by December 31st...

[Sean 6,312]

23 minutes ago, Spade_Cooley said:

DDP's gonna go the same way unless we get a new gamerunner by December 31st...

If it comes to that I will step up to help.Not sure I could run it single handedly but if it is that or the site shutting I would give it a go.

[Sean 6,312]

I don't see why the DL should ever die.If committee members drop out just replace them.Just need a group chat over the Internet would sort it out.No reason for it to die.

[msc 18,437]

DL wont die. The first Jan 1st there's no new list an emergency forum meetup will produce an unofficial continuation. If the forums run out, theres enough of us to create a new one (cheap no frills). I don't foresee this being an issue anytime soon.

 

DDP wont die. Already several folk - Grim, Clorox, Reptile,me to pick 4 - have been willing to create a sort of rolling Cmme type thing in place of the Sole Host. imo things what need one person can mostly be shared. What is needed is someone with the actual computing know how, and someone who can boss everyone else around. It's not an insoluble situation. Oh, and Spade not doing a TMIB and fucking off 5 seconds later in case his expertise is needed would be helpful too.

 

Spade's List of to do per year

 

Setting the game up entails:

• Writing up updated rules
• Sending out invitation, "game starts on January 1st" emails
• Responding to people to let them know their entries have been received
• Checking entries for duplicates/already dead people
• Entering entries into (currently a spreadsheet that has numerous possible places for error)
• Entering entries also involves adding new players to a separate database, along with updating running statistics
• Processing the game to generate the first full team lists/lists of celebrities
• Writing pen portraits/DoBs
• Finding pen pics - Do we need pics? Seems a waste of bandwidth?

 

Running the game entails

• Checking to see who's dead -We can do this,and folk like Willz and Allen help.
• Updating (as it stands) spreadsheets and processing them
• Uploading the resulting HTML files to the site- I imagine this bit isn't as difficult if the earlier spreadsheeting has worked?
• Writing frontpage obits
• List of the Lost/Missed/News/Theme Team league stuff (all manual)
• Correcting errors
• Dealing with any other queries throughout the year
• And, although I've not had this yet, one of DDP's bains: emails from people included in the game asking to be taken down.

 

All in bold is doable from the off. The spreadsheeting is the crux - beyond my know-how. @Sean, any good with Excel?

 

I admit to being bossy, but I do know my own limits. I can do much of the bold easier fun jobs (puns, changing rules and telling ranters to fuck off) but the actual data entry bit, not a scooby. [And I tried to learn it for TCD but post-stroke brain not co-operative, even now - so it goes!]  So... who on here does know Excel/spreadsheets?

 

 

[gcreptile 10,964]

I wonder... maybe we should publish the crowdsourced deathlist before the new year?

This way, the committee already gets our concise opinion before they decide. 

It saves them time, increases hits, and is probably the way it's going to go anyway.

[The Old Crem 3,582]

5 minutes ago, gcreptile said:

I wonder... maybe we should publish the crowdsourced deathlist before the new year?

This way, the committee already gets our concise opinion before they decide. 

It saves them time, increases hits, and is probably the way it's going to go anyway.

Possible - through too soon means even more ate announcements like Bob Hawke would miss out.