Not a Place to Honor the Dead 24 August 2013 Reviewer: Grace from Kansas
207 of 430 people found this review helpful
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1. Findagrave is an company that makes millions of dollars from death memorials created by volunteers and from individuals that are grief stricken or researching family ancestry. They sell adds for each grave submission or sponsor memorials to earn money.
2. Anyone that is registered with the site can create a memorial and add it to the site. Once someone creates the memorial they "own" it. The family members have no way to remove the memorial if it is against their wishes.
3. The creator of a memorial can write a bio for someone who they do not even know. You cannot rely on accuracy. Often the information is gathered from obits in newspapers or from search engines on ancestry sites. A family member has nothing to say about the bio even if it is unflattering or incorrect. Often living family members are listed due to the information supplied from the obit.
4. Findagrave administration uses fake "member names" They use these names to keep track of individuals who create lots of memorials. They can track a members activity on the findagrave site using the members computer's IP address that was available to them when the person registered to use the site.
5. Admins are trained in much the same was as a bill collector. They contact members using a fake name insult them, call them names and try to get the member to delete the memorial. Why? Because if you are the manager of the memorial you can delete it at any time, the company looses the add for the memorial and money. If you delete the memorial and it is then reassigned to someone (an admin) the memorial can never be deleted thus making money forever.
6. If you contact an admin for help you are often contacting the person (fake name) that you want to file a complaint.
7. You can tell if a member is an admin by looking at the number of memorials they manage. Members with hundreds and thousands of memorials are admins making money for they company. They stole that data from a memorial that was deleted.
8. Findagrave will not back volunteers if they unknowingly use private property to photograph graves. They do not care that you spent time and gas money to locate cemeteries. They only care about the money they will make once you post that photo or memorial.
9. Admins can edit memorials that you create at any time.
10. Not a place where you want a loved one remembered.
In summary, I would not recommend Find A Grave to a friend.
