Like I said, I'm not saying there's nothing odd. I am noting that we've racked up about 500 posts in two days on this and turned up precisely no new information (and very little even of the negative sort, barring Tom's call to the county clerk). What we knew at the time, or shortly thereafter, was:

- ungoogleable
- no death announcement on the web
- something hinky with the wiki

What we know now appears to be

- ungoogleable
- no death announcement on the web (or with the county)
- something hinky with the wiki

The amount of upset, research, feeling gullible and used, now even money between those two things is kind of bothering me.

I'm not saying drop it - I guess I'm saying* that maybe the press to find out everything now now now is creating more disturbance than needed. Has someone contacted the original poster to try to explore further, directly or indirectly? Or did we go straight to extremes?

I just want it clear that neither Gus nor his family requested a donation.

Understood. I perhaps should have included that fact in my post. But I would still be put out to find that a totally volunatry donation unsolicited by anybody other than Buffistas was done under false pretenses.

I've had several very close friends IRL die on me, and I take it seriously. If this Gus person has in fact died, despite the fact that he's fabricated some elements of his life*, I want to know so I can mourn.

If he's not dead, I have a bajillion better things to do with that emotional energy.

Well, bah. Sean said it much, much more precisely and concisely than I did. Well played, Sean K, well played!

Has someone contacted the original poster to try to explore further, directly or indirectly?

I believe so, with no response so far.

eta: The original poster's profile contains no info, no email addy, nothing else, so AFAIK the only way to contact him/her is via the addy used to register. Which I think someone has done, maybe?

Mark Rausch Funeral Services (of Cameron, WI) did not handle any funeral arrangements for a Guy Straley.

Has someone contacted the original poster to try to explore further, directly or indirectly? Or did we go straight to extremes?

I'm pretty sure that "kimi" doesn't have an e-mail address visible in her profile. One of the stompies would have to either (1) provide the e-mail to a non-stompy who would be willing to e-mail kimi; or (2) e-mail kimi themselves.

And really, #1 isn't an option, if we want to maintain any semblance of respecting people's privacy. The stompies can't go around handing out e-mails if there's none publically listed.

So is a stompy willing to e-mail kimi?

t edit To be clear, I'm not suggesting that a stompy *should* e-mail kimi. Frankly, I think even if you did, you wouldn't get a reply. I'm simply saying that the only people with kimi's e-mail address are stompies, so *if* anyone e-mailed her, it would have to be a stompy.

Stompy. Stompy. The word has lost all meaning.

I believe so, with no response so far.

Trudy says she didn't - I think only the stompies even can.

(And I am mostly in agreement with you and Sean - but we're throwing out an awful lot of emotional energy here too.)

And I just wanna say that this whole thing has reaffirmed for me something about humanity that I had forgotten - people from Wisconsin are really polite on the phone.

BTW, there's no Guy Straley at www.ratemyprofessors.com, either.

If this Gus person has in fact died, despite the fact that he's fabricated some elements of his life*, I want to know so I can mourn.

If he's not dead, I have a bajillion better things to do with that emotional energy.

What Sean said.

I was trying to track down a high school friend a couple weeks ago who is working on her PhD, but hasn't earned it yet, and within five minutes I had not only found her name but her e-mail address as well. Someone with a PhD should be easily googleable.

BTW, there's no Guy Straley at www.ratemyprofessors.com, either.

I checked there just last night. And ended up rating my prof from this semester.