Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2023 June 25

= June 25 =

Post-death reputation protection service
Does this sort of thing exist? Someone was telling me recently that you could actually pay a monthly subscription to a company that, in event of your death, would immediately come to your house and remove anything that you might not want your friends and family to see, in order to avoid them thinking bad of you. In other words, they'd come in and take away your pornography collection/crack pipe/needle and spoon/hundreds of empty whiskey bottles/14" rubber cock and butt plug collection/anatomically-correct goat sex doll/Adolf Hitler shrine/Satanic altar/evidence of secret second and third families/plans for world domination/photographic and video evidence of you stalking your fave celebrity/whatever (intentionally being humorous and OTT here, but you get the idea). Google is pretty much useless here - managed to find several companies that will clean up the aftermath of a physical dead corpse in a house, but not a person's reputation. Was musing with my friend that there would probably be a lot of money to be made here... :) Iloveparrots (talk) 00:34, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Never heard of such a potentially valuable service, but there could also be a variation for those who finally want their family and friends to know the truth. They would take all that stuff you describe above straight to the media to let the world know what you were really like. HiLo48 (talk) 00:50, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Or another variation would be to visit the deceased's house bringing outrageous material, to suggest a more interesting life. I can't find anything in reputation management or post-mortem privacy. Various people, some mentioned at Book_burning, have left posthumous requests for the destruction of papers, which are frequently ignored. Card Zero  (talk) 02:09, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * No lawyer, but that might run afoul of the law. Once the client has "vacated" the premises, don't they become the property of the estate/heirs? Which would make you burglars. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:29, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * It would depend on the will. For example, the surviving spouse might be willed the house and its contents. And she might also be co-owner of the house anyway. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:35, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * What does that have to do with Iloveparrots' question? The (hypothetical) service's goal is to keep people like the spouse from learning about the deceased's dirty laundry. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:50, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * The point being that they would have no legal right to enter the house without permission of the widow or whoever else lives in or co-owns the house. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:21, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * You may have to rely on a porn buddy to do that. -- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 08:20, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Once the client dies it doesn't matter. 2A00:23C6:2417:3101:194F:E4EE:A5D9:2232 (talk) 13:19, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I could also see this being a scam where they'd also take valuables with them and no one would be the wiser. -- Avocado (talk) 15:54, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * It totally sounds like a scam. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:40, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I see a practical problem -- how would this service learn of the person's death before their friends and family do? CodeTalker (talk) 17:16, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Besides which, imagine showing up at the door and saying to the widow, "We're here to take stuff your late husband didn't want you to know about!" ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:40, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Let's not assume that it's only ever going to be the male who has dirty laundry to hide. HiLo48 (talk) 23:02, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Would only really be a useful service for people who live alone. This question was inspired by one of those "what was the weirdest thing you discovered about a person who'd died when you looked through their computer/stuff?" questions I saw on Reddit once. TBH, mostly it was gross porn collections, photos of the deceased engaged in sex acts (when alive!), evidence of spending loads of money on hookers, that sort of thing. There was apparently one guy who'd written an entire 300-page book about how he hated his ex-wife and most of his family. And someone whose very last Google searches were "prank phone call ideas" and "miley cyrus phone number". That last one got me. Iloveparrots (talk) 21:05, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * An implanted heart-monitor with G5 and wifi? -- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 18:46, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I guess it wouldn't always be possible to be the first to know - but how's about one of those necklaces that say "in event of my death, please call immediately"? Iloveparrots (talk) 20:44, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Your best bet would be to just hire your own Helen Gandy well beforehand. JoelleJay (talk) 00:39, 26 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Maybe Jedgar thought he would somehow be around to watch his reputation (such as it was) being protected. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:47, 26 June 2023 (UTC)


 * I heard a radio ad today for something called ReputationDefender.com, though I think it mostly has to do with credit ratings. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:08, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

Use of 'wikipedia' name in comparison
Hi, I am part of a group that maintains the Origami Database (www.oriwiki.com). It's a free database which contains the table of contents of many origami publications and serves as a search engine/encyclopedia of origami models. We would like to add the tagline ' the Wikipedia of origami models'.

Is that allowed? Hepabolu (talk) 09:59, 25 June 2023 (UTC)


 * We aren't allowed to give legal advice. So instead, I'd recommend seeking advice from a lawyer or similar, who can charge you a large sum of money for the privilege of being told that 'Wikipedia' is a registered trade mark, and you probably shouldn't do it unless you want to risk being sued. AndyTheGrump (talk) 10:45, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * More specific info here:, noting that it states: This summary is not a legal document. 136.54.99.98 (talk) 17:09, 25 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Alternately, try ' the wiki of origami models' or ' the encyclopedia of origami models'. Sleigh (talk) 09:17, 26 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Yeah, most people will understand what you mean if you just say "the wiki of origami models" or "the origami model wiki", although they will probably think that it is officially linked to Wikipedia in some way. That's the downside of WP being so successful, anything "wiki" gets misunderstood as part of it. "The online encyclopedia of origami models that anyone can edit" would be another way of phrasing your point. A lot of Fandom wikis use that format. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 15:50, 26 June 2023 (UTC)