Memorial website that's not a "memorial website"?

August 18, 2021 11:34 PM

A friend wants to put up a website to remember a loved one who passed recently. But it's still such a raw subject that the look and feel of popular memorial website-makers (examples: 1, 2, 3) are just...too much. However well intentioned, they're like walking into a funeral home, too triggering. Are there other options for this kind of thing that aren't "memorial websites" per se? An easy DIY setup, free or paid, where people can share words and images, controlled by a non-technical admin type?
posted by El Curioso to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

You could set up a free blog at blogger.com (a service of Google). You could allow people with long remembrances to add blog posts, and for others to leave comments to those posts. There is less navigation needed by visitors than at those institutional site — you just circulate the URL which will be [nameofblog].blogger.com. Or you can set up a basic Wix or Squarespace site, but that will have a monthly cost.
posted by beagle at 9:36 AM on August 19, 2021

weebly is like wix/squarespace with a free option. my wife set up a wedding website for us nine years ago- it's still there and we haven't ever paid weebly anything. they do have a little floating "powered by weebly" in the bottom corner of pages for free accounts but it's not garish.
posted by noloveforned at 1:30 PM on August 19, 2021

Caringbridge (caringbridge.org) is free, has a very easy admin interface, and while it's also a communication website for people going through long illnesses, the sites can stay up afterward to be a celebration of the person's life. (My family used this for a parent's bout with GBS and their long road to recovery.)
posted by Tailkinker to-Ennien at 1:55 PM on August 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you're interested in the blog type route like beagle suggested, I'll offer up wordpress.com. Free tier works well.
posted by kathrynm at 5:30 PM on August 19, 2021

Response by poster: Thanks for these suggestions. One key thing I meant to clarify was the admin aspect - the idea being that anyone who has been given access can submit words/images/etc, but the site admin has final say on whether things actually get posted. Can blogs be set up that way?
posted by El Curioso at 9:29 PM on August 19, 2021

I'm pretty sure wordpress can. It looks like the "Contributor" user class can. "Can write and edit their own posts but can't publish them."

You'd have to email an invite to anyone who wants to be a contributor.
posted by kathrynm at 4:11 PM on August 20, 2021

PicPack Is super easy to use and the organizer can choose which posts are shown publicly. You can leave notes and photos.
posted by jasondigitized at 8:21 PM on August 20, 2021 [1 favorite]