Suggestion: 'Planned absence mode'

[Sharky]

Here's an idea: How about a planned absence mode for free hosting clients.

Here's the details:

• This limited use option is aimed at clients with an upcoming period whereby he cannot get online to keep his hosting account active
• Limited to perhaps once or twice in a year, up to a maximum of 2-3 months, requiring reason and manual staff approval
• Option for extension?
• THIS DATA MAY HAVE TO BE TREATED CONFIDENTIALLY?
• Perhaps also the option at staff's discresion for a period of extended suspension following this, instead of terminating the account
• 'Next-of-kin' temporary login?
  • could be used for a period of time during / after the planned absence
  • could also be used in the specific case of hospitality whereby things take a turn for the worse

Thoughts?

PLEASE NOTE: Vote results will not affect the chances of an idea being implemented.

 

[essellar]

Thing is, there's already a "planned absence mode" in Prime, and the country restrictions now in place mean that there are very, very few people who can't pop for a three-month period of Prime. (Honestly, there are parts of the world where for a significant number of people, three bucks is a helluva strain. I'm living on less than five hundred Canadian a month after medical and associated expenses, and while I can think of better things to do with three bucks, it'd never mean the difference between eating this week and starving. Nor would it mean I could take a nicer vacation -- well, other than taking transit one-way to a nice park in the city or something. But if accounts are opened up again, money may become a real issue for some, and I don't want to make this an "elitist" thing.) The real hardship comes with unplanned absence -- major illness or injury -- and there's no good way to apply for that except retroactively. (I spend rather a lot of unplanned time in the hospital myself in a state of complete incapacity.)

Despite the language of the hosting agreement, "next-of-kin login" is already sort of covered under power of attorney laws, so are we talking about creating a second, explicit next-of-kin username/password in addition to the primary so that the primary doesn't need to be used? That would have to be a standing account rather than something ad hoc, since (again) its real usefulness would be in the case of unplanned absence. Would it have the same privileges, or would it be something that only indicates active status? If it has privileges, would it be easily revocable or transferable (in case of separation/divorce, especially)?

 

[garrettroyce]

I think a lot of the problems come from "unplanned absence."

 

[Sharky]

What about a planned unplanned absence? :/

I don't think there's really any way around unplanned absences, unless ... I dunno... After a few weeks dormant accounts are heavily compressed and archived for a time?

 

[garrettroyce]

What about a planned unplanned absence? :/

I don't think there's really any way around unplanned absences, unless ... I dunno... After a few weeks dormant accounts are heavily compressed and archived for a time?

Sounds dangerously similar to a backup :X