Facebook Groups: Graves of the Rich and Famous

Graves of the Rich and Famous
Administrator: Gerri Gray
https://www.facebook.com/groups/257931060986341/
899 members

Bela Lugosi’s gravestone in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City. Photo by Loren Rhoads.

Mission Statement: Graves of the Rich and Famous is a moderated group for photos and videos showing the final resting places of celebrities, the wealthy, the famous, and the infamous.

Q: There are a lot of cemetery aficionado groups on Facebook. What sets yours apart?

A: My groups were designed with my fellow taphophiles in mind. They function as an outlet for individuals whose passion is cemetery photography. My husband and I are actively involved in all the groups: posting photos and comments and routinely checking for spammers and troublemakers to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Q: Do you have a policy about what is appropriate to post?

A: As long as a post is on-topic to the group, it’s fine. Of course, spam and sexually oriented material are a no-no. Be respectful and don’t steal other people’s photos. Other than that, I really don’t have any strict rules, regulations, or requirements.

Q: How old is your group?

A: Digging Graves (my first Facebook cemetery group) was started back in June of 2012. The others are younger.

Q: Are your groups open to new members?

A: All of my groups are open to new members. I carefully check each one before letting them into the groups, to make sure they are a real person and not a spammer with a fake profile. (Fake profiles are usually easy to spot, especially the Asian ones: they tend to belong to hundreds of groups, have only a few or no friends, and not much activity on their timelines. Also, the gender often doesn’t match that of their profile photo, which usually looks like a fashion model, often wearing something skimpy or posed suggestively.) I’ve had a number of people try to spam my groups in the past, so I’m very careful now.

Q: Are you a member of any other cemetery groups?

A: I belong to about a dozen groups, including my own. There was a time when I had a membership in close to a hundred groups, but I found it was impossible to keep up with them all.

Q: And you get some special questions, since you have multiple groups — why did you choose to set up different groups? Do the same people tend to belong to all of them? Which is your favorite?

A: Actually, I now have four different groups: Digging Graves is for anyone who “digs” graveyards, figuratively or literally! Just about anything related to graves and cemeteries in general is welcome there. I could not find any cemetery groups for famous persons’ graves, so I started Graves of the Rich and Famous, which has become quite a popular group. I’m a bit of an architecture buff and really adore mausoleums, so I decided to start Mausoleum Mania for people who share my interest in that area. As for The Canadian Cemetery Society, I had been trying for a while to find a group devoted to Canadian cemeteries (my husband hails from Canada) and was unsuccessful. So I created one to fill a need. Personally choosing a favorite group is a bit difficult; it’s like asking a mother to choose her favorite child.

I couldn’t give you actual figures, but there are a number of individuals who belong to more than one of my groups.

The other cemetery groups Geri manages on Facebook:

Mausoleum Mania – 1039 members

Digging Graves – 777 members

The Canadian Cemetery Society – 32 members