About Ohbit

Ohbit is a record of people who have died, and of what happened to them.

Most of us, when we lose someone, get a cause of death that is a line on a form: “cardiopulmonary arrest,” “natural causes,” “pending.” The line is true and it explains nothing. The doctor has moved on, the funeral home doesn’t know, and the internet is a comments section. Ohbit is for the question that’s left: what actually happened?

Anyone can make a page for anyone who has died. Anyone can add a theory about the cause, and anyone can say whether they find a theory likely or unlikely. The theories sort themselves by what readers find most credible. When the family knows, they confirm the cause, it moves to the top with a mark, and the theories stay below as a record of what people thought before the family knew.

Theories are theories. Nothing on Ohbit is a finding. A theory with a lot of “likely” marks is a theory many readers find plausible, and nothing more. The only thing on a page that carries authority is a cause the family has confirmed.

Readers are anonymous. Family members are not. You can add a theory without a name. If you say who you are (“a hospice nurse”), we show it and we don’t check it. A family member who confirms a cause does so under their own name.

Be careful with the recently dead and the privately dead. Don’t make a page for a death that is under active investigation. Don’t make a page about a suicide unless you are family. Don’t speculate about a private person’s death in a way you would not say to their mother. Pages that cross these lines are taken down.

Don’t give instructions. A theory can say what a drug does to the heart. It cannot say how much of it would do that. Specific doses, methods, and combinations are removed.

Anyone can report anything. Every theory and every page has a report link. A person reads every report. If you are family and a page about your person is wrong, say so there and leave an email; it gets fixed.

Ohbit is made by John Stessel, who has been building and rebuilding it for a while and finally kept one. It is early. Things will be missing. Write to hello@ohbit.org.