There will be an abandoned account somewhere. It still exists but nobody is checking it.
It may be an abandoned blog with no new postings. A Facebook that nobody logs in to. A former frequent poster on Stack Overflow.
They’re often being overwhelmed by spam. Spam accumulating is like dating genes by comparing the number of genes with a known mutation rate.
At an extreme the poster has died.
They make me think of moulted cicada shells.
makes me think of your project for telling stories of the dearly departed…
Funny. You’re right, though I didn’t think of it.