If someone you knew passed away, would you send their family and friends a photocopy of a condolence card?
Of course you wouldn't.
But in diaries all over this site, the passing of someone dear is almost always followed in the comments by the obligatory posting of an animated .gif of a flickering candle.
It's time to end the practice of copying and pasting a heartless html tag as a substitute for genuine, emotional response that these friends and fallen heroes deserve.
When someone passes, we don't need a "copy and paste" of some shmaltzy hack graphics that have bene posted ad nauseum.
Instead, show some true condolences. Show some reflection of what these people meant to you, and how they'll be missed.
If you can't think of something of substance to say, then remain silent, because a flickering candle that has been used by countless other posters in countless other posts is disrespectful to the very special individual who passed.
They deserve more than an img tag, they deserve to be remembered for who they are and what they did while there were here -- as an individual, not as just another person who gets the same old graphic. These people deserve more than, and they deserve better than, a pasted bit of code.
It's cliche, it's lazy, and IMHO it's time to snuff the gif candles out.