The question really is: Is there any reason for Full Members and below to be able to see it aside from appeasing their own curiosity?
Going deeper, how many of those members know the player who left personally enough for it to be information that holds some form of value to them?
You've been in Chat a lot, you must know that there are a lot of <500 post members in there who regularly converse with us >500 posts members, and many who know us personally.
I'm well aware, but that doesn't change my view in the slightest.
Compare the number of <500 post members who frequent chat and who
personally know the person leaving with the rest of the community who has no connection with the person outside of knowing they post a lot. There's a significant difference.
One of the main focuses of the Farewell section was to turn it away from a trend where people would post a topic and then rake in attention from a large part of the community, most of who didn't even know the person personally, into a section for officially stating that they would no longer be taking part in regular forum duties. That information holds little meaning to people who barely got the chance to know the person in question.
Something also disturbs me about the idea of placing older members on a pedestal for others to take a look at whenever they feel like; as if they're a precious gem of some type. Don't get me wrong, I (and hopefully others) appreciate the work they've put into the forums during their time here, but putting them on display in such a way would greatly increase the sense of elitism that exists here to the point where anyone below the rank of Senior member would feel very insignificant and inconsequential as a result (which of course isn't true in the slightest).
The feeling that I get from the Farewell section currently is that it's very personal and sentimental. I of course can't speak for everyone, but I'd like to see it stay that way.
