Smoron: An Open Memorial Archive for Bangladesh
· 2 min read
When someone passes away in Bangladesh, the news usually travels through a single Facebook post. A few days later it sinks to the bottom of the timeline. Years on, when grandchildren look for a grandparent's dates or the name of their village, there is nothing to find. I built Smoron (স্মরণ, "remembrance") as a simple answer to that problem.
What is Smoron?
Smoron is a free, open memorial and obituary archive for people of Bangladesh. Anyone can create a permanent memorial page for a loved one with their name, birth and death dates, area and photo, without creating an account.
Key features
- Permanent IDs: every page gets an ID based on district and year, like
BD-DHK-26-000123, so it can still be found many years later. - Search: by Bangla or English name, a parent's or spouse's name, or the ID. You can filter by division, district, year and cause of death.
- Verification: once an admin verifies a page it shows a green "100% verified" badge; until then it is marked "unverified".
- Memorial card: each page is laid out like a printed condolence card and can be downloaded as an HD image, printed or shared.
- Light a candle: one tap lights a candle on the page and adds to the number of people who paid their respects.
The hardest decisions
On a site like this, the bigger questions are about people's feelings and safety, not technology.
Cause of death is optional. The default is "prefer not to say". I deliberately left out causes like murder or suicide, because they risk accusations against someone or social harm to the family.
Guarding against false posts. If three different people report a post, it is hidden automatically. A single "this person is alive" report hides it immediately. One device can post at most five times an hour.
Privacy. The submitter's phone number is never made public. Instead they get a secret edit code, so they can edit or delete their post later without an account.
The design
I chose calm colours: night-sky navy, warm cream, gold and soft mint. The home page shows three candles under a starry sky. I wanted the site to feel like a quiet memorial, not a news portal.
What's next
I'm working on district pages, better search, and a way to share funeral times and places. If you have suggestions, get in touch.