This is to inform you of two recent changes I have made to the list.
As some of you may know, I have a number of surname lists and, in all
cases, also administer the corresponding message board on RootsWeb. As of
this morning, the "gateway" is now open between the list you subscribe to
and the message board which, simply put, means that any message posted to
the board will automatically be sent to each subscriber of the list. One
obvious advantage of this is the fact that it will create a bit more
activity on the list, and also send you information without going to the
board to get it.
When I first started doing this, I was against opening the gateway because
of a bad experience I had. In short, a posting to the board that can best
be described as racist garbage, ended up going to one of my lists before I
could stop it. I did remove the posting from the board, but unfortunately
it was not before the damage had been done. I will let it remain open now,
though, until we have any more problems, but if any of you have any
thoughts on that, I welcome hearing from you.
The other change I have made is that all responses to postings to the list
will now go back to the list. Once again, this is to increase list
activity. From now on, if you hit the "reply" button to respond to a
posting on the list, your response will go back to the list, not directly
to the individual sender as before. If you use "reply all" it will be
addressed TWICE back to the list, and once again not to the sender
directly. If you do wish to send mail personally to a list member, you
will have to manually address it to him/her.
I know some of you have heard this before, but I am working on a couple of
things to put a little more activity into these lists. I had started to do
it last winter, but for a couple of reasons (including procrastination) I
never got very far with it. In the very near future, you will begin seeing
some of my own information posted to the list, and I invite you to do the
same. We have a number of new subscribers lately, and I have to wonder
what they are thinking after they subscribe and then do not hear from
anyone. This is a quiet list, and I doubt that it will every equal the
volume of the "Smith," "Jones," or "Johnson" list, and I am
not sure that I
would want it to, but IMHO we have been TOO quiet. I have some ideas to
improve that, and I ask for your help by posting anything that you would be
willing to share with your fellow researchers.
I already know some of you, and I look forward to meeting the rest of you
in the near future, and sharing our mutual enjoyment of genealogy. Please
do let me hear from you at any time, either on or off the list.
David
David E. Cann
decann(a)infi.net
Administrator of the Cann, Cashatt, Markley, Redkey & Schottler
mailing lists and message boards on RootsWeb