Hi Carolyn,
You said: "My experience, unfortunately, has been that outreach attempts
have been
ignored, and gentle nurturing has been met with continued silence... "
You are to be commended for making the attempts. I feel your frustration!
I can certainly understand the desire to require these people to do what's
good for them. However, in my experience, people will generally do what they
intend to do, and rules can often have un-intended consequences as a result.
I was simply trying to point out the potential for that to happen here.
People may not have any ancestral information - orphans, adopted, abandoned,
whatever. I think it would be wrong to exclude them from this project.
People may have a phobia, bad experience, etc. - also keeping them from
sharing. Perhaps they are embarrassed at what they found in their tree. It
just goes on-and-on.
But if they joined the project to begin with, they had an interest in their
ancestry and felt this site would provide them value. If a rule is
instigated, I see no reason they wouldn't accommodate the rule in light of
the same motivation which prompted them to join in the first place.
So, I feel that the potential downside to implementing such a rule would be
much greater that the upside.
I realize the site is maintained by volunteers, and only so much is
pratical. But for instance, if there were a simple way to enter a basic
family tree online when one signed up to the site, maybe that would
encourage people to share at least some basic info which they knew off the
top of their head. Then later, when they saw the whole process, maybe they
would become interested enough to enlarge on it.
Well, anyway, that's my 2 cents +.
Keith
-----Original Message-----
From: carter-dna-bounces(a)rootsweb.com
[mailto:carter-dna-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of CSM1103(a)aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 8:12 AM
To: CARTER-DNA(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: [CARTER-DNA] DNA & trees
Also think about the consequences of requiring trees. Some people would be
motivated to post their tree, some people would be motivated to make up a
tree and post it, and others would be motivated to leave the group, even
those with trees. Are you sure it would produce a net gain?
Keith, I understand your point, but I have to say that the above paragraph
really rattled me!
I can't imagine that someone would actually make up a tree! That's a
pretty mind-boggling concept for me. The effort involved to do that would
take
more time and energy than simply forwarding what already exists in their
files, or on their computer. Does their tree contain national secrets??
And I guess I'm just baffled at the idea that someone would leave the group
because they were required to provide information that would help
themselves and others in their research.
We're all Carter cousins. Have we, as a society and as extended family,
strayed so far from the concept of sharing that we're down to making up
trees, and leaving interactive groups because we don't want to tell anyone
else
what our research has uncovered? And what if there's an error in that
secretive person's research? Maybe someone in the group could point it
out,
and help them move forward too.
My experience, unfortunately, has been that outreach attempts have been
ignored, and gentle nurturing has been met with continued silence...
Again, it completely baffles me why someone would want to participate in a
genealogical DNA study, and then refuse to provide pertinent information to
that same study. I don't get it.
Carolyn
Carter Surname Y-DNA Project
www.carter-cousins.org
-------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
CARTER-DNA-request(a)rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the
quotes in the subject and the body of the message