Beginning March 2nd, 2020 the Mailing Lists functionality on RootsWeb will be discontinued. Users will no longer be able to send outgoing emails or accept incoming emails. Additionally, administration tools will no longer be available to list administrators and mailing lists will be put into an archival state.
Administrators may save the emails in their list prior to March 2nd. After that, mailing list archives will remain available and searchable on RootsWeb
Good Evening Everyone,
A subscriber on one of the lists I admin asked a question about mail lists
and message boards and the difference between them. So I thought that might be
a good message for everyone.
MAIL LISTS:
The fact that you can receive this message means that you have chosen to
subscribe to the Clark-IL mail list. To post to the list you must be a
subscriber. Any message you send is automatically sent to every subscriber on the list
and in turn, you will receive any message sent to the list by any other
subscriber.
RootsWeb has just under 30,000 different mail lists for states, counties,
regions, surnames, special topics, etc. So you have a lot to choose from....<g>
The messages are sent in two ways. Regular subscription which means that you
get each message immediately as it is posted. Digest version which means
that the messages are batched and sent out periodically.
If you are interested in finding out other rootsweb mail lists that might be
of interest then go to this URL.
http://lists.rootsweb.com/
If you are interested in finding out what lists you subscribe to you can
check your subscriptions by going to password central and asking for that list.
The URL is:
http://passwordcentral.rootsweb.com/
All messages sent to the mail lists are archived. You can look at these
archives in two ways.
If you think you have missed some postings to any of the mail lists or if you
just need to review past postings then check the archives for that mail list.
Go to this URL and enter the name of the mail list. You can then look at the
messages to the list by month.
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/
Access to this site is not restricted to subscribers. This means you can
check the archives for other lists as well.
You can also search past messages for any mail list by going to this URL:
http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl
First enter the name of the list you want to search. You will then get a
screen and can search the messages by year.
AND... finally.... if you have any questions concerning any mail list you
might be
on you can contact the list admin by sending a message to:
listname-admin(a)rootsweb.com
Replace the word - listname - with the name of the specific mail list.
For example:
Stovall-admin(a)rootsweb.com
The message will be forwarded to that admin.
MESSAGE BOARDS
Message boards differ from mail lists in that you do not have to be a
subscriber to that specific board. Nor are new postings automatically sent to your
e-mail address. To read any new postings to the message board you must go to
that message board site. You must also go to the board site to respond to any
posting. Postings are retained for years and can be searched in various ways.
You can access the message boards from the mail RootsWeb page. You will find
a link there that will lead you to this site.
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=main&r=rw
Once there you can search for a specific board.
Make sure you take time to read the Message Board Rules and Message Board
FAQ. Links to these are at the bottom of the page. Both provide helpful
information in use of the message boards.
You can also access the same message boards from the mail Ancestry site -
http://www.ancestry.com/.
At the top of the page click on "Message Boards"
You will be taken to this site:
http://www.ancestry.com/share/
Once there you can search for a specific board.
Both mail lists and message boards have admins. In many cases the same admin
has both the list and the board. In other cases, there are two different
admins.
LINK BETWEEN MESSAGE BOARDS AND MAIL LISTS:
Some message boards are linked to their corresponding mail lists via a
gateway. (Note: Not all mail lists have a corresponding board) In that case, any
posting on the message board is automatically sent to the mail list and
received by all subscribers. There are advantages and disadvantages to gatewaying
and I won't go into that now but watch your mail list messages for the notation
that the message has been forwarded from the board. To respond to that
message, you must go to the URL listed in that message. A response sent back to
the mail list will not reach the original poster. Note that the gateway does not
go both ways. Messages posted on the board are sent to the mail list -
messages posted on the mail list are NOT sent to the board.
Hope all this helps. If you have any questions give me a yell.
Take care - Emma
Good Evening Everyone,
I hope all of you are having a wonderful Fall. I don't know about all of you
but I am definitely looking forward to cooler weather. Living in Texas will
do that to you.
I thought it was time for a list update.
At the present time there are 32 subscribers to the regular or L version of
the list and 16 subscribers to the digest or D version.
I also wanted to let you know about RootsWeb Review. If you are not yet a
subscriber to this newsletter you might want to consider doing so.
This is a free newsletter sent to your e-mail by RootsWeb. The information
on the RootsWeb Review site describes the newsletter this way:
"Each issue of the RootsWeb Review newsletter includes information about
additions and/or changes to RootsWeb.com (such as new databases, mailing
lists,
and websites), plus tips on using RootsWeb.com, genealogical research, humor,
readers' stories and tips, and other articles of interest to family
historians
around the world."
I think you will find the articles helpful and interesting. Some of the past
articles you might want to check are those providing helpful hints on writing
effective queries, the best way to use mail lists and message boards, and
effective search strategies.
Go to this site to search or browse past issues.
http://rwr.rootsweb.com/
If interested in subscribing then click on:
Newsletter Management Center
And one last note - no, make that a last directive....<grin>.
Have a wonderful day and take care.
Emma