First let me say that I am not an apologist for Rootsweb. They can be
maddeningly frustrating at times relative to our ability to access their
system and manage our content. But for USGenWeb, for us as county
coordinators, they offer free web space, free mailing lists and host the
free genconnect system, surname helper and cchelper, not to mention the
USGenWeb archive hosting. As volunteers hosting our counties and states
few of us (if any) have the resources or even the knowledge to provide our
own server links to the Internet. We all do what is convenient to us and
within our means with the objective of providing FREE access to genealogy
information relative to our counties or states on-line. Commercial ISPs
(one of which I use) do charge monthly access fees and provide you with a
given amount of web space. Genealogy databases on-line can quickly out
grow what Independent Service Providers will support you with. So we reach
out for additional server space for our data. I use rootsweb now as an
adjunct to the main site for Kosciusko County. But the day may come if my
local ISPs service fails that I have to move all of my pages elsewhere. I
hold out the option to move them to rootsweb.
But as Lori, Betty and others have pointed out there are other options.
usroots.com,
genweb.com, geocities, etc. Where we park our sites should
consider the convenience of the visitors to our sites. Can they quickly
pull up our pages, is the server (service) available (up) most/all of the
time, can they go directly to our site without commercial interference, etc?
Rootsweb is an interesting situation. They are dedicated to making
genealogy information freely available on-line to researchers. Counter to
what Lori said, I'm not aware that in order to access some of their
databases you have to be a contributor. You do have be a contributor to be
able to take advantage of their resources to host your own surname related
sites (or mailing list). But Rootsweb is a non-profit, privately run
organization. They exists solely on the generosity of rootsweb
contributors and the sweat and tears of their organizers, Brian Leverich
and Karen Isaacson and their volunteer staff. The continued geometric
growth of the Internet and genealogy research on-line constantly strains
their system. Their hosting of the roots-l mailing list and thousands of
other state, county and surname list funnels an extraordinary amount of
mail through their system daily. Their hosting of web sites for USGenWeb,
CyndisList, and numerous surname sites sends millions of hits on their
servers daily. Behind all of this, Brian and his techies are constantly
working to keep the system running, constantly upgrading or repairing
hardware and constantly monitoring to the load to insure spam doesn't bring
them down (like it has done to other genealogy resources on-line in the past).
Can Rootsweb continue to survive in the geometrically growing universe of
the web as a free service? I don't know. I don't see in the near term
their becoming a subscription based service like
Ancestry.com. But if they
fail, it would spell disaster for the concept behind USGenWeb. Are there
other services or resources out there willing to do what rootsweb is doing
now for free (to USGenWeb coordinators)? Will they offer unlimited, free
web space to county coordinators if everybody had to move? Would they host
our mailing lists, our genconnect boards, our surname helper search
capability? I don't know.
I just know that as a volunteer, doing this job for no financial
compensation, I will continue to tap whatever resources I can to provide as
much data, freely available, that I am able to manage on-line for my county.
I don't know the circumstances at all behind the censuring of the four
people on the USGenWeb-all list (I don't subscribe). But I'd ask you, how
would you handle abusive subscribers to your county lists? (I guess I'd
define abusive as anything potentially off-topic, unrelated to genealogy
research, which is a pretty broad definition. May include people that
attack others, spam, etc).
In the end, I will stay away from the political bickering going on outside
of Indiana and focus on what is best for my county.
Gene Andert
Kosciusko Co, IN USGenWeb Coordinator
genea(a)ctlnet.com
http://user.ctlnet.com/gan155/kosco.htm
Listowner: inkosciu-L(a)rootsweb.com