Jan,
As Coordinator for the Orange County Web Site I would like to clarify why I
made the decision to move the pages from Rootsweb.
First and foremost Rootsweb has recently been purchased by
Ancestry.com a
for profit company.
Recently files from another USGenWeb site have been discovered for sale at
Ancestry.com, Now I do not know how those files came to be there nor am I
making any accusations but I do not choose to have the files on the Orange
CO. Site subject to any violation of the transcribers intent.
Many countless hours have been spent by many dedicated persons in order to
put the information on line for other researchers. As long as those files
are in my care they will always remain FREE.
Second. The USGenWeb Census Project was delinked by USGenWeb because of
their refusal to be taken over by the Archives Project. This was done in a
way contrary to the By laws of USGenWeb. When Submitters or data in protest
to the above stated actions requested that their submissions be removed from
the Archives they were told "Once a file is submitted it cannot be removed"
I feel that this is totally WRONG. However if it is to be a Archives Policy
it should be stated on a "required" submission form so that there can be no
misunderstanding by the submitter.
While the Orange County site remains a member of the USGenWeb Project it
has also become a member of the American History and Genealogy Project and
it's pages are on the new server in order to protect the integrity of the
files.
I realize that most people on this list do not give a whit about the
politics of the USGenWeb Project but in order to clarify your statements I
felt the need to reply.
Best Wishes
Sandra Sanchez
Coordinator USGenWeb Orange Co Ind.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/in/county/orange/index.html
Coordinator USGenWeb Linn Co. Ia.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ia/county/linn/usgenweblinn/index.html