-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ALL] Hosting Agreement
Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 17:13:01 -0400
From: Tom - USGenWeb CC <GenWeb(a)raynorshyn.com>
Reply-To: All(a)usgenweb.us
To: All(a)usgenweb.us
References: <EOEIKDCLGGACGAKDPFMFMEHFDMAA.nt(a)vci.net>
I've been reading these posts with interest.
It seems that RootsWeb, or whichever name they are going by now, wanted
to formalize the previously informal agreement to host USGenWeb home
page for free. Obviously, states and counties are next.
Well, OK, that makes some sense. But the secrecy makes no sense at all.
How can we, as members of the project, follow rules we're not even
allowed to see? And who does know the rules? Only one person? That
doesn't seem to fit this type of organization.
I have long felt uncomfortable with the willingness of a for-profit
businesss to "help" us by offering free web space. Worse, they somehow
became the ONLY option for web hosting, to the point that new
coordinaters were told that signing up with them was "step 1".
Apparently the NC saw "no other option" and felt compelled to sign their
agreemet. Why?
It seems they (RootsWeb) have more to gain than us (USGenWeb). They are
using the hard work of our volunteers to market their commercial product
and draw more visitors to their commercial site. They have never
offered anything meaningful in return. Their "free" hosting is
technology from the early 1990s; nothing but static pages. Their
limited indexing and search options make the data we enter either
totally inaccessable or out of context.
Why don't state and county coordinators just go elsewhere? There are
enough cheap, and free, hosting options readily available.
I have no problems; My SC has been good, and I have always hosted my own
sites. I wrote my own Query system (and offer it to other CCs, no
strings attached.)
For those of you who follow other USGenWeb mailing lists, I recommend
you remind all SCs or CCs that there are other options. Perhaps members
who use other hosts could offer help & encouragement to those who want
"out" of RootsWeb.
Even for archives, there are other options. I like GenDex; you put your
own archive data on your own site and create an index file for GenDex to
read. Then all your entries get added to the searchable, central
database. And the searchers are linked back to your site.
The "Web" in USGenWeb was supposed to be a network of inter-linked but
separately hosted sites. It was never intended that everything would be
on one commercial server, governed by secret agreements with a
for-profit organization.
You don't need USGenWeb to just add the results of your own personal
research to a for-profit genealogy web site. They will all allow you to
do that!
Why not simply say "no" to RootsWeb and go back to the original concept?
- Tom
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