This came across another list and I thought I'd pass it on here in case there's an
interest....
Angie
--------Original Message-------
Subject: Board Solutions
This may be copied and placed anywhere and is free for all to view including
but not limited to web pages, newspapers, mail lists, snail mail, and any
form of print distribution.
A group of former GenConnect message board administrators, and USGenWeb
county coordinators are getting together to offer a new service. This will be
an alternative to using the new Rootsweb message board system, and it should
be available within a couple of weeks or so. The goal is to create something
similar to the old GenConnect message boards, and probably better. This
alternative service plans to offer the following features:
a. Server space and message boards
b. It will be FREE
c. It will be fully searchable
d. There will be no registration required for posting or reading messages
e. The political atmosphere found elsewhere will not be tolerated
f. The user will ALWAYS own his/her own posts
g. User contributions will be gladly accepted, but not required
h. There will be a distinct absence of nonsensical corporate mentality
There was a great sense of loss in the genealogical community when RootsWeb
was acquired by Ancestry. That sense of loss has been compounded with the
changes during the past few days involving RootsWeb, Ancestry, and
MyFamily.com, Inc.
The recent decision to combine and replace the GenConnect message boards on
Rootsweb.com and the
FamilyHistory.com message boards into a new message
board system has generated a great deal of confusion and dissatisfaction.
Concerns with this changeover include, but are not limited to the following:
1. The following copyright notice was placed on the new board system, and
displayed any time that a user attempted to print out a posted message:
© Copyright 1996-2001,
MyFamily.com, Inc. All rights reserved. This
material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination,
including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior
written consent of
MyFamily.com, Inc.
Members of the RootsWeb Message Board Team subsequently stated that this
copyright notice was an error, and it no longer appears on the messages.
Copyright concerns still exist since the following notice appears on the
bottom of every board page:
Copyright © 1998-2001
MyFamily.com, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All rights
reserved.
A review of the policies as currently posted for each entity, i.e. RootsWeb,
MyFamily.com, and Ancestry indicate that policies can be changed at any time
without notice to the user or subscriber. This should be of great concern to
every user or subscriber.
2. The conversion was accomplished without adequate notice to board
administrators as is evidenced by the hundreds of email messages that have
been posted to the BOARDS-ADMINS-L(a)rootsweb.com mailing list over the past
few days.
3. It appears that the new message board functions were not fully and
adequately tested prior to their deployment. It also appears that there were
inadequate instructions and no help files available to assist the board
administrators during this critical time.
4. The answers to questions asked by board administrators have been
inadequately answered.
5. The upper management personnel at
MyFamily.com, Inc. have been
unavailable to respond to the board administrators and users during this
chaotic situation.
6. In at least one instance, a Rootsweb staff member suggested that if a
board administrator was so disheartened by all of this that she give up her
boards and setup wherever she would be happy. This is certainly not a very
courteous response to a user expressing their concern about some
disappointing new policies.
If you are interested in participating in this exciting FREE new service for
genealogists, please reply via private email to arockef(a)home.com You will
then be notified as soon as the service is online. You may certainly maintain
your present boards and sites, as well as having a site on the new service.
The choice is yours, and now you DO have a choice. As genealogists, you
deserve RESPECT for your efforts to preserve your family history.
--
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