Denny did an excellent job of explaining how RootsWeb mailing lists
work. I just want to vouch that what he states here is very true for
anyone who may be doubting his explanation. I am also a list admin of
many years.
I do know that RootsWeb has mailing lists that are closed to the
public in that they have no archives. What I don't know is if an
established list can discontinue the archives and that would be a
question to address to the listmaster of RootsWeb.
Joan Asche
On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 11:40 PM, Denny Shirer <drdx(a)neo.rr.com> wrote:
Sandy,
I have been a Rootsweb list admin for many many years. The Gateway is a
way of connecting a message board with a related mailing list and since
we do not have a related message board, we do not have a gateway. That
would be the wrong terminology for what you are describing.
Yes, Rootsweb's mailing lists are indexed through their internal search
engine and yes lists sometimes do get messages sent from people who
found something through a search and are not subscribed but there is a
big difference to the admin between them and real list messages from
subscribed users. A list admin can choose to micro manage the list and
deal with everything that comes in or set up his/her mail box so that
all the extraneous emails are either deleted or sent to another folder
to be dealt with at their leisure. I have mine set up so all bounces and
administrative messages go to a separate folder and it is a life saver.
98% of those messages do not need any response and depending on how you
set up your filters, you can actually just delete all messages from
someone who is not subscribed. It is not an admin's duty to respond to
all unsubscribed queries. Most do it out of courtesy but as far as our
list goes, someone who is not subscribed does not need to get a response
unless they are continuously posting and becoming a nuisance, IMHO.
I know if someone has never done this before it can seem overwhelming
but it seems Dale knows what he is doing. When we elect a new SC, having
some knowledge of maintaining a list should be one of the things we
consider before casting our vote. Sandy, I know you had never done it
before at least on the scale of this list so I can understand that you
may have been a bit overwhelmed.
Creating a new list would get rid of all the garbage posts but there is
no reason to do that as they can be dealt with easily. As far as
USGenWeb is concerned, an SC is required to admin the state list but
there are no guidelines for how they do it except to make sure that all
county admins are subscribed and that they forward items of interest to
the list. If the SC wants to ignore all unsubscribed messages, that is
certainly their right.
I understand an SC wanting to make sure that everyone who is doing
research in our state is not ignored but it would be very easy to create
a mail template to respond to them telling them that OHGEN is not used
for research but Ohio coordinator business and then direct them to
whatever message board or list is handled by the county they are
interested in or to the generic state board and/or list.
Change is not a bad thing when it is necessary or will improve things
but change for change's sake is not worth the time and effort. Changing
lists is not improving anything, it would just make the admin's job a
little easier and that is not enough reason to move this list!
Denny Shirer - drdx(a)neo.rr.com - Canton, OH
Shirer Family Genealogy -
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mysong
Muskingum County, OHGenWeb -
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohmuskin/