Howdy Buckeyes:
Brian Leverich wrote to OHGEN-L:
That is true -- RootsWeb doesn't generally support redirection.
There are actually a number of reasons, but the redirects you
installed on RootsWeb which pointed to sites on
scioto.org are a
good example.
Whenever your
scioto.org server or its network feed goes down,
*RootsWeb* gets complaints about our reliability because it's not
obvious to the users that the problem is *your* site.
Right - and when Rootsweb-hosted sites go down, the State Coordinator
and/or Assistant State Coordinators get complaints about *your*
domain. We have to fend questions and complaints about inaccessibility
just as you do. *Our* reputation as representatives for the project
(SCs, ASC, and CCs) is on the line just as much as *yours* is when RW is
down...it's an indirect situation, but we deal with it by
necessity, not necessarily by choice.
I've got some fairly frequent and painful experience with this
particular problem. ):
Thanks for mentioning the potential problems. I appreciate your noting
them so our Buckeye hosts may have a better understanding - that's the
goal in life, as my tagline illustrates.
That's one of the great satisfactions the
Scioto.org users have been
able to experience: zero percent (0%) downtime in the last 18 months.
Zero. While it's always an internet "fact of life" that nodes between
A and Z can (and do) go down (such as yesterday, when several folks
wrote to me about Ohio sites on Rootsweb being directly inaccessible
from the RW server using RW addresses), our
Scioto.org sites have good
feed, good turnaround and good success in serving our visitors.
Also, if you rename your pages on
scioto.org or move them to another
server, you'll break the redirects. Again, *RootsWeb* winds up
having to deal with complaints caused by things *you* are doing on
another server.
Whenever renaming happens, our webmasters *consistently* follow the
links, test and retest both upstream and down to maintain quality.
Also also, it is extremely difficult for RootsWeb to tell an active
redirect from deadwood.
Wow - I never knew that clicking on a link was "extremely difficult".
I'll mention that in our next staff meeting to see if any of our
webbers have experienced that difficulty. :-)
When a site is really on RootsWeb, we can
usually tell robotically if it is actively being maintained; when
just a redirect page is there, a human system administrator has to
manually pull up the page periodically to sort out whether the
redirect is still "live" or not.
Yep, it's a shame that the human element in a human project dealing
with human people has to be told robotically whether the human aspect
is present or not. So much for being human. :-(
And there are a dozen other problems associated with redirects.
Which is why I mentioned RW's policy to our Buckeye CCs, our USGW
neighbors, etc., so that their link at their respective site(s) could
be updated. Any way to assist the genealogists in a constructive and
helpful manner is always a plus, and by avoiding any potential
problems *now* makes their goal-seeking in the future easier.
I hope that helps you understand why RootsWeb doesn't support
redirects.
Yep, I understand the policy; I hope now that our Buckeyes can see
the vision a little clearer also. Thanks for your input!
Happy Hunting,
Allen
______________________________________________________________________
Allen Richmond
sciototrails(a)usa.net
OHGenWeb Project State Coordinator
http://www.scioto.org/OHGenWeb/
In the asking comes sharing;
in sharing comes knowledge;
in knowledge comes wisdom which lasts a lifetime. --ar.