As we are not a western state, I doubt that we have any links to the
particular site mentioned here - but thought we could all benefit
from knowing that this kind of thing can happen. It was a surprise to
me!
Patty
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 13:26:26 -0600
From: Connie Snyder <cjsnyder(a)midusa.net>
Subject: [STATE-COORD-L] [Fwd: [NEGenWeb-L] Embarrasing Moment (Make sure to check
your outside links often) HELP?]
To: STATE-COORD-L(a)rootsweb.com
Reply-to: STATE-COORD-L(a)rootsweb.com
I'm forwarding this message from a NEGenWeb CC to our state list on, with names
xxx'd out, since I feel we should all be aware that this can happen. Evidently
the site mentioned is a domain that someone gave up, and someone else picked it
up. One of our other CC's mentioned that this is becoming more prevalent as domain
names expire, and porn sites pick them up. We need to stress that everyone check
their links frequently, and not with something that just checks whether the links
work or not. The teacher did reply to this CC, and said that this porn site was
only up for a few weeks.
As I was writing this, another CC sent in a message from the webmaster of the
Overland Trail site, and I will forward it in a separate message. Please pass this
on, if you are in a state where your people may be linking to this site.
Connie
a NEGenWeb CC wrote:
I know this does not pertain to the project, but I guess it could as
far as
linking to other sites. I learned from first hand exeperience this morning
that we really need to keep up on our links and check them out often (and
check them out good) to make sure that they lead to where we expect them to. I
am sure you all do, but I for one had let it slide on my personal genealogy
pages.
I have had my personal genealogy web site on the internet for two years now
and have never had any problems with links etc... I had a link to a great site
called "Links To Trails West" and apparently from the letter below, I was
not the only one. Low and behold this morning I recieved a email from a school
teacher pertaining to that link that I have on my personal web pages.
<snip> To: xxxxxxxx@xxxxxx
Dear Web Page writer,
I have maintained the ------- Elementary School's web pages for about four or
five years now. Part of our site contains a
listing of links that I have found valuable for my teachers. In the
regular process of checking these links yesterday we noticed that an
excellent site on the westward movement
http://www.moore-information.com/
has moved or been taken off its server. While I am NOT trying to
censor the net, I was thankful that our fifth grade social studies
students did not attempt to get historical information here. This site
now contains explicitly sexual material on its first page.
I did an Alta Vista search and found that your educational web pages
(
http://xxxxxxxx) contain a link to
this site: "LINK TO TRAILS WEST." You may wish to check it out.
I checked the link from my site out all right and it led straight to a pretty
nasty adult site. How emabaressed I was and even worse I have no idea how long
the link had been on my site in this format since I had not checked my links
on those pages in eons. If not for the teacher notifying me I may have not
found this for quite sometime.
Just a word of warning to everyone, please check your links to outside sources
often!
If anyone has any suggestions as to how I might rectify the situation since
some researchers may have already seen it on my page, I did delete the link
but maybe I should put a small note in it's place or just forget about it? And
could someone explain to me how this actually happens? How does that work when
sites are taken off a server etc.. can someone new come in with the same URL?
Patty Lindsay
Beavercreek (Dayton), Ohio
plindsay(a)infinet.com
Assistant State Coordinator, OHGenWeb
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