Harriet,
I have never met you nor Linda. I do know that Rootsweb is a for profit
corporation and that ALL Archives records are to be stored there
permanently. If I had not been on the CC-L list, I would not have know any
of this. You and Linda both need to read my letter more CAREFULLY and stop
implying that I said something I did not say, and then please unsubscribe me
from this list.
I see that it didn't take long for the links to my new page to be removed
from the Tazewell page- In the "delinking" they have delinked a MAJOR
portion of the Arfrican American Heritage section that I was working on.
Wonder where the people researching their African American Ancestors will
get the information? I repeat, please remove me from the list, IF this gets
through- or have I been put on "read only" status as other people have been?
Dodie Browning
-----Original Message-----
From: Harriet Lee Welch <hwelch(a)rica.net>
To: VAGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com <VAGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2000 12:05 AM
Subject: Re: [VAGEN-L] My Resignation
I really have to step in and say something here in support of Linda
and the
Archives. I don't know what is being said on the lists now, as I
unsubscribed from all the general USGenWeb lists a while back. I got tired
of all the rumors and back stabbing that went on there, and found that I
was
much happier just working with the Archives and my own county pages
without
that hassle.
I've been a CC for VA since 1996 when I adopted Rockingham & Orange
Counties. I also joined forces on the Archives Project very early on. I
have never understood why some CCs feel there is a competition between the
county pages and the Archives. When I transcribe data for my counties I put
it both on my web pages and in the archives. Figure I'll reach the most
people that way. And that's the name of the game. I thought that's why all
of us were in this project, to get good information out there on the
internet that would be free to all researchers. I don't really care where
they access it - I'd just like for them to find it easliy.
Now, to Linda. I've been working with Linda all this time too, and I've
never seen any move on her part to try to "take over" anything. Protect,
yes - take over - no. As a co-file manager for the Virginia part of the
Archives, I have never attempted to take anything from anyone's county
pages, and I never will. If, as a CC you want to offer that data, fine. But
I'm certainly not going to steal it. I think the Archives is a good idea
for
permanent storage of the data - and for the ease of using the search
engines. But it's totally the decision of the CC and of the contributors to
the CC's web site as to whether or not they place the data in the Archives.
You might be surprised how many people stumble onto the archives without
realizing there are web sites for the counties they are researching in. It
seems to me that everyone should know about the USGenWeb and all the county
sites <g> but they don't. I get a lot of e-mail from the archives pages
asking questions about a particular county, and I always direct them to
your
county pages. The web pages in the Archives are simply tables of
content
for
the files there - nothing more, nothing less.
I apologize for the length of this message, but I felt strongly that
someone
needs to put the record straight. We have a good group of people
working on
the VAGenWeb, and we have little or no problems compared with some of the
states. I know that those of you who have been with the project a long time
and have seen what I have seen are not concerned about any rumors floating
around about Linda and/or the Archives. They've come and gone for years
now.
But I'm sure we have some newer members who are probably wondering
just
what
they've gotten themselves into after the resignation letter.
I'm sorry too
that Dodie believed all that she heard without sticking around long enough
to learn the truth. I hope that those of you who are new here will take
the
time to get to know all of us, and I think if you do you'll find
we all
have
the researcher's best interest at heart.
Sincerely.
Harriet Welch