Gosh Linda,
I have links to the main pages of both Ancestry and Lineages
on my main page (not actually on the VAGenWeb pages). Each
of them has some freebies for visitors. But nobody paid me
to do it. I just thought they might be helpful to somebody.
Should I delete them?
Should we, as a general rule, avoid links to all commercial
enterprises? I also have links on my pages to bookstores
and references to vendors of books about my counties.
Eve
--
Eve S. Gregory
Virginia Foundation for Archaeological Research, Inc.
egregory(a)techcom.net
It has come to my attention that there are a few county coordinators at
USGenWeb who are placing links on their county pages to
Ancestry.com in
return for payment. The links are to Ancestry's search engine, and takes
the visitor to a page listing results, and a form for subscribing to
their for-a-fee services. The webmaster of the referring page gets paid
for each subscriber generated from their page.
Such a use of county pages is clearly in conflict with the spirit of The
USGenWeb Project (free data, etc.). If you have a link to this "paid
partner" program on your VAGenWeb county page, please remove it
immediately. From the beginning of The USGenWeb Project, it has been a
policy that volunteers cannot make a profit of any kind from hosting a
USGenWeb page.
You are certainly welcome to use the Ancestry search partner link (for
payment) on your personal pages, and can link to your personal page from
your VAGenWeb county page, but please, do not put the link on your
VAGenWeb county page.
Thanks,
Linda