Dec 27-31 1999

From merope@Radix.Net Mon Dec 27 07:38:03 1999

Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 07:38:02 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>

Subject: News from the front

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Daily Board Show...live from the front!

Hostile Takeover Corner: With the Board safely recessed for the holidays,

Census I has moved boldly to eliminate Census II and establish itself as

the only Census Project in USGW. First, the main url for Census II was

changed to redirect to Census I's main page shortly after the Board

recessed. Sometime between last night and this morning, the paragraph

describing the merger between Census I and Census II, which contained a

link to the Census II home page, was removed. This was the last known link

to Census II from any pages associated with the national pages. According

to the coordinator for Census II, that project's volunteers have been

locked out of their directories and are unable to access or update any

files. Although the two projects have been engaged in serious merger

negotiations since the end of November, apparently under the guidance of

National Coordinator Tim Stowell, the redirects and directory changes were

not agreed to by Census II and came as a surprise to its members.

If you wish to link directly to the Census II project [formally The USGW

Census Project], you can use this url:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgw/census/

More news as it develops [and a little birdie tells me it will...]

In Other News: Citing overwhelming personal obligations, Pam Reid has

resigned as webmaster for the USGW Project.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

From merope@Radix.Net Tue Dec 28 09:51:51 1999

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 09:51:50 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>

Subject: Daily Board Show

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Never a moment's rest...its Your Daily Board Show!

*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!

Sunday 26 December 1999:

Pam Reid, National webmaster, posts a message to the Board noting that she

has completed updating the motions page of the national page, but will not

be able to update the "Information for volunteers" page until after the

first of the year. She notes, "There are many, many updates needed with

some of the pages of need of a complete revamp!!!" She says she's been

swamped with personal things for the past few weeks and apologizes for

her lack of participation in the Board recently. She tells her

colleagues, "It might be best for the Project if you all selected a new

Webmaster. I love doing the job, but it seems that I am so swamped lately

that I don't keep up the way I should. So, maybe this is something you

all should begin to think about." [This is not technically a resignation,

as was reported yesterday, but what it is is not exactly clear.]

Tomorrow's News Today: The Board hears about the sudden disappearence of

Census II.

Brotherly Love Corner: We hear that over in the MIGenWeb, new SC Denny

Zank was briefly running a survey in which the only question is "Do you

feel the MIGenWeb and ALHN can co-exits [sic] with the proper guide

lines?" Survey participants are requested to respond "yes" or "no" to the

question, with no additional input. Response to the survey has been mixed

thus far, with most respondents remarking along the lines of "do you

REALLY want to open that can of worms again?" and "Let's not start the

year out this way". Although the survey is unfortunately worded, what

Denny was really getting at was the issue of dual pages [these are pages

affiliated with both USGW and ALHN], a topic that has been a sore point in

MIGW for some months. Several CCs asked to see the "guidelines" before

voting, and others refused to vote entirely. Several MIGW CCs had no idea

what ALHN is and asked for more info. After reviewing the many comments on

the survey [which included at least one blow-up by one CC against another]

Denny withdrew the survey and asked for four volunteers to help draw up a

set of guidelines for those with dual pages.

Like It Never Existed Corner: Also over in MIGenWeb, SC Denny Zank, a

long time member of the Linda Lewis' Archives Project, has instructed his

CCs to remove all links to the Census II URL

[http://www.usgenweb.org/~census] and replace them with the link to Census

I [http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/census/] According to Denny, "They

[Census II] have reniged [sic] on the merge, after assuring Maggie it was

a done deal. Maggie had shared the fedcens pwd with them, added their

names as coordinators, and linked to their pages per the merge agreement.

They never made any changes to their pages, and insisted that Archives

pwds be sent to them."

Cheering Crowds Corner: The USGenWeb Project website as been selected as

the "Website of the Week" at AgDomain, a site devoted to stuff

agricultural. You can view their blurb on the USGW at:

http://www.agdomain.com/jsp/website_of_week/website_of_week.jsp

[Another website of the week they've chosen in the past is

www.moonpie.com, for those of you who think an RC Cola and a moonpie is

the breakfast of champions. <g>]

Credit Where Credit Is Due Corner: Cyndi Howells, of Cyndi's List, has

done some serious revamping of her "Volunteer Online Regional Projects"

pages at http://www.CyndisList.com/volreg.htm. She has greatly expanded

her listings to include extensive links for the American Local History

Network, CanadaGenWeb, the Genealogy Exchange and Surname Registry,

GenRoots, GENUKI, the USGW,and the WGW. This is a very useful URL to keep

handy as it provides a quick way to link to the various locality pages

within all these projects.

Top Seed Corner: In his weekly newsletter this week, Dick Eastman reports

on a survey conducted by Cole Goodwin,in which he "surveyed some 60,000

genealogical web sites and rated them according to a number of objective

and subjective criteria to discover what [he] believed were the ten most

useful sites for genealogists on the Internet." Criteria included

"freshness, speed, links in, links out, subjective ratings by reviewers,

site size, and other criteria." According to Mr. Goodwin's research, the

top 10 genealogical sites are:

FamilySearch [LDS website]

Ancestry.com

Cyndi's List

RootsWeb

Library of Congress

GenForum

Profusion [a search engine]

The Ultimates [a search engine for white/yellow pages]

MyFamily.com

The U.S. National Archives

He also lists numerous "Bonus web sites" that are more specialized than

the top 10. USGenWeb is mentioned, but [alas] only as a "feature" of

RootsWeb [which Mr. Goodwin describes as a "non-profit" and also as

sponsored by the RAND Corporation].

If you are interested in reading Mr. Goodwin's full article it is indexed

at: http://rootscomputing.listbot.com/ Follow the link to the Archives for

the list, and then select the December 26 article.

Dazed and Confused Corner: After spending much of yesterday afternoon

discussing the recent Census dust-up with Linda Lewis, I've decided the

best way to approach write-up of this is in chronological order with

extensive details, a format that will probably be much too long for this

forum. So, watch for it on RadioFree USGenWeb

[http://www.radix.net/~merope/] hopefully in a day or so. Here's a little

teaser to tide you over:

"The merge went through... changes were made.. acceptable to all. then

Ron decided to renig. We think it was planned all along.. to set

Maggie up." [Linda Lewis, personal communication, reprinted with

permission, 27 December 1999]

"You can always trust information given you by people who are crazy; they

have an access to truth not available through regular channels."

---Sheila Ballantyne

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Tue Dec 28 14:26:43 1999

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 14:26:38 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>

Subject: News Flash!

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DBS News Flash:

This Just In...The redirect from the main USGW home page that went to the

USGW Archives Census Project [Census I] pages has been removed. The link

to "The Census Project" now once again takes the visitor to Census II's

home page.

We live in curious times. More news as it develops!

-Teresa

merope@radix.net

From merope@Radix.Net Wed Dec 29 08:18:38 1999

Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 08:18:37 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>

Subject: Daily Board Show

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Living la vida loca...its Your Daily Board Show!

*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!

Monday 27 December 1999:

Ginger Cisewski posts a message to the Board asking, "Why has the link for

the USGenWeb Census Project been removed from our National website??" and

wondering also why was it replaced by a link to the Archives Census

Project in light of Motion 99-4. [this was the motion that "suggestsed"

the Archives project concentrate on records other than the census]. She

says,"Removing a link to a Special Project of the USGenWeb Project from

the National website is a serious action and requires Board approval.

Replacing this link with one to a sub-project that the Board has

previously stated should not even exist is, at least improper, at best

illegal." Ginger notes that this action has confused and alienated many

of the Census Project volunteers, and asks "By whose order and under what

authority has all this been done???" [As of yesterday, it was undone, and

the link to the Census II was restored.]

Post-Holidays Blues Corner: Board member Joy Fisher has posted a long

message to the -ALL list enumerating all the things she is tired of these

days, including CCs who take data files and never do anything with them;

finding out someone is selling data she's put online; getting hate mail

from people who don't know her; "explaining why there are two census

projects. Not sure I understand it myself"; CCs who take down their sites

unexpectedly; and "explaining to newbies why some sites have both a

USGenWeb logo and a AHLN logo." She says "Those who want to destroy

USGenWeb have won. I am too tired to care anymore."

One Big Happy Family Corner: Also on the -ALL list, Jen "Chock Full O'

Ideas" Godwin has yet another idea for the improvement of the USGenWeb

Project. Lately she's researched free web space and indexers for us and

she's also just started up a sort of newsletter for the MIGW CCs. Her

latest idea is a "USGenWeb ring to tie together the 3000+ USGenWeb sites."

She thinks it might be a good way to promote the USGW and suggests that we

use the logos that were rejected as alternates by the Board a couple of

months ago. [Webrings for genealogy have always seemed kind of useless to

me, since I am generally looking for something specific and webrings just

aren't good for that sort of thing, especially when you are talking about

3000 or more sites. But promoting the project is an excellent idea;

anything to dispel the notion that we are a "feature" of Root$web.]

"The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny."

---Edward Abbey

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Thu Dec 30 08:55:58 1999

Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 08:55:57 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>

Subject: Daily Board Show

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Until the end of the world...its Your Daily Board Show!

*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!

Tuesday 28 December 1999:

Joy Fisher notes that she has no trouble accessing the Census II pages

from the national website, and asks Ginger Cisewski to explain her message

from the previous day.

Ginger says, "Yesterday there was a redirect there to the USGenWeb

Archives Census Project. It seems to have now been removed."

In Other News Corner: The American Local History Network, founded by

former USGW member Jeff Weaver, has changed its url. It is now located at

http://www.alhn.org. Update your bookmarks and links!

New Zoo Review Corner: This weeks' Root$web Review is _really_

interesting. RW head honcho Robert Tillman reports on a little exercise

he undertook to find info on a surname that a user reported he could

find no info on. After what appears to be 42 searches of 42 separate

databases Bob came up with 597 mentions of the surname in question [no

mention of how long all this took]. Bob also notes a number of

RW-affiliated resources he _didn't_ search, but which might also have

useful information. Bob also helpfully compares Root$web's performance

with three other online genealogy providers, site X [presumably

Broderbund], site Y [presumably Ancestry], and site Z [no idea]. [I was

able to more or less reproduce the results for sites X and Y.]

Site X obtained 596 results with one search. 309 of these hits were in

free online databases; the remainder were on the CDs that Site X sells.

Bob quotes a price of $879 for purchasing the commercial CDs that the

other citations appear on. Bob obtained a total of 874 hits with one

search on Site Y, 772 of which are free. The remainder are normally

available to subscribers only but are currently also available free.

There is much overlap between all three of these sites, mostly due to the

SSDI, and much of the info is available elsewhere, and may be of little

genealogical value [white pages, towns/cities,etc]. Bob also fails to

note that many of the hits on RW are duplicates, particularly the ones

found by Genseeker. For instance, the 2 Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild

hits in Genseeker are the same 2 as noted for the ISTG search, and several

of the county web page hits are also duplicates.

Bob correctly notes that Root$web is always updating its sites and adding

new information and invites people to return and do all 42+ searches

frequently. Sites X and Y also add to their databases daily, but you can

check and recheck those easily with a single search. And at least once a

year, Site Y is free for several weeks and has daily free databases.

Although the prices that Site X charges for its CDS is appalling, both

Site X and Site Y also run "family tree hosting" services, similar to RW's

WorldConnect; Site Y's GEDCOM service has 11 hits [all available free all

the time], which Bob apparently missed. Site X is gracious enough to

index and link to online GEDCOMs, webpages, etc. that are not on its site

thus making searching a large number of webpages much simpler. Root$web,

IIRC, won't index sites not on its server. [Interestingly, although Bob

kind of disparages Site Y for its subscription service, Site Y is

apparently using the Root$web Review to sell subscriptions. Go figure.]

Most online genealogical services have valuable free things to offer,

but many have a price. Some sites charge exorbitant prices for

information freely given to them which they burn onto CDs. Some charge

small or large subscription fees for much of their data. Some are free all

the time [Site Z, apparently] but may be small and may not have a broad

range of data in all areas. Others, while providing free data, may offer

a huge and confusing array of resources of variable value that change

often and which require a large number of individual searches that must be

repeated each and every time you want to check for new information. A

decision of the relative value of these different approaches is up to the

individual genealogist.

"There is little place in the political scheme of things for an

independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that

role must pay a price."

---Shirley Chisholm

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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From merope@Radix.Net Thu Dec 30 11:51:13 1999

Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 11:51:11 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

Reply-To: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

To: Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>, usgw-cc-l@usgennet.org

Subject: History of the USGenWeb Project

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For your information, a brief history of the recent merger talks between

Census I and Census II has been posted at:

http://www.radix.net/~merope/history/chaptr5a.htm

Information for this history was obtained from various mailing list

archives [ARCHIVES, USGWARCH-CENSUS,

USGW-CENSUS-STATE-COORDINATORS], and

from personal communication with various participants in the merger talks.

Linda Lewis in particular was generous with her email archives and in

explaining the merger talks and the basis of both the original and current

disagreements between the two projects.

If anyone involved in the merger talks has anything further to add, please

feel free to contact me; I will be happy to revise, add, and update

information on the page as circumstances require. The proposed merger is

-hopefully- an ongoing process, so the final version has not yet been

written. <g>

Permission is given to forward this email to other project mailing lists,

as is deemed appropriate.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

From merope@Radix.Net Fri Dec 31 10:34:29 1999

Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 10:34:28 -0500 (EST)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

To: usgw-cc-l@usgennet.org, Daily Board Show <usgw_all@listbot.com>

Subject: Census Merger

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.991231103028.20719A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

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Thanks to some input from readers some changes have been made to the brief

history of the Census merger talks available at:

http://www.radix.net/~merope/history/chaptr5a.htm

Most of the changes are typos, but there is also a change to the timeline

of events around the time the redirects were put up. Thanks to those who

provided this info!

-Teresa

merope@radix.net