Jul 1-11 1999

From merope@Radix.Net Thu Jul 1 07:28:32 1999

Date: Thu, 1 Jul 1999 07:28:31 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: Daily Board Show

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Yabba Dabba Doo...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Tuesday 29 June 1999:

There is no Board-L traffic on this date.

Election Update: Ballots have gone out, as well as a letter notifying

members who _should_ have gotten ballots but who did not who to contact to

get the situation rectified. Please everyone, check your ballots

carefully. Make sure you got the right ones and that you get all the

ballots you should. _Every_ project member should get a ballot for NC, a

ballot for At-Large, and a ballot for your region(s) and/or special

project(s). For some of you busier members, you may need several ballots.

Campaign URLs have been posted at

http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnroane/nominate.htm

Please go and take a look at them. Please note however, that an incorrect

URL has been posted for at least one candidate--me. I don't know how this

happened, since this is not the URL I sent them, but there you have it.

The correct campaign URL is:

http://www.horsethieves.com/election/

Will Wonders Never Cease Corner: Guess who Root$web.com, Inc.'s new sugar

daddy is? None other than Ancestry.com. No, really. I wouldn't kid you

about this. Even worse is that they are advertising Ancestry's

MyFamily.com, a direct competitor to RW's partner FamilyPoint.com. I

guess everyone has their price, even aging hippies.

The Golden Age of Commerce Corner: Genconnect at Root$web.com, Inc. has

added new "classified ads" boards to the cluster pages. Visitors can use

these wondrous new devices to conduct business, such as the buying and

selling of books, on RW. [The restriction on commercial activity of any

type does not appear on these new boards.] These were supposed to have

been announced in today's RWR, but appear not to have made it into this

issue. Now if memory serves correctly, RW used to have a "guideline" that

they got a 5% cut of any commerce conducted using RW's resources; wonder

if that's still true?

"The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking

down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men

because they are different from other men."

---Lyndon B. Johnson

This has been your Daily Board Show. Now, really, I'm outta here!

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

--------------

From merope@Radix.Net Wed Jul 7 18:54:17 1999

Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 18:54:16 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: Daily Board Show

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MIME-Version: 1.0

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Tanned, rested and ready...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

[we'll do a little catchup so this will be a little long, but read all the

way to the end, there's lots of good stuff]

Wednesday 30 June 1999:

Board member David Young posts a message in which he points out: "Because

some states elect and re-elect they leaders every year, we will find in

the future that some SC Representatives that will serve out there term as

long as 15 or 24 months without hold a State office. Most likely in the

case of the 15 or 24 months the person holding the office on the Board,

according to the By-laws, would not meet the qualifications for reelection

to the office of SC Rep of their region." He also points out that he

"now understand[s] the rules and can support the opinions of those that

have been so kind to give them." [this message was formerly posted to

several lists and some discussion ensued. I'm not entirely sure, but it

seemed the point that Mr. Young was trying to make is the bylaws give us

only requirements for _nominating_ people to positions, and not actually

for their sitting on the Board. So, basically, once you get elected, you

are qualified to sit on the Board regardless of whether you still hold the

county or state coordinator positions that qualified you in the first

place.]

The NC calls for a vote on Motion 99-19 ["That the board accept the eagle

logo, created by Ginger, as an alternative official logo for the use of

the Project."] By the end of the day 10 members had voted "aye" and one

had voted "nay". The member who voted "nay" felt the logo should be

approved as a "special logo" similar to the holiday graphics but should be

used in place of the official logo.

The WebMeister asks the NC whihc of his email addresses he prefers on the

webpage; she posts again apologizing for what she meant to send privately.

The election committee posts a message requesting the Board to post their

following message to the project at large and notifying them that ballots

should go out at midnight. The "following message" contained instructions

on obtaining ballots if you did not receive one and told folks who to

contact in their region for information on the election.

Lynn Waterman posts that she has "no problems with Jim's guidelines."

[regarding the elections]

Thursday 1 July 1999:

The NC posts his preferred email address.

The webmeister asks the Election Committee chair why there are no sample

ballots for the NW/P or SE/MA CC races.

Friday 2 July 1999:

The NC asks the following question of the Election Committee chair: "In

last year's elections a person could vote as often as they wished, with

each subsequent ballot overwriting any previous vote thereby giving voters

a chance to change their mind on a particular vote. Is this possible this

year also?" The EC chair responds "I believe that is still the case, but

I am double checking. I will post something on it as soon as I know for

sure."

Saturday 3 July 1999:

Board member David Young posts a longish post from one of his CCs who

checked out Root$web's new cluster pages for his county and wasn't too

impressed. Among other things, the CC notes " The viewer is left with the

distinct impression that something is missing. The site has a place to

put all the things that a USGenWeb site has, and leaves the impression

that it's just waiting for someone to take over. It also solicits queries

and resources. Essentially, all it needs is time and the sanctioned

USGenWeb site will be superfluous." [this message was posted to several

USGW lists; it is recommended reading.]

Sunday 4 July 1999:

There is no Board-L traffic on this date.

Monday 5 July 1999:

There is no Board-L traffic on this date.

Election Update: Nate Zipfel has dropped out of the race for NE/NC SC

rep.

Banned CCs are unable to write for replacement ballots due to the

usgenweb.org defaulting to rootsweb.com addresses. Also, at least one of

the banned four has voted and received no confirmation of their vote [will

RW make us stew for a week again, like last time?]

Many more campaign pages have been posted at:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnroane/nominate.htm Please check 'em out!

One in a Million Corner: There is a _most_ interesting web page at:

http://www.combs-families.org/~combs/index.htm Be sure and read all the

way down to the "Why We Left Rootsweb" section. When you're done with

that, read this page: http://www.combs-families.org/~combs/ccrg.htm and be

sure you read down to the section on "notices and agreements". Read this

section fully, and you'll learn some interesting things. Such as someone

once offered to pay in full all of Root$web's costs for filing for 501c3

status and the offer was rejected. [also, Brain has banned someone else,

apparently because they talked to his wife once too many times.]

Show Me The Money Corner: Items of note in Root$web's ever-expanding

program of Internet Genealogy Domination:

When you use the search engine for USGenWeb Archives at

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ussearch.htm, search returns include the

RootsWeb Banner. Just below that banner is a hot link that states: I

Support Free Genealogy, Show Me Commercial Banners. Follow this link and

you can see Ancestry.com and microsoft and Broderbund ads.

This same little notice appears on GenConnect Boards being used for USGW

queries. [see this is how they put ads on your USGW-affiliated pages

without actually putting ads on your USGW-affiliated pages.]

RW has moved links to the "Classified Ads" board up to the top of its home

page, right under the commercial ad banner and the links to the

revenue-generating cluster page links. [The real data and other

interesting stuff is now pushed entirely off the screen, even on a big

monitor] Interesting thing about those Classified Ads boards; they are

now in "beta" but Root$web may be charging for posts after October 1 1999.

Anticipation Corner: Those of you who requested surname and/or county

cluster boards should be notified today if you got your wish.

Today's quote is from a reader:

"I am neither an idiot, nor entertained"

---Carole Hammett, Listowner, Combs Mailing List, who has just been

Banned By Root$web

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

---------------

From merope@Radix.Net Thu Jul 8 21:42:15 1999

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 21:42:13 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: Daily Board Show

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MIME-Version: 1.0

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Sauce for the goose...its Your Daily Board Show!

*warning* contains material of an editorial nature. Read at your own

risk!

Tuesday 6 July 1999:

Board Member David Young posts a lengthy discussion of the "Classified

Ads" now offered by RW on the cluster pages for all US counties. [this

message has been posted to other project lists]. He notes in particular

the stated potential for the RW Ads boards to charge fees and wonders if

the USGW project should be linking to something like that.

A board member chastises him for posting his concerns, stating "You have

been told before that this is NOT a list for campaigning." She requests

that he take his discussions [of items that he apparently feels are of

concern to the project] elsewhere as they are not Board business.

Another Board member notes that she fails to see anything political in his

message and also that she "can't figure out that anyone on the board is

eligible to vote for David."

Correction Corner: In reading over yesterday's DBS, I notice a typo that

vastly changes the meaning of something I wrote. In an item on the voting

on Motion 99-19, the sentence about the board member who voted nay should

read "The member who voted "nay" felt the logo should be approved as a

"special logo" similar to the holiday graphics but should not be used in

place of the official logo." I apologize for any confusion.

Election Update: We are receiving scattered reports that the email

address for requesting new ballots [elections@usgenweb.org] doesn't work.

Since this is the email address people were supposed to use to obtain

ballots if they did not receive them originally, it is hoped that any

problems will be fixed and the deadline [which was yesterday] for applying

for ballots will be extended.

There have also been some questions as to why no ballots were received for

the NW/P and SE/MA CC rep races. Candidates are running unopposed in

those races and it was the decision of the Election Committee not to send

ballots for those races to the volunteers. This decision by the EC is

being questioned extensively, but apparently it will not be changed. So

it appears that congratulations are due to Terri Pettit, new CC rep for

the SE/MA region, Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman, the new NW/P CC rep, and to

Joe Zsedeny, the returning Archives rep.

This Just In: Motion 99-20, which if passed would request that Tim Pierce

forward ballots to all eligible voters in the races where there are single

candidates, has been forwarded to various project lists for discussion.

Over on the State Coordinator's list, an At-Large candidate has requested

to be subbed, "in the interest of fairness", since he is apparently the

_only_ national level candidate who is not subscribed to that list. Most

of the few SCs who have voiced an opinion are opposed to subbing him [he's

not an SC and the list is not for campaigning] but at least one SC has

pointed out that non-SCs, such as RW staff members and Board members are

subbed to the list, and other candidates are posting apparently political

material to the list.

In Other News: A SC has pleaded with Brian "Himself" Leverich to address

concerns raised by article 3 of Root$web's new Acceptable Use Policy. She

says she's losing CCs who are concerned by the fact that anything they

upload to RW may become RW's property. No answer so far from Mr.

Leverich.

All mention of "RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative" has disappeared

from Root$web's home pages. The pages are now copyrighted by

Rootsweb.com, Inc.

"Our elections are free -- it's in the results where eventually we pay."

---Bill Stern

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

------------

From merope@Radix.Net Fri Jul 9 13:10:11 1999

Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 13:10:09 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: Daily Board Show

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MIME-Version: 1.0

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Like sand through the hourglass...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Wednesday 7 July 1999:

NW/P Board rep Bill Oliver presents to the board a "draft" motion

concerning the failure to send ballots for races which have only a

single nominee:

"I move that the Advisory Board ask Tim Pierce to send out the

necessary ballots for all single candidate nominees for

positions to the USGWP Advisory Board in order that they be

properly elected to the positions they have been nominated.

I, further, move that since this issue has been opened to

the STATE-COORD-L list and not to all other avenues to reach

the CCs of this organization, this message as a post be sent

to the Distribution List set up by this board before a vote

is called for on the above motion."

[The Board has a "distribution list"??] This motion is again forwarded to

the board by Bill and is seconded. [it was forwarded to the project

membership yesterday for comment as Motion 99-20]

Tomorrow's News Today: Motion 99-19 [adoption of alternative national

logo] is declared passed; more talk about Motion 99-20.

Election Update: Some voters are still unable to reach the

elections@usgenweb.org mailing address, which is the published mechanism

for obtaining replacement ballots, and are also unable to receive

confirmation that their votes have been received and counted. Also, I've

received rather an interesting question by a volunteer: "is there any

mechanism for a candidate to ask for a recount by an "uninterested" party,

meaning not USGW and not Rootsweb, after the election is concluded? From

my perspective, Rootsweb has a vested interest in seeing to it that

certain candidates, especially in the national level races, are not

elected to USGW office. Information about who are the "pro-Rootsweb"

candidates is already being disseminated across project mailing lists and

privately. Because it handles the vote software, Rootsweb can easily

control the outcome of the election to its benefit and satisfaction." [the

foregoring is paraphrased. I've recommend the writer contact the Election

Committee, but they don't wish the Board or RW to know who they are. Big

surprise.]

Masked Avenger Corner: Someone signing themselves B&K at

helpdesk@rootsweb.com has posted the following message to at least one

GC/RW query board:

"I am surpised that people in XXXXX County, XX are as dumb as

sheep? I mean, does it not occur to you that you now do not own your

very own query? You have no control over it, and it may be sold by the

FOR PROFIT company, Rootsweb.com, Inc. as per their Acceptable Usage

Policy. Why on EARTH would you even use this board? While Rootsweb has

claimed to file Non Profit Paperwork repeatedly, the truth is, they

haven't. People have even offered to PAY for the filing fees et al, but

Rootsweb won't do it. Why? Because every time you click on one of these

pages, they get paid. Every bit of data you enter on this page is now

owned by Rootsweb, anything you put on a Rootsweb server, email list, web

page, ANYTHING. Free? Donation? I think not. Please go use one of the

more reputable resources out there, like www.genforum.com and do yourself

an enormous favor!."

This "public service announcement" was removed post-haste, apparently by a

GC/RW staffer, since the board manager wasn't involved and is now

wondering how it got removed. Methinks this mystery poster is the same

one that got the help desk at Root&web shut down by helpfully pretending

to be RW staff; maybe they'll try to do the same thing to GC/RW?

This Just In: From an anonymous correspondent: "It appears that numerous

of the GenConnect Query Boards are getting hit, and that RW staff is

racing along behind them killing the hits, but others read them first, and

then reply (those get killed, too) and then contact the board admin re

"Where'd it go? Is it true?"" [Where will the Masked Avenger strike

next!?]

Wanna Cookie, Little Girl? Corner; I'm reliably told that if you click on

the "I support free genealogy, show me commercial banners" link that is

now showing up on previously commercial ad-free USGW-associated pages,

Root$web tries to set a cookie or two. Presumably this is so they can

continue to feed you banners on return visits without you having to click

the link every time. Unfortunately, you can't view the ads without

letting them set a cookie.

"In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary, "patriotism" is defined as the last

resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but

inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first."

---Ambrose Bierce

This has been Your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

------------

From merope@Radix.Net Sat Jul 10 20:51:37 1999

Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 20:51:36 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: Daily Board Show

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.990710194430.24079A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

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Blame Canada...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Thursday 8 July 1999:

The NC declares Motion 99-19 (adoption of alternative national logo)

passed with 11 yes - 1 no - 4 not voting

The NC opens the floor for discussion of Motion 99-20 and instructs the

Board Secretary to send it to the appropriate lists for discussion.

BS Bill informs the NC he has done so.

Board member Bonnie McVicar-Briggs states "I agree that the ballots should

be sent. I also think we need to get the discussion and vote on this issue

concluded as quickly as possible." David Young indicates that he is ready

to support sending out the ballots but he is not sure how to proceed.

Bonnie tells him they need to wait for the NC to call a vote on this

motion and says "The people in the regions affected by not receiving a

ballot, want a chance to vote. We need to give them that chance." David

responds that he'll likely vote yes on the motion.

Tomorrow's News Today: Everton disses USGW, voting begins on Motion

99-20 with 5 ayes and 2 nays so far.

More On the Masked Avenger: According to Tim "Maxwell Smart" Pierce, our

intrepid board poster, who masquerades as "B&K" at

"helpdesk@rootsweb.com", "was using an anonymous proxy server at

proxy2.infonie.fr... We are trying to get the administrators of

infonie.fr to cooperate." [Hope someone at Rootsweb speaks French,

Infonie's website has not a word of English on it]. Of course, if Infonie

is really running an anonymous proxy server, they won't give Root$web the

time of day, in French OR English.

Miscellany Corner: We hear that RW has been getting a lot of questions

about taglines on new lists created for the cluster boards. According to

Roots$web staffer Ellen Seebacher "the new cluster lists are funded by

commercial sponsorships, so RootsWeb has reserved taglines on these lists

for our own use. That's also why banners are not optional on cluster

pages." Understandably, this policy is not filling the loyal troops with

happiness, especially the ones who just adopted new lists.

News on the grapevine is that some GC/RW board clerks are putting notices

on their query/whatever boards indicating the boards are no longer

affiliated with the USGW pages for that county and giving information how

to post queries to the county pages. Root$web's response to this is to

put the boards up for adoption.

New ad sponsor seen on Root$web: The River Belle Online Casino [yes,

there's _gambling_ my friends, right here in River City].

And last but not least, RW has finally announced its new non-genealogy

lists, in the latest RWR. These include:

CATS-L, COOKING-L, CRAFTS-L, DOGS-L, GARDENING-L, MILITARY-HISTORY-L

MOVIES-L, PARENTING-L, SOAPS-L and TRAVEL-L

[like there aren't enough places out there to discuss cats already.

Rootsweb promises even more lists as soon as it figures which ones will

generate the most ad revenue.]

"Money does not change men, it only unmasks them."

---Mme. Riccoboni

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

--------------

From merope@Radix.Net Sun Jul 11 22:46:21 1999

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 22:46:20 -0400 (EDT)

From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>

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

To: usgw_all@listbot.com

Subject: Daily Board Show

Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.96.990711215116.27153C-100000@saltmine.radix.net>

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Status: RO

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Take a walk on the wild side...its Your Daily Board Show!

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

Friday 9 July 1999:

Pat Hamp's message [which has made the rounds of several lists] concerning

Everton's failure to properly credit the USGW Project in both an online

and print articles about MIGenWeb's Great Lakes Shipping Downward Bound is

forwarded to the Board by a Board member.

Bill Oliver posts a message he wrote to the Everton's Webmaster concerning

the article above. He writes "I must presume that the author of the

NetSight Reviews, on one of your pages, did not know the difference

between an ISP and the site owners that s/he used for the article review.

Quote: "This site is a part of the USGenWeb project and our home port is

the Michigan USGenWeb project, although it will encompass "all" Great

Lakes shipping areas." The Rootsweb.com ISP does host the pages, but it

is NOT the USGenWeb Project, nor the MIGenWeb Project. I'm

sure that whomever wrote the article would like to be accurate." [Its not

clear that he wrote this as a USGW Board member.]

The NC calls for a vote on Motion 99-20; by the end of the day 5 members

had voted "aye" and 2 had voted "nay".

Tomorrow's News Today: The NC declares Motion 99-20 passed; Tim Pierce,

of RW, has apparently informed the Board that, regardless of its vote on

Motion 99-20, ballots will NOT be going out to the two regions with single

candidate races; Motion 99-20 and its second is withdrawn; the Board

decides it will come up with some other way to handle the election.

Rebel Yell Corner: We've heard from a little bird that a USGW Board

member has joined the American Local History Network. And another is

thinking of joining up as well.

We've also heard that an increasing number of CCs are posting messages to

their GenConnect/R$W boards stating the boards are no longer affiliated

with the USGW and to visit the county pages directly if they want to post

queries or donate transcribed data.

Letting Off Steam Corner: Brian "Himself" Leverich has come down from the

mountain top and delivered unto some beseeching State Coordinators an

answer to questions they have been asking for days. And it turns out the

answer is "shove off". To a SC's observation that nearly all the current

unrest in USGW concerns RW's recent change in direction, he replies that

"It is *NOT* my fault or RootsWeb's fault that after three years USGenWeb

has not evolved to the point where it can at least enforce civility among

its participants." [misses the point]. To a request that each county

cluster page include a link to the USGW page whether or not its on RW, he

says "I personally think this is an *extremely* bad idea, and I believe

RootsWeb will be horribly flamed by USGenWebbers if we do this." [no

mention of the _many_ CCs who have begged to be able to add the link]. To

the plaintive observation that they are loyal supporters of RW and want to

continue to be so, but they feel that RW is treating them like they are

dispensable, Brain replies, "I don't believe you're dispensable, but I do

believe through self-inflicted wounds you may fall apart or simply fail

to progress and keep up with changes on The Net. As one of the custodians

of RootsWeb, it is my responsibility to make sure that failures at USGW do

not become failures at RootsWeb." And then he wishes us luck. [oh, and he

calls some of us "noisy bastards".]

Money, Its A Gas Corner: New ad sponsor at Root$web: Gateway Computers

Today's quote is from a reader:

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more

violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in

the opposite direction."

---E. F. Schumacher

This has been your Daily Board Show.

-Teresa Lindquist

merope@radix.net

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