From merope@Radix.Net Mon Jun 14 15:05:16 1999
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 15:05:15 -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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Over the top...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Saturday 12 June 1999:
Ginger Cisewski forwards her statement of resignation from the Election
Committee to the Board list. [its been sent to most project lists and
won't be repeated here].
BS Bill also forwards Ginger's statement of resignation to the Board list.
The Archives representative offers to make available to anyone who's
interested the thread [or "claptrap" as he calls it] leading up to
Ginger's statement of resignation.
A Board member publishes a message under the subject "More Thoughts". This
has also been widely published on project mailing lists, but some of
it bears repeating:
"How can some of us be so convinced that an entity is good and special,
while others of of us are equally convinced it is evil. We all see the
same things, share the same world... We can choose to be a team and work
with the resources that we have, including Rootsweb and be the best that
we can be, or we can splinter into groups that are constantly in
conflict, spend more days arguing and complaining rather than working on
our sites."
Tomorrow's News Today: A call on motion 99-16E is declared failed by the
NC and the motion goes back to discussion phase; more discussion of
election committee rules.
Election Update: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman has joined the fray; she'll be
running for NW/P CC rep.
We hear that Rootsweb will be running our election again.
National Coordinator Tim Stowell has responded to the "DBS election
update" published yesterday in which was discussed some of the issues
behind Ginger's resignation as Election Committee Chair. Tim says:
1) At no time did he ask for election list passwords, but did ask to
subscribed to the lists, since according to the bylaws he is an ex-officio
member of the Election Committee.
2) In regards to the issue of people nominating others to positions outside the
nominator's region, he states that he asked only to know if and when this
had happened and the names of the nominees. He did not ask for the name
of the nominators.
3) In regard to the perception that he is not available for Board
business, he states that due to his work schedule he is not always
available during the day to attend to his email, and that business is
often rushed the motion and discussion phases, sometimes in a matter of
hours or over the weekends. He will not apologize for taking time with
his wife and his life outside of the project.
Unsubstantiated Rumor Corner: We hear that a very prominent former Board
member has been banned from posting to his RW mailing lists over the
"county resource" flap.
A Rumor Substantiated Corner: Rootsweb staff member Nancy Trice has posted
to at least one state list that Rootsweb has filed non-profit
incorporation papers, possibly in California [although the name of this
non-profit is not known]. According to Nancy, the papers were returned
for revision and should have been resubmitted either on Friday or today.
The for-profit company will be for the other "communities" Rootsweb
intends to host, and the non-profit will be for genealogy. As another RW
staffer has been heard to say recently on this topic [paraphrased]: "just
because you can't find it doesn't mean it isn't there." [To which we might
respond "why all the secrecy?"]
Please note, folks, this is NOT the 501(c)(3) filing we've all heard so
much about over the last couple of years. That filing would allow
contributors to RW to claim tax deductions for their RW 'donations', at
least over and above the services they receive in exchange for them.
Based on admittedly sketchy information, it looks like there might end up
being three Rootswebs: the for-profit sole proprietorship Rootsweb
Genealogical Data Cooperative, the for-profit Rootsweb.com, Inc., and the
as-yet-unnamed non-profit corporation.
I'm sure they'll let us know when they're good and ready.
"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the
helm."
--- Henrik Ibsen
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
------------
Daily Board Show, (c) 1999 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Mon Jun 14 21:29:37 1999
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 21:29:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
To: usgw_all@listbot.com
Subject: Clarification--DBS
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Hi all,
The NC has requested that I clarify something from the DBS today:
He says, "
"When point number 3 above came into question - someone has/had apparently
nominated someone for a region that the person doing the nominating could
not vote in - I asked "Out of curiosity has this happened in this
nomination period and if so, what position?" - Notice that I didn't ask
who did the nominating or who the candidate was. I didn't ask for names -
just positions. No names - of either the candidate or the nominee."
Thanks, Tim, for the clarification, and my apologies for any
misunderstanding.
-Teresa
merope@radix.net
From merope@Radix.Net Tue Jun 15 14:03:22 1999
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 14:03:20 -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.SV4.3.96.990615061348.18931A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Just one big happy family ... its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk.
Sunday 13 June 1999:
The NC posts the history of Motion 99-16E, made June 9 in "executive
session" [secret list]. The motion was made and seconded and opened for
discussion; the motion was called; 7 voted yes on the call, 2 voted no,
3 abstained, and 3 did not vote. Since the 2/3 majority needed to pass
the all was not obtained, the motion was put back on the floor for
discussion.
Text of Motion 99-16E:
"moved that the USGenWeb Bylaws be clarified as such:
1) the "regions" remain as they are for another year.
2) An eligible voter in good standing is eligible to hold an advisory
board position for the region for which they volunteer.
3) Nominations for regional advisory board seats must come from an
eligible voter FROM THAT REGION.
4) In addition to the positions of National Coordinator and Member at
Large, eligible voters will vote for their choice of nominees for the
vacancies for the region in which they volunteer."
["Clarifying" the bylaws?! Wouldn't that require a vote of the project
membership?]
A Board member posts a message in which he asks a number of questions
pertaining to the election: Can a person nominate themselves? Why is it
necessarily wrong for someone to nominate someone in a different region
from themselves? What happens if no one runs for the open seats? Does the
Board get to pick someone?
The Archives representative apologizes for his earlier post offering to
forward the thread leading to Ginger's resignation as Electioin Committee
Chair to anyone who wanted to see it.
Tomorrow's News Today: Jim Powell offers to chair the election committee.
Deja Vu All Over Again Corner: New CEO and President of Rootsweb.com,
Inc. has shown his support for the Rootsweb Way by banning his very first
member. This person has been banned for speaking out publicly about RW's
business practices following the turmoil surrounding the announcement of
the new "resource boards". Says Robert Tillman, RW CEO, "Based on your
letter to me, I believe that any continuing relationship with RootsWeb
would only result in your further disappointment. Therefore, I have
permanently revoked your permission to access the RootsWeb site."
[Welcome to the club!]
Election Update: Gary Martens and Roger Swafford have accepted nominations
to run for At-Large representative. David Morgan has dropped out of the
race for SW/SC Rep. Teresa Lindquist has accepted the nomination to run
for SW/SC CC rep.
Today is the last day for nominations. Several positions have nominees
that are running unopposed, and one position has no nominees yet (SE/MA SC
rep). Please get your nominations in or even consider running yourself!
I hear the Elections Committee is short-handed. Please consider helping
them out, even if just by offering to help acquire and verify email
addresses. They need to get all addresses to RW by the end of next week
(June 24) so RW can make up all the ballots. In the absence of a
committee chairman, I recommend sending any offers to volunteer to your SC
or CC rep. They will see that the correct person gets it.
"Power concedes nothing without demand... Find out just what people will
submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice which will
be imposed upon them... The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the
endurance of those whom they oppress."
-- Frederick Douglass
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
----------
Daily Board Show, (c) 1999 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Wed Jun 16 14:07:13 1999
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 14:07:12 -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.SV4.3.96.990616062531.873A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
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Gossip rag to the stars...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Monday 14 June 1999:
The NC asks for volunteers to head the Elections Committee. One Board
member recommends a member from his region if it wouldn't be a conflich
of interest (the NC says it would be only if she were running for one of
the open positions; one board member says she too busy; Jim Powell offers
to Chair the committee.
Regarding the elections rules: One Board member notes that there is
nothing to keep someone from nominating themselves, and notes that in her
state they just ask if anyone wants to run to let them know and they'll
see to it they get nominated.
Tomorrow's News Today: Motion 99-17, to accept Trey Holt's resignation,
is moved and seconded and the floor is opened for discussion.
Election Update: The Nominations period has closed. Nominations are as
follows:
NC: Bill Oliver, Fred Smoot, Tim Stowell
Archives: Joe Zsedney
At-Large: Gary Martens, Roger Swafford
NE/NC SC rep: Ginger Hayes, David Young
NE/NC CC: Ron Eason, Tina Vickery, Nate Zipfel
NW/P SC: Lynn Waterman
NW/P CC: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman
SE/MA SC: Shari Handley
SE/MA CC: Terri Pettit
SW/SC CC (2 positions): Larry Flesher, Teresa Lindquist, Gloria Mayfield
Note that several positions are unopposed. I assume this list is final,
but if there were further nominations late last night it might not be.
There have been some questions raised about voter eligibility. Seems at
least one SC has forwarded to the Election Committee that name of someone
who, according to the bylaws, is not eligible to vote for either CC or SC
rep in her region. She is, instead, an Archives file manager [hmmm...we
don't get to vote in their election, should they get to vote in ours if
they aren't CC/SCs?]
New Lease On Life Corner: There has been a VERY NICE redesign of the USGW
Home page! My compliments to the designer;the page really looks nice and
is very well-organized.
Jumping Ship Corner: We hear that at least one Board member
hs unsubscribed himself from Board-Exec, saying that he "things were going
better when the Board was using Board-L, and things were more open.
Sometimes you have to make a stand on what you believe." [how refreshing!]
This Board member may be resigning soon, since he told his constituents
that he may not be able to fully represent them and has asked for their
input. [lets hope they support him fully in this move.]
At least one State Coordinator has moved the state mailing list off of RW
and onto another server. She subbed all her CCs to the new list and
"closed" her old list and notified RW. RW promptly resubbed everyone and
sent out a message indicating the list was still open for business.
We also hear of at least two states that are moving their pages off of RW,
and of several counties, all apparently to do with continuing concern over
the "county resources".
Clean Bill of Health Corner: A USGW member has contacted the CA Attorney
General's office regarding RootsWeb's filing for non-profit status and
reports "the Attorney General's office has looked at Rootweb and has
found NOTHING to cause that office to believe any illegalities have
occured." Additionally, she reports, the AG's office "has looked
into whether Rootsweb is attempting to establish a nonprofit corporation
in addition to its already formed for-profit, Rootsweb.com, Inc. and has
*confirmed* Rootsweb's attempt to form a separate nonprofit IS IN
PROGRESS. During the process of trying to set up the nonprofit, some forms
and procedures apparently did not meet approval which is NOT ususual, and
these are expected to be resubmitted." The representative indicated "she
found nothing to cause her to believe approval would not occur."
"All bad precedents began as justifiable measures."
--Gaius Julius Caesar
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
---------
Daily Board Show, (c) 1999 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Thu Jun 17 21:17:55 1999
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 21:17:54 -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.SV4.3.96.990617064533.5848A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Status: O
X-Status:
Fight the power...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Deal with it, and read at your own
risk!
Tuesday 15 June 1999:
A motion is made to accept Trey Holt's resignation, effective Aug 31 1999.
The motion is seconded, given the number 99-17, and the floor is opened
for discussion. There isn't much discussion on this topic, except that
regrets are expressed by several of his colleagues.
The NC posts a "last call for nominations" [sent to most project lists].
[Guess we're never going to hear what happened with Motion 16-E]
Election update: Although the period for nominations has closed,
nominees have until 12:00 PM PDT, 22 June 1999 to send in their acceptance
notices [note that that is NOON, folks, although I have a received a
personal notice that the due date is 12:00 midnight 22 June 1999, which is
one mintue after 11:59 pm 22 June].
New candidates include: former Board member Holly Timm for At-Large [Holly
originally resigned from the board for health reasons; we are glad to see
she has recovered!].
There has apparently been no action by the Board on SE/MA CC rep Jim
Powell's offer to chair the Elections Committee and the committee
apparently remains leaderless with only about two weeks to go until the
voting opens.
A Stealth Resignation? Bridgett Smith, SC rep for the SE/MA region has
apparently resigned her seat. As State Coordinator, she was elected to a
two year term, and her position should not be on the on the ballot until
next year. Indeed, her position was not originally on the ballot, but was
quietly added sometime after the nominations period opened. Sources on
the Board tell me that she "reminded" them that her position was over.
She also posted as such to her regional list. Her expertise and experience
on the Board will be missed, but we hear she has other irons in the fire
these days and wish her well.
[if I am misremembering, and any SC reps _were_ elected to one year terms,
someone please let me know. After many emails last evening, I can't find
anyone who remembers any position other than a CC rep in each region and
the NC being for a one-year term.]
In the news: Word on the grapevine is that a soon-to-be-former Board
member will shortly be joining the staff of Rootsweb.
What's Yours IS Mine Corner: Aging hippy, Brian "All Mine" Leverich has
published his "Common Sense Acceptable Use Policy" [well, I'm sure its
common sense from where he is standing]. Among the many provisions of
this acceptable use policy is the following:
" (3) ROOTSWEB MAY ARCHIVE AND REDISTRIBUTE. So we can provide current and
future users with access to your posts, by posting here you do give
RootsWeb a permanent license to archive and redistribute those posts.
This policy may be superseded in specific circumstances by other
commitments made by RootsWeb."
It appears that this item pretty much gives Rootsweb.com, Inc., a
_permanent_ license to do whatever they wish with your posts to _any_
Rootsweb resource, whether its the GenConnect boards, the mailing lists,
the RSL, etc. It very possibly includes the USGW Archives.
Since this policy was posted late last night, it should be possible for
you to request that all your postings made prior to this announcement be
removed. IANAL, but it doesn't seem likely that the policy can be applied
retroactively. It might also be a good idea to insure that your list
members receive a copy of this AUP and that its posted prominently near
your GenConnect Boards. It is, after all, only fair to warn people. Don't
forget that not all that long ago, RW was considering putting the RSL on
CDs and selling it; with this new policy in place, there is apparently
nothing to prevent them from doing the same with any data on their server.
Abracadabra Corner: In possibly related news, we hear that some RW mailing
lists that have been unarchived nearly since their inception, have
suddenly had all their posts show up in the mail list archives [its like
magic!] and that some "resubscriptions" to mailing lists have occurred
[presto!]. I myself seem to have found my way mysteriously back onto the
RWR distribution list. I received last night's little gift in my personal
mailbox, something that hasn't happened since I was banned.
Unfortunately, the RWR is an opt-out bulk mailing [you get it if you
are subscribed to any RW mailing lists and have to unsubscribe yourself].
It is produced by a for-profit company and contains unsolicited and
unwanted advertisement and solicitations for funds. I cannot unsubscribe
from it nor send mail to the ISP [yes, I have tried, and my unsubscribe
request bounces back with an "access denied" notice].
Public Service Announcement #1: For those of you that are unhappy
with receiving Unsolicited Bulk Email and/or Unsolicited Commercial
Email [UBE/UCE] in your personal email, there are remedies available.
Under US Code Title 47, Sec.227(a)(2)(B), a computer/modem/printer meets
the definition of a telephone fax machine. By Sec.227(b) (1)(C), it is
unlawful to send any unsolicited advertisement to such equipment. UBE/UCE
is also illegal under United States Public Law 103-414 Section 303(a)(11),
it is unlawful "to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other
device to send an unsolicited advertisement."
UBE/UCE can be reported to the Federal Trade Commission
(http://www.ftc.gov), the Better Business Bureau
[http://www.bbb.org/complaints/file.html], the State Attorney General and
to various "cyber watchdogs" who maintain lists of those reported to send
UBE/UCE (The Coaliton Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
(http:www.cauce.org) is a good place to start]. You should also report
the sender of the UBE/UCE to their ISP and to your ISP as well. Most
reputable ISPs will take any means necessary to block spammers from using
their systems to send UBE/UCE and many will block known offenders from
sending UBE/UCE to their customers.
[PLEASE NOTE: This information is provided for your information only. I
am not suggesting or encouraging or recommending that anyone do any of
these things, but you can if you want.]
Public Service Announcement #2: Nostalgic for the old days at RW
when there were no banner ads? Don't like those annoying cookies?
A reader has let me know that Internet Junkbusters has a free program you
can install to get rid of them while you surf, and also helps prevent the
disclosure of other details that you may want kept private, such as
information about the page clicked on, and your computer's software and
hardware configuration. Its available at:
http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/ijb.html. [I'm not affiliated with
these folks in any way; this info is provided FYI only.]
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present
controls the past."
---George Orwell
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-----------------
Daily Board Show, (c) 1999 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Fri Jun 18 15:57:22 1999
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 15:57:20 -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.SV4.3.96.990618061545.15671A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Bibbidy bobbidy boo...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains editorial content. Read at your own risk!
Wednesday 16 June 1999:
Voting commencies on Motion 99-17, to accept Trey Holt's resignation
effective Aug 31 1999. By the end of the day 13 members had voted "aye".
[Looks like this one has passed <g>]
In a message posted by Board Secretary Bill Oliver, the group is reminded
that Motion 16E is still in discussion [this is the motion covering
election rules].
Election News: We hear a rumor that "Rootslady" [who I believe is Barbara
Dore?] will be accepting the nomination for SW/SC CC rep. We also hear
the Election Committee consists of one hard working person right now, and
no Chair. Please, consider volunteering to help with the election.
Two proposals for bylaws amendments were posted by Ginger Hayes to
numerous project lists last evening. They were passed by the CCs in IL,
and are as follows:
======
Amendment I
Article IX, Sec. 3:
In the interests of diversity, independence and autonomy of The USGenWeb
Project, state and county coordinators are encouraged to utilize a
variety of servers as hosts of their webpages. An attempt shall be made
by the national Advisory Board to avoid utilizing any one server
organization for hosting more than 40% of the total number of USGenWeb
Project web pages.
=======
Amendment II
Article IX, Sec. 4:
While realizing that a variety of indexing and storage methods exist for
queries, obituaries, wills, archival documents etc., The USGenWeb Project
strongly recommends that county and state coordinators maintain control
over these items after they are submitted to the USGenWeb Project or its
subsidiary state and county pages. Therefore, links for submitting items
to sites outside of The USGenWeb Project are strongly discouraged, unless
the links themselves remain under the control of The USGenWeb Project
coordinators.
===========
[Unfortunately, I think these proposed amendments are moot. According to
the bylaws they needed to be submitted to the Board for dissemination to
the project no later than June 1, as a 30 day posting period is required.]
YOU Figure It Out Corner: Brian "Dumb Animal" Leverich has informed the
many people that are asking questions about the new AUP that they "have a
much more accurate and comprehensive response in the RWR if interest seems
to justify it." [this means, I take it, there's a more accurate version
floating around. We do hope he decides to share it with us.] He also
claims that this is the same AUP that RW has always operated under, but
one posted in 1997 by him is much shorter and simple and makes no mention
of their "right to distribute" information on their server however they
see fit.
Its not very clear to many readers who exactly this AUP covers. Does it
cover only listowners, GC/RW board admins, and people with home pages on
RW, who will presumably be asked to affirmatively agree to it as a
condition of being allowed to use the resources? Or does it apply to
everyone who might visit a GC board to post a query, or USGW county page,
or sub to a list, who may never even know such an AUP exists or what its
terms are? IF the latter, who is responsible for seeing to it that each
and every mailing list subscribee, GC/RW board user, home page visitor,
RSL contributor, ship's list transcriber, ODT submitter, etc., sees and
gets a chance to agree to this AUP _before_ they give their data over [or
say something which gets them banned <g>]. Tune in next week, folks, and
keep asking those questions. Apparently we only get "accurate" and
"comprehensive" information if we ask for it.
"I would never lie. I willfully participated in a campaign of
misinformation."
---Fox Mulder, X files
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
----------
Daily Board Show, (c) 1999 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Sat Jun 19 09:22:27 1999
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 09:22:26 -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.SV4.3.96.990619083132.14894A-100000@saltmine.radix.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Status: O
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Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains free thought and editorial content. Read at your own
risk!
Thursday 17 Jan 1999:
BS Bill posts the current vote status of Motion 99-17 [to accept Trey
Holt's resignation]. It stands at 13 ayes, 0 nays, and 2 not voting.
A board member posts the proposed bylaws amendments twice [already posted
here yesterday].
Tomorrow's News Today: The Board discusses the Election Committee, or lack
thereof, and the proposed bylaws amendments.
Correction Corner: Bridgett Smith has forwarded to me a post from Kay
Mason that was sent to the State Coordinators following last year's
election. It clearly indicates that both she and Terry Davis [former NW/P
SC rep] were elected to one year terms. So, I stand corrected on that.
Thanks Bridgett for the clarification!
Letter to The Editor Corner: A reader writes:
"How can we, as the USGenWeb Project, make sure that *all* of the ballots
returned during the upcoming USGenWeb election (July 01-31, 1999) will be
*accurately tallied* and duly recorded in a fair and impartial manner?
Who is to say that Joe or Jane Coordinator's ballot won't be 'accidentally
not counted' (read: 'banned', 'deleted') from the election procedures,
thus eliminating them from the election of *USGenWeb* candidates for
*USGenWeb* positions.
Given the events which have taken place between rootsweb and USGenWeb
within the last six- to eight-month period (lack of open and explicit
communication, personal bannings by four - no, now make that FIVE - known
USGenWeb participants, etc.), how can *ANY* county coordinator within this
project be _comfortable_ voting in an election being conducted by an
entity which has demonstrated the incapability to be inclusive?
The USGenWeb 'authorities' would be well-advised to seek an independent
tallying method - independent of the rootsweb potential for influence. The
county coordinators deserve a fair and impartial election method. It
doesn't seem like that would be possible with the current 'election
service' suppliers."
Sleeping With the Devil Corner: Rootsweb is now carrying advertising from
Microsoft [actually, MSN Expedia, which I think is Microsoft's travel
service]. Can it only have been a year ago when Brian
"MakeMoneyFast.com" Leverich said "The only contact RootsWeb has ever had
with Microsoft was when one of their engineers called us and said they'd
noticed "RootsWeb is one of the larger sites on The Net and wondered if
(we) needed any free help with Microsoft products". I laughed, told them
"(they) had *nothing* RootsWeb needed", and hung up." [31 Mar 1998]
Just so You Know Corner: Rootsweb now has a prominent link [right above
the one that tells you how to buy advertising] to its new "inaccurate" and
"not comprehensive" Acceptable Use Policy on its front page. Presumably,
all visitors to the web page are responsible for reading it prior to using
RW's resources. Similar links to the AUP don't appear to exist on the
front pages [or subsidiary pages] of RW's resources, so apparently
folks that come into RW other than through the front page are out
of luck. Remember to keep those cards and letters coming; we only get to
see the "accurate and comprehensive" one if we express interest in it!
"When a fellow says it ain't the money but the principle of the thing,
it's the money."
---Artemus Ward
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lindquist
merope@radix.net
-------------
Daily Board Show, (c) 1999 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.
From merope@Radix.Net Sun Jun 20 10:21:27 1999
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 10:21:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: merope <merope@Radix.Net>
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Subject: Daily Board Show
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Now Banned for eternity!...its Your Daily Board Show!
*warning* contains absolutely shameless amounts of editorial content.
Read at your own risk!
Friday 18 June 1999:
A Board member posts a reminder that state voting lists are due to Tim
Pierce by June 24th but there is no place to send them. She also that the
project "still [has] no chair for the Elections Committee, and I believe
this committee is down to one (1) person. How long do you think this
committee of one will turn into a committee of none?" She concludes that
if the board doesn't start taking appropriate action and July 1 rolls
around and there are no ballots, "a crucfixion may be called for."
Another Board member notes that she is accepting voter lists for her
region; this should be OK as she is not a candidate. A third Board member
offers to help however she can.
A Board members posts questions regarding the proposed bylaws amendments
to his colleagues:
"1) Amendments to be posted 30 days before the election? This would mean
before June 1st, Right?
2) Five States required to co-sponsor the Amendment. At this point we have
only one State, Right?
3) If this is urgent the Board could vote to put it on the Ballot. We
have a little over a week before the election, but will 2/3 of the Board
agree that this is urgent?"
He suggests that the Board could call a special election once these
amendments have 5 co-sponsoring state, and he quotes the bylaws on the
subject of amendments to the bylaws.
============
Election Update: We hear the Board has finally got around to responding
to Jim Powell's offer to Chair the Election Committee. We think Jim will
make a fine Chair and hope he is still willing to take on the position.
The Sweet Hereafter Corner: According to Joan Young [who is not a RW
staff member, apparently, but plays one on numerous lists], a certain
someone has been "banned from RootsWeb (probably for life and beyond)".
It is comforting to know that even in the afterlife I can look forward to
being Banned on Rootsweb. [I guess this means my offer of an apology and
a pledge to refrain from posting negative things about RW on RW-owned
lists won't be accepted?]
Meaningless Perks Corner: According to a post made by Mr. Brian "*sigh*"
Leverich to TEAM-ROOTSWEB, "under almost all circumstances, RootsWeb will
not remove material from the archives." Apparently its just too much
effort to honor your request to remove your copyrighted material from
their system. So it appears that even though you retain copyright
on your posts according to the law and the new AUP, you can't have them
removed and Rootsweb will continue to distribute them even if you
expressly ask to have them removed. Doesn't this kinda make the ownership
of copyright empty and meaningless? [Although I have been told by
someone who this happened to if you make enough noise over possible
copyright violation they will expend the effort to not only remove your
posts, but every post that even mentions your name.]
Unanswered Questions Corner: Some interesting questions have surfaced in
regards to the AUP:
1) if we don't agree to the AUP can we have our posts removed (see above)
2) Which "Rootsweb" has issued this policy--RootsWeb Genealogical Data
Cooperative, Rootsweb.com, Inc., or the as-yet-unnamed non-profit?
3) who does it apply to ? [According to Mr. Leverich in a message to the
State Coordinators, ""Post" means to post queries on GenConnect, send mail
to the lists, ftp upload files to the Web servers, ..." [the leading dots
are his, so there must be more items "post" refers to] so apparently the
AUP covers all RW users of most any kind.]
Incidentally, although it is claimed that this AUP has always existed but
is just now being written down, as recently as 30 May 1999 RW staff
member Tim Pierce was telling the listowners, "Just to clarify, we never
have had formal usage policies in the past, but we soon will have to
institute some kind of agreement."
Also, Mr. Leverich indicates again that they'll be responding to questions
in the RWR only if there's substantial interest, but remarks that "this
does *not* seem to have general interest; we've received comments and
questions from an extremely small percentage of our users." [which could
merely mean that an extremely small number of his users are even aware of
it.]
Oh, and he's also "getting *REALLY* tired of folks complaining about
things [they] do that are much friendlier and more responsible than what
anyone else does." [this may be one reason more folks don't send their
questions and concerns to RW staff; they are getting *REALLY* tired of
being whined at.]
[We'll leave aside for now the question of whether springing a
poorly-worded and legally open-ended Acceptable Use Policy on thousands of
users is either friendly or responsible.]
"Any fool can make a rule -- And every fool will mind it."
-- Henry David Thoreau
This has been your Daily Board Show.
-Teresa Lidnquist
merope@radix.net
-------------------
Daily Board Show, (c) 1999 by Teresa Lindquist, all rights reserved.