Well, here it is a new decade, a new year. Possibly a new century and a new millenium, too, but I'm not "up" for that fight right now.
In fact, I'm fairly mellow today ...
I'm just lost in nostalgia for the days, (...we thought they'd never end...) when I could log on to my dial-in BBS at 8-N-1, download 700 messages in one newsgroup and maybe another 200 in the other two, skim the subj line, and be done in a couple hours.
Along the way, I picked up tidbits about doing research in Canada, in England, in Texas, Georgia, Oregon, and the midwest, yea verily even South Dakota. (g) I met a lot of talented, experienced researchers with a wealth of info to share and the willingness to share it. I found out about obscure document types, even more obscure tiny depositories, and generally sated myself on trivia. And actually made some progress and still had time to do genealogy.
Then, Lawd he'p us all, someone decided that all *their* ancestors were *ALL* in (whatever state) and they wanted their own newsgroup. It looked like a good idea at the time, and it grew.
Until we reach the point today where every blessed spelling variant has its own newsgroup or list, its own webpage, its own tiny little corner of the universe.
And guess what? Here we go with the Qwerty family list on RootsWeb, at familysearch, here, there, and otherwhere. A fair number of those posts are cross-posts, or forwards, but a miniscule few are not. In order to SEE those miniscule few, one has to sub to ALL the groups or risk missing the vital clue. One post a week hardly seems worth it. And then some folks complain about the heavy traffic.
More, instead of 700 posts in one group, I get 7 copies of each of 100 posts in my in-box as each member of each list sends each other person he knows a copy of this JIC. Then there are the list-members who can't seem to remember whether they hit Forward or not, so I get 5 copies of the SAME message from one person off list A and 4 copies from the same person off list B AND I got the original post which was posted in both lists.
Worse -- yes, there's worse -- members of each list appear to view the other lists as upstart idiots, so here you go with these 12 people saying those 12 don't have a clue and all 24 of them saying it about those 11, who join in to scoff at these 18 ...
Maybe I'll just give up genealogy and take up filing as a hobby. Lord knows, I've got a two-lifetime supply of materials to hand.
> And guess what? Here we go with the Qwerty family list on RootsWeb, > at familysearch, here, there, and otherwhere. A fair number of > those posts are cross-posts, or forwards, but a miniscule few are > not. In order to SEE those miniscule few, one has to sub to ALL the > groups or risk missing the vital clue. One post a week hardly seems > worth it. And then some folks complain about the heavy traffic.
Cheryl, do I have a deal for you!
And it pretty much solves your problems created by those people who actually believe no one will ever find out about "this great discovery" (or virus or ....) unless and until he or she spreads the word.
However, RootsWeb has the cure. If you are a donor of $24 or more a year to RootsWeb, you can set up a keyword search that will monitor all RootsWeb-hosted mailing lists AND GenConnect and other RootsWeb programs and send you a copy of ANY message containing the keywords on your list.
Here's how it works for me: As you know, I do a one-name study on Pence, Pentz, Pense, Bentz or Benz. In the past I subscribed to a great number of county mailing lists, particularly in those counties where my Pence ancestors lived or in those known to have a fairly high concentration of those with that surname. Unfortunately, too many people seem to think - apparently because they only subscribe to one or two mailing lists - that any topic of interest to them, from where to find the computer on-off switch to how to send e-mails (a little dig at a recent thread here <g>) is OK. As a result I simply had to unsubscribe to such lists because the trash-level was too high.
RootsWeb to the rescue. It took some fine-tuning over a couple of weeks, but now I have a steady flow of messages from all over the world - in any RootsWeb mailing list - that has any of the aforementioned surnames.
The fine tuning involved eliminating every colonial will or deed or Brit message which mentioned pounds, shillings and pence and all the messages in French whose senders "think" (pense). Also, there was a need to cut out receiving copies of my own posts to various lists.
Visit RootsWeb and see if this fits your needs. It's really been doing the job for me!
Regards, Richard A. Pence, 3211 Adams Ct, Fairfax, VA 22030 Voice 703-591-4243 Fax 703-385-0971 Pence Family History <http://www.pipeline.com/~richardpence/>
Hi Cheryl. I agree with you completely!! It is so frustrating, this over SPECIALIZATION that has gone on. It is not only in genealogy. I used to belong to about three lists and got a ton of info. Now I belong to almost twenty and don't get near the info, just more messages. I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Ruth
>I'm just lost in nostalgia for the days, (...we thought they'd never >end...) when I could log on to my dial-in BBS at 8-N-1, download 700 >messages in one newsgroup and maybe another 200 in the other two, >skim the subj line, and be done in a couple hours. >Worse -- yes, there's worse -- members of each list appear to view >the other lists as upstart idiots, so here you go with these 12 >people saying those 12 don't have a clue and all 24 of them saying >it about those 11, who join in to scoff at these 18 ...
>Maybe I'll just give up genealogy and take up filing as a hobby. >Lord knows, I've got a two-lifetime supply of materials to hand.
To make the PML service even more effective, it's imperative that recipients RESIST THE URGE to forward. A few of my fellow researchers are wearing out the Rootsweb servers forwarding their PML messages to related surname or place lists....causing duplicates, triplicates, and quadruplicates to be sent to PML subscribers. Aaargh!
> And guess what? Here we go with the Qwerty family list on RootsWeb, > at familysearch, here, there, and otherwhere. A fair number of > those posts are cross-posts, or forwards, but a miniscule few are > not. In order to SEE those miniscule few, one has to sub to ALL the > groups or risk missing the vital clue. One post a week hardly seems > worth it. And then some folks complain about the heavy traffic.
Cheryl, do I have a deal for you!
(snip)
Visit RootsWeb and see if this fits your needs. It's really been doing the job for me!
Richard A. Pence <richardpe...@pipeline.com> says:
: However, RootsWeb has the cure. If you are a donor of $24 or more a : year to RootsWeb, you can set up a keyword search that will monitor : all RootsWeb-hosted mailing lists AND GenConnect and other RootsWeb : programs and send you a copy of ANY message containing the keywords : on your list.
I second Richard's enthusiastic endorsement -- PML is a Really Good Thing. I've found fellow researchers in Rootsweb lists that I never even knew existed, let alone would have subbed to.
: The fine tuning involved eliminating every colonial will or deed or : Brit message which mentioned pounds, shillings and pence and all the : messages in French whose senders "think" (pense).
Yup -- if anything, it's *too* efficient. Just imagine the fun I'm having with the surname HEAD.
: Also, there was a need to cut out receiving copies of : my own posts to various lists.
I haven't tried doing that yet, but I need to. Do you just filter on your own email address?
