I see this messageboard getting almost no posts any longer.


I see somebody mumbling about being REFUSED a site for genealogy.



I drove up when the subject matter here could be your flower garden or pet frogs.



Ancestry.Com



The web pages there they gave a 1 day notice..pay or gone...



Here ??


I try to assume anything left here is only here to support the 'big database'.


I'm not trying to knock Ancestry.Com but not a little TOO HEAVY as to profit?


I even try to find a 'library edition' of their membership and read something about even the LDS Church cut off their relationship whatever that was.



A QUESTION ?


Is this place going to vanish?



Everybody should always back up their work but many still don't.

I notice "the Worlds biggest free site .. and always will be" quote is gone!

I simply noted that threads here have decreased to about nothing.


Some people do massive work to put a website together and many 'assume' a place is 'backed up' and secure.



I can't bash the owners but they left a semi-bitter memory here. MyFamily.Com was it ?? FREE..FOREVER...The methods though. Almost INSTANT you could have your web material back IF YOU PAID.

Rootsweb once was independent..non-profit and all that stuff....

Facts:

1) Most Freepages questions are asked and answered on the Freepages-Help mailing list - http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/Freepages-Help/

2) Requests for Freepages accounts are refused when the stated use does not fit the mission. For example: "I want to sell the book I have written about my ancestors". Commercial activities are prohibited at Freepages. See http://accounts.rootsweb.com

3) The quote was "The oldest and largest FREE genealogy site, supported by Ancestry.com"

4) MyFamily.com websites and Freepages websites are, and have always been, totally unrelated.

5) Before it was purchased by Ancestry/MyFamily.com, RootsWeb was supported by contributions. Fewer than 3% of RootsWeb users ever contributed a dime. It takes several million dollars to keep RootsWeb online. The difference was made up by the founders, Brian Leverich and Karen Isaacson. TGN now pays those bills.

6) Backups are a must, no matter where you place your data online. Servers are simply computers, and like all computers, are subject to a variety of malfunctions.

Will RootsWeb.com exist forever? Of course not. Nothing does. FREE simply means someone else (TGN in this case) is paying the costs of providing the services to you, including web hosting, message boards, and the mailing lists.

Pat

>>6) Backups are a must, no matter where you place your data online. Servers are simply computers, and like all computers, are subject to a variety of malfunctions.<<

TGN servers are backed up by RAID drives. If one server is failing, all the data from it is backed up to another drive via programmed parameters. I'm TGN has a vast array of RAID drives and servers in place. Lot of money was invested to keep them operational and functional.

TGN should find a way to encourage wealthy subscribers, genealogical associations, and non-profit groups to contribute money to keep RootsWeb.com free for a good long time. If I'm a multi-millionaire, I would happily oblige.

It's not about them backing up the content, it's about them cutting you off from your content. You need to back up your own content on your own computer in case they decide to cut you off, charge you, close the service. And in fact, should back it up elsewhere in case you get serious computer problems.

I've recently read Yahoo Geocities is closing. I hope people are saving their content while they still can.

I signed up for Rootsweb Review recently and can't help noticing that it's monthly now instead of weekly, and no new user sites, no new user databases. This is very different from a few years ago - before ancestry.com took over.

I also can't help but notice that every usgenweb site I go to is neglected, filled with dead links, if anyone has bothered to add links at all. People don't reply to emails.

I don't know what's happening to online genealogy, has it shifted elsewhere, or is it just disappearing?

My site is still on rootsweb's freepages. If they close, I can put it on my webspace I pay for. I thought it better at rootsweb because of the community. I think the community has been neglected since ancestry took over.

Oh, and I think the new messages system at ancestry is pretty darn slimy. Contact other members through their website, and only for paying customers? So that if you have anything in those messages you want to access, you have to remain a paying customer? Don't they have enough confidence in what they are providing that they don't have to resort to such slimy tactics? The fact is that they provide easy access to lots of real records, and for a pretty decent price. That should be enough.

If these message boards are being abandoned, where are the people going?

I guess I'm too tired to even try to keep up with the latest fad. And I guess I'm not all that interested in doing so.

ah..the good old pre-ancestry.com days....


Here somebody could spend years putting up info and loose all if not backed up. (or even free=pay)


I simply 'smelled' that Rootsweb was being neglected.



MyFamily.Com ?? I have still yet to figure it out but when the launched the new system something about they snatch all your stuff after 6 months ??


I can't bash the landlord but ancestry.com is a for-profit operation and not a granter of 'welfare'. They even have had major squabbles with the LDS Church.


Otherwise your data only adds to their data and MORE to sell to people.


Are there any non-profit gen.... sites ??


I virtually quit the hobby when everything started costing money money money. Pay for your Family Tree ?? Some think it's accurate !!!!




ooooooooooooo--the old MyFamily.Com of years ago ?? Free and they gave people a couple of days to pay or be locked out.

Mohawkmtn wrote:
"ah..the good old pre-ancestry.com days...."

"I virtually quit the hobby when everything started costing money money money. Pay for your Family Tree ??"

I started researching my family tree many years ago when that meant traveling to court houses to view documents and record books. Each trip cost several hundred dollars for gasoline, motels and restaurants. Indexes of holdings were few and far between and some trips produced little or nothing to further my research. If I did find something and wanted copies, I had to pay for those too.

Now, for only eighty-one cents per day, I can access and print millions of records from all over the world; all from the comfort of my favorite chair with the refrigerator just a few steps away. I think that's a real bargain.

I might very very distorted as to my memory in my old age.


I used to do it all the old way. Exchange trillions of of US MAILS and the SASE stuff !! Of coarse pay for minimal costs for records here and there. Travel to audit cemeteries and look up things not possible by mail.


But that 'minimal cost' rose rose rose. Make a huge profit off records. (to balance budgets?)


o-pay a professional ?? !!! They might be good but I was never a believer in paying for your 'tree'. Is it ever correct ? Maybe it's just me as I have never solved much of mine. (then I can buy it ?) /// mostly northern New England and Eastern Canada. geeeeezzzzzzz even New Brunswick totally burned about 1850.


Bash the landlord ? I think (I have not checked of recent) a pay subscription (website hosting,etc.)to myfamily.com is a good deal. As to Ancestry.Com ?? $4000000 dollars for 30 days ?


I just wish there were more 'exchange info' 'non-profit' which seems to be a dieing thing.

mohawkmtn -

You're not paying for your tree. Your ancestors are your ancestors. Nothing can change that.

You're paying to do research to discover who your ancestors were.

No matter how you do it, it's going to cost you some money and some time. Ancestry does offer something worthwhile for a decent price, compared to searching these records for yourself. I live at least 75 miles from the nearest library that would have census microfilms, so it would obviously cost a lot more money and time to go search them myself at the library.

I do not like the other things ancestry does, and I have little respect for them because of it. I think they offer something good and don't need to muddy it up with slimy tactics to get more money from us.

Whether or not you want to "pay for your tree" in any way is up to you. Lots of people live their whole lives and never research their genealogy. Others find it interesting and pursue it for the enjoyment.

I do miss the spirit of sharing that seems to have disappeared from online. People used to share records they'd transcribed, people used to answer letters and help each other out. I'm trying to research records in other states and it's hard with nobody willing to even answer a question to set me in the right direction.

I keep finding usgenweb sites, which used to be very good, that are now nothing but dead links and owners who don't reply to emails. It's disappointing.

But it's actually encouraged me to put my site back online and add more info.