On Sat, 6 Mar 1999 cityslic@ix.netcom.com wrote: > It's no one's fault.. but it's really frustrating when people don't > understand the structure of the Archives. I guess it's my fault for not > making it obvious. I've tried to send people to the Archives guidelines > and to navigate the ftp directory to become familiar with the structure. > > If they understood the structure, which all the fm's do, there would be > less confusion and misunderstanding. It took us almost a year to get > most of the sc's to recognize the Archives and put a link to it. We've > never insisted that there be a link to them. > > The Archives were not developed as a temporary, "pretty" website. We > didn't even plan to have html's at all, but have only an ftp directory. > The directory structure would be easy to navigate, with a visitor > clicking on the state of choice, then county, then type of record they > wanted to search. > > The search engine would cover all the directories, and help a researcher > identify where an ancestor lived at any time, or at least if there was a > record for them. For instance: You know your ancestor died in xxxx > County, but have no idea where they were born, married, or any other > place they lived. Enter their name in the search engine and receive > several "hits." Voila!!! There's a marriage record in another state! or > Voila!! they bought or sold some land in another state! > > Ok.. we have this structure.. and we know how to use it.. and it's > helping researchers. The year 2020 comes along, and Bill Gates' son > invents a computer chip that's inserted in a human brain. No html's.. > hypertext has gone the way of the Y2K bug or sometime after. But... > ASCII text.... well... that's the basis of all computer technology. > xxoxxoooxxooxxooxxooo Aha! The Archives files are in ASCII text, and > every state has the same directory structure. Simple thing to sliiiddde > the whole kit and kaboodle into any new technology. > > Please note that the above was written by a totally non-techie person > (me). But.. it's logical and I understand it. > > Linda (who is still on vacation) > > dmorgan@efn.org /David W. Morgan/Honolulu Hawaii Archives Manager --- New Mexico NMGenWeb Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nm/nmfiles.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~okbeckha/coordinate.html