>Subject: Re: [ARDREW-L] explanation of "gentle reminders" >Date: Sun, 6 Dec 98 19:04:44 -0800 >From: Melissa Jones <tsaritsa@ix.netcom.com> >To: ARDREW-L@rootsweb.com >Reply-To: ARDREW-L@rootsweb.com > >Rebecca, > >Thank you! I couldn't have said it any better myself. > >For those wondering "Are stories about Drew County & my Drew County >ancestors OK?", the answer is...absolutely! I love reading the stories >about everyone. This is the kind of stuff you won't find anywhere else, >and it makes our family history "come alive". > >Now, I want y'all to know that I'm not trying to be a "big, bad meanie" >by striving to keep the jokes, poems, private e-mail, etc., off the list. > >Let me try to explain why sticking to the topic(s) of the list is so >important. > >Pretend for a minute that you are the Rootsweb computer system. You are >subscribed to around 4,000 mailing lists at this point, so you get >hundreds of thousands of e-mails every day. Now pretend that you can't >delete a single one of those e-mails from your hard drive, even the ones >that don't interest you personally, because you are being generous and >hosting archives for other Internet genealogists to search. > >You can see how quickly your hard drive is going to fill up with all >those messages. Now pretend that you can only go buy a bigger hard drive >every few months, because your computer equipment budget is sporadic. >You rely on donations from some of the researchers who use your archives, >but sometimes the donations don't come in on time, or they're not enough >to cover the cost of a new hard drive. > >Pretty soon, you will be nervously eye-balling your hard drive, thinking >about how much hard drive space you have left. > >Now imagine what happens when one of those funnies comes out: "Top 10 >Signs You're Addicted to Genealogy". This e-mail starts getting posted >to more and more lists, let's say half of all the Rootsweb lists. >Eventually, you end up with about 2,000 copies of the exact same e-mail >on your hard drive (and remember, you can't delete them). If each of >those e-mails is 1 kilobyte in size (a pretty small message), you now >have 2 Megabytes just for that "Top 10" message. > >Think how much genealogy data could have been posted to Rootsweb's web >servers if only we had that 2 Megabytes of disk space free. > >Rootsweb would like to bring more and more searchable databases online. >But as you can see, they are using all of their resources just >maintaining the status quo. If we can help them by cutting down on the >off-topic, extraneous posts (and yes, I do consider my reminders to be in >this category--wish I didn't have to send them!!), we can help Rootsweb >bring more helpful data online. > >And with that, I'm going to start making my list of things to research at >the Drew Co. archives & courthouse in a couple of weeks! > >Y'all have a good week & I will post when I can, > >--Melissa > >P.S. Where are all your "most wanted" ancestors? Surely someone else is >stuck on a Drew County line... > > >rdea (rdea@seark.net) wrote: > >>Here are my suggestions for posting: >>1. any genealogy relating to Drew County >>2. any family history relating to Drew County >> Family history is the STORIES that go with those lines. >> Plus these family history stories are "local history." >> Gives one a sense of the period. >>3. any genealogy tips, ie, websites, new places to search, etc. >> this is info of a general nature that can help all. >>4. any reference material such as maps, books, etc. >>5. history of the county in general. > >>Here are my suggestions for not posting: >>1. jokes: whether genealogy or not >>2. little smaltzy stories that have nothing to do with Drew history >>3. private mail between two Ardrew subscribers > Thank you Melissa for your "gentle" ( and classy) reminder of the appropriate postings. Here's my MOST WANTED-------- Daniel Trammell d. 1928 in Drew County John Robert Scott Ella Siff Brence Trammell HELP Vicci Snyder ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com