This note is going to tell you that RootsWeb set a new record level of service to the genealogical community last month, but a more important message that I'd like to convey first is just how important your support has been. RootsWeb wouldn't be here without you. In February, without your support we couldn't have purchased a generator to keep the servers up during the El Nino storms, a new search engine server for the USGenWeb and mailing list archives, and a new server to host Cyndi Howells' Website and the USGenWeb query systems. Your continued support is essential to us: just to keep up with demand, in the next few weeks we're going to have to upgrade the main Web server, upgrade the mail hub server, and start preparing to add a third list server. All that costs money. And beyond those inescapable upgrades, we really want to be building a kitty for buying genealogical datasets and bringing more new services online for the whole community. If you can spread the word and help us find more Members, Sponsors, and Donors, you'll be helping us keep up with demand and bring new data and services online. *** AND NOW FOR THE REPORT *** February was an incredible month: El Nino storms repeatedly caused us to lose power, and I wound up having to 4-wheel- drive off the mountain in a snowstorm to find and buy a generator to keep RootsWeb online. Because of our batteries and our generator, we were down only minutes even though the power was off for days. Also, Cyndi Howells' Website moved to RootsWeb right in the middle of the storms and the USGenWeb query system needed more CPU cycles and bandwidth, so we added a server and load balanced our T1 connections to the Internet right in the midst of all the snowfalls and power outages. We had about 11% absolute growth during just the month of February, but that's deceptively low because February is a short month. Our actual *daily* load increased about 20%: o 29,372,613 Web files (27,751,946 in Jan) from 2,488 Websites (2,400 in Jan). - 8,602,112 were HTML pages (not images or cgi-bin) (8,308,561 in Jan). - 3,446,096 were cgi-bin database searches and such. (3,574,701 in Jan). - 17,248,967 were GIFs (15,850,655) or JPEGs (1,398,312) (15,784,790 in Jan were GIFs (14,529,204) or JPEGs (1,255,586). o 644,950 FTP file downloads from the USGenWeb Archives and the ROOTS-L Library (618,762 in Jan). o Thanks to a neat hack by Tim Pierce, we know we shipped about 82,150,000 pieces of mail (88,649,000 in Jan) pieces of mail to the 3,050+ (2,600 in Jan) mailing lists we host. (The 82 million is probably low; we had to archive a significant amount of mail before the count because of a disk space crunch on one of the mail servers ... ) o 60,000 alt.g and s.g.* Usenet News articles to hosts on three continents (same as Jan). o Approximately 505,361,000,000 bytes in total (451,786,000,000 in Jan). And that's what RootsWeb did in February. Let me thank you once again for supporting RootsWeb -- none of this would be available to the community without your help, and your continuing support can help us grow and provide even more service to the community. Thank you, B. -- Dr. Brian Leverich Co-moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative http://www.rootsweb.com/ P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 leverich@rootsweb.com -------------------------------------------------- PLEASE JOIN: RootsWeb Could Be Hosting Many More Websites, Lists, and Databases If Only We Had the Resources! The RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative is supported by its users: RootsWeb would cease to exist if not for the support of folks like you. By becoming a Member, Sponsor, or Donor, your support of RootsWeb is helping us provide Web and FTP space to thousands of genealogical activites, mailing lists for thousands of groups of genealogists with shared interests, and search engines to make more than 4 billion bytes of genealogical data (the equivalent of 2 million printed pages!) freely available to Internet genealogists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Personal Memberships Individual users may join the Cooperative at any of four different levels of support. While there are some differences in the services we provide at each level, fundamentally when you choose a level you're making a choice about what kind of genealogical resources you want to see brought onto the Internet. If you choose to be a Nonmember, you're basically saying "Let someone else do it." Members, Sponsors, and Donors are all saying "Let's each contribute something towards making more genealogical resources available to everyone on the Internet." Nonmember (free) Guilt feelings, because you're basically saying "Let someone else do it" with respect to providing support for the resources you and other Internet genealogists are using. Web searches of all databases (possibly with automated, hopefully-guilt-inducing nags that you really should join (-8 ). Mailing lists in digest and index mode, and mail mode for small lists (possibly with nags). Archive file retrieval by FTP and mail (possibly with nags). Don't want to be a Member? Go ahead and tell us why. Member ($12 per year) A warm fuzzy from knowing you're roughly covering RootsWeb's costs in serving you (plus no annoying nags! (-8 ). All mailing lists available in digest, index, and mail mode. Archive text searches. Sponsor ($24 per year) An even bigger warm fuzzy because you're contributing something towards bringing new databases and services online. Ability to surname search all files simultaneously with the RootsWeb site index. (28 Mar 98: This feature is not available yet.) Automatic notification of new files containing your surnames. Mailing list ownership. High-speed high-reliability genealogy newsfeed direct to your ISP. (Note: This requires cooperation from your sysadmin.) Sponsor Plus Services 28 Mar 98: Personal Web space and Web serving of GEDCOMs is not available now, but in the near future we will be providing space to Sponsors at a nominal additional cost. Donor ($100 per year or more) A huge warm fuzzy because your contribution has a direct impact on RootsWeb's operations. By itself, a Donor's contribution can buy a new dataset or a new disk drive for everyone to use. All of the Sponsors' benefits. Guided tours of RootsWeb (well, at least some folks like to see the hardware (-8 ) if you're ever in our neighborhood. Other special services as seem appropriate. Please note that some member services depend on the availability of programmer time, and there may be some delays in providing those services. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Professional and Corporate Memberships RootsWeb does offer Professional memberships to genealogists who wish to use RootsWeb while doing research for hire, and we offer Corporate memberships to businesses who would like to support RootsWeb. Various specialized services are available to Professional and Corporate members: contact us for details. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- How to Join by Mail One way to join RootsWeb is by sending a check in American dollars to: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative P.O. Box 6798 Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 Please make sure your name and e-mail address are on the check! Also, please don't send currency, and please don't send drafts denominated in foreign currency. (American banks charge *huge* fees for currency conversions.) If you are outside the United States, please use a credit card so the currency adjustment is automatic and inexpensive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- How to Join Over The Net with a Credit Card You can join easily from your keyboard by using our Secure Server Web form and your VISA or Mastercard.