Six months ago, Rootsweb created a lot of GC (GenConnect) boards, including the BARRACLOUGH GenConnect boards, which Kim has adopted because she ran the mailing list. Due to being busy, not understanding how the GC boards worked, and lacking a FAQ, etc, etc, etc, nothing was done to publicise them until now. The GC boards don't replace mailing lists, they complement them, and all subscribers should be familiar with both. Below is a short FAQ on GC boards. Rootsweb semi-official draft FAQ can be found on the BARRACLOUGH mailing list support site at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~surreal/barraclough/ Good luck with them Peter Lakeman One of Kim's not-so-little elves. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GenConnect Boards are an automated query management and document archiving system. At present there are boards for posting Queries, Bible Records, Biographies, Deeds, Obituaries, Pensions, and Wills. The boards are designed to allow researchers to post questions and to freely share information with others. There are facilities to search a particular board or all boards. Users can customise the display of the board, and to access older messages that have been archived. The Query board is intended for users to post queries, while the other boards are for storage of public and private information. * What are the advantages of the GenConnect Boards versus a mailing list? Although Rootsweb mailing lists are archived, the information on them tends to be immediate and interactive. A topic is raised, discussed and eventually finished with, even if not fully resolved. The information on the Boards is for all intents permanent, being totally visible for one year and after that being available through search facilities. * Accessing the boards. The easiest way to find the BARRACLOUGH GenConnect Board is to go to: http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/a/s/BARRACLOUGH/ where you will find the links near the bottom of the page. Don't forget to bookmark it. An index to other surname boards can be found at: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/indx/FamAssoc.html or http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/index.html * Searching the boards. On each board is a Searchbar. The Searchbar is the blue bar just below the words Message Index. There are several selections you can make when using the bar so that you can see the messages on the board in any way you would like to see them. Changing the board display for yourself (or "customizing" your display) does not affect how others see the board display. In the Searchbar you specify the keywords that you want to search for (e.g. John and London), the items to match (e.g. All or Any keywords), the time period when the message was posted, and how to display the results. If you put a check mark in the box to accept a "cookie", your settings will be saved for you for when you return to this board in the future. This only affects how you see the board, not how others see it. Advanced Search and Global Search are also available from the Searchbar. * Posting a query to the boards. Here are a few good sites with information about posting an effective query: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/HINTS/posting.html http://www.firstct.com/fv/query.html http://www.rootsweb.com/~mskeelyk/keelyhow.htm#query Once you have posted a query, you cannot modify it. Either contact the board administrator (Kim) whose address can be found on a link near the bottom of the page, or post a response to your own message and use the subject line of "correction to prior message" or similar. * How will I be notified if someone replies to my query? If you have included your email (or other) address in your post, the respondent may decide to contact you directly. If when you posted, you didn't uncheck the box on the board asking if you want to be notified when someone replies to your message, you will receive an email with the "from" address showing �[email protected]�. You will only receive notice of any direct replies to your queries, not if anybody replies to a reply to your post. So it is still important to check the board from time to time for replies of interest to you. Alternatively, you may subscribe to the Board�s �mail-list�, which is a separate mail-list to the one you are reading now. Whenever someone posts to that query board, all subscribers will be sent an email with "[email protected]" in the "from" line of the message. It is necessary to subscribe to each of the boards (i.e. Queries, Bible, Biographies, etc) separately to cover all possibilities. * How do I post information to a non-query board (Bible Records, Biographies, Deeds, Obituaries, Pensions, or Wills)? The basics are the same as above for posting a query only the document boards are not used to post queries, they are used to post information from public or private records. Either complete transcriptions of documents, or abstracted information, is permissible. Documentation of source material is strongly encouraged. In the case of family Bible Records it is most helpful to list who has possession of the Bible or how the information was accessed. In the case of copyrightable material such as many Biographies and some Obituaries please review the information found on this page before posting to the appropriate board: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/HINTS/copyright.html * Additional information. For additional information, see the GenConnect Hints and Tips page found at: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/HINTS/index.html or the general help pages at http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/ For more serious users who want to know the system better, subscribe to the GenConnect Help mail-list, in either List or Digest mode, by sending an email with only the word �subscribe� to either [email protected] or [email protected] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~