In message <000001cd8126$564c3e30$02e4ba90$@net>, Dick Rose <dtrose@cox.net> writes: >I sit here today thinking back to our beginnings . . . I am now 86 >years old . . . forgive me for injecting these thoughts into your >software concerns. > Not at all! > > >My mind was reverting to the early days of our favorite software, >Brother's Keeper. I established this "BK" list quite a while ago and I >checked back into the "BK Archives" and found this message: > Thank you! I'm not sure how long I've been on the actual list; I view it via Turnpike, which allows me to treat it like a newsgroup. (I have BK-L in a folder called genealogy, alongside soc.genealogy.britain.) [] >We still have 498 subscribers to the list. It has dropped some, but not too >much. I would be eager to know if there are any of you who have remained >faithful all these many years. [] (_You_ can probably tell _me_ when I joined!) As for BK itself: I've been a user since either 5 or 4 (someone else mentioned a database conversion; I _think_ I've been through two of them). Can't compete with the 5.25" floppy folk, but I think I did get it on a 3.5", from a shareware seller at a computer fair. Decided to pay not long after. I have a _lot_ of criticisms of BK, and am very grateful to JS for putting up with me all these years! I still like it's workmanlike attitude, not making concessions to fads ahead of the underlying purpose of the software, but the main best feature is the personal support, which I'm unaware any other such software offers: not only are problems answered very quickly, but also even suggestions are implemented _fairly_ rapidly (where possible). I do worry that the revenue stream must be fragile - how many new genealogists are taking up BK rather than one of the more flashy (and better publicised) competitors - and also what happens after JS, but JS has assured me that he's well and intends to keep at it for many years yet! [I would pay full price for a BK6, but John hasn't really time to work on one, not and keep the rest of us happy too.] -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "Grammar is there to help, not hinder." -- Mark Wallace, APIHNA, 2nd December 2000 (quoted by John Flynn 2000-12-6)