Hi everyone, This was just forwarded to me. I thought you might be interested. (hmmm .... wonder who I'll vote for? :) ) I hope this finds you all having a marvelous Monday! :) Colleen Subject: FYI Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 14:54:06 -0600 The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2000 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. ============================================================== - Which Site Is the "Best Genealogy Site on the Web?" Who has the best genealogy-related World Wide Web site? Do you have an opinion? If so, you can make your opinion heard in the fourth annual "Best Genealogy Site On The World Wide Web" award. You have the opportunity to honor a genealogy Web site with a "Readers' Choice Award" to be issued by this newsletter. The readers of this newsletter will pick the site to be named "Best Genealogy Site on the World Wide Web." This will be the fourth year that the readers of this newsletter have conferred such an award. I won't mention who won the award previously, as I don't want to influence this year's nominations. However, I will mention them again at the end of this year's elections. What guidelines are used to define the "best genealogy site on the World Wide Web?" That is strictly up to you. You can nominate a site because it is interesting or because it has nice graphics or because it has excellent maps or because it is full of valuable genealogy reference materials. I would suggest that you should nominate a site because it is the one genealogy Web site that you go back and visit, time and time again. However, even that guideline is optional. The choice is yours to make. When you cast your vote, you might write a couple of sentences about why you think this site is best, although that description is not absolutely required. I have set up an "electronic voting machine" that you can use to cast a vote for this "best of the Web" award. I have great confidence in this voting machine; Florida residents will not have to conduct a recount! You can vote at any time from now until midnight Eastern U.S. time on November 30, 2000. The voting machine will then tabulate the results. I will announce the winner in the December 2 newsletter. The winning World Wide Web site will then be allowed to mention the award on their Web site. That Web site also will be entitled to all the fame and notoriety that is included with this Online Genealogy Newsletter's Readers' Choice Award. Enough said! To cast your vote, you must follow these instructions EXACTLY. A computer is tabulating the results, not a human being. Computers are not very good at interpreting what you meant to say; you have to be precise when talking to a computer. You must enter your vote in exactly the proper format. To cast a vote for "Best Genealogy Site on the World Wide Web," send an email to: [email protected] The subject of the message must contain the full Web site address and nothing else. For instance, the message subject might be: http://www.rootscomputing.com The message subject (some e-mail programs will say "Message Title" instead of "subject") MUST start with:http:// Any of the following would be proper message subjects: http://www.ancestry.com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roots/ http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dsucha/schuetz.html http://ynot.netgrp.net/~tursky/ http://homepages.noplace.com/~jsmith Please list the exact address in the message subject, but do not add any other words. Do not say, "My vote is..." or anything like that in the subject; simply list the actual URL beginning with the letters "http://". None of the following three examples will work: www.xyz.com My vote is for www.xyz.com My favorite Web site is xyz.com None of the three previous examples begin with "http://" and therefore the computer program that tabulates the vote will ignore them. If you do send your vote properly, you will receive a reply acknowledging the receipt of your nomination. You are encouraged to tell why you think your favorite site deserves such an award. You can do so by writing comments in the body of the e-mail. The automatic vote tally software will ignore the body text. However, once the votes are tallied, a human will read all the messages that nominated the winning site and will look for any comments about that site. Some of those comments may be published in the December 2 newsletter. By writing text in the message body, you are giving permission to reprint your name and comments in this newsletter. If you do not want your words or name published, please do not write anything in the message body. If you vote and then later change your mind, simply send in a new vote in exactly the same manner as the first vote. Your new vote will automatically replace the earlier one. In other words, you may vote as often as you like, but only the last vote you send will be counted. All votes must be received on or before November 30, 1999. Any Web site that tries to "stack the deck" by creating a method to have Web visitors automatically send e-mails will be disqualified. Web sites are encouraged to place a link to this newsletter article as published on Ancestry.com or to copy this article in its entirety onto their own Web site. The Web site may suggest that their users read this article and then cast a vote. However, if the Web site's software creates the message for the user, or if the Web site pre-loads a URL into the message subject of the vote, that site will be disqualified.In case of disputes, I reserve the right to make final judgment on the authenticity of any votes. Again, do not send your vote to my e-mail address or to the address that sends this newsletter. You must send your vote to: [email protected] The message subject line must contain the Web site's complete address (URL) and must start with: http:// OK, which site is "the best genealogy site on the Web?" Your vote counts.