Good Morning... Several of these messages have been out; however, I thought I would forward this group of messages to the group.....This message was put together and sent by the GA group...... Thanks!!! kaite.. Subj: [GA] Listowner message, please read.... Date: 12/22/98 9:33:55 PM Central Standard Time From: Kee46@email.msn.com (Adrianne Hopkins) To: GEORGIA-L@rootsweb.com ========================================================== Written by Brian Leverich, posted to the READ-L list within the last week : Karen and I are in the hole on RootsWeb; not only have we not been paid anything, we've been paying out of our pockets for the privilege of working here night and day without weekends or holidays. (Just *today* Karen and I took out a $25,000 loan to cover the fact that the Palladium sponsorship has apparently died with their acquisition by TLC, and to pay for the hardware we're going to need to handle the new users we expect to have after Christmas.) Just so you fully understand what I've told you above, you should be aware that in terms of traffic RootsWeb is one of the *top 25* or so sites on the whole Internet. Folks who can run these sorts of facilities are absurdly rare (there are a few hundred of them in the whole world), and senior system administrators at the other "Top 25" sites generally have salary+benefits+option packages that run in the $200,000-500,000 per year and up range. ### Folks should be clear on the concept that the administration staff at RootsWeb is making a huge contribution to the genealogical community by essentially donating our time. The fact that each of us is personally donating services worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year is part of the reason we find it so depressing that only about 2-6% of our users are choosing to support RootsWeb at all, and that even among our supporters the average contribution is only one-third of what "tens of thousands of genealogists" (the Wall Street Journal) are spending at Ancestry.com. I don't think RootsWeb is going to fold anytime soon. But I'd be lying to you if I didn't tell you that the staff is seriously wondering whether the community values our efforts enough that continuing on with RootsWeb makes sense. The admin staff wants to give the genealogical community a great online genealogical library, but we can't do it if only 2-6% of our users will voluntarily choose to support us. Without more support, RootsWeb can't afford to buy the servers and bandwidth and scanners and such that we need to bring online the whole US Census and the British Birth/Marriage/Death records and all the other resources we'd like to make freely available to the entire community. Maybe Ancestry has it right. Lock up the resources and charge the users through the nose. Oh well. -B>> ======================================================== From: Brian Leverich <leverich@rootsweb.com> To: TEAM-ROOTSWEB-L@rootsweb.com We received calls today from Palladium and TLC assuring us that the December sponsorship check is in the mail. That makes things better for us in many ways, and we'll be bringing the Palladium banners back on line. While we aren't quite sure how the information flowed, it's clear that Palladium and TLC had seen postings by one or several of you on your lists. Also, we'd like to thank you because your recent efforts have resulted in a substantial number of new members. This puts us much closer to being able to do things like getting a bigger and faster search engine server online for handling your list archives. Thanks again, B. ================================================= From: zim <zim@loop.com> To: MDGEN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [MDGEN-L] RootsWeb in Need Date: Monday, December 21, 1998 2:49 AM For those who may not be familiar with RootsWeb - this list is made possible because of RootsWeb :) - it is a grassroots effort founded about ten years ago by Karen Isaacson and Brian Leverich. Karen's budding interest in genealogy and their familiarity with computers and later that new fangled world called the Internet, helped them and a group of volunteers launch the RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. Karen, Brian and dedicated volunteers have donated not only their time (and lots of it, from maintaining the computer systems that operate RootsWeb to providing online help and assistance in maintaining the ROOTS-L mailing list and the RootsWeb Surname List) but their own money as well. The cost for maintaining and upgrading the servers has mushroomed as the size and scope of RootsWeb has grown. It boggles the mind to realize how far RootsWeb has come in a relatively short span of time. According to RootsWeb's home site: "RootsWeb hosts more than 2,700 Websites and 3,600 mailing lists. RootsWeb now has a dozen servers and five T1s worth of bandwidth, and handles more than 1,300,000 Web hits and 3,000,000 pieces of e-mail on a typical day. RootsWeb expects to be adding several more main servers and a sixth (and possibly seventh) T1 within the next few weeks. " Compare that average of over 1 million hits a day in 1998, to the 50,000 hits that was considered a BIG day in 1996! The equipment necessary to handle that sort of volume is not cheap! To learn more about RootsWeb, the ROOTS-L mailing lists, the RootsWeb Surname List visit: http://www.rootsweb.com http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/history.html http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html >From what I have read, the people at RootsWeb have no desire to take RootsWeb "corporate". They believe strongly that information should be available with free access and they continue to make that possible. Realistically, however, how feasible is it for a few to continue funding something the size of RootsWeb? For anyone who uses RootsWeb on a regular basis, give it some thought and see how you might help the effort as well. Voluntary memberships begin at $12.00 a year. Let me take this opportunity to wish all a Merry Christmas and a genealogically successful new year :)! Karen Keehne Zimmerman La Crescenta, CA RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative P.O. 6798 Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 Make sure your name & email address is on the check. Don't send cash please!!!