Well said Roy Mike in Droitwich my family tree http://mjfisher.tribalpages.com Roy Stockdill wrote: > On 6 Feb 2011 at 18:13, Josephine Jeremiah wrote: > >> When I'm browsing the archives of other lists and forums, I often see >> references about not mentioning details of living people or giving >> information on anyone who might still be alive. >> >> However, some people let loose all kinds of personal information about >> themselves and their close families on the internet. By putting two or >> three words into Google, you can get all kinds of details about some >> people. Even those who think they are experienced with e-mail might >> not realize just how much they have divulged over the years. >> >> Last year, I heard on the news that in future people may change their >> names to escape what is recorded about them on the internet or because >> of what they'd written on the internet in their youth. > > > This is a most interesting topic, Josephine, and one in which I am hugely interested > myself. I also believe it ought to be debated widely, since it affects ALL genealogists > and family historians. Indeed, there are fewer topics of greater concern to us all. > > Personally, I think the Rootsweb rules concerning living persons are archaic, over- > zealous and verging on the paranoid. The notion that in 2011 no-one should be > allowed to mention the name of a living person is clearly utter nonsense when so > much detail can be quite easily discovered, as you rightly point out, about just about > everyone alive! Newspapers and broadcasting media publish the names of hundreds > of living people every day. If they didn't, the media wouldn't exist! Living persons > appear in telephone directories and myriad other records, which are found all over the > Internet. Moreover, all of us who contribute to the Rootsweb lists are "living persons" > too. We also wish to communicate with other living persons who are kin we may not > even know about but the Rootsweb rules would appear to preclude this. > > Listowners seem to operate some kind of dictatorial and anti-democratic policies in > their interpretation of Rootsweb's rules, though there are considerable differences in > application from list to list. Some Listowners are more tolerant and flexible, allowing > posts concerning living people where a modicum of common sense is applied. > > -- > Roy Stockdill > Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer > Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html > > "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, > and that is not being talked about." > OSCAR WILDE > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BRISTOL_AND_SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

> Well said Roy > Mike in Droitwich > my family tree http://mjfisher.tribalpages.com < Thank you, Mike! It's good to have some public support over a matter about which I feel fairly passionate but which certain Rootsweb listowners ruthlessly suppress debate on.. I have always believed the rule about not mentioning living persons to be paranoid nonsense when, as I said, there are so many accessible sources - online and offline - which puts the names and details of just about everybody in the public domain. What particularly riles me is the sheer rank hypocrisy of it all. How can anyone who, for instance, flaunts themselves on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites expect privacy? Any more than can the famous expect their private lives to be kept out of the public arena when they shamelessly use the media to their personal advantage when they have something to sell, like a new film, TV series, book or fitness video. Family historians should be the very last people to apply self censorship, since our entire hobby and pastime demands that we gather and publish as full details as possible of our researches. Personally, the only complaints I've ever received from living members of my family is when I've inadvertently left them out !!! I do feel this is a topic Rootsweb ought seriously to address and reconsider in the light of widely changing circumstances. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE