I like the Idea, I hpoe it works!!! daVe Leininger (Broaddus) Judy Arnold wrote: > > Hello everyone, > > I'm forwarded excerpts from a message listowners received from > Karen Isaacson of RootsWeb yesterday. This is the first I've heard > of this arrangement, so any of you listowner-members who may know > more about the situation, please feel free to enlighten us. It > seems that the archives of the lists are going to be put on > webpages for any and all (at least RootsWeb members) to access. You > may ask for archives for any list, even those to which you do not > belong. Archives will not be available via e-mail. Lists may choose > to have their archives on the web or not, but there can be no > selective choosing (for instance, I won't be able to say that I > don't want my ancestral lines included, but I would like ancestral > lines included). We're all in this together. I can see positives > and negatives about both. > > Will you please read the following information and let me know what > your thoughts are on the matter? Remember, at least after the > effective date, there will be little flexibility. We either all > archive, list by list, or we don't archive at all. I am editing the > message I got to save a little space. What do you think? > > Judy > > > > >Marc and Brian and I have talked (using that ancient technology, > >the telephone), and here's the current scoop on message archives for > >RootsWeb mailing lists. It won't all take effect for a week or two, > >so to the extent you want to survey the readers of your respective > >mailing lists for their opinions, you'll have time. > > > >1. Once the new (web-based) system is on line, we will be turning > off the > >old (e-mail based) system of accessing archives. Experience has > shown > >that it is hard on the system (uses too many CPU cycles on large > lists), > >and hard on the user (difficult to understand, tricky syntax) and > hard > >on the system administrators > > Once the new tools are in place, this old horse > >is going to be put out to pasture. (I know that not everyone has web > >access -- you might want to have a few volunteers on each list who > will > >do lookups for those without web access.) > > > >2. So, what's the new web-based system to be? Evolving, for a start. > >In the initial phases, for those lists that are participating, the > >most recent messages will be available via the web in a threaded > >format. (This is what Marc has been working on.) The older messages > >(including the old Maiser archives) will be available via a clunky > >search engine (like that used for ROOTS-L on > http://searches.rootsweb.com). > >(I've been working on this, at least, until I got diverted by all > that > >stuff up there in the first paragraph.) We hope to do two additional > >things: find a new search engine that will index both the threaded > and > >unthreaded message bases, and as time allows, convert the unthreaded > >message bases to threaded. There are some open issues here that we > >haven't worked through yet, so it will be awhile, but that's the > target. > > > >3. What about passwords? These have proven much more controversial > >than I ever expected. I do understand (shoot, I pushed for them) why > >they are useful and solve a lot of problems. The difficulty is that > >they seem to introduce at least as many problems as they solve. Some > >of which hit closer to home than I like. Anything that > >requires more work from the system administration people is almost > >guaranteed to be a non-starter, and passwords unfortunately fit that > >criteria. Besides having to deal with people who can't remember > passwords > >or who type them in the wrong case, etc., there's also the problem > >that to change a password will require manual intervention (we > haven't > >developed the software yet so the listowner could do so > automatically), > >and a password that is stable and never changed isn't much security. > >If your archived messages need to be secure, a simple password won't > >be enough to secure them. If your archive messages don't need to be > >secure, then there's no need for a password. Bottomline: passwords > >make more work, but add little additional security. So, no > passwords, at > >least not for now, probably never. > > > >4. Can you edit the archives? No, at least, not now. The tools > >to let you do so aren't available, and the time for someone (me) to > >do it for you is in too short of supply. Except for cases of > >egregious copyright violation, death threats, etc, I won't be > >available to edit your archives for you. I know this means there > >will be some cruft, subscribe/unsubscribe commands, reposted digests, > >spam, etc. For most lists, even with the cruft, the signal to noise > >ratio will still be quite high. > > > >5. Does your list have to participate? No. If you don't want your > >list included, go to the utility page for your mailing list, follow > >the button at the bottom labelled "edit selected files" and add to > your > >reject list the address "[email protected]". (If you go to > >your utility page, and you don't have a button like that at the > >bottom, then and only then, write to [email protected] and ask > >that the address [email protected] be added to the reject > >list for your mailing list. Be sure to say what mailing list.) Note > >that, if your list doesn't participate in the web-based archives, > >there will be no access to your archives unless you make alternative > >arrangements (for instance, through your ISP) to provide such. If > you > >decide you do want to set up your own message archive elsewhere, we > >will zip up your old archives here (including the old messages from > >Maiser, if any) and put them somewhere so you can FTP them. Not all > >lists want archives (hi, Wally!): if that describes your list, just > >opt out of the web-based archives, and voila!, you're set. > > > >6. What if you have a single hothead who doesn't want his/her > messages > >included? You have some options. a) You can simply not participate. > >b) You can tell him/her tough, and go ahead and participate. c) > You can > >ask that we not include your material from before the cutover (see > >below), and tell your hothead that anything he/she posts after the > >cutover will be included. (For the third case, send a letter to > >[email protected], etc. etc.) > > > >Target date for the cutover: 1 December 1997. That should provide > time > >for you to touch base with your listmembers (if you so desire), and > >for us to further shakedown the scripts that will be used to make > >all this happen. Marc's beta-test will probably be back online > before > >then. > > > >Karen > > > > > > > Judy Marshall Arnold - [email protected] > My Favorite Bible Verses Page: > http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/1860/verses.html > All in Good Time Genealogy Page: > http://www.flash.net/~judyad/