On Sun, 17 Feb 2002 19:13:48 -0700, Virginia Tobias wrote: +In looking through my grandmother's old, turn-of-the-century +scrapbooks today, I discovered a lengthy newspaper article about +Capt. Garry Brooks, upon the occasion of his turning 100 years +old. [snip] +This is a pretty long news article, and I'm wondering where the +best place would be for me to submit the transcribed article. +Obviously, I could do it at this site, but I have noticed things +from other genealogy sites are also copied onto this list. Would +it be better for me to type it first on, say, Ancestry.com's +Brooks list - and then it could be copied here? Virginia, There are differences between a "board," as in "bulletin board" -- which is what the Ancestry operation is -- and a mailing list, which this is. The Ancestry surname boards, like the bulletin board at your local supermarket, allow people to "tack up" (post) messages or notices in a fixed location. The only people who will see these are those who subsequently visit the board. Since many users leave a post and then fail to return to the board for weeks or months, there's no "real time" exchange possible. And those folks who have email but no internet access are left out of the picture, since they can't access the website hosting the board. In contrast, on an internet mailing list like this, each time you or any subscriber posts a message, it's delivered to the mailbox of anyone interested enough to have subscribed, as fast as the internet can manage the task -- seconds, minutes or hours in most cases. So we have "real-time" exchanges here, which is the point of creating this list. On a board, in contrast, your message can languish for weeks, and connections are few and far between. Online boards tend to be an entry point for internet newcomers. Because boards aren't very efficient, for the reasons given, as newcomers gain more experience they tend to migrate their efforts to mailing lists, like those at RootsWeb, of which this is one. I periodically visit the various Brooks boards hosted on commercial sites in search of recruits for this list, but most of these attempts bounce. Having offered up that primer, I would ask that you post the transcription to our list (we're not a "site," since we're not on the Web) so that the 192 other subscribers here can have a look. :-) I'm curious myself. The only person who tends to post things from other lists here is me, and I'm your friendly listowner. :-) Others have certainly done so in the past, to the great advantage of all of us. I will not cite contributors' names for fear of omitting someone, but do take a look at the list archive, where you'll find, for example, transcriptions of the Brooks listings in the Barbour Collection for a number of CT towns, quite possibly including your own line. Looking over the messages will give you a better feel for what and how we do here. http://archiver.rootsweb.com/BROOKS--NE-L/ The address is case-sensitive. Thanks for asking, Virginia, rather than assuming. Thoughtfulness is highly prized here. Chris Christopher Brooks, List Administrator: ==================================== BROOKS-NE (Brooks Families of New England), HAPGOOD, and MERRIAM lists at RootsWeb. ==================================== [email protected]