I have to disagree. While he could clearly have done more to present his request in a less concerning light, nevertheless he is a genuine student trying to perform a college project related to the use of the web to support genealogy - which of us would disagree with the worthiness of his subject? He checks out, as my earlier post to this forum confirmed. Yes, he should have gone about in a slightly different way, perhaps getting his tutor to include some support. But you'll note he did ask for help and only sent the questionnaire to those that responded. Nor did he hide behind a spoofed address. He did not spam anyone. Regards Paul Barrett -----Original Message----- From: George W. Durman [mailto:GeorgeWDurman@comcast.net] Sent: 25 June 2005 09:04 To: CFT-WIN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: RE: [CFTW] questionnaire of internet genealogy users requirement survey Ian, He WAS subscribed, but I manually un-subscribed him. I'm sorry, but Rootsweb frowns on this type of solicitation. It is just another form of SPAMMING. It's especially bad when he has evidently sent identical queries to many, many Rootsweb Lists. It's as bad as those junk envelopes one gets every day in his/her USPS mailbox. George At 13-06-05 06:09 PM Monday, you wrote: *********START OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT********* >George (CFT-Win List Administrator), > >Because of the nature of this query from someone who perhaps does not own >CFT, I was wondering if you could check to see if Juan is subscribed >to the >List. If he is not, those who wish to participate will need to email Juan >directly rather than by responding to CFT-WIN-L@rootsweb.com. > >Ira >(snip) **********END OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT*********** ==== CFT-WIN Mailing List ==== You can contact the List Manager at: CFT-WIN-admin@rootsweb.com

The rules at Rootsweb have always been that if an individual is doing research such as this, he/she should contact the List managers and get permission for such a post, WHICH IS CLEARLY OFF TOPIC, and the manager MAY give permission for such an off-topic email. Yes it is probably worthwhile and commendable, but it does not adhere to the topic of this Mailing List. There ARE other Lists at Rootsweb for this very thing. He SPAMMED the List, and by doing so SPAMMED hundreds of subscribers! What else do you call it? There does not have to be any money involved, or buying or selling, for "unwanted, unsolicited email" to be SPAM. As I said, had he emailed me as the List manager, I would probably have given permission after checking with the folks at Rootsweb to make sure it did not violate any of their policies. What we often forget is that Rootsweb/Ancestry provides Mailing List services free of charge, and can certainly make the rules as they see fit. As managers, we agree to run the Lists the way Rootsweb wants them run. Regards, George W. Durman CFT-WIN List Manager At 25-06-05 05:44 AM Saturday, Paul and Barbara Barrett wrote: *********START OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT********* >I have to disagree. > >While he could clearly have done more to present his request in a less >concerning light, nevertheless he is a genuine student trying to perform a >college project related to the use of the web to support genealogy - which >of us would disagree with the worthiness of his subject? He checks >out, as >my earlier post to this forum confirmed. > >Yes, he should have gone about in a slightly different way, perhaps >getting >his tutor to include some support. But you'll note he did ask for >help and >only sent the questionnaire to those that responded. Nor did he >hide behind >a spoofed address. He did not spam anyone. > >Regards > >Paul Barrett > >-----Original Message----- >From: George W. Durman [mailto:GeorgeWDurman@comcast.net] >Sent: 25 June 2005 09:04 >To: CFT-WIN-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: RE: [CFTW] questionnaire of internet genealogy users >requirement survey > > >Ian, > >He WAS subscribed, but I manually un-subscribed him. I'm sorry, but >Rootsweb frowns on this type of solicitation. It is just another >form of SPAMMING. It's especially bad when he has evidently sent >identical queries to many, many Rootsweb Lists. It's as bad as those >junk envelopes one gets every day in his/her USPS mailbox. > >George > >At 13-06-05 06:09 PM Monday, you wrote: >*********START OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT********* > > >George (CFT-Win List Administrator), > > > >Because of the nature of this query from someone who perhaps does > not own > >CFT, I was wondering if you could check to see if Juan is subscribed > >to the > >List. If he is not, those who wish to participate will need to > email Juan > >directly rather than by responding to CFT-WIN-L@rootsweb.com. > > > >Ira > >(snip) >**********END OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT*********** > > >==== CFT-WIN Mailing List ==== >You can contact the List Manager at: >CFT-WIN-admin@rootsweb.com > > > > > >==== CFT-WIN Mailing List ==== >You can contact the List Manager at: >CFT-WIN-admin@rootsweb.com **********END OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT***********