Below is a portion of a genealogy news letter which I receive each week, it is quite long but I only included one article, 1b as our tempers have gotten out of control. I am sorry about the golf and diner topics I posted and will do so off the Croatia website. Nicholas Haramija RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine 4 May 2005, Vol. 8, No. 18, Circulation: 806,273+ (c) 1998-2005 RootsWeb.com, Inc. http://www.rootsweb.com/ * * * Editor: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, Certified Genealogist [email protected] Certification: http://www.bcgcertification.org/certification/ * * * Keep informed about the latest news, new databases, webpages and mailing lists at RootsWeb. Subscribe to the free weekly RootsWeb Review. http://newsletters.rootsweb.com/ * * * Search and share family trees: WorldConnect: http://wc.rootsweb.com/ Post and read messages on all relevant surname, locality, and topic Message Boards and Mailing Lists: Message Boards: http://boards.rootsweb.com/ Mailing Lists: http://lists.rootsweb.com/ * * * =============================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1. NEWS AND NOTES, AND SITES WORTH SEEING 1a. Editor's Desk: "Culinary Past"; "Digital World"; "American Patriots on Your Tree?" 1b. Using RootsWeb: "Keeping Your Cool on Mailing Lists" 1c. Tips from Readers: "Exploring in Unlikely Places" 2. Connecting Through RootsWeb: "English Wedding Turns up 'Relies'" 3. New RootsWeb Mailing Lists 4. New Webpages at RootsWeb 5. New/Updated FreePages and HomePages 6. New User-contributed Databases 7. RootsWeb Review's Bottomless Mailbag: "World War I Mother's Day Letter from France" "Too Many Kissing Cousins" "Finding Hispanics Ancestors" "Where's the Accent?" "Practical Preservation Advice" "Historical Societies May Want Your Genealogy" 8. Humor/Humour: "One Too Many" 9. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints * * * 1b. USING ROOTSWEB: Keeping Your Cool on Mailing Lists Sam CRABBE is a busy man. He holds down a full-time job, coaches his son's middle school soccer team in New York, and has several hobbies. One of them is tracing his family history and a favorite resource for pursuing that hobby is RootsWeb's mailing lists. Sam likes to keep current with all queries and data on his favorite lists as soon as they are posted, so he subscribes to them all in mail mode. Sam is lucky in that his employer doesn't mind that he frequently checks and sends mail for his lists from work because he has access to his home e-mail account at work via his ISP's web mail feature. That means he doesn't abuse his work e-mail account for non-work purposes. Sam doesn't waste time. He recently became extremely offended when early one morning Molly MUDD, another subscriber to one of Sam's favorite U.S. county locality mailing lists, had the audacity to send a rather nasty political joke to the list (and probably everyone else in her address book). Not only was the joke offensive to Sam on a political level, but it was littered with off-color language as well -- not to mention that it was totally off-topic for the subject matter of the list! Sam's blood pressure hit the roof and he instantly clicked reply and, quoting the offensive post, let Sarah and the entire list of more than 250 subscribers know exactly how he felt about such nonsense. Before long Sam noticed that five or six other list members had chimed in with "me toos" to concur with his opinion. Each one, again copied Sam's entire message and the offensive post to which he had replied. And just where was Maxine WHIPP, the list administrator, while all this was going on? A good two hours had gone by since the obnoxious political message was posted to the list and she had not yet intervened to put a stop to this outrage. Before long, an embarrassed Molly MUDD sheepishly posted a sincere- sounding apology to the list regarding her slip-up. She hadn't realized she was sending that joke to the mailing list when she forwarded it to everyone in her address book and she was extremely sorry. The e-mail had been forwarded to her from her brother-in-law who was in the habit of sending all sorts of chain letters and jokes to everyone on his "joke list." Molly assured everyone she knows better and this was just a mistake that wouldn't happen again. An hour later, when Maxine WHIPP, the list admin, awakened in San Diego, California, brewed a pot of coffee, retrieved the morning paper, and booted up her laptop to check e-mail; the entire matter was over. However, Maxine was none too pleased with the events that had transpired on the list. After all, she had no control over the messages posted to the list by subscribers and she couldn't be expected to monitor mail 24/7 when she is a volunteer. Maxine also has a full-time job, and while she enjoys her list admin duties, she can't stand guard day and night. Maxine decided to let her list members know how they should react in the inevitable event that this type of "oops!" should occur in the future. Her sage advice about what to do if you see an inappropriate message on a mailing list was: --Wait a reasonable amount of time for the administrator to handle the situation. Not everyone is in same time zone that you are. Moreover, volunteer admins cannot be expected to respond to a list problem instantly -- and it is not the job or responsibility of list subscribers to handle administrative list matters. --If you want to contact the poster privately and let him know you found his message offensive or inappropriate, you may do so, but please remember that the error may have been unintentional. --Do not post a response to the list, which will only be every bit as off-topic and inappropriate as the original message, and call attention to the offensive/inappropriate post. --Do not quote the message in any future list post so that everyone has to read the offensive message a second time quoted in your reply. --Should you feel the need to comment on the offensive or inappropriate message to the list admin -- do so privately. --Contact any RootsWeb list admin at: [email protected] -- replacing the generic word LISTNAME with the actual name of the list. Rest assured that whether or not you see the list admin take action publicly on the list, faithful volunteer admins such as Maxine WHIPP are usually acting behind the scenes to maintain order and keep discussion on-topic on the lists. 9. Subscriptions, Submissions, Advertising, Reprints ----------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIPTIONS. You received this newsletter because you are subscribed to the RootsWeb Review. To manage your e-mail communications (i.e. to unsubscribe from this newsletter or to sign up for others), http://[email protected] or visit our newsletter management center any time at: http://newsletters.rootsweb.com/ If you use a spam-filtering program, in order to receive the RootsWeb Review please make sure that you're allowing e-mail from [email protected] The RootsWeb Review is a free publication of MyFamily.com, Inc., 360 West 4800 North, Provo, UT, 84604 * * * The RootsWeb Review does not publish or answer genealogical queries, and the editor regrets that she is unable to provide any personal research assistance or advice. RootsWeb Review welcomes short (500 words or less) articles, humor, stories, or letters, and reserves the right to edit all submissions. The announcement of books and products is provided as a community service and is not an endorsement in any way. All mail sent to the RootsWeb Review editor is considered to be for publication - send in plain text (please, no attachments) to: [email protected] * * * ROOTSWEB REVIEW ADVERTISING CONTACTS. AdSales Worldwide: Shana Davis, [email protected] * * * REPRINTS. Permission to reprint articles from RootsWeb Review is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, provided: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following notice appears at the end of the article: Previously published in RootsWeb Review: 4 May 2005, Vol. 8, No. 18. * * * *