1c. USING ROOTSWEB: Making Connections via the Message Board Gateway Lana LISTER is subscribed to many RootsWeb mailing lists (http://lists.rootsweb.com) even though she completed her genealogical research years ago -- to the extent that anyone can ever call genealogical research "completed." Lana is quite proud of the fact that she was able to trace all of her ancestors back to the immigrants who came to Canada where Lana was born and raised. She traced ancestors to England, Scotland, and Ireland, and she has filing cabinets chock full of records on all of her families -- including documents she gathered many years ago on a trip to the British Isles. Lana is a valuable and knowledgeable mentor/helper on her subscribed lists as she possesses numerous books and publications about her surnames and is well informed on various aspects of Canadian research and resources. One thing Lana really likes about the RootsWeb mailing lists is that many of the lists to which she subscribes not only include messages posted by other subscribers to the list but also have messages coming in from "the outside" that have been posted on the same-topic message board at RootsWeb/Ancestry. Now Lana will be the first one to tell you that she isn't all that familiar with message boards. She prefers the familiarity of her mailing lists and likes being able to just open up her e-mail and find the list messages waiting for her. She also likes the protection against spam and viruses on the RootsWeb lists because only list subscribers can post and only plain text messages are permitted with no attachments. But she does enjoy seeing the "outside" messages posted on the message boards that come through to her in e-mail on the lists and she often finds new cousins through the magic of this resource they call the "message board gateway." However, try as she may Lana couldn't quite figure out how this "gateway" works. She wondered why she seldom got a response from her new "cousins" when she replied to these "gatewayed" messages and she wondered why no one ever thanked her for her assistance. Lana began to suspect that the original posters were not receiving her replies and she couldn't figure out what to do with the gatewayed messages to get her message through to the person who posted on the board. She always replied to the list with her information for the poster and yet her responses were ignored. Was she doing something wrong? Why didn't the message board posters reply to her when she responded on the list? Lana dropped a note to the list administrator for one the busier lists she frequently uses. The admin replied letting her know that she is making the same mistake made by many people who are more familiar with mailing lists than boards. Message board posters are often not subscribed to the mailing list and won't see responses posted only to the list. The correct method of replying to a gatewayed message is to click on the link included in the body of the message. This takes you directly to the post in its original location on the board. There you can click on "Post Reply" and type in your response. That way the board poster will be notified of the response and will be able to view it on the board. Additionally, the list subscriber's reply will be gatewayed back to the mailing list so a separate response need not be posted there. Of course, there may be some instances when it is not convenient or possible for mailing list users to post their responses on the message boards as described above. For example, if you have an e-mail only service and/or limited access to the Internet, and as a result read and compose e-mail for mailing lists while offline then clicking on the URL link in the message is inconvenient or impossible. To reply to gatewayed message under such circumstances, remember to include a private response to the poster when you reply to the list. To accomplish this, make sure that the posters' e-mail address, which is included in the gatewayed list post, appears in the "Send To" box of your e-mail message. Lana Lister wishes she had asked this question sooner, but being a list mentor she is used to knowing the answers and posting responses rather than asking questions. She had assumed her question might appear "stupid." But, she wonders how many potential cousins she has missed out on contacting, all because she never knew the correct method of replying to a gatewayed post on her mailing lists. She vows that won't be happening in the future now that she is sure her replies will reach their intended recipients. 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: 10 August 2005, Vol. 8, No. 32. Bye now, Kathie Harrison Ancestral Whispers http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~irishrose/