To: Subscribers to all the Lists which I maintain. If you're receiving this message, then you subscribe to one of my Lists. Over the past week we have had quite an affair at RootsWeb concerning Archiving of messages to the Lists. Things have changed and I will try to cover all the changes below. Now, to clear up some confusion, Archives are nothing but permanently stored files containing ALL the past posts to the Lists at RootsWeb. For instance, if you subscribe to SURNAME-QUERY, every message you have sent to that List will be in the Archives for THAT List. Every message sent by anyone to that List will be in the Archives. These Archives have already been available for some time to anyone who knew how to send the appropriate email messages containing "X-commands". By placing them on RootsWeb web site, you no longer have to try to remem- ber all those arcane commands, how to format them, etc. Once the Archives pages are active at RootsWeb, all you have to do is log on to the appropriate URL, navigate to the appropriate List's pages and search to your heart's content. The Archives will eventually contain all the messages posted to the Lists, plus all those posted to the same Lists when they were at MAISER. There will be NO usernames and NO passwords !!!!! Anyone can log on and browse through the files. If that scares you, then please read on. In the first place, each person who sends email to a public forum, such as the Lists at RootsWeb, should be aware that, with a few exceptions, anyone may subscribe to the Lists and receive all the email posted there. So, if you sent something in the past that you are afraid will show up in the permanent Archives, well.......you are already too late. Your email has already been read by everyone who subscribes/subscribed to a particular List. As to those posts being in the Archives, why worry now? Next, some "worry-warts" whine that the genealogical data they post to the Lists will be available to anyone to copy and publish and get rich. Ha Ha! If these nefarious thieves wanted your genealogical data, they could have already copied it by reading your email to the Lists. Now, it may seem that once it is all together in one place with easy access, some data thieves may now find it profitable to log on and copy material, put it on CD and get rich. Let me ask each of you a question. If you don't want other researchers to see your research, why did you post it to the Lists in the first place? If you wanted it to remain private and not be disseminated, you've already goofed. Folks, once you send it via email, the whole world has access to it. To finalize -- from here forward, if you have something you don't want others to see and be able to copy for further dissemination, DON'T send it to a List !!! If you have sent something in the past that you now decide you don't want to be open to the public, sorry but it's too late. Messages already sent to a List are going to show up in the Archives. There is nothing you or I can do about it. BE WARNED !!!!! If you don't want your email to a List Archived at RootsWeb, don't send it in the first place. For some of you SURNAME-QUERY users, you CANNOT go to the Archives for that List and expect to find myriads of messages on EVERY surname. ONLY those messages sent to SURNAME-QUERY will be in the Archives. If you want to do a thorough search of the Archives for specific surnames, start with SURNAME-QUERY, then do a search of the List for that specific surname, such as SMITH-L, BROYLES-L, JONES-L, etc. This matter is NOT open to vote or discussion. There will be no usernames or passwords required to access the Archives, starting on December 1st. Until that time, the Archives will not be available. You will have varying opinions on the openness of the Archives. There is no need to argue them here on the Lists. It will change nothing. Here is my viewpoint in a nutshell: If I send genealogical data to a List, I do so for the express purpose of making that data available for others to benefit from. If I am one of those "little old ladies" who have spent the last 50 years of their lives collecting data and be damned if I will share it with the unwashed, then I won't send the data to the Lists. For the life of me, I could never figure out why they collect the data if they don't want other family members to benefit from it. This attitude is more prevalent than you might think. I am researching several surname lines where there are people possessing unbelievable amounts of data, but will only part with it if I PROVE my connection to that surname line, seem like a "nice" guy, and PROMISE not to pass it on to anyone else. Saints protect me !!!!! If any of you just HAVE to comment on this, DO NOT send your comment to the List. Send it to me via private email. My address is in the headers at the beginning of this message, and here it is again: sgtgeorg@concentric.net DO NOT burden the rest of the List users by posting back here to this List. Regards, SgtGeorge Listowner ==== DURMAN Mailing List ==== To unsubscribe from DURMAN, send an e-mail message to: DURMAN-L-request@rootsweb.com (for individual messages) DURMAN-D-request@rootsweb.com (for Digest mode) Subject: unsubscribe In the body include only one word: unsubscribe (Turn OFF your signature file when sending this command)