Hi all :) We have some things to talk about! (1) Statistics - as of 0700 EDT, May 20, 1998 The front page has had 3915 hits The start of the Guide has had 2149 hits The surname page has had 3660 hits All since December 19, 1997 !!!! So it looks like the site is "a keeper" :) We're talking with rootsweb about moving there. Main reason, in order to be able to get on the bigger search engines, such as Yahoo, that usually won't put geocities sites into their databases. Seems that geocities and some of the other free sites crash browsers due to the popup ads. Even tho' we don't have popup ads (because chirho pays for the site to be geoplus, and thus avoid the ads) we're still tarred with that brush. (2) NEED INPUT! The question of an online bookstore association has arisen again! I was much against it because it would introduce the issue of money and might thereby be divisive to the group. A new suggestion has been to donate any proceeds to help fund rootsweb. chirho is BEGGING for input, folks. It would be more work (probably not overwhelming, tho') but IF folks REALLY want to do that would GLADLY do the work... but still doesn't want it to cause divisions :) Let me know pro or con!!! (3) The site is getting another thorough housecleaning, with several significant changes: (a) pages are being revised to be easier for older browsers to load, and to print - in recognition that many folks pay for their downloads by the minute/byte and aren't happy to pay for all the byte-costly beauty :) All "light print on dark pages" are being changed to dark on light, some browsers can't print them otherwise, and many folk print them off and peruse at leisure. (b) pages are being placed into subdirectories (some of em are.. ) and/or having their names changed in order to put some order into things and make it a bit easier to see "what's where" - NOTHING IS BEING LOST OR DISCARDED and you can find YOUR project by checking about on the Guide page. (c) When a new term starts, old class pages and logs are being placed into an "archive", with all duplicated information and pictures stripped. Doing this the other day saved nearly 1 MEG !!! Archive starts at http://www.geocities.com/~fiannag/logs/index.html (d) There's a WONDERFUL NEW section on the COUNTIES in the works!!!! Nothing more about it 'til it's done, tho ;) This, because Irlgen has gone to a commercial site (some good free searches, otherwise US$5-25 for information which was free before. chirho, being concerned about copyright, is working from new extractions - so it IS taking some time :) (e) Just for fun ;) !! Take a look at the logs for the current Intermediate Practical Internet Genealogy course - I PIG for short! Hehehehehehehehe!!! Feedback WANTED! Feedback NEEDED!!!! from YOU!!!!!!! Peace. Anne . chirho@prodigy.net http://www.hoseahouse.org http://www.geocities.com/~hoseahouse/genealogy/index.html http://www.geocities.com/~fiannag/index.html