Someone in the rootsweb blog suggested  https://www.ourfamtree.org/Kathie B On Thursday, January 11, 2018 5:27 PM, Jennifer McKemie via FREEPAGES-HELP <[email protected]> wrote: I purchased a plan from Family History hosting to do the same as Ann has done with her island company (an island!). I'm hoping to do the same, create a mirror site, but at the moment I'm finding it a little intimidating to start from the beginning as there is so much to do and I felt so comfortable with Freepages. And I'd had the basic structure set up for so long, I've forgotten so much! lol trying to do it more "correctly" but I dunno! Lotsa work! On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 10:57 AM Vanessa Stern via FREEPAGES-HELP < [email protected]> wrote: > There have been discussions on this list from time to time about what > happens to all of our hard work in the future - when we are no longer > here to do the upkeep.  We have been assured that the sites will go > nowhere - they will exist into perpetuity unless we designate someone > to take over.  I have a historic site that I have been working on and > housing on Freepages for 15 years.  Now I am uneasy that it will > continue to exists and am looking at other options.  What are others > thinking/doing? > > Vanessa

I purchased a plan from Family History hosting to do the same as Ann has done with her island company (an island!). I'm hoping to do the same, create a mirror site, but at the moment I'm finding it a little intimidating to start from the beginning as there is so much to do and I felt so comfortable with Freepages. And I'd had the basic structure set up for so long, I've forgotten so much! lol trying to do it more "correctly" but I dunno! Lotsa work! On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 10:57 AM Vanessa Stern via FREEPAGES-HELP < [email protected]> wrote: > There have been discussions on this list from time to time about what > happens to all of our hard work in the future - when we are no longer > here to do the upkeep. We have been assured that the sites will go > nowhere - they will exist into perpetuity unless we designate someone > to take over. I have a historic site that I have been working on and > housing on Freepages for 15 years. Now I am uneasy that it will > continue to exists and am looking at other options. What are others > thinking/doing? > > Vanessa > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Jennifer McKemie Georgia, USA [email protected] ~ hertreestory.com

Ms McClean, Thank you for the link to: https://www.biz.nf/   I have decided to give it a try.  I have been involved with Roots Web since 1997 and have expected the "ax to fall" since it was purchased by Ancestry. IMNSHO, Roots Web was great while it lasted !!  [><]  Tom Watkins Eau Gallie, Florida  W_a_t_k_i_n_s, A_d_a_m_s, B_o_n_d, B_o_o_t_h, B_r_o_o_k_s, C_a_i_n, C_l_e_m_e_n_t_s, G_i_b_s_o_n, H_o_w_e_l_l, J_o_n_e_s, L_a_s_s_i_t_e_r, M_a_r_s_h, P_a_r_r_i_s_h, R_e_e_v_e_s, S_a_n_d_e_r_s, W_a_l_l http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~tew4515/  http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=tew4515&I11.x=26&I11.y=5  tomsgenealogy at yahoo dot com 

Any web hosting company can go belly up, whether free or paid. Even if you paid 20 full years in advance, the co could still disappear. Technology could change. TOS/TOU could change (like "if no activity for 2 yrs, we can delete your site.") Even if you mirror on 2 sites, 4 sites, 6 sites, nothing is guaranteed. Even if you published it all in books, nothing is guaranteed. Big sigh. Judy

Have now found a free web hosting setup - based on Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean!  https://www.biz.nf/ My new domain is www.annmcclean.co.nf/ (http://www.annmcclean.co.nf/)  Just one page up at the moment as I have a lot of editing to do... Will use it to make a mirror of my Freepages family history site - and see what happens :) Regards,  Ann CAWTHORN, SCOTT,  & DeSILVA PALMER Family History Pages: http://www.annmcclean.co.nf/ <http://www.annmcclean.co.uk/> http://www.annmcclean.co.uk/ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cawthorn/ <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Ecawthorn/> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On 10/01/2018 15:56, Vanessa Stern via FREEPAGES-HELP wrote: > There have been discussions on this list from time to time about what > happens to all of our hard work in the future - when we are no longer > here to do the upkeep.  We have been assured that the sites will go > nowhere - they will exist into perpetuity unless we designate someone > to take over.  I have a historic site that I have been working on and > housing on Freepages for 15 years.  Now I am uneasy that it will > continue to exists and am looking at other options.  What are others > thinking/doing?

Thanks for posting that link.Syble On Tuesday, January 9, 2018, 11:07:11 AM CST, Ann McClean via FREEPAGES-HELP <[email protected]> wrote: New message on Rootsweb homepage: http://home.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

There have been discussions on this list from time to time about what happens to all of our hard work in the future - when we are no longer here to do the upkeep. We have been assured that the sites will go nowhere - they will exist into perpetuity unless we designate someone to take over. I have a historic site that I have been working on and housing on Freepages for 15 years. Now I am uneasy that it will continue to exists and am looking at other options. What are others thinking/doing? Vanessa --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Thank You for the update, I've worked on my website since 2004 and I'm close to 16,000 pages now. It' probably the most important creation other than my 7 children, some of whom actually, appreciate all the work I've done creating it. Tom On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 3:00 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Send FREEPAGES-HELP mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists9.rootsweb.ancestry.com/mailman/listinfo/ > freepages-help > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of FREEPAGES-HELP digest..." > > > When replying to a digest message, quote only the specific message to > which you are replying, removing the rest of the digest from your reply. > Remember to change the subject of your reply so that it coincides with the > message subject to which you are replying. > ***FREEPAGES HELP & FAQ*** > <http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/FAQ/fpindex.html> > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Freepages - new message on Rootsweb homepage (Ann McClean) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2018 17:06:53 +0000 > From: Ann McClean <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [FreeHelp] Freepages - new message on Rootsweb homepage > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; format=flowed > > New message on Rootsweb homepage: > > http://home.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > To contact the FREEPAGES-HELP list administrator, send an email to > [email protected] > > To post a message to the FREEPAGES-HELP mailing list, send an email to > [email protected] > > __________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] > with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body > of the > email with no additional text. > > > ------------------------------ > > End of FREEPAGES-HELP Digest, Vol 13, Issue 5 > ********************************************* >

I don't think there is any guarantee of "forever." But from what I've seen of any other hosting agency I firmly believe Ancestry/Rootsweb is our best hope. On 01/10/2018 09:56 AM, Vanessa Stern via FREEPAGES-HELP wrote: > There have been discussions on this list from time to time about what > happens to all of our hard work in the future - when we are no longer > here to do the upkeep.  We have been assured that the sites will go > nowhere - they will exist into perpetuity unless we designate someone > to take over.  I have a historic site that I have been working on and > housing on Freepages for 15 years.  Now I am uneasy that it will > continue to exists and am looking at other options.  What are others > thinking/doing? > > Vanessa > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- "The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes-and ships-and sealing-wax- Of cabbages-and kings-- And why the sea is boiling hot- And whether pigs have wings." Lewis Carroll _ _... ..._ _ _._ ._ ..... ._.. ... .._

New message on Rootsweb homepage: http://home.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

It's no problem--- I have backups upon backups. I just found it odd that the pages in Wayback won't open. And I don't use absolute links, as someone else suggested. I'm not in any distress about this. They'll come back eventually. Or Ancestry will have a huge revolt. LOL Judy

I think some of us would be interested in how you found Google Sites and how you did it.  My initial look was a bit daunting. As I read it I didn't relish copying all my html made pages and pasting them. 100's + times. But I have backup so it's not a necessity for me. Bryan On 08-Jan-18 12:22:57 AM, Marie Benge Craig via FREEPAGES-HELP <[email protected]> wrote: I redid mine using Google Sites. On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 3:07 AM wrote: > Send FREEPAGES-HELP mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > http://lists9.rootsweb.ancestry.com/mailman/listinfo/freepages-help > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of FREEPAGES-HELP digest..." > > > When replying to a digest message, quote only the specific message to > which you are replying, removing the rest of the digest from your reply. > Remember to change the subject of your reply so that it coincides with the > message subject to which you are replying. > ***FREEPAGES HELP & FAQ*** > > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Rootsweb Servers Down for Security Audit (Ann McClean) > 2. Re: Rootsweb Servers Down for Security Audit (Barry Carlson) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2018 15:03:14 +0000 > From: Ann McClean > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [FreeHelp] Rootsweb Servers Down for Security Audit > Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > Any news yet on when FreePages will be back up? > > Regards,? Ann. > > CAWTHORN, SCOTT, PALMER & DeSILVA PALMER Family History Pages: > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cawthorn/ > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > On 24/12/2017 10:26, Barry Carlson via FREEPAGES-HELP wrote: > > On December 23, the following message appeared on the Rootsweb Blog - > > > > https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2017/12/23/rootsweb-security-update/ > > > > ... which means that you cannot access any Rootsweb pages, nor connect > > by FTP to any of your Rootsweb community sites. Indications are that > > this shutdown could be for some time as Ancestry attempt to make the > > Rootsweb sites secure. Ultimately, an ability to change passwords plus > > two factor ID may form part of the solution. > > > > The Rootsweb Mailing Lists are still active. > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2018 08:00:47 +1300 > From: Barry Carlson > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [FreeHelp] Rootsweb Servers Down for Security Audit > Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; format=flowed > > Ann, > > Other than reading the the comments being made on the Ancestry blog and > sharing the frustration being expressed by many of the commenters, I am > unable unable to second guess what may be happening. > > So patience may or may not be a virtue! > > Barry > > --------------------------------- > > On 07-Jan-18 4:03 AM, Ann McClean via FREEPAGES-HELP wrote: > > Any news yet on when FreePages will be back up? > > > > Regards,? Ann. > > > > CAWTHORN, SCOTT, PALMER & DeSILVA PALMER Family History Pages: > > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cawthorn/ > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > To contact the FREEPAGES-HELP list administrator, send an email to > [email protected] > > To post a message to the FREEPAGES-HELP mailing list, send an email to > [email protected] > > __________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] > with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body > of the > email with no additional text. > > > ------------------------------ > > End of FREEPAGES-HELP Digest, Vol 13, Issue 1 > ********************************************* > -- *Marie* *[email protected] * ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Freepages haven't been closed down - as yet.  And no-one got notfication - it was only posted on the Rootsweb Blog. On 24/12/2017 10:26, Barry Carlson via FREEPAGES-HELP wrote: > On December 23, the following message appeared on the Rootsweb Blog - > > https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2017/12/23/rootsweb-security-update/ > > ... which means that you cannot access any Rootsweb pages, nor connect > by FTP to any of your Rootsweb community sites. Indications are that > this shutdown could be for some time as Ancestry attempt to make the > Rootsweb sites secure. Ultimately, an ability to change passwords plus > two factor ID may form part of the solution. > > The Rootsweb Mailing Lists are still active. On 08/01/2018 09:42, Jill Muir via FREEPAGES-HELP wrote: > I don’t get it. I have not heard from freepages at all and certainly had nothing to tell me that they were closing my account. I have 2 sites hosted by them. > > Jill

Jill, looking at the blogs, perhaps there's a chance that yours aren't 'affected'.   https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2017/12/23/rootsweb-security-update/Have to wait and see.  Kathie/Kabe      On Monday, January 8, 2018 4:42 AM, Jill Muir <[email protected]> wrote: I don’t get it. I have not heard from freepages at all and certainly had nothing to tell me that they were closing my account. I have 2 sites hosted by them. Jill Kabe via FREEPAGES-HELP <[email protected]> wrote: > > Some sites are saved in the Internet Archive  > Internet Archive: Wayback Machine > https://archive.org/web/ > > Copy/paste your freepage url into the Browse bar.  Mine is there:  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lowery/ > Best of luck!Kathie Buchanan

Re- message by Janice Gonzales BarryNew Orleans, was message 2 in those last sent to me. Quote - "As a freepages user since 2004, I think what is really unconscionable here is that the users were not advised beforehand to make a hard copy of their pages or to save their formatting in some way.? That this action was taken in bad faith by the current owners of freepages.com is made clear by the date on which the notice was given.? To wait until Christmas Eve to advise users of the shut down is really inexcusable. The vast majority of users are occupied with various family and social obligations at that time." It has always been advised that we keep a copy of our pages on our own computer. Even if you use a programme that does the coding for you a copy can be gathered by right clicking the open page on line and looking for "view page source" you get what might look like lots of scrambled stuff but if saved as an html file will be recoverable. Too late now for some but time to learn for next time, there surely will be one. Tina, From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, 8 January 2018, 8:05 Subject: FREEPAGES-HELP Digest, Vol 13, Issue 2 Send FREEPAGES-HELP mailing list submissions to     [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit     http://lists9.rootsweb.ancestry.com/mailman/listinfo/freepages-help or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to     [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at     [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of FREEPAGES-HELP digest..."

I don’t get it. I have not heard from freepages at all and certainly had nothing to tell me that they were closing my account. I have 2 sites hosted by them. Jill > On 8 Jan 2018, at 01:10, Kabe via FREEPAGES-HELP <[email protected]> wrote: > > Some sites are saved in the Internet Archive > Internet Archive: Wayback Machine > > > | > | | > Internet Archive: Wayback Machine > | | > > | > > https://archive.org/web/ > > Copy/paste your freepage url into the Browse bar. Mine is there: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lowery/ > Best of luck!Kathie Buchanan > > > > On Sunday, January 7, 2018 6:51 PM, Janice Gonzales Barry via FREEPAGES-HELP <[email protected]> wrote: > > > As a freepages user since 2004, I think what is really unconscionable here is that the users were not advised beforehand to make a hard copy of their pages or to save their formatting in some way. That this action was taken in bad faith by the current owners of freepages.com is made clear by the date on which the notice was given. To wait until Christmas Eve to advise users of the shut down is really inexcusable. The vast majority of users are occupied with various family and social obligations at that time. > Janice Gonzales BarryNew Orleans > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Sorry to hear that, Judy.  I know how hard & long you've worked on your wonderful site.  I think everything will be okay after the big security breaches are patched.  It's not just rootsweb, it's Apple, Microsoft... 1/2 of India... Best!Kathie B On Monday, January 8, 2018 3:21 AM, JFlorian <[email protected]> wrote: Mine is in Wayback.  But oddly, no pages will open.

I agree with Tina, we have always been told, although some may have not noticed it, that it is essential to keep copies of all our pages. For those having trouble getting pages to open at archive.org, I believe you will not be able to browse around your site if you used absolute rather than relative urls for your pages. I mean, a page hot linked as ../myotherpage.html should open up, but not a page with a hot link http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~myusername/myotherpage.html. You have to enter the full URL of the page into archive.org and then browse to the last date it was spidered. I agree it is horrible that they took everything down, it would have been nice if they had at least made some parts of rootsweb read-only, rather than take it all offline totally. I think it may well be a matter of staffing, and the fact that they don't want to do a sloppy job. And I suspect that, as valuable as many parts of rootsweb are to the genealogical community, the bottom line for Ancestry may be that their staff is overwhelmed with issues on the paid parts of the site, and need to repair those first. I believe Anne Gillespie Mitchell wants to see things running well for us, but she may not be able to control how many IT staff hours are provided for repairing security issues and getting rootsweb back online. With this being the second prolonged outage since Ancestry took rootsweb over, I realized I have to make a mirror site elsewhere, where I can put copies of my webpages and my worldconnect trees where I can send friends and family members. But I won't totally do away with my freepages site - SEO is one huge reason, there are links all over the web to my pages at freepages, as soon as rootsweb is back online, the search engines will find my pages again. There are various places we can get free webspace, I even tried copying some of my pages into what are called "stories" at a tree of mine at tribalpages.com, but no matter how hard I tried to fix my html, the formatting was totally messed up. About Google sites, I won't touch those for my own pages, I have chosen http://sdf.org as my host, the free public access Unix system, where there are no ads. The catch at sdf.org is you have to do everything from command line if you want a free site, so it will only appeal to freepages site owners who are adept with uploading and downloading pages via sftp, and do not mind using ssh. On 1/8/18, hutley via FREEPAGES-HELP <[email protected]> wrote: > Why did they not beef up the security last year when they were down for such > > a long time? I think it has lots to do with Ancestry. They are the company > that charges exorbitant prices for memberships and they have control over > Rootsweb. ... >... > -----Original Message----- > From: Tina Glen-Riddell via FREEPAGES-HELP > Sent: Monday, January 8, 2018 04:37 > To: [email protected] > Cc: Tina Glen-Riddell > Subject: Re: [FreeHelp] FREEPAGES-HELP Digest, Vol 13, Issue 2 > > ... > It has always been advised that we keep a copy of our pages on our own > computer. ...

At 06:51 PM 1/7/2018, Janice Gonzales Barry via FREEPAGES-HELP wrote: >As a freepages user since 2004, I think what is >really unconscionable here is that the users >were not advised beforehand to make a hard copy >of their pages or to save their formatting in >some way. That this action was taken in bad >faith by the current owners of freepages.com is >made clear by the date on which the notice was >given. To wait until Christmas Eve to advise >users of the shut down is really inexcusable. >The vast majority of users are occupied with >various family and social obligations at that >time. Janice Gonzales BarryNew Orleans >------------------------------- To unsubscribe >from the list, please send an email to >[email protected] with the >word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the >subject and the body of the message The timing of the shut down was dictated by the discovery of the potential security breach on Dec 20th. Despite the caveat in the announcement, the breach as described should not affect the retention of any sites currently housed on RootsWeb servers and they should all come back on line once the server security is updated. Pat Asher List Admin

Why did they not beef up the security last year when they were down for such a long time? I think it has lots to do with Ancestry. They are the company that charges exorbitant prices for memberships and they have control over Rootsweb. The information found there is no better than what you can find on any other site. Private contributions from individuals (not all substantiated). That are my 2 cents of input on this subject. In essence I am getting fed up with all of it. Heidi Boos-Utley Email: [email protected] URL: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~heidisfamily -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: Tina Glen-Riddell via FREEPAGES-HELP Sent: Monday, January 8, 2018 04:37 To: [email protected] Cc: Tina Glen-Riddell Subject: Re: [FreeHelp] FREEPAGES-HELP Digest, Vol 13, Issue 2 Re- message by Janice Gonzales BarryNew Orleans, was message 2 in those last sent to me. Quote - "As a freepages user since 2004, I think what is really unconscionable here is that the users were not advised beforehand to make a hard copy of their pages or to save their formatting in some way.? That this action was taken in bad faith by the current owners of freepages.com is made clear by the date on which the notice was given.? To wait until Christmas Eve to advise users of the shut down is really inexcusable. The vast majority of users are occupied with various family and social obligations at that time." It has always been advised that we keep a copy of our pages on our own computer. Even if you use a programme that does the coding for you a copy can be gathered by right clicking the open page on line and looking for "view page source" you get what might look like lots of scrambled stuff but if saved as an html file will be recoverable. Too late now for some but time to learn for next time, there surely will be one. Tina, From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, 8 January 2018, 8:05 Subject: FREEPAGES-HELP Digest, Vol 13, Issue 2 Send FREEPAGES-HELP mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists9.rootsweb.ancestry.com/mailman/listinfo/freepages-help or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of FREEPAGES-HELP digest..." ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message