>> <snip> >> RootsWeb to be Moved to Ancestry.com. >> >> As a more-or-less skeptic, I wonder when the other shoe will drop >> and RW will be either terminated or become a for-a-fee service, >> despite Sullivan's claims to the contrary.. >> >> Suspicious Ol' Bob >> "Robert Melson" <melsonr@aragorn.rgmhome.net> > > It was some time ago so my memory may be fuzzy, but I seem to recall > the originators of RootsWeb (when, due to economics were forced to > use Ancestry as a host) included as part of the contract that > RootsWeb would stay a free resource in perpetuity. > > Gary Templeman "GaryT" <gtemplemanPAINT@proaxis.com> Having signed the contract, I'm kinda aware of the details. ;) There was no requirement that RootsWeb stay free or persist in perpetuity. On a practical level, though, we certainly expected that. The user- provided RootsWeb content almost by definition has to stay free, because the users can always take it elsewhere. And it's hard to imagine Ancestry not supporting RootsWeb's functionality, because RootsWeb is relatively inexpensive to operate and serves to grow the customer base for Ancestry's commercial products. >From my perspective, there's nothing particularly good or bad about moving RootsWeb's content inside the Ancestry domain. It clears up some statistical difficulties associated with tracking traffic at the two sites, at the cost of vaguely blurring the line between the free community site and the the commercial data provider. On the balance, that's a yawn. Again from my perspective, the thing that has surprized me is how little effort Ancestry has put into improving RootsWeb over the last seven years. Technology has changed a lot, these days there's a whole variety of powerful new social networking tools and such, but most of RootsWeb has been stagnant or (arguably) has deteriorated. Karen and I have been kinda sitting on the sidelines for some years now, just operating Linkpendium to stay involved. We have lately started gathering the resources to build a next-generation site for genealogists that fully exploits current technology. Stay tuned. ;) Cheers, B. -- Dr. Brian Leverich <leverich@linkpendium.com> Moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L Founder, RootsWeb.com and Linkpendium.com

So what is your best guess? That RootsWeb will remain free within Ancestry but will soon contain a lot of advertising? "Unsprung" <peterblood666@joimail.com>