John There is a very prominent tab at the top of the Guild website which says "Join Us". It can't be much clearer than that. When you click on the link you are taken to a page with details on how to join the Guild: http://one-name.org/how-to-join/ None of these pages are in the Members' Room. I suspect you are confused because you are looking at these pages while logged in to your Guild account. The Guild's objectives are enshrined in our Constitution: http://www.one-name.org/Constitution.pdf The Constitution clearly states that "Membership shall be open to any individual with a declared interest in one-name studies". There is no reason why you have to register a surname when you join the Guild. This allows multiple people with an interest in a surname to join the Guild and work together collaboratively. There are also many professionals and individuals who want to join the Guild simply because of the wealth of knowledge that our members share. I agree with you that Rootsweb is somewhat antiquated which is why many people now prefer to use Facebook and/or Google Plus where you can upload photos, share links with pictures, only follow threads you are interested in, and not to have to worry about posting in plain text or having links that are too long. However, conversations take place where people want those conversations to take place and the Forum is still the preferred method of communication for many Guild members. The Forum does also have the advantage of having easily searchable archives. There are around 700 members on the Forum, and nearly 400 in the Guild's closed Facebook group. We also have nearly 2500 people following the Guild's page on Facebook. We have 232 Guild members in the Guild's circle on Google+ but only 94 of those members have so far joined the Guild's Google+ community. There are 111 people in the Guild's Surnames Community. Those numbers will no doubt change over time. I find that most of the genealogy and DNA discussions now take place on Facebook rather than on mailing lists, but there is also a core of genealogists, particularly in the US, who like Google+. Many Guild members are also finding that Twitter is a very useful tool and is a good way of picking up the latest genealogy news. There are 194 Guild members who are known to be using Twitter: https://twitter.com/GuildOneName/lists/guild-members/members The Guild has 3618 followers on Twitter. The social media sites serve as a very useful way of spreading awareness of the Guild and publicising our one-name studies. Best wishes Debbie Kennett Member no. 4554 Cruwys/Cruse/Cruise one-name study Social Networking Coordinator Guild of One-Name Studies