I don't usually do this, but since Rootsweb hosts our county sites, and all these mailing lists, for free I see nothing wrong with passing on the word to those who might be able to help if they knew it was needed. There is never any pressure from them and I respect them for that. If everyone who used one of RW's resources sent in a dollar they would have enough money to do incredible things for online genealogy. Ginger gingerh@intrnet.net > >> > >My apologies for the lengthy message, but I think it needed to be said. > >> > > > >> > > -B > >> > >============================================================ > >> > > > >> > >Karen and I are in the hole on RootsWeb; not only have we not been > >> > >paid anything, we've been paying out of our pockets for the > >> > >privilege of working here night and day without weekends or holidays. > >> > > > >> > >(Just *today* Karen and I took out a $25,000 loan to cover the fact > >> > >that the Palladium sponsorship has apparently died with their > >> > >acquisition by TLC, and to pay for the hardware we're going to need > >> > >to handle the new users we expect to have after Christmas.) > >> > > > >> > >Just so you fully understand what I've told you above, you should be > >> > >aware that in terms of traffic RootsWeb is one of the *top 25* or so > >> > >sites on the whole Internet. Folks who can run these sorts of > >> > >facilities are absurdly rare (there are a few hundred of them in the > >> > >whole world), and senior system administrators at the other "Top 25" > >> > >sites generally have salary+benefits+option packages that run in the > >> > >$200,000-500,000 per year and up range. > >> > > > >> > > ### > >> > > > >> > >Folks should be clear on the concept that the administration staff > >> > >at RootsWeb is making a huge contribution to the genealogical > >> > >community by essentially donating our time. The fact that each of > > >> > >us is personally donating services worth tens or even hundreds of > >> > >thousands of dollars a year is part of the reason we find it so > >> > >depressing that only about 2-6% of our users are choosing to support > >> > >RootsWeb at all, and that even among our supporters the average > >> > >contribution is only one-third of what "tens of thousands of > >> > >genealogists" (the Wall Street Journal) are spending at Ancestry.com. > >> > > > >> > >I don't think RootsWeb is going to fold anytime soon. But I'd be > >> > >lying to you if I didn't tell you that the staff is seriously > >> > >wondering whether the community values our efforts enough that > >> > >continuing on with RootsWeb makes sense. > >> > > > >> > >The admin staff wants to give the genealogical community a great > >> > >online genealogical library, but we can't do it if only 2-6% of our > >> > >users will voluntarily choose to support us. Without more support, > >> > >RootsWeb can't afford to buy the servers and bandwidth and scanners > >> > >and such that we need to bring online the whole US Census and the > >> > >British Birth/Marriage/Death records and all the other resources > >> > >we'd like to make freely available to the entire community. > >> > > > >> > >Maybe Ancestry has it right. Lock up the resources and charge the > >> > >users through the nose. Oh well. -B > >> > >============================================================ > >> > >> I know its a tough time of year but if you even have a spare $5.00 sitting > >> around, it would help. Details can be found at > >> http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html > >> > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Illinois USGenWeb Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilgenweb > Illinois Ancestor Registry http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilgenweb/queries > Stone Cnty MO., USGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~mostone/stone.htm > Barry Cnty MO., USGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~mobarry/barry.htm