Therer is now an official announcement about the USGenWeb project and the USGenWeb Inc. You will find it at; http://www.usgenweb.org/official/announce.html Also, below you will find a message from Dr. Brian Leverich on his position. ******BRIAN SAID*************************************************** The idea I was trying to get across is that RootsWeb *hosts* domains, but we don't own, control, or otherwise claim proprietary rights: we believe the domains belong to the volunteers who create the content. That's really different from Jerry's philosophy. Like lightyears different. As written, to the casual (that is, to most) readers it comes across as "Jerry owns some domains and houses some domains, and RootsWeb owns some domains and houses some domains." >From our standpoint, the message that RootsWeb is just like Jerry is substantially worse than saying nothing at all. For the final public release, could you just entirely delete that section and just avoid any mention of RootsWeb anywhere in the post? We'll do our own "RootsWeb isn't Jerry" post. ### Guys, RootsWeb isn't just like Jerry. We aren't even close. o We didn't incorporate USGenWeb. o We don't claim ownership of usgenweb.org. We donated usgenweb.org to the project, without coercion or reservation. o We didn't put banner adds on the USGenWeb homepage. o We donate most of the server space used by the project, but we don't claim ownership of the project (or even to be the home of the project!). o We support a NC and Board who are obviously in tune with the volunteers. Apart from the moral issues, RootsWeb's servers *work* and we don't pull stunts like naming ourselves RootsWeb to piggyback on the goodwill that RootsQuest has generated. When in the name of being "evenhanded" you say RootsWeb is just like Jerry, the loud message you are sending is that morally sound behavior, not to mention technical competence, just doesn't matter. While that's not likely to change our behavior, it sure doesn't make it easier to decide to do things like sleep in a cold, dark NOC to keep the generator going during and USGenWeb online during a power outage. -B -- Dr. Brian Leverich Co-moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative http://www.rootsweb.com/ P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 leverich@rootsweb.com