Facebook is great in four situations: 1. When you need something quick and simple, i.e. "can someone read this?" or "is there anyone that knows where this is?" 2. When you're SO stuck you are trying everything. I hate the term brick wall, its just a matter of being stuck with your current research. 3. When you're trying to connect with cousins or people in a certain area. I wouldn't know how to pronounce Greenhalgh properly without the British Greenhalghs telling us on their group! 4. When you're working with very mobile or younger researchers, they often send more information to FB than they do their own families. I've seen birth and death announcements that were never in the paper thanks to being a member. The value of a FB feature in terms of family history depends on whether or not its a page or a group. Pages are harder to search and are more ethereal in that content ebbs and flows (although FB recently added the "save post/save link" feature which helps with that). Groups are just like the RW message boards displayed in another way. You can search them, post to them, and find people who comment with helpful resources. Yes, groups can be closed off (more often than not due to spam), but most moderators are fairly quick on the response time to join and search (especially if you message them with why you want to join), and its easy to unjoin a group if you don't find it useful. personally I find this list extremely valuable - whenever I have a tough, detailed question y'all are here to help out - but I also find FB valuable for weeding out the annoying queries like "give me my family history. My dad was Smith and we lived in the UK." where its clear they need basic family history education and the instant nature of FB means people can get them resources quickly. And yes, there used to be a LOT of them on these RW lists - we've just blocked out the memory over the years :-D Lastly, I want to remind people - you don't have to do EVERYTHING on FB. I've signed my parents up and aunts and uncles, and they only go on there to our family group and check out the new pictures and chatter from people. They don't have any "friends" or do the newsfeed or games or anything else on there. They can explore the features at their leisure and try some only if they want to. I also have their security locked down pretty tight so if they don't want to be found on there, they don't have to be. Concetta On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 7:04 AM, Nivard Ovington via <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Fiona > > No not a Luddite, just sensible IMHO > > Facebook on the face of it (no pun intended) seems great but is > virtually hopeless as a means of research, partly as you say due to > posts being virtually hidden as soon as they are posted > > The main problems I see are the number of inexperienced researchers > giving advice which is often inaccurate or down right wrong > > The structure of facebook groups is haphazard at best unlike the > Rootsweb lists, anyone can start up a fb group and as easily just desert > them > > Facebook groups for genealogy are more often than not closed and > therefore only those in the group can see posts and only if they keep > track of them, a lot of groups have members in the hundreds or lower > thousands, very few appear to read all the posts and even fewer respond, > I see posts like "looking for Jones in London" which I have rarely seen > on the lists > > Facebook posts are not findable by google or search engines unlike all > rootsweb list posts to anyone anywhere in the world > > Facebook has its uses, you can post pictures and images, for discussion > of local history etc but for research its fairly hopeless > > I think more of an influence on the decline of use of the lists is due > to the plethora of data now available and the fact that a great many > questions once asked on the lists are now easily answered with a search > engine (answers often found on rootsweb lists) and that people are a lot > more computer savvy than they were say ten or twenty years ago > > For research I do not think you can beat the Rootsweb lists > > Long live the lists I say :-) > > Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > > On 08/02/2016 12:41, Fiona Hall via wrote: > > All the lists and boards I belong to are quiet. > > > > I fear that the next generation of researchers will do it on facebook > > – the ones I belong to are really lively. > > > > BUT, searching for that elusive ancestor is a NIGHTMARE on facebook > > as messages vanish into thin air after a day (or so it seems to me) > > > > Am I just being a luddite ? Lots of folks seem to go straight for > > Facebook and I don’t think it’s a very efficient way of doing FH > > > > Fiona > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > > > > :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: :-+-: > > Buy or sell family research items on the GEN-MAT-UKI mailing list. No > fees! > > The list's administrator can be contacted at [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 >