Totally agree: "Long live the lists I say :-)" Penny On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 1:04 PM, 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 >

I have quite often had people telling me that I should be on Facebook but my answer has always been "Why?". I can't see any advantage to me except feeding more personal information to a large American (tax avoiding) corporation so they can profit from it. A few weeks ago I was told that one Facebook user was using some of my images without asking permission, the person who told me had already got some of his removed. I went to the Facebook page and it took ages to find mine - I tried clicking on the link to all his images but it was trying to display hundreds (if not thousands) of images on one page so impossible to view. I eventually found mine but then could not send a message to the owner of the page without registering with Facebook - this is one aspect that always annoys me, Facebook like to keep their users in a separate world to the rest of the Internet. So I put in a formal complaint to Facebook and got them removed. Unfortunately many newcomers to the Internet have never heard of mailing lists, USENET and many other older features, and often think that newer services are original. Martin Briscoe Fort William [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Penny Trueman via Sent: Monday, February 8, 2016 1:10 PM To: Nivard Ovington <[email protected]>; [email protected] Subject: Re: [LAN] quiet mailling list