On 2/15/2013 23:35, Darrell A. Martin wrote: > David: The most important word in your message, in my opinion, is in > the last paragraph: "relevant". On my lists, any message that makes an > explicit connection to the list topic may be posted with no fuss and > bother -- after *or* before posting. The message does not have to be > dead centered on the list topic, but the connection has to be clear. > For example, an announcement about a French Canadian genealogical > conference, held in New Hampshire, would be on topic for the VERMONT > list. Most Vermont researchers know that the Quebec-Vermont border > might as well not exist, genealogically; and one can drive from any > place in Vermont to anywhere in New Hampshire in less than 250 miles. > But I would gently remonstrate with the poster if they sent it to the > VTORANGE list. The specificity of the latter demands a closer > connection be made. > Darrell And how much less relevance would a French Canadian genealogical conference have on a Nebraska county list? (But...but...surely some French Canadian drove through that county sometime. See? It's relevant! Um.....no. It ain't.) But to bring it back to the original discussion, that's about the caliber of relevance we've had with this announcement. And that's the core problem, I think, that the folks who think posting a conference to dozens or hundreds of county lists is just fine don't understand: in order to argue that it's relevant to all those lists, you're down to "Probably somebody who lived in your county sometime had at least one ancestor from the place we're talking about." Why is that a problem? Because once you accept that argument, *every* genealogical post about anything anywhere is "relevant" on any genealogical list you choose to mention. Looking for Grandpa Joe who was born in Tennessee and moved to California? Why not post in Minneapolis? Surely *somebody* from Tennessee moved to Minneapolis. Surely *somebody* from Minneapolis moved to California. *Maybe* they heard of each other. It *might* connect. At that point it makes more sense to close every list at RootsWeb but one, and go back to the days of "Roots-L is what you get." --pig