Dave, You haven't stirred things up. There are many of us who feel that way about Ancestry.com for exactly those reasons. I don't mind paying fees where value has been added but Ancestry, Family Tree Maker and that ilk like to take your genealogy work and publish it as is for a profit without even validating it. They put no effort into it other than that needed to convince newbys to turn over all their efforts "so it will be safe for future generations" (to buy CT's from them.) You have to be a subscriber to gain access to your own data. Genealogy has been and largely remains an altruistic, sharing endeavor. If I've discovered something that you can use, I'll glaqdly give it to you. Maybe you will have something useful to me in return but maybe not. That's ok. You're welcome to use mine free of charge. Years ago Rootsweb was started as a labor of love on exactly that premise. It was run on a shoestring and was almost entirely supported by free will donations from we working genealogists. It quickly grew to be the largest genealogy database in the world and was strained to keep up. Ancestry.com stepped in at a critical point with an infusion of capital and saved it from oblivion. Roostweb has changed some but to Ancestry's credit, many of its useful features remain active. But I still don't like how they do business. Hugh -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "rolaren" <rolaren@dreamscape.com> > I won't use Ancestry's free areas as they always want a credit card.... why > I ask if it's free - ans - if you forget something like a timeframe - they > got cha... they'll do anything for a penny - even 'take your work then make > you pay to use their service... don't trust them. > > -----Original Message----- > From: David and Janet [mailto:djrpublic@cfl.rr.com] > Sent: June 25, 2006 9:25 AM > To: NYOSWEGO-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: more Fulton Post Cards and an appology of sorts > > > For sure I didn't intend to in any way disparage the fine work that is > and has been done on that site! > > Its just that it requires Flash version 8 ONLY - the only site on the > web that I've visited that had that requirement! Adobe has not seen fit > to publish version 8 for any operating system other than Windoze. BTW > the current free Ancestry 1930 US Census is a Flash application from end > to end and it works just fine with my set-up. No I can't afford > Ancestry but free? That I can appreciate. > > > Sorry that I stirred up this mess - Dave >