Hello Pat, Just to clarify things are you writing about the removal from the Internet of this particular website: http://www.bluetreeart.com/ClevelandSouthside/ If so, then I can only say how very disappointing & sad, this turn of events. Just this past week I sent the link (URL address) to a passionate fellow family history researcher who had planned on perusing it at his first opportunity upon return from a weekend away from home. This is a great loss, of a truly outstanding online resource, to all those researchers whose roots run long & deep into the heart of Cuyahoga County. Bette ----- Original Message ----- From: <patcle67857@peoplepc.com> To: <ohcuyaho@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 10:39 AM Subject: [OHCUYAHO] Cleveland's Southside website > Hello All, > > Tomorrow would have been the "Cleveland's Southside" website's second > anniversary. In that time the site had over 27,000 hits and 52 > contributors. I say would have been because this weekend we permanently > removed "Cleveland's Southside" from the Web. > > For the past year we have been aware that a few persons representing a > "quasi" historical group have been taking articles from the site, changing > them by transposing a few sentences or adding words and posting the > revised article to their own site with a bogus source listed. This group > is now actively soliciting members to their group and charging a yearly > membership fee. As an incentive to join they are promising a quarterly > newsletter. The newsletter would have used material from our website > without our permission. We have always stated our material was for > personal use only and was not to be copied to another website nor sold. > > We worked very hard to keep our site free of advertising and sign-in > requirements, cognizant of our audience who may not appreciate the clutter > of flashing banners or the asking of information. Some of our articles > took weeks to research and we were proud of our source material. Other > articles and photos were included only after we were able to obtain the > present day holder's permission and paying a "user fee." That fee was, in > some cases, very expensive. > > "Cleveland's Southside" was our first born and we watched it grow and > mature, reaching persons whose ages ranged from their early teens to their > 90s. Making the decision to "pull the plug" was extrememly hard. We have > no plans on bringing it back. I want to share with you a portion of an > email we received from one of our contributors who experienced a similiar > problem as ours, but his was before the popularity of online resources > (which makes taking and using material as your own more prevalent.) > > "How sad, that anyone would take what is not their history or their story, > and use it. In the 90's, when I was doing my AIDS work, I wrote a eulogy > for a remarkable young man (Bobby) and his family. He was extremely > popular and over 300 people attended the service. One of his casual > friends told he was so moved by it..he wondered because he was HIV if I > would give him a copy, which I did. A year later, I was at UCLA talking > with one of Bobby's doctors who remembered me bringing him for care--and > then mentioned that he was glad to see what I had spoken about at Bobby's > funeral had been published and that it had earned me a Master's degree. I > looked at him and said, "what are you talking about?" Long story short, > that young man, used my eulogy as his Master's thesis. I had worked on it > for days, including things from Bobby's life that he had shared and what > his family had shared with me. With some trouble I was able to contact > this character and his response to me was t! > hat he could not understand my anger or disappointment...as he had done > something with it that I never would have done, and if I was that > concerned I never should have given him the copy...to this day, I still > cannot believe that he took full credit for it. Of course, Bobby's family > and close friends knew...but it appears such people are everywhere, and > that saddens me Pat. I am in the final years of my life....and there is > much about the world that saddens me." > Jimmy Hughes > > We are very sorry if taking the site off-line is an inconvenience to > anyone. We knew the risks of uploading such a history inclusive site and > had hoped for the best, but enough was enough and we let it go. Thank you > if you took the time to read this longish message. Thank you too, if you > visited our site, looked and explored but did not take. > > Yours, > Pat Schmidt > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > OHCUYAHO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

What a tragedy.? That site was the best source of information for those of us who lived in the area, or had families from that area.? I am so sickened by what Pat has been forced to do.? I can only hope that something will change---that we will not lose this wonderful site.??? -----Original Message----- From: Bette McIntosh <bmcintosh@new.rr.com> To: ohcuyaho@rootsweb.com Sent: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:01 pm Subject: Re: [OHCUYAHO] Cleveland's Southside website Hello Pat, Just to clarify things are you writing about the removal from the Internet of this particular website: http://www.bluetreeart.com/ClevelandSouthside/ If so, then I can only say how very disappointing & sad, this turn of events. Just this past week I sent the link (URL address) to a passionate fellow family history researcher who had planned on perusing it at his first opportunity upon return from a weekend away from home. This is a great loss, of a truly outstanding online resource, to all those researchers whose roots run long & deep into the heart of Cuyahoga County. Bette ----- Original Message ----- From: <patcle67857@peoplepc.com> To: <ohcuyaho@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 10:39 AM Subject: [OHCUYAHO] Cleveland's Southside website > Hello All, > > Tomorrow would have been the "Cleveland's Southside" website's second > anniversary. In that time the site had over 27,000 hits and 52 > contributors. I say would have been because this weekend we permanently > removed "Cleveland's Southside" from the Web. > > For the past year we have been aware that a few persons representing a > "quasi" historical group have been taking articles from the site, changing > them by transposing a few sentences or adding words and posting the > revised article to their own site with a bogus source listed. This group > is now actively soliciting members to their group and charging a yearly > membership fee. As an incentive to join they are promising a quarterly > newsletter. The newsletter would have used material from our website > without our permission. We have always stated our material was for > personal use only and was not to be copied to another website nor sold. > > We worked very hard to keep our site free of advertising and sign-in > requirements, cognizant of our audience who may not appreciate the clutter > of flashing banners or the asking of information. Some of our articles > took weeks to research and we were proud of our source material. Other > arti cles and photos were included only after we were able to obtain the > present day holder's permission and paying a "user fee." That fee was, in > some cases, very expensive. > > "Cleveland's Southside" was our first born and we watched it grow and > mature, reaching persons whose ages ranged from their early teens to their > 90s. Making the decision to "pull the plug" was extrememly hard. We have > no plans on bringing it back. I want to share with you a portion of an > email we received from one of our contributors who experienced a similiar > problem as ours, but his was before the popularity of online resources > (which makes taking and using material as your own more prevalent.) > > "How sad, that anyone would take what is not their history or their story, > and use it. In the 90's, when I was doing my AIDS work, I wrote a eulogy > for a remarkable young man (Bobby) and his family. He was extremely > popular and over 300 people attended the service. One of his casual > friends told he was so moved by it..he wondered because he was HIV if I > would give him a copy, which I did. A year later, I was at UCLA talking > with one of Bobby's doctors who remembered me bringing him for care--and > then mentioned that he was glad to see what I had spoken about at Bobby's > funeral had been published and that it had earned me a Master's degree. I > looked at him and said, "what are you talking about?" Long story short, > that young man, used my eulogy as his Master's thesis. I had worked on it > for days, including things from Bobby's life that he had shared and what > his family had shared with me. With some trouble I was able to contact > this character and his response to me was t! > hat he could not understand my anger or disappointment...as he had done > something with it that I never would have done, and if I was that > concerned I never should have given him the copy...to this day, I still > cannot believe that he took full credit for it. Of course, Bobby's family > and close friends knew...but it appears such people are everywhere, and > that saddens me Pat. I am in the final years of my life....and there is > much about the world that saddens me." > Jimmy Hughes > > We are very sorry if taking the site off-line is an inconvenience to > anyone. We knew the risks of uploading such a history inclusive site and > had hoped for the best, but enough was enough and we let it go. Thank you > if you took the time to read this longish message. Thank you too, if you > visited our site, looked and explored but did not take. > > Yours, > Pat Schmidt > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > OHCUYAHO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to OHCUYAHO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message