Regardless of what Rootsweb says their policies are or are not it is their website and they can and should monitor it, it is the business they are in. And I don't believe that is true, that the submitter is the only one who can change those submissions. I have been corresponding with Rootsweb on this matter. They state that they can clean the files. And they can change their options, notice the word "option" Rootsweb/Ancestry provide that option, they can rescind this option. If this would cause many family trees to be deleted then that would have to be a price to pay, for renegade family genealogist's, out to collect names. Those who abuse this luxury of posting information on family trees should suffer the concequences, unfortunately it also affects many others who are searching for information, but, again, the living must not be sacrificed for the dead at no time. There is no purpose posting the names of the living. You can say it all should be taken with a grain of salt, but the fact is, millions of person's see these files and run with the information as the truth without verification (speaking of the living here) from files that can cause much stress, just ask the man whose information was thrown into one of these gedcom's, he was listed with a wife and child prior to the marriage to his current and only wife, she saw this gedcom and the man's life was turned upside down until he proved to his wife that he neither was married prior to her NOR did his run out on a child. The man has only been married ONCE.....so do you think this man and others like him think that other's take this with a grain of salt. I think not. The living have a right to privacy at all times and genealogy should not circumvent this right. Some genealogist's go overboard with information, it's sad but true and it is person's such as this that are going to force restricitions all because they have this overwhelming need to "shout" everything from the Internet, it is person's such as these that are going to force the government to stick their noses into the Information Highway more than they do now. I don't think anyone wants that. But abusers will make it difficult on the rest of us, the innocents that do not abuse this system. If it causes files to be deleted, so be it, the abusers knew better that this in the first place. The dead are not more important than the living. Jana On Wed, 12 Feb 2003 07:29:43 -0500 "mamawlady" <mamawlady@columbus.rr.com> writes: > Cloudeight QuickNotes 58, Linen, NaturalLadies and Gents > > I have been following the discussion on the living vs. actual > identity of > living family member information being uploaded onto the net - > particularly > discussions on those listings on Ancestry.com. > > Actually the program for completing this task was developed by > Rootsweb. > Recently, they have reprogrammed some of their options for listing > living > relatives for those submitting their family data to the Rootsweb > WorldConnect Project. Please note below on item 26 where one > cannot force > their listing of living names to be recorded on line. The > WorldConnect > Project is designed so that only the submitter can change the way > the data > is presented. > > =========================================================== > 24) Cutoff Year - This field specifies the year after which people > without > death dates are considered living. Maximum value is 1930. > =========================================================== > 25) Force Cutoff - Yes/No - This option tells the living finder that > anyone > born after the cutoff date should be handled as living even if they > have > death information. > =========================================================== > 26) Replace Names with Living - This option is now forced on > =========================================================== > 27) Process Descendants as Living - Yes/No - This option tells the > living > finder to treat descendants of people considered to be living as > living even > if they have death information specified. > =========================================================== > > It would be more prudent for Rootsweb to ask that all data submitted > prior > to this change be resubmitted or have any non-compliant submitting > party's > data deleted from the WorldConnect Project. Unfortunately, this > could > eliminate many, many trees that have offered much to the development > of many > nded families. > > Remember - as always, we all should take any data offered on-line > with a > pinch of salt. Personally re-research and document all entries to > make sure > your family is correctly placed in your tree. > > Thank you and have a great day, > Carolyn > > > >