I found this on another list and felt it was most important to all List subscribers. -------------------- Hello all genealogical researchers: I do hope you'll forgive me a bit of "spam" but this *is* highly relevant to the purpose of this list. The following clip from the weekly RootsWeb newsletter tells of the significant amount of work being done on behalf of us genealogical researchers: [CLIP] ROOTSWEB REVIEW: Genealogical Data Cooperative News Vol. 2, No. 14, 7 April 1999. Circulation: 286,000+ (C) 1998-1999 RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG <RWR-Editors@rootsweb.com> * * * * * NEWS AND NOTES FROM ROOTSWEB 163,035,217 EMAIL MESSAGES AND A LOT MORE. In March, RootsWeb supported the following for the Internet genealogical community: o 4,030 independently authored Web sites. o 108,887,834 total Web hits: 28,801,459 were HTML pages. 17,209,828 were cgi-bin database searches and such. 62,815,960 were graphics (GIFs, JPEGs, etc.). o 2,154,058 file downloads from the USGenWeb Archives and the ROOTS-L Library. o 6,100 independently operated RootsWeb-hosted mailing lists. o 163,035,217 pieces of e-mail shipped to our mailing lists. That's about a 14% increase in traffic just since January. What folks may not realize is just what those numbers mean. It takes a huge amount of bandwidth to transfer all these Web pages and e-mail messages to the Internet, and RootsWeb's monthly Internet costs have grown from about $10,000 to about $12,000 in just the last two months. It also takes about 30 servers (very large computers) to handle all these Web pages and mailing lists, and RootsWeb is having to spend $10,000 or more each month adding new servers and upgrading its older servers to keep up with demand. No government agency or big corporation pays for RootsWeb: we're entirely supported by contributions made by users like you. If you like the support RootsWeb is providing for the genealogical community and if you want help RootsWeb provide even better support for the community, please consider supporting us and becoming a RootsWeb Contributor: <http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html> or send e-mail to: <RW-info@rootsweb.com> * * * * * TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) to: <Rootsweb-Review-L-request@rootsweb.com>. * * * * * Previously published by RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, RootsWeb Review, Vol. 2, No. 14, 7 April 1999. Please visit RootsWeb's main Web page at <http://www.rootsweb.com/>. [END CLIPPLING] I realize that most of you know about RootsWeb and many of you also probably saw the original of this newsletter; forgive me wasting your time. However, I know that a lot of new genealogy hobbyists 'lurk' on our lists for awhile and I'm hoping some of them will become aware of RootsWeb and the wonderful services provided for research (and maybe consider helping out $$$). P.S. I don't get any compensation or rewards from RootsWeb -- just trying to pass along what I consider to be a valuable tip. - Bill -- J. William Cupp Asst Professor, Computer Information Systems (765)677-2292 Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, Indiana dock at my homeport: http://www.indwes.edu/Faculty/bcupp | | / ========== * GO NAVY Surface Line mighty fine XXXX X X X X -) X X _O_ __ | X X X X / --+-- ____ ...( ) XX X X X_<_>_ * *==C__D 0__/____\____[ ]__[ ]__X______X_|_____| "" | | k _____________|________________________________________|____H ___________ | / | / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Harold Williams, Rootsweb Sponsor willhn@flash.net