I started this list for three main reasons, all of which were spelled out as my intentions, at the time: One was to give people a venue for asking questions and carrying on discussions free from the fear of being insulted or attacked by list bullies, as was then common on GENEALOGY-DNA list, the atmosphere of which was more like an unregulated newsgroup than a RootsWeb mailing list. To give you an idea how bad it must have been, within the first 24 hours of opening Y-DNA-PROJECTS, I had 70 subscribers move here from GENEALOGY-DNA. So I hope y'all see, now, if you didn't before, why I'm ruthless when it comes to suppressing these behaviors here. The second reason is that GENEALOGY-DNA is dominated by people doing paleoanthropology via SNP testing, most of whom are not running Y-DNA surname projects. You had to do a lot of Del key clicking to find a message that had anything to do with Y-DNA surname projects -- hence, it's the main topic, here. Lastly, I have real concerns about how some projects are being run: concern for the admin, who many be floundering; concern for the members, who may be frustrated and discouraged; and concern for the future of DNA testing if it doesn't appear effective, either to those who've done it or those considering it. I had hoped Y-DNA-PROJECTS could serve as a mechanism for helping to improve the situation, as project admins get their questions asked and hear the concerns and share the experience of others. We can't know what efforts FTDNA takes to improve the management of projects, but it does appear they give admins a lot of slack. I think the pressure to change has to come from the project members -- and other admins. I would hope some of them would come here, for help, but of course, that presumes they know or care that their project is foundering. If they don't, I think it's up to the members to make the admin aware of their dissatisfaction. Is there anything anyone else thinks might be done to help floundering or moribund projects? Diana Y-DNA-PROJECTS Listadmin > -----Original Message----- > From: y-dna-projects-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:y-dna-projects- > bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Wilcox Lisa > Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 2:02 PM > To: y-dna-projects@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [Y-DNA-projects] The poorly-run project > > Linda, I can sooo appreciate your frustration. I hope Marleen is able to help out! > > What does one do in the case of a poorly-managed project? > > In one of my own lineages the results were getting posted and sorted in a timely way (by > worldfamilies.net staff) but the admin of record was doing nothing to recruit, > communicate, interpret, or connect with pedigrees. I told my lineage cousins that it > didn't matter, that we could supply those things for ourselves, but of course that leaves > other lineages hung out to dry. > > At the Houston conference I introduced myself to Terry Barton, thanking him for the > work worldfamilies does in managing the orphans --and I ended up with the project > anyway. I will at least bring time and energy to a project, if not vast quantities of > expertise. > > I don't know, and should perhaps ask Terry, under what circumstances rudderless > projects are transferred to his care. > > What else can be done? > > > Lisa > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to Y-DNA-PROJECTS- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject > and the body of the message

On Dec 5, 2010, at 5:37 PM, Diana Gale Matthiesen wrote: > I started this list for three main reasons... Big thank you, Diana!! > Is there anything anyone else thinks might be done to help floundering or moribund projects? I did begin emailing my own interpretations to the relevant project members, with CCs to Terry and the nominal admin. Not a great approach if you don't want to take on that particular task. ;-) Lisa