From roots-in@bl-12.rootsweb.com Sun Mar 9 16:48:23 1997 Received: from bl-4.rootsweb.com (root@bl-4.rootsweb.com [204.212.38.29]) by bl-12.rootsweb.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id QAA19427; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 16:48:21 -0800 Received: from bl-12.rootsweb.com (roots-in@bl-12.rootsweb.com [204.212.38.28]) by bl-4.rootsweb.com (8.6.12/8.6.9) with ESMTP id QAA23104 for ; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 16:50:57 -0800 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by bl-12.rootsweb.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA19398 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 16:48:14 -0800 Received: from bl-12.rootsweb.com (slist@bl-12.rootsweb.com [204.212.38.28]) by bl-4.rootsweb.com (8.6.12/8.6.9) with ESMTP id PAA18822 for ; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 15:56:58 -0800 Received: (from slist@localhost) by bl-12.rootsweb.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id PAA07328 for roots-in@rootsweb.com; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 15:54:15 -0800 X-Envelope-From: schlossm@netrail.net Sun Mar 9 15:54:13 1997 Received: from bl-4.rootsweb.com (root@bl-4.rootsweb.com [204.212.38.29]) by bl-12.rootsweb.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id PAA07318 for ; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 15:54:12 -0800 Received: from netrail.net (netrail.net [205.215.6.3]) by bl-4.rootsweb.com (8.6.12/8.6.9) with ESMTP id PAA18794 for ; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 15:56:41 -0800 Received: from [205.215.7.29] (ppp-arl-1-29.netrail.net [205.215.7.29]) by netrail.net (8.8.5/Netrail) with ESMTP id KAA05350 for ; Sun, 9 Mar 1997 10:04:35 -0500 Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Spam: Boycott Internet SPAM http://www.vix.com/spam/ Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 10:04:08 -0400 To: roots-l@rootsweb.com From: Steven Schlossman Subject: Welcome to Roots-L - Please Read! ;) Sender: roots-in@rootsweb.com PLEASE READ! Maybe it's time to circulate this again. That way we'll be in good shape when we hit 10,000 subscribers. This is from gopher://ftp.cac.psu.edu/00/genealogy/roots-l/roots-l.welcome1 Pay particularly close attention to 2-7. There's some good stuff here. Surname lists in signatures and other netiquette issues ======================================================= 1. Wait a bit. We encourage new subscribers/readers to read the ROOTS-L messages for approximately one week before submitting a message in order to get a feel for the sorts of messages posted here. 2. Be brief if you can. In particular, please keep your single messages for information shorter than 10,000 bytes, about 3 or 4 pages of text. And when responding to a message, don't quote the whole thing, only quote a few lines to remind us what it was about. 3. Please include, in the body of your message, preferably in a brief final "signature" both your name and your full Email address. Please DO NOT add a list of surnames you are researching in your signature. Why not? It's not because the people who wrote these guidelines are a bunch of meanies who want to interfere with your right to do research however is easiest. It's because such signatures make it much much MUCH more difficult to use any of the features for searching the archives, either those provided now on the infobases.com Web page (http://www.infobases.com), or soon via an e-mail search from RootsWeb. What happens if you sign every message with a list of the surnames you are researching? For a start, anyone doing a search on one of your surnames in the future is going to get a "hit" for each and every message you've ever posted to ROOTS-L. Sounds good, huh? Well, it's not. Because when they get 100s of hits on that surname, they'll get discouraged and not bother looking at any of them. And in any case, they'll never find the detailed query you posted about the family. Well, so what can you do? - Follow the guidelines and don't include a bunch of surnames in a signature block. - Submit your surnames or genealogy information to any of the online search services. One such is the Roots Surname List -- send any message to rsl-info@emcee.com to find out how to participate. Since the Web-searchable version has become available (see the URL http://www.rootsweb.com/searches/), many submitters have written to =remove= surnames from the listing, since they're getting "too many" responses. Other good places to send your data are Mavrogeorge's Tafel Matching Service (System?), see http://www.genealogysf.com, and Cliff Manis' GENSERV (check out the home page at http://soback.kornet.nm.kr/~cmanis/). - Only use a surname list maybe once a month, and then "cripple" it by writing G R A C E instead of GRACE. New readers will see your surnames and write to you, but you won't be mucking up the search feature (you'll have faked it out.) - Not all in the same day, but over time, send in some queries to ROOTS-L about the surnames that most interest you. Tell us how and when you're stuck, some associated names, what has and hasn't worked. 4. Please limit your .sig area of your message to 5 or less lines. Many of the subscribers of ROOTS-L pay $$ for access and reading of the message. Please be considerate. 5. Provide a brief informative subject line, 30 or less characters is the most effective. 6. Feel free to answer questions or provide clarification or comments in response to any of the messages you see on ROOTS-L. However, please reply privately to the poster unless you think your comments will be of interest to other subscribers and you wish your answer to be sent to the entire ROOTS-L community, in which case send it to ROOTS-L too. 7. Some general netiquette advice (netiquette = net + etiquette). This advice applies not only to personal e-mail but to mail to a group of people, mail sent to a distribution list (such as ROOTS-L), etc. - Read carefully what you receive to make sure that you understand the message. - Read carefully what you send, to make sure that your message will not be misunderstood. - If you are using humor or sarcasm, make sure to clearly label it as such. Humor on this list should be indicated by a smiley-face such as: 8) or ;-) or :-) - Remember that the absence of cues associated with face-to-face communication provides for an environment where it's easy to misunderstand what is being said. - Know your audience. Make sure that the person or list of people you are sending your message to are the appropriate one(s) with whom to communicate. - Be tolerant of newcomers. None of us were born knowing all. - Do not abuse new users of computer networks for their lack of knowledge. Be patient as they first learn to crawl, then walk. - Avoid cluttering your messages with excessive emphasis (such as stars, arrows and the like). It may make the message hard to follow. - If you are responding to a message, either include the relevant part of the original message in your message, or make sure you unambiguously refer to the original's contents. One convention is to precede each line of the original message you include with the ">" character. Do not quote more than necessary to make your point clear. Please please do not quote the entire message. - Always include a descriptive subject line in your message. Make sure your Subject: line is an effective one. Use your Subject: line to get attention and make sure it describes the main point of your message. The word "Help" is a terrible Subject: line, if your message is read, others will see that you need help when reading the message. If you are responding to another message, your subject line should be the same, with "Re:" at the beginning. If you are seeking information about a family, include the surname in UPPERCASE in the message subject. Many readers do not have time to read the contents of all messages. - Keep messages to only one subject. This allows readers to quickly decide whether they need to read the message in full. Second subjects within a single message are often missed. - Be specific, especially when asking questions. If you ask about a person, identify when and where the person might have lived. If you ask about software, please identify what kind of computer you use. ROOTS-L people are very helpful but busy, and are more likely to answer if they don't have to ask what you mean. - Always, always put your name in the text of your message, and also your best e-mail address for a reply. The end of the message is a good place for your name and e-mail address. - If your messages can be typed in UPPER and lower case, please use the two appropriately instead of all UPPERCASE characters. This gives the appearance of shouting, as well as being less readable. - Use UPPERCASE for each surname the first time you use it in a message. Please put the maiden name of the wife also in UPPERCASE, as they will be so much easier to spot. - In questions concerning specific genealogical software, make it clear what sort of computer (e.g PC/MSDOS, PC/Windows, Apple Mac, etc.) is involved. - Remember that not all readers/subscribers have English as their native language, so make allowance for possible misunderstandings and unintended discourtesies. Yeah!!! You've read it :) And as Brad Hamilton in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) said: Right. Learn it, know it, live it.