Closing of Rootsweb genealogy mailing lists

[Steve Hayes]

I searched in vain for a public announcement or news report about the
closure of the Rootsweb genealogy mailing lists. It is being done
almost secretively. Members of lists without active moderators who
pass on the information will find themselves cut off without knowing
why.

I've therefore written a blog post, giving as much information as I
have at the moment, to try to let people know what is happening.

https://t.co/8Bhy5ya5AQ

Please help to let people know what is happening by posting links to
that post (and any news items you may find) on social media sites,
genealogy forums etc.

[Ian Goddard]

Post by Steve Hayes
I searched in vain for a public announcement or news report about the
closure of the Rootsweb genealogy mailing lists. It is being done
almost secretively. Members of lists without active moderators who
pass on the information will find themselves cut off without knowing
why.
I've therefore written a blog post, giving as much information as I
have at the moment, to try to let people know what is happening.
https://t.co/8Bhy5ya5AQ
Please help to let people know what is happening by posting links to
that post (and any news items you may find) on social media sites,
genealogy forums etc.

I saw this post not on an an email list but on a Usenet group, in fact
on a whole series of groups.

Perhaps it's time to remind the denizens of email groups yet again of
the value of newsgroups, in particular, of the absence of a single point
of failure in the form of a list management site such as Yahoo or Rootsweb.

If you read email via Thunderbird or Seamonkey, and maybe others, you
already have all the software you need to use newsgroups. Otherwise
search for newsgroup or usenet clients.

You will need to find a server which provides news feeds. Some ISPs
provide this, mine does. There are also sites such as individual.net
that provide the service at modest cost (and when a Yorkshireman says
it's a modest cost it really is!). Sign up for a service, put the
server access credentials into your client, select your group(s) and
watch the client fill up with headers of the past few months' posts.

Sometimes the old ways are the bast.

As regards the mention of groups.io the integrations they mention on
their site conspicuously lack mention of a usenet gateway. If they
don't include that then moving the email lists to them would fragment
genealogical communities which have previously been held together by the
old gateway.

Ian

[Steve Hayes]

fOn Sat, 11 Jan 2020 11:25:37 +0000, Ian Goddard

Post by Ian Goddard
As regards the mention of groups.io the integrations they mention on
their site conspicuously lack mention of a usenet gateway. If they
don't include that then moving the email lists to them would fragment
genealogical communities which have previously been held together by the
old gateway.

Indeed, but the old gateway is closing anyway with the demuise of
Rootsweb.

[MB]

Post by Steve Hayes
Indeed, but the old gateway is closing anyway with the demuise of
Rootsweb.

How much traffic on the lists comes via USENET? I think very little
nowadays.

[Ian Goddard]

Post by Steve Hayes
fOn Sat, 11 Jan 2020 11:25:37 +0000, Ian Goddard

Post by Ian Goddard
As regards the mention of groups.io the integrations they mention on
their site conspicuously lack mention of a usenet gateway. If they
don't include that then moving the email lists to them would fragment
genealogical communities which have previously been held together by the
old gateway.

Indeed, but the old gateway is closing anyway with the demuise of
Rootsweb.

Exactly. So if mail list users move over to something like groups.io
without a Usenet gateway the community will be fragmented between the
former mail-listers and the continuing newsgroupers.

Ian

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 12 Jan 2020 12:56:35 +0000, Ian Goddard

Post by Ian Goddard

Post by Steve Hayes
fOn Sat, 11 Jan 2020 11:25:37 +0000, Ian Goddard

Post by Ian Goddard
As regards the mention of groups.io the integrations they mention on
their site conspicuously lack mention of a usenet gateway. If they
don't include that then moving the email lists to them would fragment
genealogical communities which have previously been held together by the
old gateway.

Indeed, but the old gateway is closing anyway with the demuise of
Rootsweb.

Exactly. So if mail list users move over to something like groups.io
without a Usenet gateway the community will be fragmented between the
former mail-listers and the continuing newsgroupers.

Thate what were gated -- not all of them were. And I suspect that the
gating hasn't been working for a while anyway.

[MB]

Post by Steve Hayes
Thate what were gated -- not all of them were. And I suspect that the
gating hasn't been working for a while anyway.

Some of the most useful lists were local ones covering perhaps one town
and were good access to some very knowledgeable people. I don't think
most of these were ever linked to USENET.

At least some of the regional. i.e. county, ones are moving - perhaps
some of the ones closed by ROOTSWEB might reappear as there are areas
that ended with no list.

[Steven Gibbs]

Exactly.  So if mail list users move over to something like groups.io
without a Usenet gateway the community will be fragmented between the
former mail-listers and the continuing newsgroupers.

The county forums on RootsChat used to be very good, but (at least the
ones that I use) have become moribund too. I find RootsChat preferable
to the old-style mailing lists, anyway.

Steven

(have removed the irritating cross-post)

[MB]

Post by Steve Hayes
I searched in vain for a public announcement or news report about the
closure of the Rootsweb genealogy mailing lists. It is being done
almost secretively. Members of lists without active moderators who
pass on the information will find themselves cut off without knowing
why.

Every active Rootsweb group if is full of discussions about it and
possible ways to continue the lists elsewhere so it would be difficult
for any Rootsweb user to not be aware.