>> <snip>
>> RootsWeb to be Moved to Ancestry.com.
>>
>> As a more-or-less skeptic, I wonder when the other shoe will drop
>> and RW will be either terminated or become a for-a-fee service,
>> despite Sullivan's claims to the contrary..
>>
>> Suspicious Ol' Bob
>> "Robert Melson" <melsonr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> It was some time ago so my memory may be fuzzy, but I seem to recall
> the originators of RootsWeb (when, due to economics were forced to
> use Ancestry as a host) included as part of the contract that
> RootsWeb would stay a free resource in perpetuity.
>
> Gary Templeman "GaryT" <gtemplemanPAINT@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Having signed the contract, I'm kinda aware of the details. ;)
There was no requirement that RootsWeb stay free or persist in
perpetuity.
On a practical level, though, we certainly expected that. The user-
provided RootsWeb content almost by definition has to stay free,
because the users can always take it elsewhere. And it's hard to
imagine Ancestry not sup****ting RootsWeb's functionality, because
RootsWeb is relatively inexpensive to operate and serves to grow the
customer base for Ancestry's commercial products.
>From my perspective, there's nothing particularly good or bad about
moving RootsWeb's content inside the Ancestry domain. It clears up
some statistical difficulties associated with tracking traffic at the
two sites, at the cost of vaguely blurring the line between the free
community site and the the commercial data provider.
On the balance, that's a yawn.
Again from my perspective, the thing that has surprized me is how
little effort Ancestry has put into improving RootsWeb over the last
seven years. Technology has changed a lot, these days there's a whole
variety of powerful new social networking tools and such, but most of
RootsWeb has been stagnant or (arguably) has deteriorated.
Karen and I have been kinda sitting on the sidelines for some years
now, just operating Linkpendium to stay involved. We have lately
started gathering the resources to build a next-generation site for
genealogists that fully exploits current technology.
Stay tuned. ;)
Cheers, B.
--
Dr. Brian Leverich <leverich@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L
Founder, RootsWeb.com and Linkpendium.com
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