RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Jane Lucas on Monday 30 October 17 07:05 GMT (UK)
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Not sure if this is the right place to ask.. does anyone use these mailing lists and if so, do you know if the they are working right now?
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Jane,
Some are still active..if you look at the dates you can see when last posts was made
Yonks
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Thanks Yonks.. I did that for the Lists I subscribe to. Yes, no new emails in them for over a week. I hope this doesn’t mean we are going to lose Mailing Lists.
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Jane, I went in after I sent the reply to you..and looked at a lot of my interests..and most are about 2 years..since a post has been made..
I'm a list owner on there..and its been very slow..for a few years too.
Yonks
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Rootsweb mailing lists were a great way of asking for or sharing information. I found them very helpful especially when so little information was available online.
Mailing lists seem to have been overtaken by instant messaging forums like Rootschat.
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Yonks ................ not heard that for years.............. feel old now..lol
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I'd heard some lists don't get much use.. and there are certainly a couple I subscribe to which haven't seen action for a couple of years. But the Devon list and also Yorkshire are usually pretty busy. There are some very active members. So it's a mystery. Think I might have an email for a couple of people from a pm... I'll ask there.
Thanks. I only found RootsChat recently and it's great .... once you find the 'right' forum.. I think I mean people who are researching in the same/similar area, and the more general genealogy/family history stuff that is applicable to anyone.
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I am interested to see these comments because over the years I have sometimes consulted Rootsweb, but always found the lists very out-of-date, much too long and very confusing to find what might be helpful. And I always thought it must be me not doing something right! I suppose, however, that it could still be possible to find some useful information in the old posts by trawling about.
Thank you.
Melbell :)
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Hi Mellbell.. I think it's what you get used to. I find RootsChat very confusing! Unless I'm involved in a post I can't keep track of things.
I've got used to the lists, which are area specific.. the smaller ones don't get enough traffic to be useful I don't think, but many of the County ones do. The surnames/places etc queries that are posted are often people and places you recognise from research in the same areas. Responses to queries often come from people who really know their stuff in 'your' county. Sometimes they are involved with the county level GENUKI site and/or are OPCs. I've had help about things it might have taken me years to discover. If you're interested in following a topic you can see how it unfolds from your mail inbox and/or contribute or not as you wish.
RootsChat works differently obviously, but there are some really knowledgeable people here as well as I found when I made my first posts.
I guess it's horses for courses. But RootsWeb are removing /have removed some services already and I fear the Lists will go at some point. As someone just pointed out.. a lot of people use Forums like this now.
Jane
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Yes, Rootsweb mailing lists were popular in the 1990s but started loing out to forums in and around 2008.
Now lists like Genbrit only get around 50 to 100 posts a moth whereas in the late 90s in was between 3000 to 5000 a month.
Take a look at the archives (and choose the list you want to browse or search) at
http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/index.html
Note the UK lists are listed under United Kingdom but the country specific lists England, Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales under each specific country name
Cheers
Guy
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Jane, thank you for your encouraging comments. I might try a bit harder with the Rootsweb archive now. Might even break down a brick-wall or two! :-\
Melbell
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Yes do try them. The ones that were down are back up and running and I've already solved another little issue I was having with finding a PCC Will. It might depend which list you want to use though. Worth checking the archive list to see how much traffic it gets.
Good luck. Jane